Cron

Not all implementations include a crond(8) command, but all do include crontab(1).

Installation

There are multiple implementations.

Arch offers cronie and fcron packages but promotes timers instead.

Fedora offers cronie only; it is a Red Hat initiative.

Debian offers a custom distribution of Vixie cron, with plans to phase it out for cronie.

Busybox Crond

The !BusyBox implementation of Cron (crond(8)) recommends a layer of indirection through named directories. The default configuration runs these tasks:

# min   hour    day     month   weekday command
*/15    *       *       *       *       run-parts /etc/periodic/15min
0       *       *       *       *       run-parts /etc/periodic/hourly
0       2       *       *       *       run-parts /etc/periodic/daily
0       3       *       *       6       run-parts /etc/periodic/weekly
0       5       1       *       *       run-parts /etc/periodic/monthly

Any scripts in /etc/periodic/hourly will be run on the hourly mark every hour. This is considered preferable to installing a new cronjob.

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