Run a cron job every x seconds

Andrew — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:38:57 +0000

As most of you know, the smallest time a cron job can be configured to run is every minute.
To run a script every 15 seconds for example, you could use the following:

main cron job:

* * * * * /path/to/wrapper.sh

wrapper.sh:

/path/to/script &
sleep 15
/path/to/script &
sleep 15
/path/to/script &
sleep 15
/path/to/script &

If you can suggest any nicer alternatives to this example, please let me know.

Andrew Beaton :: FAQ » cron

Run a cron job every x seconds