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Cron Helper

Cron expression

Paste a five-field cron expression. The next UTC run times appear as you type.

Next runs

About Cron Helper

Cron Helper reads a Unix cron expression of five fields (minute, hour, day of month, month and day of week) and writes a short English summary plus the next run times in UTC. Stars, lists, ranges, steps and three-letter month or weekday names are accepted.

Turn on Quartz fields when the expression starts with seconds and optionally ends with a year. In that mode ? means no particular value in the day-of-month or day-of-week field, and a minute is listed only when both of those fields match. With Quartz off, if both are restricted, either field can match.

L, W, # and nicknames such as @daily are marked as unsupported. An invalid field is selected in the input so you can fix that spot. The schedule is computed in your browser and the expression is never uploaded.

Frequently asked questions

What does this tool do?

It explains a five-field cron expression in one sentence and lists the next run times in UTC. The walk stops after eight matches or 366 days, whichever comes first.

How do I enter a Quartz expression?

Turn on Quartz fields. The expression then starts with seconds and may end with a year, so it has six or seven fields. A ? is allowed in the day-of-month or day-of-week field and means no particular value.

How do day-of-month and day-of-week combine?

With Quartz off, a star in one of those fields leaves the other in charge, and if both are restricted the run happens when either one matches. With Quartz on, both fields must match.

Which syntax is rejected?

L, W, # and nicknames such as @daily are not supported. The problem marks that field. Names are the three-letter forms JAN through DEC and SUN through SAT.

What do the next run lines mean?

Each line is a UTC minute, YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm UTC, strictly after the current time. A Quartz seconds field decides whether that minute qualifies, and the line still shows the minute.

Why is there no match for some expressions?

Dates such as 31 February never occur. If nothing matches in the next 366 days, the tool reports that instead of guessing a later year.

Is the text I paste uploaded anywhere?

No. This runs in your browser and the text you paste is never uploaded, logged or stored. Google Analytics records page views and feature use, never content.

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