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nicoX
Asked: 2013-11-13 07:25:06 +0800 CST

Cronjob for specific hours

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I need a cronjob with criteria to power on/off a TV on the basis:

Mon-Fri, power on the screen at 07.00 and power off the screen 17.00. Friday after 17.00 to Monday morning to be powered off.

I'm using xset to force dpms on/off.

DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force off (powers off the TV)

DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on && DISPLAY=:0 xset s reset (powers on the TV)

xset: /usr/bin/xset

12.04

3 Answers

  1. Well first I'd move your turn on/off logic into scripts:

    Contents of /usr/local/bin/tv-turnon:

    #!/bin/bash
DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on && DISPLAY=:0 xset s reset

    Contents of /usr/local/bin/tv-turnoff:

    #!/bin/bash
DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force off

    Make them runable

    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tv-turnon
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/tv-turnoff

    And then setup cron to run them according to your schedule crontab -e

    0 7 * * 1-5 /usr/local/bin/tv-turnon
0 17 * * 1-5 /usr/local/bin/tv-turnoff

    (this will run in vi by default, if you're not familiar i to start inserting text :wq to save and exit)

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  2. 00 17 * * 1-5 DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force off

00 07 * * 1-5 DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on && DISPLAY=:0 xset s reset
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  3. You have to add the following entries in your crontab file:

    0 7 * * 1-5 DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on && xset s reset
0 17 * * 1-5 DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force off

    To add a new entry in your crontab file, use the following command:

    crontab -e

    More about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron

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