runcron is a minimal cron alternative for automated and container-friendly environments.
It is designed to run as part of a process supervision tree rather than as a traditional always-on scheduler, so it executes a scheduled command, exits with the task’s status, and relies on the supervisor to restart it. The project focuses on safe task execution, including single-job supervision, runtime limits tied to the next schedule, retry handling for failed jobs, and cleanup of background subprocesses.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Supports standard crontab(5) expressions, with an optional seconds field.
- Includes aliases such as @reboot, @daily, @hourly, and exact-time variants such as =daily and =hourly.
- Supports randomized interval fields with the ~ syntax for spreading jobs across systems.
- Can use the hostname or a user-specified tag as the seed for deterministic pseudorandom scheduling.
- Forwards standard input to the scheduled subprocess.
- Provides options for lock-file location, working directory, timeout, retry interval, signal handling, dry runs, and printing the next scheduled interval.
- Can persist @reboot job state through a lock file.
- Includes mechanisms to terminate background subprocesses and help prevent unkillable setuid subprocesses.
Website: github.com/msantos/runcron
Support:
Developer: Michael Santos
License: ISC License
runcron is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Alternatives to cron | |
|---|---|
| cronie | Modern day version of cron and associated tools |
| fcron | Designed for systems which are not continuously running or regularly |
| Cronicle | Multi-server task scheduler and runner |
| systemd | Suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system |
| Supercronic | Crontab-compatible job runner designed for container environments |
| Ofelia | Low-footprint job scheduler for Docker environments |
| Dkron | Distributed job scheduling system for cloud native environments |
| mcron | 100% compatible replacement for Vixie cron |
| Dagu | Lightweight workflow orchestration engine |
| anacron | Designed for systems which are not continuously running |
| Jobber | Run commands to a schedule |
| bcron | Designed with secure operations in mind |
| Chadburn | Modern job scheduler for Docker environments |
| runcron | Minimal cron alternative for automated and container-friendly environments |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 LinuxLinks helps you discover the best free and open source software for Linux. Explore our extensive collection of recommended applications, including alternatives to popular proprietary software.We also publish software reviews, Linux tutorials, hardware reviews, free programming books and articles covering the wider open source community. Browse our Linux resources to discover more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application we haven't covered? Suggest a program for inclusion. Has your software been featured on LinuxLinks? Display one of our Featured on LinuxLinks badges on your website or GitHub README. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.