Crontab run every 15 minutes except at 3AM?

Eric Seifert picture Eric Seifert · Jan 6, 2012 · Viewed 42.5k times · Source

Is it possible to have a cronjob run every 15 minutes (over every hour etc..) except for at 3AM?

I have another special cronjob I want to run at 3AM, but I don't want the other one to run at the same time...

Answer

fge picture fge · Jan 6, 2012

With one cron line, no. With three, yes:

# Every 15 minutes except for 3:00-3:59
*/15 0-2,4-23 * * * thejob
# 3:15, 3:30, 3:45
15-45/15 3 * * * thejob
# 3:00 dead
0 3 * * * otherjob