Any way to have a script run at a specific time of day?

[debo]

How can I have a script in unix execute at a certain time during the day?

 

[switcheroo]

cron is your friend

you can do it the same way osx runs its maintainence tasks as well as most other unicies by using the cron daemon. add an entry to the file /etc/crontab you can use the existing entries as examples and find out more in 'man 5 crontab'

 

[debo]

Is there any other way? This is just something I need to run like 5 times tommorrow as a project, and didn't want to have to be next to the computer each time. Then I won't be running it again after tomorrow.

 

[switcheroo]

yep there is. but you still need to mess with cron!! use the 'at' command. It is disabled in mac osx so you need to enable it by removing the comment symbol # in /etc/crontab
making
#*/5 * * * * root /usr/libexec/atrun
into:
*/5 * * * * root /usr/libexec/atrun

then to use the at command --

to run at a certain time today use:
echo 'open file.txt' | at 10:40 pm

or at a time tomorrow:
echo 'open file.txt' | at 10:40 am tomorrow

or at a certain date and time:
echo 'open file.txt' | at 10:40 am 4/8/04

or even at teatime!
echo 'open file.txt' | at teatime

try it out a few times times within a few minutes to make sure your syntax is correct

if your script doesn't need arguments use
at -f script 11:00 pm

to see the at job queue use atq

 

[siliconjones]

Go to versiontracker and download cronnix. It is a GUI for cron. Very useful.

-- cronnix at versiontracker --