Automating common tasks with cron
Look under the hood of any modern Linux distribution, and you'll find an assortment of gems hidden inside. There's the Vi editor for all of your text processing needs; the SSH shell for secure connections; the Apache server for Web site publishing; the Samba suite of tools for file sharing...the list goes on and on.
One of the lesser-known lights, though, must be cron, a tool that can automatically execute routine tasks at predefined intervals. When it comes to commands (or scripts) that must be performed on a regular basis, administrators and developers naturally reach for cron.
