Alternative Scheduling Options

Most operating systems have mechanisms for scheduling the periodic execution of tasks. You can execute ColdFusion from the command line by calling the server executable and passing the location of the template to be executed.

Windows use the at command. at can be used to list existing commands in the schedule or to schedule commands and programs to run on a computer at a specified time and date. The Windows Schedule service must be running to use at.

Unix uses a handy little utility called Cron, which is controlled by a set of files called crontabs. A master file is stored in the /etc/crontab directory, along with crontab files for individual users in /var/spool/cron/.

crontab filename will install the file you specify as a new crontab. The crontab command has some other switches that list, edit, and remove crontabs, but the basic syntax is all you need. If you want to edit the crontab, you simply reinstall the file with a new crontab command.

NOTE

For more information, run man cron and man crontab for your particular flavor of Unix.