Home / ubuntu / Questions / 1525767
Accepted
Majal
Asked: 2024-09-05 21:33:27 +0800 CST

Crontab: Is it possible to run different commands on different timezones?

  • 772

I know that CRON_TZ= will set the timezone cron runs for all commands.

However, I'd like for some cron entries, not all, to run on specific timezones.

Is this possible? If not directly possible, do you have any (hackish) workarounds?

cron

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Use systemd timers instead! They're far better than cronjobs from a manageability perspective, and they do support timezones per timer. From man 7 systemd.time, which documents the time formats used in systemd timers and other files, the list of examples include items like:

                  2003-03-05 05:40 UTC → 2003-03-05 05:40:00 UTC
                         daily UTC → *-*-* 00:00:00 UTC
           weekly Pacific/Auckland → Mon *-*-* 00:00:00 Pacific/Auckland

    Earlier in the manpage, it is specified that timezones can be:

    ... given as the literal string "UTC" (for the UTC timezone), or is specified to
be the locally configured timezone, or the timezone name in the IANA timezone database
format. The complete list of timezones supported on your system can be obtained using the
"timedatectl list-timezones" (see timedatectl(1)). Using IANA format is recommended over
local timezone names, as less prone to errors (eg: with local timezone it's possible to
specify daylight saving time in winter, while it's incorrect).
    • 4