What is Cron?

Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like systems. A cron expression defines when a task runs using five (or six) fields: minute, hour, day of month, month, day of week, and optionally second. For example, '0 9 * * *' means 9:00 AM every day. Cron is used for backups, reports, cleanup, and scheduled scripts. Many cloud and CI/CD systems support cron-style schedules. Understanding cron syntax helps configure automated tasks in servers, databases, and application platforms.