Cron Business Hours

Understanding the Expression

The cron expression 0 9-17 * * 1-5 breaks down as follows:

Field	Value	Meaning
Minute	0	At minute 0
Hour	9-17	9:00 to 17:00
Day of month	*	Every day of the month
Month	*	Every month
Day of week	1-5	Monday through Friday

Example Usage

Basic crontab entry

0 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh

With output logging

0 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh >> /var/log/script.log 2>&1

With monitoring

0 9-17 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh && curl -fsS https://cronsignal.io/ping/YOUR_CHECK_ID

Common Use Cases for Business Hours

• Business hour jobs: Run tasks during working hours only
• Off-peak processing: Heavy tasks during low-traffic periods
• Scheduled notifications: Send alerts during appropriate hours
• Workday automation: Automate business processes on weekdays