A cron expression is a string of 5 fields (minute, hour, day-of-month, month, day-of-week) that defines a schedule. It's used in Linux crontab, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud schedulers.
What does * mean in cron?▼
An asterisk (*) means 'every possible value'. For example, * in the hour field means 'every hour'.
What does */5 mean?▼
*/5 means 'every 5th value'. In the minute field, it means every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, 15...).
Does this work with AWS/GitHub Actions?▼
Yes! Standard 5-field cron works with Linux crontab, AWS CloudWatch, GitHub Actions, and most scheduling systems. Some systems add a 6th field for seconds.