*/2 * * * *
Cron reads this as: every 2nd minute.
Next 5 runs
Computed in your browser's local time zone. Cron itself evaluates against the server's zone, which on most cloud hosts is UTC — see time zones & DST if that distinction matters here.
- Calculating…
When to use this schedule
A reasonable middle ground for pollers that need to feel responsive without the process churn of running every minute. Because 2 divides 60 evenly, the runs land on even minutes with no gap at the hour boundary — :00, :02, :04 and so on through :58.
What to watch out for
Step values always restart at the top of the hour, so an even-numbered step is safe but an odd one is not. If the job occasionally takes longer than two minutes you will get overlap; add flock -n and decide whether a skipped run is acceptable. Note that */2 and 0-58/2 are equivalent here, and some linters prefer the explicit range.
The crontab line
*/2 * * * * /usr/local/bin/your-job.sh >> /var/log/your-job.log 2>&1Redirect the output somewhere you will actually read it — by default cron mails it, and on a host with no mail transport that means it is discarded. See the crontab guide for the surrounding syntax.
Related schedules
| Expression | Schedule |
|---|---|
* * * * * | Every minute |
*/5 * * * * | Every 5 minutes |
*/10 * * * * | Every 10 minutes |
Build your own
Need something this page does not cover? Compose it field by field in the visual builder, or paste an expression you already have into the explainer for a per-field breakdown. The examples library collects sixty schedules in one place, and the guides cover crontab syntax, time zones, troubleshooting and production practices.