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Cron schedule

Cron job once a year (1 January)

The cron expression for once a year (1 January) is:

0 0 1 1 *

What it does

Runs at midnight on New Year's Day. @yearly and @annually are shortcuts for the same schedule.

FieldValueMeaning
Minute0at minute 0
Hour0at 00:00
Day of the month1on day 1 of the month
Month1in January
Day of the week*every day of the week

Next run times

In your time zone. Change the expression to try another schedule.

Next runs

Examples

Crontab line

Add it with crontab -e over SSH. Replace the path with your script; the redirect keeps cron from emailing you the output.

0 0 1 1 * /path/to/command >> /dev/null 2>&1

In Laravel

Define the task in routes/console.php (Laravel 11 and 12):

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schedule;

Schedule::command('reports:send')->yearly();

Then add the scheduler's single crontab entry once; it checks every task each minute:

* * * * * cd /path/to/your-app && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1

In cPanel

  1. Open Cron Jobs under Advanced.
  2. Type the five fields: 0 0 1 1 *.
  3. In Command, use the full path to PHP, for example /usr/local/bin/php /home/user/app/artisan schedule:run.
  4. Click Add New Cron Job. Some hosts limit how often cron may run; check your plan if it seems to skip runs.

Frequently asked questions

What does 0 0 1 1 * mean in cron?

It runs once a year (1 January). The five fields are minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week; the table above explains each one.

How do I run a Laravel task once a year (1 January)?

In routes/console.php: Schedule::command('your:command')->yearly(); and add the single crontab entry * * * * * cd /path/to/app && php artisan schedule:run >> /dev/null 2>&1.

Which time zone does cron use?

The server's time zone (check it with date in SSH, or ask your host). Laravel uses the timezone in config/app.php, and you can set it per task with ->timezone('Europe/London').

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