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Cron: Every 6 Hours

0 */6 * * * fires four times a day — midnight, 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM. It's a common choice for periodic backups, digest generation, and sync jobs that need to run more than once daily but don't need hourly attention.

0 */6 * * *

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Examples & Variations

0 */6 * * *

Every 6 hours, all day

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0 0,6,12,18 * * *

Same schedule, explicit list form

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0 */6 * * 1-5

Every 6 hours, weekdays only

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Common Mistakes

  • Confusing 'every 6 hours' with 'four times a day at hours I choose' — the step form always includes midnight and spaces evenly from there; use an explicit list if you need different specific hours.
  • Running heavy batch jobs at all four slots without staggering, causing the same load spike four times a day instead of once.
  • Overlooking that this interval crosses both AM and PM — a job assuming 'business hours only' behavior needs an explicit hour range, not just the step value.

Best Practices

  • Solid default for quarter-day summaries, periodic backups, or sync jobs where 4 checkpoints a day is enough coverage.
  • Use 0,6,12,18 explicitly if the exact hours matter to readers of the crontab and you want to avoid step-syntax mental math.
  • Restrict to weekdays (add * * 1-5) for anything tied to business operations that shouldn't run on weekends.

Frequently Asked Questions

What four times does every 6 hours run?
Midnight, 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM — a quarter-day cadence starting from hour 0.
Is every 6 hours a good interval for backups?
Yes, it's a common choice for systems that want more frequent recovery points than a single daily backup without the overhead of hourly snapshots.
How do I run every 6 hours but only on weekdays?
Add a day-of-week restriction: 0 */6 * * 1-5 keeps the 6-hour cadence but skips Saturday and Sunday entirely.

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Cron: Every 4 Hours

The cron expression for every 4 hours is 0 */4 * * *, firing 6 times a day. See examples, mistakes, and best practices for this schedule.

Cron: Every 8 Hours

The cron expression for every 8 hours is 0 */8 * * *, firing 3 times a day — matching a classic 8-hour shift pattern. See examples and best practices.

Cron: Every 12 Hours

The cron expression for every 12 hours is 0 */12 * * *, firing twice a day at midnight and noon. See examples, mistakes, and best practices.