System Settings/Task Scheduler

General Information

Task Scheduler is a graphical front end to the standard "cron" utility. With it, commands (or "tasks") can be run at specific times, on a certain day or date, or at specific intervals (time between execution).

Task Scheduler in Plasma 5

Usage

Task Scheduler can be started by starting the System Settings application, and selecting Startup and Shutdown -> Task Scheduler. New tasks can be added and existing tasks edited or removed.

Adding and Modifying tasks

• Click "New Task..." to add a new task, or "Modify" to modify an existing task. The Add or modify existing task page will be displayed.

The "Add or modify task" page of SystemSettings

• Enter the command to be run. Click the folder icon to choose it from a dialog.

• Enter a comment (optional). This should be descriptive, explaining what the task will do as the command may not always be obvious.

• Click Enable this task to enable the task to run.

• Click Run at system bootup to enable the script to run each time the system is booted.

• Click Run every day to enable the script to run every day. This will automatically select the appropriate options.

• Using the buttons, choose when the command should be run. Not all parameters are required, those not needed may be left blank.
  • Hours and Minutes are the time of day to run the task, not an interval.

• When done, click OK. The task will be added and scheduled if enabled.

Hints

• All the files that are modified are located in the /etc/cron directory where there are numerous files to look at.

• The command-line tool that allows you to have a look at the currently installed cron-jobs is

  crontab -l

  (that's the letter L).