[Linux] How do I create scheduled tasks with cron?

[rednoah]

cron is a standard Linux tool that is in charge of running scheduled tasks.


Write your script:

Write a bash script that performs your tasks and make it executable:

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vi nightly.sh

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#!/bin/sh
filebot -script fn:amc --output "/path/to/output" --action duplicate -non-strict "/path/to/input" --log-file amc.log --def excludeList=amc.txt

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chmod +x nightly.sh

Configure cron to call your script:

Edit crontab:

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vi /etc/config/crontab

Run nightly.sh every day at 04:00 in the morning:

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0 4 * * * /path/to/nightly.sh > /path/to/nightly.log 2>&1

You may need to restart your machine (or just the cron service) for changes to take effect.

Keep your crontab simple! DO use the absolute path to the executable. DO redirect standard output and error output, so you can see what the log says later.