Run a Cron Job Every 6 Hours
Runs every 6 hours (4 times per day).
0 */6 * * *Field Breakdown
0Minute
0–59
*/6Hour
0–23
*Day of Month
1–31
*Month
1–12
*Day of Week
0–6
How It Works
The expression 0 */6 * * * fires at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00, and 18:00 each day. Four executions per day is ideal for tasks that need regular but not frequent attention. This schedule aligns naturally with quarter-day boundaries, making it useful for time-zone-distributed workloads.
The minute is set to 0, and the hour field uses */6 to create a step pattern matching hours 0, 6, 12, and 18. This divides the 24-hour day into four equal 6-hour segments. The job fires at the start of each segment, with all date fields set to wildcards for daily repetition.
Platform Usage
Linux: "0 */6 * * * /opt/security/run-scan.sh". Kubernetes CronJob with schedule: "0 */6 * * *" and a concurrencyPolicy of Forbid to prevent overlap. Google Cloud Scheduler: create a job with this cron string targeting an HTTP endpoint or Pub/Sub topic.
Common Use Cases
Syncing large datasets between environments
Rebuilding search indexes
Running security scans
Generating quarterly-day reports
$ crongen --customize "0 */6 * * *"
Want to tweak this schedule or see the next run times?
Open in Generator