Cheat Sheets · Cron Cheat Sheet · Cron Weekends Only — Crontab Example

Cron Weekends Only — Crontab Example

0 10 * * 6,0

Runs at 10:00 AM on Saturdays and Sundays only.

Field by field

FieldValueMeaning
Minute0At minute 0
Hour10At 10 AM
Day of month*Every day (unrestricted)
Month*Every month
Day of week6,0Saturday and Sunday

Weekend-only schedules come from a comma list in the day-of-week field: 6,0 (Saturday, Sunday) — order does not matter, 0,6 is identical.

This is also the page to learn cron's most surprising rule: when both day-of-month and day-of-week are restricted, cron runs when EITHER matches — a union, not an intersection. 0 0 1 * 6,0 therefore fires on the 1st of every month AND every Saturday and Sunday. Keep the field you do not care about as *.

0 10 * * 6,0 /usr/local/bin/weekend-maintenance.sh

Related schedules

FAQ

Why did my job run on the 15th when I set 6,0 and 15?
That is the union trap: day-of-month 15 plus day-of-week weekend means "the 15th, or any weekend day". Restrict only one of the two fields.

Saturday = 6, Sunday = 0 — can I write 7?
Yes, 7 is also Sunday in most implementations. Within a comma list, 0,6 and 6,7 both mean Sat+Sun — but do not mix 0 and 7 in ranges.

Every Sunday specifically?
0 10 * * 0 — a single 0 in day-of-week gives you Sundays only.

Stop memorizing — build it interactively

Try this schedule in the Cron Editor

Full reference: Cron Cheat Sheet