Anacron is a periodic command scheduler. It executes commands at intervals specified in days. Unlike cron, it does not assume that the system is running continuously. It can therefore be used to control the execution of daily, weekly and monthly jobs (or anything with a period of n days), on systems that don’t run 24 hours a day. When installed and configured properly, Anacron will make sure that the commands are run at the specified intervals as closely as machine-uptime permits.
Every time Anacron is run, it reads a configuration file that specifies the jobs Anacron controls, and their periods in days. If a job wasn’t executed in the last n days, where n is the period of that job, Anacron executes it. Anacron then records the date in a special timestamp file that it keeps for each job, so it can know when to run it again. When all the executed commands terminate, Anacron exits.
This is free and open source software.
Website: anacron.sourceforge.net
Support:
Developer: Itai Tzur (originally written by Christian Schwarz)
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
anacron 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 |
| systemd | Suite of basic building blocks for a Linux system |
| mcron | 100% compatible replacement for Vixie cron |
| anacron | Designed for systems which are not continuously running |
| Jobber | Run commands to a schedule |
| bcron | Designed with secure operations in mind |
| Cronicle | Multi-server task scheduler and runner |
| Supercronic | Crontab-compatible job runner designed for container environments |
| runcron | Minimal cron alternative for automated and container-friendly environments |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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