Schedule a Script to Run

nutthick · 02-02-2005, 10:24 AM

I have written a script to perform a backup. I would like it to run every day, but I don't want it sitting in a loop 24/7 waiting to run. Is there a way to schedule it to run once a day?

Thanks

Linux~Powered · 02-02-2005, 10:27 AM

Put it into your /etc/cron.daily file.

nutthick · 02-02-2005, 10:29 AM

Wow is it that easy!? Can I just dump the script in, or is there more configuring?

zaichik · 02-02-2005, 10:29 AM

Do you have shell access? If so, you could schedule it as a cron job.

Depending on your distro, it might go something like this...

At the command line, type

crontab -e

This will open the cron table in an editor, like vi or nano or something. Then add this line:

* 2 * * * /path/to/script/scriptname

This would run the script at 2 AM every day. For help on cron jobs, Google "cron tutorial".

Hope that helps.

nutthick · 02-02-2005, 10:33 AM

Thanks zaichik, that looks like just what I need.

nutthick · 02-02-2005, 10:39 AM

zaichik - One last thing, I've had a look at the tutorials and have made my entries into crontab, but I can't find if I have to restart crontab to get it to pickup my changes. Is a crontab restart necessary and how is it done?

Thanks again

zaichik · 02-02-2005, 10:49 AM

Nope, restarting cron is not necessary, you should be good to go. As always when you are backing data up, check to make sure the backup actually ran--don't just trust that there is not something wrong with the script or something else!

Linux~Powered · 02-02-2005, 10:52 AM

To kill cron and restart it

Code:

pkill cron && crond

nutthick · 02-02-2005, 12:37 PM

zaichik - Thanks for the tip, I'm having to rewrite it because of the previous backups failure.