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How can I make my Mac (running the most recent OS) do a task automatically once a day? For example, I'd like to have it automatically download a copy of this open source algebraic geometry textbook once a day. I have a feeling that some combination of wget and cron should work, but, after googling and reading the cron documentation, I just couldn't get it to work right.

David Zureick-Brown
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    I suggest you don't use Crontab and instead learn to use Launchd as already suggested. – Martin Marconcini Mar 02 '11 at 12:52
  • My problem is that both cron and launchctl/launchd only permit precise time specs ie. "This hour, minute and second". My Mac is not on all the time - I need something like anacron in the Unix/Linux world, to run tasks "daily" no matter when I wake up and turn on the computer. – q.undertow Jun 01 '22 at 16:12

6 Answers6

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I think in OS X you should use launchctl for "cron jobs".
But otherwise your task should be easy to do with a cronjob
sudo crontab -e
55 23 * * * wget http://www.math.columbia.edu/algebraic_geometry/stacks-git/book.pdf

This should run everyday at 23:55

Update

You should specify the output location of WGET with -O /path/to/file

deiga
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    If using launchd, see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/3030/how-to-run-something-automatically-when-the-system-boots-or-a-use-logs-on –  Mar 01 '11 at 23:42
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    You don't necessarily need sudo. Individual users can have their own crontabs – Doug Harris Jan 05 '12 at 18:16
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The cron daemon can be activated by a simple:

sudo touch /private/etc/crontab

Then it's advisable to enter the full path of your /usr/local/bin/wget (or wherever it lives). Cron does not know of your user's $PATH. Hope it helps.

  • This should be the accepted answer, most useful part was "Cron does not know of your user's $PATH", that's very useful and this lead me to solve it on my side. Thanks! – that-ben Nov 22 '23 at 19:32
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You may use Cronnix which is a free graphical interface for cron :

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7486/cronnix/

nuc
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    cronnix has been officially discontinued upstream. It may stop working correctly (or at all) in recent versions of macOS. – Andrii Abramov Jan 08 '20 at 10:58
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If you're finding the command line syntax (etc) too confusing/arcane, you might lok at GUI tool for viewing/editing/creating these jobs.

In the past I've used Lingon, which has been made available on the Mac App Store now too. I don't need to use it very often, but it's very useful when I do!

robsoft
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I recommend Macaroni. Its advantage is that when you set a job to run once a day, it runs whenever your computer is on, regardless of the time. So you won't miss a job because the computer was off at the specified time.

Macaroni is a tool which handles regular maintenance for Mac OS X, including the Mac OS X repair privileges process as well as Unix-style maintenance. You could do this yourself, but don't you have more interesting things to do with your time?

Dan J
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amorfis
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A more elegant solution (than cron) is to use iCal notifications + Applescript.

First, launch AppleScript Editor (located under /Application/Utilities) and paste the following code:

set the destination_file to ("~/Downloads/book.pdf")

set the contentLink to "http://www.math.columbia.edu/algebraic_geometry/stacks-git/book.pdf"

tell application "URL Access Scripting"
    download contentLink to destination_file replacing yes
end tell

Save the script and quit applescript editor.

Open your iCal and create a new event for today, setting the time you want, select "repeat: Every day" and as an alarm "Run script" and select your applescript.

If you want to notified for every download, you may add another alarm with a "Message with Sound", "on date".

nuc
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