Cron is an old-fashioned but reliable way of executing commands. It has been around since the 70s in Unix, and it's an old favorite in system administration to perform maintenance, such as freeing space, rotating logs, making backups, and other common operations.
This recipe is Unix-specific, so it will work in Linux and MacOS. While it's possible to schedule a task in Windows, it's very different and uses Task Scheduler, which won't be described here. If you have access to a Linux server, it can be a good way of scheduling periodic tasks.
The main advantages are as follows:
- It's present in virtually all Unix or Linux systems and configured to run automatically.
- It's easy to use, though a little deceptive.
- It's well-known. Almost anyone involved with admin tasks will have a general idea on how to use it.
- It allows for easy...
