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	"id": "5541cc38-8dc3-4d5d-9b68-4100e15471c6",
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	"title": "Scheduling tasks using at command in Linux - kifarunix.com",
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	"plain_text": "Scheduling tasks using at command in Linux - kifarunix.com\r\nPublished: 2019-09-07 · Archived: 2026-04-06 03:10:48 UTC\r\nOur previous two guides, whose links are below, we covered how to schedule system tasks or jobs in Linux using the cron\r\nand anacron commands. This guide will focus on scheduling tasks using at command in Linux systems.\r\nHow to Schedule Cron Jobs/Tasks in Linux/Unix\r\nScheduling tasks using anacron in Linux/Unix\r\n1. x\r\n0:00\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 1 of 7\n\nVideo Player is loading.\r\n2. 1. Now Playing\r\nUp NextHow to Configure Ubuntu 20.04 as a Linux Router: A Step-by-Step Guide\r\n3:03\r\n2. Now Playing\r\nUp NextHow To Use Task Manager In Linux Mint\r\n2:03\r\n3. Now Playing\r\nUp NextWindows Users Try Linux for a Week: Surprising Results and New Perspectives\r\n4:18\r\n4. Now Playing\r\nUp NextSchedule a Cron Job task in Linux - Ansible module cron\r\n11:12\r\n5. Now Playing\r\nUp NextHow to Reset Task Manager to default in Windows 11\r\n2:38\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 2 of 7\n\n6. Now Playing\r\nUp NextLinux - Basic shell scripting\r\n7:09\r\n7. Now Playing\r\nUp NextHow to use history command for better CLI experience | Linux tutorial\r\n5:14\r\n8. Now Playing\r\nUp NextWiring and Testing Our: P1-M622-16DR Practical Tutorial!\r\n12:24\r\n9. Now Playing\r\nUp Next5 Essential Linux Skills: From Rescue Disks to Boot Fixes\r\n2:34\r\n10. Now Playing\r\nUp NextHow To Use Monday.Com For Task Management in 2024\r\n8:17\r\nx\r\nat  utility is used to schedule a one-time task. These are the tasks that are executed only once at a specific time.\r\nat  reads commands from standard input or from the file that is specified using the  -f  option.\r\nJobs scheduled using  at  are executed by the  atd  service.\r\nScheduling tasks using at command\r\nThe at command ordinarily expects time as the argument.\r\nat TIME\r\nWhere TIME can be specified using keywords such as;\r\nnoon ,  midnight  or  teatime (4:00 PM) ,\r\nnext week ,  tomorrow ,  teatime tomorrow ,  next tuesday , next Tue ,  next Tuesday ,  next month .\r\nWhen executed with no commands or scripts passed to it,  at  commands runs interactively and expects you to enter the\r\ncommands to execute from the prompt.\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 3 of 7\n\nat 11 PM Dec 2\r\nat\u003e\r\nAt the prompt, enter the command to run. For example;\r\nat 11 PM Dec 2\r\nat\u003e echo \"This is a test at Job \u003e /tmp/test-at-job\"\r\nat 11 PM Dec 2\r\nat\u003e df -hT\r\nWhen done typing commands, press Ctrl+D to terminate input. When you press Ctrl+D, you will see  \u003cEOT\u003e  at the\r\ncommand line.\r\nat 11 PM Dec 2\r\nat\u003e df -hT\r\nYou can as well pass the commands to execute to at command from command line by specifying the file with commands\r\nusing the  -f  option. For example, consider a file called  mycommands.sh  with two shell scripts\r\ncat mycommands.sh\r\n/home/me/myscripts/clean-tmp.sh\r\n/home/me/myscripts/backup.sh\r\nTo have at execute these commands next week the same day at midnight;\r\nat -f mycommands.sh midnight next week\r\nYou can as well use the standard input redirection symbol;\r\nat teatime next month \u003c mycommands.sh\r\nYou can also pipe tasks/commands to at command. For example to create a notification using the notify-send\r\ncommand,\r\necho 'notify-send \"You need to refill the gas\"' -t 1000 | at 17:00\r\nThis will send you a notification at 5 PM to refill the gas.\r\nNOTE:\r\nFor all the  at  examples that follows below, you can either pass the the commands or scripts or tasks/jobs to be\r\nexecuted to at command or you can interactively enter them.