Documentation

cron - Manage cron.d and crontab entries.

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.

Options

parameter required default choices comments
backup
 no
  • yes
  • no
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.
cron_file
 no
If specified, uses this file instead of an individual user's crontab. If this is a relative path, it is interpreted with respect to /etc/cron.d. (If it is absolute, it will typically be /etc/crontab). Many linux distros expect (and some require) the filename portion to consist solely of upper- and lower-case letters, digits, underscores, and hyphens. To use the cron_file parameter you must specify the user as well.
day
 no *
Day of the month the job should run ( 1-31, *, */2, etc )

aliases: dom
disabled
(added in 2.0)
 no
If the job should be disabled (commented out) in the crontab. Only has effect if state=present
env
(added in 2.1)
 no no
  • yes
  • no
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.
hour
 no *
Hour when the job should run ( 0-23, *, */2, etc )
insertafter
(added in 2.1)
 no
Used with state=present and env. If specified, the environment variable will be inserted after the declaration of specified environment variable.
insertbefore
(added in 2.1)
 no
Used with state=present and env. If specified, the environment variable will be inserted before the declaration of specified environment variable.
job
 no
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.

aliases: value
minute
 no *
Minute when the job should run ( 0-59, *, */2, etc )
month
 no *
Month of the year the job should run ( 1-12, *, */2, etc )
name
 no
Description of a crontab entry or, if env is set, the name of environment variable. Required if state=absent. Note that if name is not set and state=present, then a new crontab entry will always be created, regardless of existing ones.
reboot
 no no
  • yes
  • no
If the job should be run at reboot. This option is deprecated. Users should use special_time.
special_time
(added in 1.3)
 no
  • reboot
  • yearly
  • annually
  • monthly
  • weekly
  • daily
  • hourly
Special time specification nickname.
state
 no present
  • present
  • absent
Whether to ensure the job or environment variable is present or absent.
user
 no root
The specific user whose crontab should be modified.
weekday
 no *
Day of the week that the job should run ( 0-6 for Sunday-Saturday, *, etc )

aliases: dow

Examples

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

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

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

# Creates an entry like "PATH=/opt/bin" on top of crontab
- cron:
    name: PATH
    env: yes
    value: /opt/bin

# Creates an entry like "APP_HOME=/srv/app" and insert it after PATH
# declaration
- cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    value: /srv/app
    insertafter: PATH

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

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

# Removes "APP_HOME" environment variable from crontab
- cron:
    name: APP_HOME
    env: yes
    state: absent

Status

This module is flagged as preview which means that it is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface.

For help in developing on modules, should you be so inclined, please read Community Information & Contributing, Testing Ansible and Developing Modules.