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Cron Explainer

Cron Explainer is part of Toolspire and is ready as soon as this page loads. Ranges, lists and names such as JAN or MON are rejected rather than half-read. The cron generator writes expressions. This page only reads a small clear subset.

Runs in this tabFreeNo account

On this page

What you can do here

A small grammar on purpose

Stars, integers and */n. Anything else is a refusal, not a guess.

Monday is 1

0 and 7 are Sunday. That is the usual cron numbering.

The generator is the other direction

This page does not build a schedule. It reads one.

The sequence

How to use the Cron Explainer

  1. 1

    Keep five fields

    Minute through weekday.

  2. 2

    Check 09:00 on Monday

    The sample 0 9 * * 1.

  3. 3

    If the page refuses, look for a comma or a name

    Those are outside this reader.

Worth knowing

  • Cron Explainer on Toolspire: **0 9 * * 1 means 09:00 on Monday**.
  • Fields are minute, hour, day of month, month, weekday.
  • A star is “every”. */15 in the minute field is every 15 minutes.
  • MON, 1-5 and 1,15 are rejected. The page will not pretend it read them.

What this reader will not guess

Cron has ranges, lists, names and a handful of vendor extensions. A reader that skips a comma and still prints a confident sentence is worse than a refusal. This page accepts a star, a single number, or a */step in each of the five fields. “0 9 * * 1” is minute 0, hour 9, every day of the month, every month, weekday 1, which is Monday at 09:00. The day-of-month star and the weekday number are both stated, because cron’s AND/OR rule between those two fields is easy to forget.

FAQ

Questions about Cron Explainer

Where does Cron Explainer run?

Cron Explainer runs in this tab on Toolspire. What you type or drop in is not sent to us and is not stored on a server.

What does 0 9 * * 1 mean?

09:00 on Monday, every month, every day-of-month field (the star). Weekday 1 is Monday.

What is weekday 0?

Sunday. Weekday 7 is also Sunday.

Why is 1-5 rejected?

A range is outside the subset this page reads. It refuses instead of explaining only the 1.

Is this the cron generator?

No. The generator writes an expression. This page translates a small one into words.

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