Introduction > The operators > Cron Operator

Cron Operator

The Cron operator is used to manage and set up cron jobs on the system.

Syntax

- cron: <NAME> 
  schedule: <SCHEDULE>
  username: <USER>
  cmd: <COMMAND>

name: The name of the cron job.
schedule: The schedule of the cron job.
username: The user to run the cron job as.
cmd: The command to execute, the arguments to pass to the command, and any other options that should be used.
onlyIf: See detailed docs here
notIf: See detailed docs here
exitIf: See detailed docs here

Example:

---
- cron: foo
  schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
  username: dave
  cmd: echo "hello world" > /tmp/output.txt

In this example, the Cron operator will create a cron job named foo that will run every 5 minutes and execute the command echo "hello world" > /tmp/output.txt as the user foo.

Example 2

- cron: foo
  schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
  username: dave
  cmd: echo "hello world" > /tmp/output.txt
  onlyIf: /usr/bin/ls /tmp/output.txt

In the above example the Cron operator will only execute the cron job if the /tmp/output.txt exists.

Example 3

- cron: foo
  schedule: "*/5 * * * *"
  username: dave
  cmd: echo "hello world" > /tmp/output.txt
  notIf: /usr/bin/ls /tmp/output.txt

In the above example the Cron operator will only execute the cron job if the /tmp/output.txt does not exist.

In the next section, we’ll discuss the Git operator and how to use it in your manifest files.