Calculate when a cron job will be executed then next time

BlaM_999 0
Viewed 49205

I have a cron "time definition"

1 * * * * (every hour at xx:01)
2 5 * * * (every day at 05:02)
0 4 3 * * (every third day of the month at 04:00)
* 2 * * 5 (every minute between 02:00 and 02:59 on fridays)

And I have an unix timestamp.

Is there an obvious way to find (calculate) the next time (after that given timestamp) the job is due to be executed?

I'm using PHP, but the problem should be fairly language-agnostic.

[Update]

The class "PHP Cron Parser" (suggested by Ray) calculates the LAST time the CRON job was supposed to be executed, not the next time.

To make it easier: In my case the cron time parameters are only absolute, single numbers or "*". There are no time-ranges and no "*/5" intervals.

language-agnostic cron algorithm
8 Answers

This is basically doing the reverse of checking if the current time fits the conditions. so something like:

//Totaly made up language
next = getTimeNow();
next.addMinutes(1) //so that next is never now
done = false;
while (!done) {
  if (cron.minute != '*' && next.minute != cron.minute) {
    if (next.minute > cron.minute) {
      next.addHours(1);
    }
    next.minute = cron.minute;
  }
  if (cron.hour != '*' && next.hour != cron.hour) {
    if (next.hour > cron.hour) {
      next.hour = cron.hour;
      next.addDays(1);
      next.minute = 0;
      continue;
    }
    next.hour = cron.hour;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.weekday != '*' && next.weekday != cron.weekday) {
    deltaDays = cron.weekday - next.weekday //assume weekday is 0=sun, 1 ... 6=sat
    if (deltaDays < 0) { deltaDays+=7; }
    next.addDays(deltaDays);
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.day != '*' && next.day != cron.day) {
    if (next.day > cron.day || !next.month.hasDay(cron.day)) {
      next.addMonths(1);
      next.day = 1; //assume days 1..31
      next.hour = 0;
      next.minute = 0;
      continue;
    }
    next.day = cron.day
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.month != '*' && next.month != cron.month) {
    if (next.month > cron.month) {
      next.addMonths(12-next.month+cron.month)
      next.day = 1; //assume days 1..31
      next.hour = 0;
      next.minute = 0;
      continue;
    }
    next.month = cron.month;
    next.day = 1;
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  done = true;
}

I might have written that a bit backwards. Also it can be a lot shorter if in every main if instead of doing the greater than check you merely increment the current time grade by one and set the lesser time grades to 0 then continue; however then you'll be looping a lot more. Like so:

//Shorter more loopy version
next = getTimeNow().addMinutes(1);
while (true) {
  if (cron.month != '*' && next.month != cron.month) {
    next.addMonths(1);
    next.day = 1;
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.day != '*' && next.day != cron.day) {
    next.addDays(1);
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.weekday != '*' && next.weekday != cron.weekday) {
    next.addDays(1);
    next.hour = 0;
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.hour != '*' && next.hour != cron.hour) {
    next.addHours(1);
    next.minute = 0;
    continue;
  }
  if (cron.minute != '*' && next.minute != cron.minute) {
    next.addMinutes(1);
    continue;
  }
  break;
}
dlamblin_4590

For anyone interested, here's my final PHP implementation, which pretty much equals dlamblin pseudo code:

class myMiniDate {
    var $myTimestamp;
    static private $dateComponent = array(
                                    'second' => 's',
                                    'minute' => 'i',
                                    'hour' => 'G',
                                    'day' => 'j',
                                    'month' => 'n',
                                    'year' => 'Y',
                                    'dow' => 'w',
                                    'timestamp' => 'U'
                                  );
    static private $weekday = array(
                                1 => 'monday',
                                2 => 'tuesday',
                                3 => 'wednesday',
                                4 => 'thursday',
                                5 => 'friday',
                                6 => 'saturday',
                                0 => 'sunday'
                              );

    function __construct($ts = NULL) { $this->myTimestamp = is_null($ts)?time():$ts; }

    function __set($var, $value) {
        list($c['second'], $c['minute'], $c['hour'], $c['day'], $c['month'], $c['year'], $c['dow']) = explode(' ', date('s i G j n Y w', $this->myTimestamp));
        switch ($var) {
            case 'dow':
                $this->myTimestamp = strtotime(self::$weekday[$value], $this->myTimestamp);
                break;

            case 'timestamp':
                $this->myTimestamp = $value;
                break;

            default:
                $c[$var] = $value;
                $this->myTimestamp = mktime($c['hour'], $c['minute'], $c['second'], $c['month'], $c['day'], $c['year']);
        }
    }


    function __get($var) {
        return date(self::$dateComponent[$var], $this->myTimestamp);
    }

    function modify($how) { return $this->myTimestamp = strtotime($how, $this->myTimestamp); }
}


$cron = new myMiniDate(time() + 60);
$cron->second = 0;
$done = 0;

echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . '<hr>' . date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $cron->timestamp) . '<hr>';

$Job = array(
            'Minute' => 5,
            'Hour' => 3,
            'Day' => 13,
            'Month' => null,
            'DOW' => 5,
       );

while ($done < 100) {
    if (!is_null($Job['Minute']) && ($cron->minute != $Job['Minute'])) {
        if ($cron->minute > $Job['Minute']) {
            $cron->modify('+1 hour');
        }
        $cron->minute = $Job['Minute'];
    }
    if (!is_null($Job['Hour']) && ($cron->hour != $Job['Hour'])) {
        if ($cron->hour > $Job['Hour']) {
            $cron->modify('+1 day');
        }
        $cron->hour = $Job['Hour'];
        $cron->minute = 0;
    }
    if (!is_null($Job['DOW']) && ($cron->dow != $Job['DOW'])) {
        $cron->dow = $Job['DOW'];
        $cron->hour = 0;
        $cron->minute = 0;
    }
    if (!is_null($Job['Day']) && ($cron->day != $Job['Day'])) {
        if ($cron->day > $Job['Day']) {
            $cron->modify('+1 month');
        }
        $cron->day = $Job['Day'];
        $cron->hour = 0;
        $cron->minute = 0;
    }
    if (!is_null($Job['Month']) && ($cron->month != $Job['Month'])) {
        if ($cron->month > $Job['Month']) {
            $cron->modify('+1 year');
        }
        $cron->month = $Job['Month'];
        $cron->day = 1;
        $cron->hour = 0;
        $cron->minute = 0;
    }

    $done = (is_null($Job['Minute']) || $Job['Minute'] == $cron->minute) &&
            (is_null($Job['Hour']) || $Job['Hour'] == $cron->hour) &&
            (is_null($Job['Day']) || $Job['Day'] == $cron->day) &&
            (is_null($Job['Month']) || $Job['Month'] == $cron->month) &&
            (is_null($Job['DOW']) || $Job['DOW'] == $cron->dow)?100:($done+1);
}

echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $cron->timestamp) . '<hr>';
BlaM_9990

Check this out:

It can calculate the next time a scheduled job is supposed to be run based on the given cron definitions.
Ray_408660
Related