Cron expression for every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * * runs a job every five minutes. It fires twelve times an hour, at minutes 0, 5, 10 and so on up to 55.
Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you paste is sent to our server, stored or logged.
*/5 * * * *
When it runs next
What it means
The slash sets a step. In the minute field, */5 means start at 0 and take every fifth minute, so the runs line up with the clock rather than with the moment you saved the crontab. A job added at 10:03 first runs at 10:05, not at 10:08.
Writing out 0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 gives exactly the same schedule; the step is just shorter and harder to mistype. If you want the runs offset, for example so every job on a server does not start on the same minute, use a range with a step such as 2-59/5, which runs at 2, 7, 12 and so on.
Common variations
| Expression | Runs |
|---|---|
*/5 9-17 * * * | Every five minutes from 9:00 to 17:55 |
*/5 * * * 1-5 | Every five minutes on weekdays |
2-59/5 * * * * | Every five minutes, offset by two minutes |
As a crontab line
Add the command you want to run after the five fields, then save it with
crontab -e:
*/5 * * * * /path/to/script.sh