User friendly way to schedule jobs in Mac OS X

Question

Is there any easy way to schedule repeated jobs in Mac OS X? I know I could use cron, but I'm looking for a more user friendly way to do it, a GUI for schedules, something like this.

score 50 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 22 '09 at 04:43

50

You can schedule jobs via iCal. Create an event. Edit the event, and you'll see "Run Script" and "Open File" as options as alarms.

answered Sep 22 '09 at 04:43

Richard Hoskins

12,794

score 14 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:24

14

Well, there's CronniX, Maintidget, Macaroni and MacJanitor.

alt text

Have you tried using one of the launchd instead of cron? Apparently, Apple doesn't use cron anymore.

Lingon (abandoned, but supposedly works on Leopard and Snow Leopard)
Launchd Editor
launchctl

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:24

Gareth

19,080

answered Sep 22 '09 at 02:51

hanleyp

6,625

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:26

10

Lingon is a GUI for creating and working with launchd. It's no longer being worked on, but works well for creating and editing Launch Agents and if you are on Leopard or Snow Leopard it's the suggested method over cron.

enter image description here

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:26

Gareth

19,080

answered Oct 29 '10 at 12:53

eric.s

389

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 06 '11 at 09:29

This solution does use crontab but makes it user-friendly by using the Automator

Adding a calendar event tends to clog up iCal for me. I'm using a combination of Automator and crontab.

On the Automator part, I'm recording each action I need to perform as an app (Automator > File > New > Application Template) and save it to a convenient location (File > Save as). Make sure you save it as an Application and not Workflow.

Then it's just a case of adding a cronjob for it:

0 * * * *  open /path/to/the/save/automator/app

Friendly would be nice, but right now I'm just looking for something that will run an application at a specified time on specified days -- or even every day -- under Snow Leopard, which ignores my old cron file.

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 29 '13 at 13:40

2

You could try Auto Scheduled Task for Mac http://www.readmesoft.com/mac

Run an application, open a file, or apple script, automator workflow by schedule

It's a GUI tool and easy to use:

Auto Scheduled Tasks software screen

edited Nov 29 '13 at 13:40

user2098299

3

answered Jul 19 '12 at 02:53

Rubyhog

21

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 24 '19 at 19:06

1

For those who might read this today (11/24/19)

Lingon still works!!! And it's NOT been abandoned. Works for Hight Sierra, Mojave and Catalina

Lingon for High Sierra and later

answered Nov 24 '19 at 19:06

Allen S

21

score 1 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 08 '15 at 18:27

1

Have a look at Task Till Down.

edited Oct 08 '15 at 18:27

Sathyajith Bhat

62,374

answered Feb 17 '12 at 14:31

Frank

31

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:43

1

There is also Scheduler for Mac at www.macscheduler.net. I am the developer of it. :) User feedback is appreciated. And one more thing... It's free.

answered Sep 14 '13 at 08:43

Joao Varela

11

score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:23

0

How about Crontooie, a GUI frontend for cron:

alt text

edited Sep 01 '11 at 04:23

Gareth

19,080

answered Sep 22 '09 at 02:56

User friendly way to schedule jobs in Mac OS X

9 Answers9

Linked

Related