\r\nTo run the job one week from today, same time as when the at job was scheduled;\r\nat next week\r\nTo run the job at 4 PM tomorrow\r\nat teatime tomorrow\r\nRun a job on next Tuesday, same time as when the job was scheduled.\r\nat next tue\r\nRun the job next month, same date at midnight.\r\nat midnight next month\r\nusing the keyword  now  plus a time period. For example, if to schedule a task to run 4 hours from now, use the time\r\nperiod  now + 4 hours .\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 4 of 7\n\nFor example;\r\nTo run the job today at 4PM plus 2 hours, that is at 6PM\r\nat 4PM + 2 hours\r\nTo run the job one and half hour from now;\r\nat now + 90 minutes\r\nTo run the job two minutes from now;\r\nat now + 2 minutes\r\nTo run a job next on monday 2 hours after the same time when the job was scheduled;\r\nat monday + 2 hours\r\nusing a time of the day either in  24-hour  or  12-hour  clock system. For example;  16:00  or  4:00 PM .\r\nFor example;\r\nTo run the job at 5PM today;\r\nat 5:00 PM or at 5 PM or at 17:00\r\nusing  time of the day  and  date .\r\nThe date can be specified in the format  DD.MM.YY ,  MMDDYY  or  MM/DD/YY .\r\nMONTH Date, Year  or  MONTH Date Year  or  MONTH Date . You can write the first three letters of the month\r\ne.g  Jan  or  jan .\r\nFor example,\r\nTo run the job on first october, year 2019 same time as when the job was scheduled\r\nat 12:30 PM 10/01/19 or at 12:30 PM 01.10.19 or at 12:30 PM 100119\r\nTo run the job on 2nd Jan, 2020 same time as when the job was scheduled\r\nat Jan 1, 2020 ot at Jan 1 2020\r\nTo run the job at 11 PM on 2nd Dec, this year;\r\nat 11 PM Dec 2\r\nList scheduled at jobs\r\nAt command has a utility called  atq  that can be used to list at jobs that are pending execution.\r\nTo simply list the at jobs, run;\r\natq\r\nIf there are any jobs pending execution, you will see them on the output;\r\natq\r\n31 Mon Dec 2 23:00:00 2019 a root\r\n33 Sun Oct 6 16:00:00 2019 a root\r\n32 Fri Sep 13 00:00:00 2019 a root\r\nSimilarly, you can use at command with  -l  option.\r\nat -l\r\nDelete Scheduled at jobs\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 5 of 7\n\nScheduled at jobs can be removed using the  atrm  utility or by passing option  -r  to at command.\r\natr -r \u003cJOB ID\u003e\r\nor\r\natrm \u003cJOB ID\u003e\r\nFor example, based on the output of the  atq  command above, you can remove at job with job number 31 using the\r\ncommand;\r\nat -r 31\r\nor\r\natrm 31\r\nTo remove all the jobs in the queue, simply obtain the job numbers and remove them as follows;\r\natrm $(atq | cut -f1)\r\nThere are other options that are aliased to atrm command.\r\nat -d \u003cJOB ID\u003e\r\nPrint Listed At Jobs to STDOUT\r\nTo print listed at jobs to standard output, simply use the command;\r\nat -c \u003cJOB ID\u003e\r\nFor example, to cat the at job number 23 to standard output.\r\nat -c 23\r\nControlling Access to At\r\nIt is also possible to control who can run at jobs using the  /etc/at.allow  and  /etc/at.deny  files.\r\nonly users listed in the  at.allow  file are allowed to use  at\r\nusers listed in  at.deny  file are not allowed to use  at .\r\nUsing batch command\r\nAnother command almost similar to at command is  batch  command. This command is used to schedule tasks that can only\r\nbe executed when system load drops below 1.5 or any value specified in\r\nBatch command does not accepts any parameters and runs interactively.\r\nbatch\r\nat\u003e\r\nFor example to execute the script,  /home/me/myscripts/clean-tmp.sh , simply run  batch  command and enter the script at\r\nthe  at  prompt.\r\nPress Ctrl+d once you are done typing commands;\r\nbatch\r\nat\u003e /home/me/myscripts/clean-tmp.sh\r\nat\u003e\r\nbatch  command is no longer maintained on most Linux/Unix distributions.\r\nRead more about  at  command on  man at .\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 6 of 7\n\nSource: https://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nhttps://kifarunix.com/scheduling-tasks-using-at-command-in-linux/\r\nPage 7 of 7",
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