A cron job is a command, which functions conveniently in the background over a predefined period and it also executes a script within a web hosting account. There are no limitations in regard to what the script is - PHP, Bash, Perl, etcetera, what it could do, or what exactly your file extension should be. Some examples are mailing a regular report with all of the user activity within a given website, generating a regular backup or erasing the content in a particular folder. These tasks or some other script can be run on intervals selected by the user - each couple of minutes, hours or days, and even monthly or once a year depending on the exact intent. Using cron jobs to automate different aspects of administrating a site saves considerable time and efforts.
Cron Jobs in Shared Hosting
The Hepsia Control Panel, which is featured with all of the Linux shared hosting packages, allows you to create cron jobs in a couple of simple steps even when you have not employed such a option previously. After you sign in and go to the Cron Jobs area where you'll be able to create background tasks, you just have to copy and paste the system access path to Perl, Python or PHP based on the script you'll run, type the path within your account for the actual script file and then select how often the cron job has to be executed. For the aforementioned, you'll be able to use the standard mode and select the minutes, hours, days, etcetera using straightforward drop-down options, or maybe if you are more experienced, you can take advantage of the advanced mode and set the time interval with numbers and asterisks i.e. the standard method which you may have employed with various Control Panels.