cron-parser
Node.js library for parsing and manipulating crontab instructions. It includes support for timezones and DST transitions.
Compatibility
Node >= 0.10
Typescript <= 4.2
Setup
npm install cron-parser
Supported format
* * * * * *
┬ ┬ ┬ ┬ ┬ ┬
│ │ │ │ │ |
│ │ │ │ │ └ day of week (0 - 7, 1L - 7L) (0 or 7 is Sun)
│ │ │ │ └───── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ └────────── day of month (1 - 31, L)
│ │ └─────────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ └──────────────────── minute (0 - 59)
└───────────────────────── second (0 - 59, optional)
Supports mixed use of ranges and range increments (W character not supported currently). See tests for examples.
Usage
Simple expression.
var parser = require('cron-parser');
try {
var interval = parser.parseExpression('*/2 * * * *');
console.log('Date: ', interval.next().toString()); // Sat Dec 29 2012 00:42:00 GMT+0200 (EET)
console.log('Date: ', interval.next().toString()); // Sat Dec 29 2012 00:44:00 GMT+0200 (EET)
console.log('Date: ', interval.prev().toString()); // Sat Dec 29 2012 00:42:00 GMT+0200 (EET)
console.log('Date: ', interval.prev().toString()); // Sat Dec 29 2012 00:40:00 GMT+0200 (EET)
} catch (err) {
console.log('Error: ' + err.message);
}
Iteration with limited timespan. Also returns ES6 compatible iterator (when iterator flag is set to true).
var parser = require('cron-parser');
var options = {
currentDate: new Date('Wed, 26 Dec 2012 12:38:53 UTC'),
endDate: new Date('Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:40:00 UTC'),
iterator: true
};
try {
var interval = parser.parseExpression('*/22 * * * *', options);
while (true) {
try {
var obj = interval.next();
console.log('value:', obj.value.toString(), 'done:', obj.done);
} catch (e) {
break;
}
}
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 14:44:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: false
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 15:00:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: false
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 15:22:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: false
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 15:44:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: false
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 16:00:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: false
// value: Wed Dec 26 2012 16:22:00 GMT+0200 (EET) done: true
} catch (err) {
console.log('Error: ' + err.message);
}
Timezone support
var parser = require('cron-parser');
var options = {
currentDate: '2016-03-27 00:00:01',
tz: 'Europe/Athens'
};
try {
var interval = parser.parseExpression('0 * * * *', options);
console.log('Date: ', interval.next().toString()); // Date: Sun Mar 27 2016 01:00:00 GMT+0200
console.log('Date: ', interval.next().toString()); // Date: Sun Mar 27 2016 02:00:00 GMT+0200
console.log('Date: ', interval.next().toString()); // Date: Sun Mar 27 2016 04:00:00 GMT+0300 (Notice DST transition)
} catch (err) {
console.log('Error: ' + err.message);
}
Manipulation
var parser = require('cron-parser');
var interval = parser.parseExpression('0 7 * * 0-4');
var fields = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(interval.fields)); // Fields is immutable
fields.hour = [8];
fields.minute = [29];
fields.dayOfWeek = [1,3,4,5,6,7];
var modifiedInterval = parser.fieldsToExpression(fields);
var cronString = modifiedInterval.stringify();
console.log(cronString); // "29 8 * * 1,3-7"
Options
- currentDate - Start date of the iteration
- endDate - End date of the iteration
currentDate
and endDate
accept string
, integer
and Date
as input.
In case of using string
as input, not every string format accepted
by the Date
constructor will work correctly.
The supported formats are:
The reason being that those are the formats accepted by the
luxon
library which is being used to handle dates.
Using Date
as an input can be problematic specially when using the tz
option. The issue being that, when creating a new Date
object without
any timezone information, it will be created in the timezone of the system that is running the code. This (most of times) won't be what the user
will be expecting. Using one of the supported string
formats will solve the issue(see timezone example).
- iterator - Return ES6 compatible iterator object
- utc - Enable UTC
- tz - Timezone string. It won't be used in case
utc
is enabled
Last weekday of the month
This library supports parsing the range 0L - 7L
in the weekday
position of
the cron expression, where the L
means "last occurrence of this weekday for
the month in progress".
For example, the following expression will run on the last monday of the month at midnight:
0 0 * * * 1L
The library also supports combining L
expressions with other weekday
expressions. For example, the following cron will run every Monday as well
as the last Wednesday of the month:
0 0 * * * 1,3L