Set up cron jobs for action scripting -

Set up cron jobs for action scripting

Last updated on: 2022-05-12

Authored by: Rackspace Support

This article describes how to set up directories and scripts to have cron run different actions at regular times.

This article uses the pico text editor, but you can use any text editor that you want, such as vi, vim or nano.

Set up system scripts and directories

Use the following commands to set up the system scripts and directories for cron to run:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/continuous.active
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/continuous.inactive
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/hourly.active
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/hourly.inactive
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/daily.active
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/daily.inactive
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/weekly.active
    [user@server ~]$ sudo mkdir /usr/local/sbin/weekly.inactive

Set up script for continuous jobs

Run the following command to create the script file for continuous jobs and open it in a text editor:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo pico /usr/local/sbin/continuous.sh

Insert the following script to run each container and all scripts held inside at the specified interval:

    #!/bin/bash
    ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR=/usr/local/sbin/continuous.active
    for module in `find "$ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type f`; do
        if [ -x $module ]; then
            $module
        fi
    done

Run the following command to make the continuous.sh script executable:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/sbin/continuous.sh

Set up script for hourly jobs

Run the following command to create the script file for hourly jobs and open it in a text editor:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo pico /usr/local/sbin/hourly.sh

Insert the following script to run each container and all scripts held inside hourly:

    #!/bin/bash
    ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR=/usr/local/sbin/hourly.active
    for module in `find "$ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type f`; do
        if [ -x $module ]; then
            $module
        fi
    done

Run the following command to make the hourly.sh script executable:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/sbin/hourly.sh

Set up script for daily jobs

Run the following command to create the script file for daily jobs and open it in a text editor:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo pico /usr/local/sbin/daily.sh

Insert the following script to run each container and all scripts held inside daily:

    #!/bin/bash
    ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR=/usr/local/sbin/daily.active
    for module in `find "$ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type f`; do
        if [ -x $module ]; then
            $module
        fi
    done

Run the following command to make the daily.sh script executable:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/sbin/daily.sh

Set up script for weekly jobs

Run the following command to create the script file for weekly jobs and open it in a text editor:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo pico /usr/local/sbin/weekly.sh

Insert the following script to run each container and all scripts held inside weekly:

    #!/bin/bash
    ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR=/usr/local/sbin/weekly.active
    for module in `find "$ACTIVE_SCRIPTS_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type f`; do
       if [ -x $module ]; then
           $module
       fi
    done

Run the following command to make the weekly.sh script executable:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/sbin/weekly.sh

Add scripts to the crontab file

A crontab file contains a list of commands meant to be run at specified times. Use the following command to edit the crontab file:

    [user@server ~]$ sudo crontab -e

Each line in the crontab file has five date and time fields in the following format:

    minute (0-59) hour (0-23) day (1-31) month (1-12) weekday (0-6)

If you want to run a script some number of times per time unit, you can use the format */n, where n is the number of times that you want the script to run.

Add the following entries to the crontab file:

    MAILTO= youremail@domain.com

    */5 * * * * /usr/local/sbin/continuous.sh
    6 */1 * * * /usr/local/sbin/hourly.sh
    16 02 * * * /usr/local/sbin/daily.sh
    26 03 * * 0 /usr/local/sbin/weekly.sh

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