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Accepted
Bobby Jack
Asked: 2010-03-06 09:51:23 +0800 CST

If crontab executes at midnight, what will the current date be?

  • 772

I have the following entry in cron:

0 0 * * * /path/to/script.sh

in script.sh, there's a call to:

date +%Y%m%d

Even if this executed in zero-time, I'm assuming that the value of date will be for the date after midnight, rather than the date before. Is that correct?

time cron

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Yes, you are correct once the clock hits 00:00:00 date = date +1

    However, if you really wanted it to be the day before you could do this in your date command:

    date "yesterday" +%Y%m%d

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  2. Yes. Computers view 00:00.00 as the start of a new day, so it will be for the date after midnight, not the date before.

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