How to run "at" command every hour

Question

how can I programm with the "at" command that below runs at 6:00,7.00,8:00,9:00,10:00 until 23.00

cmd = "echo /bin/everyhour | at 06:00"

regards gwaag

@kamesh haha it might be a better option but I'm actual curious as to what the exact answer is to this question is! (I was actually wondering how the bash "at" works last night!) — James Bedford, Jul 09 '14 at 04:46
possible duplicate of [How can I make a bash command run periodically?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17394356/how-can-i-make-a-bash-command-run-periodically) — Alexandre Santos, Jul 09 '14 at 05:08
Doesn't matter - it's asked in a different (and I'd think much more searchable) way so people may be (as I was) more likely to come across it. — James Bedford, Jul 09 '14 at 05:39
at is for single executions of a command at a given time. If you want to periodically run something (e.g. "every hour"), use cron. — Noufal Ibrahim, Jul 09 '14 at 05:42

andrade · Answer 1 · 2014-07-09T08:03:37.677

3

The at command is used to schedule commands to be executed once. For recurring executions I would suggest cron. Edit your crontab with crontab -e and add the follow line:

00 06-23 * * * /bin/everyhour

edited Jul 09 '14 at 08:03

answered Jul 09 '14 at 07:53

andrade

156
8

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 09 '14 at 05:11

0

You can try putting this in your .bashrc, not tested though:

doer() {
  t=$(date +"%k")
  bin/everyhour
  if [[ $t < 24 && $t > 5 ]]; then
      echo doer | at now + 1 hour
  fi  
}
doer

or, this one keeps on working but only executes on specified interval:

doer() {
  t=$(date +"%k")
  if [[ $t < 24 && $t > 5 ]]; then
      bin/everyhour
  fi  
  echo doer | at now + 1 hour
}

answered Jul 09 '14 at 05:11

perreal

94,503
21
155
181

You might want to test this. I don't think aliases are passed through to at. – John C Jul 09 '14 at 05:26
@JohnC: It's a function, not an alias. But you're right that `at` won't be able to see it. More to the point, the solution to this problem is `cron`, not `at` – rici Jul 09 '14 at 05:29
@JohnC, yes it is a function but same can be achieved via a script in `bin` for example. And surely `cron` is the right tool. – perreal Jul 09 '14 at 05:31

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 07 '16 at 10:12

You can create a script which will call at command and later the right job. Following one will run a job every hour but with small modification you can also reach hours between 6:00 - 23:00:

at now + 1 hour -m -f ~/scheduledTask.sh

#do the job
~/job.sh

Then you are running this script at a given time using at command:

at 06:00 -m -f ~/scheduledTask.sh

How to run "at" command every hour

3 Answers3