run crontab exclude specific date

elainelaw · 08-09-2009, 09:27 PM

I would like to ask if I can run a crontab job to skip a specific date , eg. to skip the crontab job to run on holiday ? thx

Berhanie · 08-09-2009, 10:22 PM

You could have a file (e.g. /somewhere/noscript.txt) listing the dates on which you don't want to run the script. e.g.

Code:

2009-10-10
2009-11-02
...

Then, the script called by cron first checks to see if today's date is in noscript.txt, and, if so, exits immediately:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

if [ grep -q `date +%F` /somewhere/noscript.txt ]; then
  exit 0
fi

...

Tinkster · 08-09-2009, 10:22 PM

Quote:

I would like to ask if I can run a crontab job to skip a specific date , eg. to skip the crontab job to run on holiday ? thx

Not really. You're best of to write a wrapper script to whatever
you want to run. Have cron attempt to run it every day, and inside the
wrapper-script check for the date you *don't* want to run your job
and exit if it's the current date.

E.g., something like this:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
TODAY=$(date "+%Y%m%d")
if [ "$TODAY" -ne "20091224" ]; then
  run your job
else
  exit 0
fi

Cheers,
Tink

elainelaw · 08-10-2009, 12:36 AM

thx all much.

jeromeNP7 · 08-10-2009, 06:35 AM

Holiday dates are different globally, so it wouldn't make sense to make cron more complicated just to take care of that. It would be very error-prone, I guess. Beyond the already suggested wrapper scripts you can also add a single line script directly into the crontab file to run a test condition before launching the real task. A sample crontab entry:
0 0 * * * if [ $(date "+%Y%m%d") -ne "20091224" ]; then echo Non-Holiday; else echo Holiday; fi;

Linux

JurgyMan · 12-30-2009, 11:53 AM

had same exact problem... wrote a script others could use too:

laptop: cat isholiday
#!/bin/ksh
# Written: 12-30-09 By: AWJurgensen
# Intent: Check if today or supplied date is a holiday
# Usage: isholiday [YYYYMMDD]
# Files: ~/.holidays contains Declared Holidays in YYYYMMDD fmt
# Tip: Useful in crontab to exclude jobs on holidays:
# * * * * * bin/isholiday || bin/runmyjob

HOL=$(echo ~/.holidays)
TODAY=$(date "+%Y%m%d")
DATE=${1:-${TODAY}}

if [ ! -s $HOL ] ; then
echo "$0: Error: $HOL file not found!"
elif [ "$(grep "^$DATE" $HOL)" != "" ] ; then
exit 0
else
exit 1
fi

laptop: cat ~/.holidays
20100101 New years Day
20100118 Martin Luther King Day
20100531 Memorial Day
20100705 Independence day
20100906 Labor Day
20101111 Veterans Day
20101125 Thanksgiving Day
20101225 Christmas
laptop: isholiday 20100101 && echo ishol
ishol
laptop: isholiday 20100102 && echo ishol
laptop: