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cron – Manage cron.d and crontab entries

Synopsis

  • Use this module to manage crontab and environment variables entries. This module allows you to create environment variables and named crontab entries, update, or delete them.
  • When crontab jobs are managed: the module includes one line with the description of the crontab entry "#Ansible: <name>" corresponding to the “name” passed to the module, which is used by future ansible/module calls to find/check the state. The “name” parameter should be unique, and changing the “name” value will result in a new cron task being created (or a different one being removed).
  • When environment variables are managed, no comment line is added, but, when the module needs to find/check the state, it uses the “name” parameter to find the environment variable definition line.
  • When using symbols such as %, they must be properly escaped.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

  • cron

Parameters

Parameter Choices/Defaults Comments
backup
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If set, create a backup of the crontab before it is modified. The location of the backup is returned in the backup_file variable by this module.
cron_file
string
If specified, uses this file instead of an individual user's crontab.
If this is a relative path, it is interpreted with respect to /etc/cron.d.
If it is absolute, it will typically be /etc/crontab.
Many linux distros expect (and some require) the filename portion to consist solely of upper- and lower-case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens.
To use the cron_file parameter you must specify the user as well.
day
string
Default:
"*"
Day of the month the job should run ( 1-31, *, */2, etc )

aliases: dom
disabled
boolean
added in 2.0
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If the job should be disabled (commented out) in the crontab.
Only has effect if state=present.
env
boolean
added in 2.1
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If set, manages a crontab's environment variable.
New variables are added on top of crontab.
name and value parameters are the name and the value of environment variable.
hour
string
Default:
"*"
Hour when the job should run ( 0-23, *, */2, etc )
insertafter
string
added in 2.1
Used with state=present and env.
If specified, the environment variable will be inserted after the declaration of specified environment variable.
insertbefore
string
added in 2.1
Used with state=present and env.
If specified, the environment variable will be inserted before the declaration of specified environment variable.
job
string
The command to execute or, if env is set, the value of environment variable.
The command should not contain line breaks.
Required if state=present.

aliases: value
minute
string
Default:
"*"
Minute when the job should run ( 0-59, *, */2, etc )
month
string
Default:
"*"
Month of the year the job should run ( 1-12, *, */2, etc )
name
string
Description of a crontab entry or, if env is set, the name of environment variable.
Required if state=absent.
Note that if name is not set and state=present, then a new crontab entry will always be created, regardless of existing ones.
This parameter will always be required in future releases.
reboot
boolean
    Choices:
  • no ←
  • yes
If the job should be run at reboot. This option is deprecated. Users should use special_time.
special_time
string
    Choices:
  • annually
  • daily
  • hourly
  • monthly
  • reboot
  • weekly
  • yearly
Special time specification nickname.
state
string
    Choices:
  • absent
  • present ←
Whether to ensure the job or environment variable is present or absent.
user
string
The specific user whose crontab should be modified.
When unset, this parameter defaults to using root.
weekday
string
Default:
"*"
Day of the week that the job should run ( 0-6 for Sunday-Saturday, *, etc )

aliases: dow

Examples

- name: Ensure a job that runs at 2 and 5 exists. Creates an entry like "0 5,2 * * ls -alh > /dev/null"
  cron:
    name: "check dirs"
    minute: "0"
    hour: "5,2"
    job: "ls -alh > /dev/null"

- name: 'Ensure an old job is no longer present. Removes any job that is prefixed by "#Ansible: an old job" from the crontab'
  cron:
    name: "an old job"
    state: absent

- name: Creates an entry like "@reboot /some/job.sh"
  cron:
    name: "a job for reboot"
    special_time: reboot
    job: "/some/job.sh"

- name: Creates an entry like "PATH=/opt/bin" on top of crontab
  cron:
    name: PATH
    env: yes
    job: /opt/bin

- name: Creates an entry like "APP_HOME=/srv/app" and insert it after PATH declaration
  cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    job: /srv/app
    insertafter: PATH

- name: Creates a cron file under /etc/cron.d
  cron:
    name: yum autoupdate
    weekday: 2
    minute: 0
    hour: 12
    user: root
    job: "YUMINTERACTIVE=0 /usr/sbin/yum-autoupdate"
    cron_file: ansible_yum-autoupdate

- name: Removes a cron file from under /etc/cron.d
  cron:
    name: "yum autoupdate"
    cron_file: ansible_yum-autoupdate
    state: absent

- name: Removes "APP_HOME" environment variable from crontab
  cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    state: absent

Status

Authors

  • Dane Summers (@dsummersl)
  • Mike Grozak (@rhaido)
  • Patrick Callahan (@dirtyharrycallahan)
  • Evan Kaufman (@EvanK)
  • Luca Berruti (@lberruti)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2019 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.8/modules/cron_module.html