# Reference



## Table of Contents

### Resource types

* [`cron`](#cron): Installs and manages cron jobs.

## Resource types

### `cron`

Every cron resource created by Puppet requires a command and at least one
periodic attribute (hour, minute, month, monthday, weekday, or special). While
the name of the cron job is not part of the actual job, the name is stored in a
comment beginning with `# Puppet Name: `. These comments are used to match
crontab entries created by Puppet with cron resources.

If an existing crontab entry happens to match the scheduling and command of a
cron resource that has never been synced, Puppet defers to the existing
crontab entry and does not create a new entry tagged with the `# Puppet Name: `
comment.

**Important:** _The Cron type will not reset parameters that are
removed from a manifest_. For example, removing a `minute => 10` parameter
will not reset the minute component of the associated cronjob to `*`.
These changes must be expressed by setting the parameter to
`minute => absent` because Puppet only manages parameters that are out of
sync with manifest entries.

**Autorequires:** If Puppet is managing the user account specified by the
`user` property of a cron resource, then the cron resource will autorequire
that user.

#### Examples

##### 

```puppet

cron { 'logrotate':
  command => '/usr/sbin/logrotate',
  user    => 'root',
  hour    => 2,
  minute  => 0,
}
```

##### Note that all periodic attributes can be specified as an array of values:

```puppet

cron { 'logrotate':
  command => '/usr/sbin/logrotate',
  user    => 'root',
  hour    => [2, 4],
}
```

##### ...or using ranges or the step syntax `*/2` (although there's no guarantee that your `cron` daemon supports these):

```puppet

cron { 'logrotate':
  command => '/usr/sbin/logrotate',
  user    => 'root',
  hour    => ['2-4'],
  minute  => '*/10',
}
```

#### Properties

The following properties are available in the `cron` type.

##### `command`

The command to execute in the cron job.  The environment
provided to the command varies by local system rules, and it is
best to always provide a fully qualified command.  The user's
profile is not sourced when the command is run, so if the
user's environment is desired it should be sourced manually.

All cron parameters support `absent` as a value; this will
remove any existing values for that field.

##### `ensure`

Valid values: `present`, `absent`

The basic property that the resource should be in.

Default value: `present`

##### `environment`

Any environment settings associated with this cron job.  They
will be stored between the header and the job in the crontab.  There
can be no guarantees that other, earlier settings will not also
affect a given cron job.


Also, Puppet cannot automatically determine whether an existing,
unmanaged environment setting is associated with a given cron
job.  If you already have cron jobs with environment settings,
then Puppet will keep those settings in the same place in the file,
but will not associate them with a specific job.

Settings should be specified exactly as they should appear in
the crontab, like `PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin`.

##### `hour`

The hour at which to run the cron job. Optional;
if specified, must be between 0 and 23, inclusive.

##### `minute`

The minute at which to run the cron job.
Optional; if specified, must be between 0 and 59, inclusive.

##### `month`

The month of the year. Optional; if specified,
must be either:

-   A number between 1 and 12, inclusive, with 1 being January
-   The name of the month, such as 'December'.

##### `monthday`

The day of the month on which to run the
command.  Optional; if specified, must be between 1 and 31.

##### `special`

A special value such as 'reboot' or 'annually'.
Only available on supported systems such as Vixie Cron.
Overrides more specific time of day/week settings.
Set to 'absent' to make puppet revert to a plain numeric schedule.

##### `target`

The name of the crontab file in which the cron job should be stored.

This property defaults to the value of the `user` property if set, the
user running Puppet or `root`.

For the default crontab provider, this property is functionally
equivalent to the `user` property and should be avoided. In particular,
setting both `user` and `target` to different values will result in
undefined behavior.

##### `user`

The user who owns the cron job.  This user must
be allowed to run cron jobs, which is not currently checked by
Puppet.

This property defaults to the user running Puppet or `root`.

The default crontab provider executes the system `crontab` using
the user account specified by this property.

##### `weekday`

The weekday on which to run the command. Optional; if specified,
must be either:

-   A number between 0 and 7, inclusive, with 0 or 7 being Sunday
-   The name of the day, such as 'Tuesday'.

Day ranges can only be numeric; e.g. '1-5' for weekdays, but not 'Mon-Fri'.

#### Parameters

The following parameters are available in the `cron` type.

* [`name`](#-cron--name)
* [`provider`](#-cron--provider)

##### `name`

namevar

The symbolic name of the cron job.  This name
is used for human reference only and is generated automatically
for cron jobs found on the system.  This generally won't
matter, as Puppet will do its best to match existing cron jobs
against specified jobs (and Puppet adds a comment to cron jobs it adds),
but it is at least possible that converting from unmanaged jobs to
managed jobs might require manual intervention.

##### `provider`

The specific backend to use for this `cron` resource. You will seldom need to specify this --- Puppet will usually
discover the appropriate provider for your platform.

