How to run Cron jobs in Python?

To run Cron jobs in Python, you can create a Python script with the code you want to run and schedule it to run using Cron. Here are the steps to create and schedule a Python script:

Create a Python script:

Create a Python script with the code you want to run as a Cron job. For example, let's say you want to delete all temporary files from a directory every day at midnight. You can create a Python script called cleanup.py with the following code:

import os
import glob

# Set the directory to clean up
dir_path = '/path/to/temp/files/'

# Get a list of all files in the directory
files = glob.glob(os.path.join(dir_path, '*'))

# Delete all files in the directory
for file in files:
    os.remove(file)

Set the correct file permissions:

Make sure that the file permissions of your Python script allow the user running the Cron job to execute it. You can set the permissions using the chmod command:

chmod +x cleanup.py

Schedule the Cron job:

Open the crontab file using the command crontab -e and add the following line to schedule the Cron job:

0 0 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/cleanup.py

This Cron job will run every day at midnight and execute the cleanup.py script using the Python 3 interpreter located at /usr/bin/python3.

Note: If you are using a Python virtual environment for your project, make sure to activate it before running the script. For example, if your virtual environment is located at /path/to/venv, you can modify the Cron job as follows:

0 0 * * * /path/to/venv/bin/python /path/to/cleanup.py

Verify the Cron job:

You can verify that the Cron job has been added to the crontab file by running the command crontab -l.

By following these steps, you can create and schedule a Python script to run as a Cron job.

Got an article suggestion? Let us know

How to run Cron jobs in Rails?

Questions

How to run Cron jobs in PHP?

Questions

How to run Cron jobs in Java?

Questions

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.