Common Cron Job Examples: 50+ Real-World Use Cases

This comprehensive collection of practical cron job examples will help you automate system administration, web development, database maintenance, monitoring, and more.

💡 How to Use These Examples

1. Find an example that matches your use case

2. Replace paths, commands, and parameters with your values

3. Test the command manually before adding to cron

4. Add proper logging: command >> /var/log/job.log 2>&1

5. Use our cron generator to validate timing

⏰ Basic Timing Patterns

Start with these fundamental scheduling patterns:

* * * * *Every minute

Use for testing and high-frequency monitoring

*/5 * * * *Every 5 minutes

Perfect for API health checks and log rotation

0 * * * *Every hour

Ideal for cache clearing and data synchronization

0 0 * * *Daily at midnight

Common for daily reports and cleanup tasks

0 9-17 * * 1-5Business hours

Every hour during weekday work hours

🖥️ System Administration Examples

Log Management & Cleanup

Clean temporary files weekly

0 2 * * 0 find /tmp -type f -atime +7 -delete

Removes files older than 7 days from /tmp every Sunday at 2 AM

Rotate application logs

0 0 * * * /usr/sbin/logrotate /etc/logrotate.conf

Runs log rotation daily at midnight

Clean old log files

0 3 * * * find /var/log -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

Delete log files older than 30 days at 3 AM daily

System Monitoring

Monitor disk space

*/15 * * * * df -h | awk '$5 > 80' | mail -s "Disk Alert" admin@example.com

Sends email alerts when disk usage exceeds 80%

Monitor system load

*/5 * * * * uptime >> /var/log/system-load.log

Logs system load every 5 minutes

Check running services

*/10 * * * * systemctl is-active nginx || systemctl restart nginx

Restart nginx if not running, check every 10 minutes

🌐 Web Development Examples

Application Maintenance

Clear application cache

0 1 * * * /var/www/html/artisan cache:clear

Laravel cache clearing at 1 AM daily

Generate sitemap

0 2 * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/generate-sitemap.php

Update website sitemap daily at 2 AM

Process queued jobs

* * * * * cd /var/www && php artisan queue:work --stop-when-empty

Process Laravel queue jobs every minute

Analytics & Reporting

Generate daily reports

0 7 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /scripts/daily-analytics.py

Run analytics script every morning at 7 AM

Weekly performance report

0 9 * * 1 /scripts/performance-report.sh | mail -s "Weekly Report" team@company.com

Email performance metrics every Monday at 9 AM

🗄️ Database Maintenance Examples

Database Backups

MySQL full backup

0 2 * * * mysqldump -u backup_user -p'password' --all-databases > /backups/mysql_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Daily MySQL backup at 2 AM with date stamp

PostgreSQL backup

0 3 * * * pg_dumpall -U postgres > /backups/postgresql_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Daily PostgreSQL backup at 3 AM

MongoDB backup

0 1 * * * mongodump --out /backups/mongodb_$(date +%Y%m%d)

Daily MongoDB backup at 1 AM

Database Optimization

MySQL table optimization

0 4 * * 0 mysqlcheck -u admin -p'password' --optimize --all-databases

Weekly MySQL optimization every Sunday at 4 AM

PostgreSQL vacuum

0 5 * * 0 vacuumdb -U postgres --all --analyze

Weekly PostgreSQL vacuum and analyze

🛡️ Security & Compliance Examples

Health Checks & Alerts

Website uptime check

*/5 * * * * curl -f https://example.com > /dev/null || echo "Site down" | mail -s "ALERT" admin@example.com

Check website every 5 minutes, send email if down

SSL certificate expiry check

0 9 * * * /scripts/ssl-check.sh example.com

Daily SSL certificate expiration check at 9 AM

Security Monitoring

Scan for failed login attempts

*/30 * * * * grep "Failed password" /var/log/auth.log | tail -20 | mail -s "Failed Logins" security@example.com

Monitor and report failed SSH login attempts every 30 minutes

Update security definitions

0 3 * * * freshclam && systemctl reload clamav-daemon

Update ClamAV virus definitions daily at 3 AM

💾 Backup & DevOps Examples

File Backups & Sync

Rsync backup to remote server

0 23 * * * rsync -avz --delete /important/data/ user@backup-server:/backups/$(hostname)/

Daily backup at 11 PM using rsync

S3 backup with compression

0 2 * * 0 tar -czf - /var/www | aws s3 cp - s3://my-backups/www-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz

Weekly compressed backup to AWS S3

Deployment & Testing

Auto-deploy from Git

*/10 * * * * cd /var/www && git fetch origin main && git reset --hard origin/main

Pull latest changes every 10 minutes

Run automated tests

0 6 * * 1-5 cd /var/www && ./vendor/bin/phpunit

Run test suite every weekday morning at 6 AM

Docker container cleanup

0 3 * * 0 docker system prune -f && docker volume prune -f

Clean up unused Docker resources weekly

🔧 Best Practices for Production Use

Always Include:

• Absolute paths for all commands
• Proper output redirection with logging
• Error handling and exit codes
• Lock files to prevent overlapping jobs
• Email notifications for critical failures

Test Before Production:

• Run commands manually first
• Test with minimal cron environment
• Verify file permissions and ownership
• Check available disk space for outputs
• Monitor initial runs carefully

Ready to create your own cron job? Use our interactive generator!

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Remember to test all cron jobs manually before adding them to production systems.

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Common Cron Job Examples