at

If you have a command you want to schedule to run only one time, you can use the at command. You can specify the at command, the time at which you want a command executed, and then at the at> prompt, the command to execute. The following shows an example to find all core files at 11:57 A.M.:

 # at 11:57AM warning: commands will be executed using (in order) a) $SHELL b) login shell c) /bin/sh at> find / -name core > /tmp/core.files at> <EOT> job 5 at 2003-01-02 11:57 You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root # date Thu Jan 2 11:57:25 EST 2003 # ps -ef | grep find root     31015  31014 1 11:57 ?        00:00:00 find / -name core root     31018  30456 0 11:57 pts/3    00:00:00 grep find # 

After issuing at and the time, the at> prompt appears for you to issue the command. You then press ^d (control d) at the next prompt to return to your usual shell prompt.

The output of the ps command shows that this find command is indeed running.