cron¶

Explain and validate cron expressions.

Synopsis¶

tofu cron <expression> [flags]

Description¶

Parse cron expressions and show human-readable explanations with upcoming execution times. Supports both 5-field and 6-field (with seconds) cron expressions.

Flags¶

Flag	Short	Description	Default
`--next`	`-n`	Show next N execution times	`5`
`--validate`	`-v`	Only validate, don't explain	`false`

Examples¶

Explain a cron expression:

tofu cron "0 9 * * 1-5"

Explain with seconds:

tofu cron "0 0 9 * * 1-5"

Show next 10 execution times:

tofu cron -n 10 "*/15 * * * *"

Validate only:

tofu cron -v "0 0 1 * *"

Cron Expression Format¶

Standard 5-field format:

┌───────── minute (0-59)
│ ┌─────── hour (0-23)
│ │ ┌───── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ ┌─── month (1-12 or jan-dec)
│ │ │ │ ┌─ day of week (0-6, 0=Sunday, or sun-sat)
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * *

6-field format (with seconds):

┌───────── second (0-59)
│ ┌─────── minute (0-59)
│ │ ┌───── hour (0-23)
│ │ │ ┌─── day of month (1-31)
│ │ │ │ ┌─ month (1-12)
│ │ │ │ │ ┌ day of week (0-6)
│ │ │ │ │ │
* * * * * *

Special Characters¶

Character	Meaning
`*`	Any value
`,`	List separator (e.g., `1,3,5`)
`-`	Range (e.g., `1-5`)
`/`	Step (e.g., `*/15`)

Sample Output¶

Expression: 0 9 * * 1-5

Schedule:
  minute:         0
  hour:           9:00 AM
  day of month:   every day
  month:          every month
  day of week:    Monday through Friday

Next 5 execution times:
  1. Mon, 15 Jan 2024 09:00:00 UTC
  2. Tue, 16 Jan 2024 09:00:00 UTC
  3. Wed, 17 Jan 2024 09:00:00 UTC
  4. Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:00:00 UTC
  5. Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:00:00 UTC