How to run bash scripts like a crontab for Mac? (Big Sur)

The trick is... there is no crontab on Mac since 6-7 years. You must use launchctl to schedule a "cron job".

In my case, I simply want to run a bash script for my local backup. I guess that if you are confortable running cron jobs on Linux, you will be at home with these instructions.

How To

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pascalandy.macbackup.plist

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
nano com.pascalandy.macbackup.plist

<INSERT XML CODE BELOW>
<SAVE AND QUIT NANO>

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pascalandy.macbackup.plist
launchctl list | grep 'pascalandy'

Code example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>

        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.pascalandy.macbackup</string>

        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>/bin/bash</string>
            <string>/Volumesxyz/pascalandy/macbkp/runup.sh</string>
        </array>

        <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
        <true/>

        <key>Nice</key>
        <integer>1</integer>

        <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>11</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>39</integer>
        </dict>

    </dict>
</plist>

(XML format)

Sources

If you need more blabla, there you go :)

• https://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-osx-startup-crontab-launchd-jobs/
• https://thejandroman.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/introduction-to-launchd/
• https://www.launchd.info/
• https://firepress.org/en/how-to-run-bash-scripts-like-a-crontab-for-mac-big-sur/