How to run AppleScript in a Crontab?

Question

I am using OS X 10.11.5, I have a crontab file under '/tmp/crontab', in which it contains:

01 10 * * * /Users/Jhon/Desktop/somescript.scpt

When I run crontab -l I get output as no crontab for Jhon

Any suggestion what I am doing wrong here?

Read here: http://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-osx-startup-crontab-launchd-jobs — Denis Rasulev, Oct 28 '16 at 10:04
Possible duplicate of How can I configure my computer to run an AppleScript at a specific time? Caveat: without using iCal — Allan, Oct 28 '16 at 10:41

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 23 '18 at 15:21

2

Apple recommends using launchd which actually runs cron tasks for MacOS. You can still use crontab -e to edit your crontab, but if you want a one-liner:

(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "01 10 * * * osascript /Users/Jhon/Desktop/somescript.scpt") | crontab - ; crontab -l

See this answer for much more useful details:

How can I configure my computer to run an AppleScript at a specific time? Caveat: without using iCal

edited Apr 23 '18 at 15:21

fd0

10,708

answered Apr 17 '18 at 13:32

Joseph Bui

121

It's important to note that cron has been deprecated in favor of launchd. It's a good idea to start migrating to the new framework. – Allan Apr 17 '18 at 14:50
Oh dear Apple. Strike 1 against programmers. – Sridhar Sarnobat Oct 14 '20 at 22:19

How to run AppleScript in a Crontab?

1 Answers1