Cron Every Minute
The asterisk (*) in the minute field means "every minute." Since all other fields are also asterisks, this job runs once per minute, every hour, every day.
Cron Expression
* * * * *Field Breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | * | Every minute (0-59) |
| Hour | * | Every hour (0-23) |
| Day of Month | * | Every day (1-31) |
| Month | * | Every month (1-12) |
| Day of Week | * | Every day of the week (0-6) |
Variations
* * * * *Every minute, 24/7* 9-17 * * *Every minute during business hours (9 AM – 5 PM)* * * * 1-5Every minute on weekdays only* 9-17 * * 1-5Every minute during business hours, weekdaysCommon Use Cases
- Health checks and uptime monitoring
- Real-time queue processing
- Live data synchronization
- Cache invalidation
- WebSocket heartbeat checks
Tips & Best Practices
Running a job every minute creates significant server load. Make sure the job completes in under 60 seconds.
Consider using every 5 minutes instead if real-time precision is not required.
Use file locking or a PID file to prevent overlapping executions if the job runs longer than expected.