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ansible.builtin.cron module – Manage cron.d and crontab entries

Note

This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short module name cron even without specifying the collections keyword. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible.builtin.cron for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same module name.

Synopsis
Requirements
Parameters
Attributes
Notes
Examples

Synopsis

Use this module to manage crontab and environment variables entries. This module allows you to create environment variables and named crontab entries, update, or delete them.
When crontab jobs are managed: the module includes one line with the description of the crontab entry "#Ansible: <name>" corresponding to the name passed to the module, which is used by future ansible/module calls to find/check the state. The name parameter should be unique, and changing the name value will result in a new cron task being created (or a different one being removed).
When environment variables are managed, no comment line is added, but, when the module needs to find/check the state, it uses the name parameter to find the environment variable definition line.
When using symbols such as %, they must be properly escaped.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the host that executes this module.

cron (any ‘vixie cron’ conformant variant, like cronie)

Parameters

Parameter	Comments
backup boolean	If set, create a backup of the crontab before it is modified. The location of the backup is returned in the `backup_file` variable by this module. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
cron_file path	If specified, uses this file instead of an individual user’s crontab. The assumption is that this file is exclusively managed by the module, do not use if the file contains multiple entries, NEVER use for /etc/crontab. If this is a relative path, it is interpreted with respect to `/etc/cron.d`. Many Linux distros expect (and some require) the filename portion to consist solely of upper- and lower-case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens. Using this parameter requires you to specify the `user` as well, unless `state=absent`. Either this parameter or `name` is required.
day aliases: dom string	Day of the month the job should run (`1-31`, ``, `/2`, and so on). Default: `"*"`
disabled boolean	If the job should be disabled (commented out) in the crontab. Only has effect if `state=present`. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
env boolean	If set, manages a crontab’s environment variable. New variables are added on top of crontab. `name` and `value` parameters are the name and the value of environment variable. Choices: `false` ← (default) `true`
hour string	Hour when the job should run (`0-23`, ``, `/2`, and so on). Default: `"*"`
insertafter string	Used with `state=present` and `env`. If specified, the environment variable will be inserted after the declaration of specified environment variable.
insertbefore string	Used with `state=present` and `env`. If specified, the environment variable will be inserted before the declaration of specified environment variable.
job aliases: value string	The command to execute or, if `env` is set, the value of environment variable. The command should not contain line breaks. Required if `state=present`.
minute string	Minute when the job should run (`0-59`, ``, `/2`, and so on). Default: `"*"`
month string	Month of the year the job should run (`1-12`, ``, `/2`, and so on). Default: `"*"`
name string / required	Description of a crontab entry or, if `env` is set, the name of environment variable. This parameter is always required as of ansible-core 2.12.
special_time string	Special time specification nickname. Choices: `"annually"` `"daily"` `"hourly"` `"monthly"` `"reboot"` `"weekly"` `"yearly"`
state string	Whether to ensure the job or environment variable is present or absent. Choices: `"absent"` `"present"` ← (default)
user string	The specific user whose crontab should be modified. When unset, this parameter defaults to the current user.
weekday aliases: dow string	Day of the week that the job should run (`0-6` for Sunday-Saturday, ``, and so on). Default:* `"*"`

Attributes

Attribute	Support	Description
check_mode	Support: full	Can run in check_mode and return changed status prediction without modifying target, if not supported the action will be skipped.
diff_mode	Support: full	Will return details on what has changed (or possibly needs changing in check_mode), when in diff mode
platform	Platform: posix	Target OS/families that can be operated against

Notes

Note

If you are experiencing permissions issues with cron and MacOS, you should see the official MacOS documentation for further information.

Examples

- name: Ensure a job that runs at 2 and 5 exists. Creates an entry like "0 5,2 * * ls -alh > /dev/null"
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: "check dirs"
    minute: "0"
    hour: "5,2"
    job: "ls -alh > /dev/null"

- name: 'Ensure an old job is no longer present. Removes any job that is prefixed by "#Ansible: an old job" from the crontab'
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: "an old job"
    state: absent

- name: Creates an entry like "@reboot /some/job.sh"
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: "a job for reboot"
    special_time: reboot
    job: "/some/job.sh"

- name: Creates an entry like "PATH=/opt/bin" on top of crontab
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: PATH
    env: yes
    job: /opt/bin

- name: Creates an entry like "APP_HOME=/srv/app" and insert it after PATH declaration
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    job: /srv/app
    insertafter: PATH

- name: Creates a cron file under /etc/cron.d
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: yum autoupdate
    weekday: "2"
    minute: "0"
    hour: "12"
    user: root
    job: "YUMINTERACTIVE=0 /usr/sbin/yum-autoupdate"
    cron_file: ansible_yum-autoupdate

- name: Removes a cron file from under /etc/cron.d
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: "yum autoupdate"
    cron_file: ansible_yum-autoupdate
    state: absent

- name: Removes "APP_HOME" environment variable from crontab
  ansible.builtin.cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    state: absent

Authors

Dane Summers (@dsummersl)
Mike Grozak (@rhaido)
Patrick Callahan (@dirtyharrycallahan)
Evan Kaufman (@EvanK)
Luca Berruti (@lberruti)

Collection links

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2025 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/cron_module.html