How do run a Unix command at a given time interval?

Question

I want to run a Unix command (e.g. ls) at 5 minute intervals through a script.

Explanation:

I have a Unix script. In that script I have a command called "ls".

I want that "ls" command to run every 5 minutes from that script.

Solution 1

Use watch. The -n flag specifies interval in seconds, so

watch -n 300 ls

Solution 2

while true; do
    ls
    sleep 300
done

?

Solution 3

Put your script into the Crontab via

crontab -e

More information about Cron you can find at wikipedia

Solution 4

You could use crontab for example. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron

for example i you want to run your script every five minutes via crontab it should look something like this:

#m  h dom mon dow user command
*/5 * *   *   *   root /path/to/script

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Comments

[carlpett]

Unless of course you want this to happen every five minutes always. That would be a job for cron, but if you just want to do it occasionally, I'd recommend using watch.

[TheOneTeam]

YES I think this is the easiest way

[powerMicha]

Never used watch before. Cool stuff :)

[user358232]

I think this is the easiest way

[Bertrand Marron]

Well most people are suggesting you to use cron and such... but if I got the question right, it looks like you already have a script and want the ls every 5 minutes within the script. So again, if I'm right, cron doesn't apply here.

[Mike Atlas]

I didn't have this on OS X, but obtained it quickly with brew install watch