Crontab Explainer
Read a crontab line and understand its schedule and command in plain English.
Decoding a crontab entry
A crontab is the file that schedules recurring jobs on Unix systems, and each line pairs a five-field cron schedule with a command to run. This explains a crontab line in plain English — both when it runs and, where present, what it runs — so you can audit a server's scheduled jobs without deciphering the terse syntax by hand.
Paste a crontab line and its meaning is explained.
Reading a real crontab
Real crontabs have a few extras beyond a bare cron expression: comments, environment settings at the top, and special shortcuts like the reboot keyword that runs a job at startup. Being able to read a whole crontab line back in plain language is how you check that a server is doing what you think — a surprising number of production surprises come from a scheduled job that runs more or less often than someone assumed. To build a schedule from scratch instead of reading one, a cron builder assembles the expression for you.
Frequently asked questions
What is a crontab?
The file that schedules recurring jobs on Unix systems, each line pairing a cron schedule with a command to run.
What are special entries like @reboot?
Shortcuts crontabs allow — @reboot runs a job at startup, and others stand in for common schedules like daily or hourly.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The explanation happens in your browser.