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Jobs and Background Execution

cron

Runs scheduled jobs through a background daemon.

cron is the traditional Unix scheduler. The cron daemon reads crontab files and runs commands at specified times.

Syntax
cron

Arguments explained

  • cron itself is usually managed as a service.
  • Schedules are edited with crontab or files under /etc/cron.* depending on the distribution.

Common examples

Check cron service
systemctl status cron

On Debian-family systems, shows whether the cron daemon is running.

View system cron directories
ls /etc/cron.*

Shows common system schedule locations.

cron Command
FieldDetails
Commandcron
CategoryJobs and Background Execution
Primary useRuns scheduled jobs through a background daemon.
Syntaxcron

Related articles

crontab

Edits per-user cron schedules.

systemctl

Controls systemd services and system state.

journalctl

Reads the systemd journal.