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.

Requirements (on host that executes module)

  • cron

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). 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" paramenters 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. 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
                      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

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