Steps to add a user level anacron

add_to_anacron.md

Installing Anacron for User scripts

Make sure anacron is installed

Example: # apt install anacron

Set up script to be ran by anacron

1. Make sure your new script is executable

   $ chmod u+x my_script.sh
   

   OPTIONAL: If you symlink your script in /usr/local/bin, you can run it anywhere from the terminal
   (see run-parts for reasons to remove the .sh extension)

   # ln -s /path/to/my_script.sh /usr/local/bin/my_script_name
   

2. Create a .anacron folder in your home directory and in it two subfolders, etc and spool:

   $ mkdir -p ~/.anacron/{etc,spool}
   

3. Create a new file ~/.anacron/etc/anacrontab with contents similar to the following:

   # /etc/anacrontab: configuration file for anacron
   
   # See anacron(8) and anacrontab(5) for details.
   
   SHELL=/bin/bash
   PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
   
   # period:         Delay in days
   # delay:          Delay in minutes
   # job-identifier: Unique name for anacron
   # command:        Command to execute
   # period  delay  job-identifier  command
   1         10     my-script     /path/to/my_script.sh
   # OR
   1         10     my-script     /usr/local/bin/my_script_name

4. Add the following line to your crontab using crontab -e:

    @hourly /usr/sbin/anacron -s -t $HOME/.anacron/etc/anacrontab -S $HOME/.anacron/spool