Crontab Parser & Explainer

What is Crontab Parser & Explainer?

Crontab is the standard expression for scheduled tasks on Linux/Unix, with five fields for minute, hour, day, month and weekday. Writing */5 9-17 * * 1-5 is easy; understanding it three months later is hard. This tool translates an expression into a plain-language description ("every 5 minutes, hours 9 through 17...") and validates value ranges and format, so you can verify a schedule before shipping it.

How to Use

1. Paste a 5-field crontab expression
2. Read the plain-language description and per-field meanings
3. Fix any errors flagged by validation

FAQ

What do the five fields mean?

Minute (0-59), hour (0-23), day of month (1-31), month (1-12), day of week (0-7, where both 0 and 7 are Sunday).

What do *, */5, 1-5 and 1,3,5 mean?

* means every value; */5 means every 5 units; 1-5 is a continuous range; commas enumerate multiple values.

Are second-level schedules (6 fields) supported?

Standard crontab has 5 fields without seconds; Quartz-style 6/7-field expressions (with seconds and year) are not supported yet.

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