cronv

A terminal UI for managing cron jobs — with human-readable schedule descriptions, next-run times, a 24-hour firing timeline, and a live preview editor.

 cronv · 12 jobs · system crontab [24h]
Schedule │ Description │ Next Run │ Command
─────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────┼────────────────────
*/15 * * * * │ Every 15 minutes │ 09:15 (in 13m) │ run-parts /etc/...
0 2 * * * │ Daily at 02:00 │ Tue 02:00 (in 5h) │ run-parts /etc/...
0 3 * * 6 │ Saturdays at 03:00 │ Sat 03:00 (in 4 days) │ run-parts /etc/...
0 4 * * 0,3 │ Sundays and Wednesdays at 04:00 │ Wed 04:00 (in 1 day) │ /usr/bin/pihole…
5 4 1-7 * 0 │ At 04:05 on days 1 to 7 or on Sunday │ Sun 04:05 (in 5 days) │ /usr/bin/apt up…
*/5 * * * * │ Every 5 minutes │ disabled │ curl -s https://…

Installation

Pre-built binaries

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/13/cronv/main/install.sh | sh

Download the latest release for your platform from the Releases page:

Platform	Binary
Linux x86-64 (glibc)	cronv-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
Linux x86-64 (musl / Alpine)	cronv-linux-x86_64-musl.tar.gz
Linux ARM64 (musl, static)	cronv-linux-aarch64-musl.tar.gz
macOS Intel	cronv-macos-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS Apple Silicon	cronv-macos-aarch64.tar.gz

# Example: Linux
curl -LO https://github.com/13/cronv/releases/latest/download/cronv-linux-x86_64-musl.tar.gz
tar xzf cronv-linux-x86_64-musl.tar.gz
sudo mv cronv /usr/local/bin/

Build from source

Requires Rust 1.88+ (stable).

git clone https://github.com/13/cronv
cd cronv
cargo build --release
# Binary: target/release/cronv

Static musl binary (Alpine-compatible)

rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
sudo apt-get install musl-tools # Debian/Ubuntu
cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
# Binary: target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/cronv

Usage

cronv [OPTIONS]
Options:
-f, --file <PATH> Edit a crontab file directly instead of the system crontab
-V, --version Print version and exit
-h, --help Print this help and exit

cronv # Edit the current user's system crontab
cronv --file ~/jobs.cron # Edit a crontab file directly
cronv -f ~/my-jobs.cron # Same, short form

Note: system-wide crontabs that carry a user column (e.g. /etc/crontab, /etc/cron.d/*) use a 6-field format that cronv does not parse — stick to per-user crontabs or plain 5-field files.

Key bindings

Main list

Key	Action
↑ / k	Move up
↓ / j	Move down
n / a	Add new cron job
e / Enter	Edit selected entry
i	Job info: next 10 runs + 24h chart
d	Delete selected entry (with confirmation)
t	Toggle enable / disable (comments the line)
s	Save crontab to system
c	Toggle 12h / 24h clock display
?	Help overlay
q / Esc	Quit (prompts if there are unsaved changes)

Editor

Key	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Next / previous field
F1	Toggle between @special and 5-field mode
Ctrl+S	Save entry
Enter	Advance to next field, or save on Command field
Esc	Cancel edit

Schedule syntax

┌───── minute (0–59) */5 0,15,30,45 10-20
│ ┌─── hour (0–23) */2 9,17 8-18
│ │ ┌─ day-of-month (1–31) */5 1,15 1-7
│ │ │ ┌ month (1–12) */3 2-4 JAN,JUN,DEC
│ │ │ │ ┌ weekday (0–7) 1-5 0,6 MON-FRI (0/7 = Sunday)
* * * * *

When both day-of-month and weekday are restricted, the job fires when either matches (Vixie cron semantics).

Next-run times are computed in local time; daylight-saving transitions are approximated (a run scheduled inside a DST jump may be off by the shifted hour).

@special shortcuts

Keyword	Equivalent	Description
@reboot	—	At system startup
@hourly	0 * * * *	Every hour at :00
@daily / @midnight	0 0 * * *	Daily at midnight
@weekly	0 0 * * 0	Sundays at midnight
@monthly	0 0 1 * *	1st of month at midnight
@yearly / @annually	0 0 1 1 *	Jan 1 at midnight

License

MIT