Cronie is a job scheduling system for Linux. It contains crond, the traditional Unix daemon responsible for executing commands and shell scripts according to schedules defined in crontab files.
It is based on Vixie cron and maintains the familiar approach to scheduling recurring tasks. Administrators can use it to automate backups, system maintenance, housekeeping scripts, monitoring, and other activities that need to run without manual intervention.
Cronie also provides utilities for managing user crontabs and inspecting scheduled execution times. It incorporates several security and configuration enhancements, making it suitable for multi-user Linux systems where scheduled commands must execute with appropriate permissions.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Execute commands automatically according to standard crontab schedules.
- Support system-wide and individual user crontab files.
- Provide crond for executing scheduled jobs and crontab for managing user schedules.
- Integrate with PAM for authentication and access controls.
- Support SELinux security contexts for scheduled jobs.
- Offer anacron integration for periodic tasks on intermittently running systems.
- Support the tilde operator for selecting random values within a scheduling range.
- Use CRON_TZ to specify time zones for scheduled tasks.
- Configure email delivery of job output using MAILTO and MAILFROM.
- Test crontab syntax without installing the configuration.
- Maintain backups when crontab files are modified or removed.
- Provide cronnext for examining upcoming scheduled executions.
- Allow notification email to be disabled for individual jobs.
Website: github.com/cronie-crond/cronie
Support:
Developer: Marcela Mašláňová, Colin Dean, Tomáš Mráz, Marco Migliori, Sami Kerola (Originally written by Paul Vixie)
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
cronie 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.
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