Scheduled a job to run automatically

Updated on: 3.Jun.2014

To view the scheduled jobs, run this command:

    sudo crontab -l

For example, I want to copy user directory to another directory daily:
 
   cd /etc/cron.daily

Then, create a "backup" bash file:

   sudo nano backup

In the "backup" bash file, it looks like this:

   #!/bin/sh
   rsync -az /home /mnt/backup2
 
Once you are done, press CTRL+X. Press Y to confirm saving.

The final step is to give permission for the bash file to execute

   sudo chmod 777 backup

To test the script manually,

  . backup

The following directories contain the scheduled jobs (which runs as root):

• /etc/cron.daily
• /etc/cron.hourly
• /etc/cron.monthly
• /etc/cron.weekly
• /var/spool/cron => this directory contains the scheduled jobs for each users.

To create a schedule job that runs at specific time, run the following command,

  sudo crontab -e

Then, add a line with "schedule" and "command/script file" (you will find the details in the crontab file itself). For example, print current date time every 5 minutes.

 */5 * * * * date

To check if the scheduled job is running

 sudo tail /var/log/syslog

Reference:

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/7053/how-can-get-a-list-of-all-scheduled-cron-jobs-on-my-machine

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto