Cron job not working as expected, Raspberry Pi OS, Raspberry Pi 4B

prinsepia · 10-25-2020, 03:10 PM

Hi all!

This is the cron job I am using right now for a daily program:

# ...
# m h dom mon dow command
1 0 * * 1-7 cd /home/pi/prg && python3 /home/pi/prg/spread.py > outfile 2>&1

I wanted the job to start at 00:01 am, but it always starts at 01:01 am.

My time zone:
Central European Standard Time (CET) (GMT+1)

When I check the time zone of the Raspberry Pi OS using the 'date' command, I see the OS is also configured as GMT+1.

Does someone know how to fix this or what I could do to make my program start at 00:01 am? Did someone run into the same or a similar issue?

Thank you guys in advance!~

Cheers,
Prinsepia

lvm_ · 10-26-2020, 02:51 AM

Time zone is user-specific, cron however schedules tasks based on the default server time zone specified in /etc/localtime or UTC if /etc/localtime is invalid. Run 'sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/CET /etc/localtime' to fix (assuming tzdata is installed).

Turbocapitalist · 10-26-2020, 03:07 AM

There is a Raspberry Pi OS - specific configuration utility which will set the time zone for the account.

Code:

sudo raspi-config

Then choose "4 Localisation Options" -> "I2 Change Time Zone" -> "Europe" and then the relevant city.

The raspi-config utility can be used in a script or else you can try making the symbolic link as shown in the previous post.