Cron Expression Generator

Build and understand cron schedule expressions with presets and a plain-English summary.

Knowledge Base & Educational Companion: How cron scheduling works

Cron is the time-based job scheduler used on Unix systems and countless servers. A cron expression uses five fields to describe exactly when a task should repeat.

1. The five fields

From left to right: minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week. An asterisk means 'every', so '* * * * *' runs every single minute.

2. Steps and ranges

Values like '*/15' (every 15 units), '1-5' (a range) and '1,15' (a list) let a single expression describe complex recurring schedules concisely.

3. Day-of-month vs day-of-week

When both day fields are set, most cron implementations run the job if either matches — a common source of surprising schedules to double-check.

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