What does the cron expression 0 0 * * 1-5 mean?

The cron expression 0 0 * * 1-5 schedules a job to run weekdays at Midnight. The five fields represent: minute, hour, day of month, month, and day of week.

How do I schedule a cron job to run weekdays at Midnight?

Add this line to your crontab: 0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/command. Open your crontab for editing with crontab -e and paste the expression followed by your command.

How do I monitor a cron job that runs weekdays at Midnight?

Add a heartbeat check: 0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh && curl -fsS https://cronsignal.io/ping/YOUR_CHECK_ID. You'll be alerted if the job doesn't run on schedule.

Cron Weekdays at Midnight

Understanding the Expression

The cron expression 0 0 * * 1-5 breaks down as follows:

Field	Value	Meaning
Minute	0	At minute 0
Hour	0	At midnight (00:00)
Day of month	*	Every day of the month
Month	*	Every month
Day of week	1-5	Monday through Friday

Example Usage

Basic crontab entry

0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/your/script.sh

With output logging

0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh >> /var/log/script.log 2>&1

With monitoring

0 0 * * 1-5 /path/to/script.sh && curl -fsS https://cronsignal.io/ping/YOUR_CHECK_ID

Common Use Cases for Weekdays at Midnight

Business hour jobs: Run tasks during working hours only
Off-peak processing: Heavy tasks during low-traffic periods
Scheduled notifications: Send alerts during appropriate hours
Workday automation: Automate business processes on weekdays

Platform Equivalents

The same schedule expressed across common platforms and schedulers:

Platform	Syntax
Linux crontab	`0 0 * * 1-5`
GitHub Actions	`- cron: '0 0 * * 1-5'`
systemd timer	`OnCalendar=Mon..Fri --* 00:00:00`
Kubernetes CronJob	`schedule: "0 0 * * 1-5"`
AWS EventBridge	`cron(0 0 ? * MON-FRI *)`

Timezone Considerations

Midnight UTC on weekdays is Sunday 7-8 PM EST/CDT — still the weekend locally. For true Monday-midnight in a US timezone, add the UTC offset to the hour field.

Common Mistakes

Timezone boundary: "Weekday midnight" in UTC is Sunday evening in the Americas. Confirm whether you want midnight UTC or midnight local time.
Day 0 vs 7 for Sunday: Use 1-5 universally. Avoid 0-4 as some implementations treat 0 differently from 7.
GitHub Actions: Schedules run in UTC. 0 0 * * 1-5 fires Mon-Fri at 00:00 UTC, which is Sun-Thu evening in the US.