How to run cron jobs on GMT not local time

croncrontabtimetime zone

How can I make cron jobs run on GMT, not local time?

this is my crontab file:

#m  h           d   m   wday    command
TZ=GMT
5   0,6,12,18   *   *   *   ~/Documents/bash/transfer.sh

my jobs seem to be running at the local time (GMT+11)
I am running os x snow leopard, but will move the code onto linux when development is complete.

The linux environment may be a shared environment where I may has less control over configuration.

Best Answer

Not all versions of cron support running jobs using a time zone other than the system's.

If yours does, it's likely that the specification should be TZ=GMT or TZ=UTC (without the angle brackets). In some cases, the variable would be CRON_TZ.

The best thing to do is check the documentation specific to the particular system. See man 5 crontab.

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Run a command every week with Cron

That should do it:

5 8 * * 6 <user> <command>

or for readability

5 8 * * Sat <user> <command>

documentation (man 5 crontab):

              field          allowed values
              -----          --------------
              minute         0-59
              hour           0-23
              day of month   1-31
              month          1-12 (or names, see below)
              day of week    0-7 (0 or 7 is Sun, or use names)

Disable cron jobs for a specific user

Brute force!

crontab -u fred -e
%s/^/#/
:wq

There's probably a more elegant way to do it, but unless you are doing this all the time, use the hammer you have.

Best Answer

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Run a command every week with Cron

Disable cron jobs for a specific user

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