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Cron Examples and Reference

Sumo Logic uses Quartz CRON expressions. The syntax for a Quartz CRON expression is:

<seconds> <minutes> <hours> <day of the month> <month> <day of the week> <year>

where is <year> optional.

For more information on how to specify a CRON expression, see CRON Reference. For example expressions, see CRON Examples.

tip

Use a CRON Expression Generator to generate a Quartz CRON expression with an easy to use online interface.

CRON Reference ​

Cron expressions are comprised of six required fields (seconds, minutes, hours, day of the month, month, day of the week) and one optional field (year) separated by white space:

Field NameAllowed ValuesAllowed Special Characters
Seconds0-59- * /
Minutes0-59- * /
Hours0-23- * /
Day (of month)1-31* ? / L W
Month1-12 or JAN-DEC- * /
Day (of week)1-7 or SUN-SAT- * ? / L #
Year (optional)empty- * /

There are several special characters that are used to specify values:

CharacterSpecifiesNotes
*All values.* in the minute field means every minute.
?No specific value in the day of month and day of week fields.? specifies a value in one field, but not the other.
-A range.10-12 in the hour field means the script will run at 10, 11, and 12 (noon).
,Additional values.Typing "MON,WED,FRI" in the day-of-week field means the script will run only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
/Increments.0/15 in the seconds field means the seconds 0, 15, 30, and 45. * before the '/' is equivalent to specifying 0 is the value to start with. Essentially, for each field in the expression, there is a set of numbers that can be turned on or off. For seconds and minutes, the numbers range from 0 to 51.
#Day of a month.6#3 in the day of week field means the third Friday (day 6 is Friday; #3 is the 3rd Friday in the month). If you specify, say #5, and there isn't a 5th occurrence of the given day, the CRON job won't fire. If # is used, there can only be one expression in the day of week field.
LThe last day of a month or week.L means the last day of the month. If used in the day of week field by itself, it means 7 or SAT. If used in the day of week field after another value, it means the last [day] of the month; for example 6L means the last Friday of the month. You can also specify an offset from the last day of the month; L-3 means the third to last day of the month. Make sure not to use L to specify lists or ranges of values.
WThe weekday (Mon-Fri) nearest the specified day.Specifying 15W means the CRON job will fire on the nearest weekday to the 15th of the month. If the 15th is a Saturday, the trigger fires on Friday the 14th. If the 15th is a Sunday, the trigger fires on Monday the 16th. W can only be specified when the day of month is a single day (not a range or list of days).

CRON Examples​

These are examples of CRON expressions.

  • A run frequency of 12:00 PM (noon) every day: 0 0 12 * * ?
  • A run frequency of 11:00 PM every weekday night: 0 0 23 ? * MON-FRI
  • A run frequency of 10:15 AM every day: 0 15 10 * * ?
  • A run frequency of 10:15 AM every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: 0 15 10 ? * MON-FRI
  • A run frequency of 12:00 PM (noon) every first day of the month: 0 0 12 1 1/1 ? *
  • A run frequency of every hour between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Monday-Friday: 0 0 8-17 ? * MON-FRI
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