How can I make a bash command run periodically?

Question

I want to execute a script and have it run a command every x minutes.

Also any general advice on any resources for learning bash scripting could be really cool. I us

Answer 1

I want to execute the script and have it run a command every {time interval}

cron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron) was designed for this purpose. If you run man cron or man crontab you will find instructions for how to use it.

any general advice on any resources for learning bash scripting could be really cool. I use Linux for my personal development work, so bash scripts are not totally foreign to me, I just haven't written any of my own from scratch.

If you are comfortable working with bash, I recommend reading through the bash manpage first (man bash) -- there are lots of cool tidbits.

Answer 2

If you want to run a command periodically, there's 3 ways :

• using the crontab command ex. * * * * * command (run every minutes)
• using a loop like : while true; do ./my_script.sh; sleep 60; done (not precise)
• using systemd timer

See cron

Some pointers for best bash scripting practices :

http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ
Guide: http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashGuide
ref: http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html
http://wiki.bash-hackers.org/
USE MORE QUOTES!: http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Quote.html
Scripts and more: http://www.shelldorado.com/