How to schedule Cron Job on Fedora 34

To Schedule A Job Using Crontab

Introduction

Cron is a system that helps Linux users to schedule any task. However, a cron job is any defined task to run in a given time period. It can be a shell script or a simple bash command. Cron job helps, us automate our routine tasks, it can be hourly, daily, monthly, etc. The cron daemon is a long-running process that executes commands at specific dates and times.

Installation Procedure

Step 1: Check the installed OS version by using the below command

[liveuser@linuxhelp ~]$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME=Fedora
VERSION="34 (Workstation Edition)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=34
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f34"

Step 2: Log in as a Root user by using the below command

[liveuser@linuxhelp ~]$ su -
Last login: Mon Oct 25 14:01:02 EDT 2021 on pts/0

Step 3: Install Crontab by using the below command

[root@linuxhelp ~]# dnf install crontabs
Fedora Modular 34 - x86_64 - Updates                                                                                                    8.9 kB/s | 6.7 kB     00:00    
Fedora Modular 34 - x86_64 - Updates                                                                                                     85 kB/s | 229 kB     00:02    
Fedora 34 - x86_64 - Updates                                                                                                            5.2 kB/s | 4.5 kB     00:00    
Fedora 34 - x86_64 - Updates                                                                                                            909 kB/s | 3.0 MB     00:03    
Fedora 34 - x86_64                                                                                                                      731 kB/s |  74 MB     01:43    

Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:01 ago on Tue 26 Oct 2021 12:18:26 PM EDT.
Dependencies resolved.
========================================================================================================================================================================
 Package                                  Architecture                     Version                                               Repository                        Size
========================================================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 crontabs                                 noarch                           1.11-24.20190603git.fc34                              fedora                            18 k
Installing dependencies:
 cronie-anacron                           x86_64                           1.5.7-1.fc34                                          fedora                            32 k
Installing weak dependencies:
 cronie                                   x86_64                           1.5.7-1.fc34                                          fedora                           116 k

Step 4: Start, Enable crontab Service by using the below command

[root@linuxhelp ~]# systemctl start crond
[root@linuxhelp ~]# systemctl enable crond

Step 5: Check the crontab status by using the below command

[root@linuxhelp ~]# systemctl status crond
● crond.service - Command Scheduler
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2021-10-26 12:19:30 EDT; 45s ago
   Main PID: 65172 (crond)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 2261)
     Memory: 1.1M
        CPU: 17ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/crond.service

             └─65172 /usr/sbin/crond –n

Step 6: Edit crontab file by using the below command

[root@linuxhelp ~]# crontab –e
NU nano 5.6.1                                                             /tmp/crontab.t8LcVZ                                                                        
26 12 * * * mkdir jpj.text
26 12 * * * touch test.file

Step 7: Check created cron file by using the below command

[root@linuxhelp ~]# crontab -l
26 12 * * * mkdir jpj.text
26 12 * * * touch test.fil

Step 8: Then restart the crontab service

root@linuxhelp ~]# systemctl restart crond

step 9: To using this command to check cron job

[root@linuxhelp ~]# ll
total 16
-rw-------. 1 root root 12139 Apr 23  2021 anaconda-ks.cfg
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root  4096 Oct 26 12:26 jpj.text
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root     0 Oct 26 12:26 test.file

Step 10: Check the cron job working status as shown in the below images

Conclusion:

We have reached the end of this article. In this guide, we have walked you through the steps required to schedule a job using crontab. Your feedback is much welcome.