pycroner 0.1.5

A multi-platform cron-like job runner in Python

Pycroner

Pycroner is a lightweight cron style job runner implemented in Python. Jobs are configured via a YAML file and executed by the runner once their cron schedule matches the current time.

Why Pycroner?

This started as a tool I built for myself.

I was working on a system that had to run both on Windows and Linux, and keeping cron jobs in sync with Windows Task Scheduler was a constant headache. I wanted something dead simple, predictable, and cross-platform.

And I didn’t want to write the same job schedules twice in two different formats.

So I built Pycroner.

It runs scheduled jobs from a single YAML file, no matter what OS you’re on. You just write your jobs once and they work everywhere.

Along the way, I added a few extra things:

• Fanout support — Run the same job multiple times with different args or in parallel.
• Hot reload — Update your config and it just picks it up live.
• Hooks — Jobs can run with specific scheduling hooks that are not possible with regular cron patterns, like on_start and on_exit.

If you're building automation or ETL flows, or just want a sane way to run time-based jobs in a Python project, this might save you from the time and pain I went through managing a project on both Windows and Linux.

Features

• Parses standard five field cron expressions (minute, hour, day, month, weekday) using a small built in parser.
• Jobs can optionally be fanned out into multiple processes. Fanout may be an integer (repeat the job N times) or a list of argument strings that will be appended to the base command.
• Configuration lives in pycroner.yml by default. The exact format is described in pycroner/spec.md.

Installation

From PyPI:

pip install pycroner

Usage

From code

1. Create a pycroner.yml file describing your jobs. A simple example is shown below.
2. Run the job runner from a Python script:

from pycroner.runner import Runner

Runner("pycroner.yml").run()

The runner checks schedules every minute and spawns each job as a subprocess when its cron expression matches the current time.

From CLI

You can also invoke the runner directly from the command line using the pycroner command. By default it looks for pycroner.yml in the current directory:

pycroner

Specify an alternative working directory with --at or a specific configuration file with --config:

pycroner --at /path/to/project
pycroner --config custom.yml

Example Configuration

jobs:
  - id: "index_articles"
    schedule: "*/15 * * * *"
    command: "python index.py"
    fanout: 4

  - id: "daily_etl"
    schedule: "0 2 * * *"
    command: "python etl.py"
    fanout:
      - "--source=internal --mode=full"
      - "--source=external --mode=delta"

  - id: "ping"
    schedule: "* * * * *"
    command: "python ping.py"

  - id: "startup"
    schedule: "on_start"
    command: "python startup.py"

  - id: "cleanup"
    schedule: "on_exit"
    command: "python cleanup.py"

Jobs run independently, and any output or error handling is left to your commands. For full details see pycroner/spec.md.

If the configuration file changes while the runner is active, it will be reloaded automatically so updates take effect without restarting.

Output from each job is streamed with a colored prefix containing the job id, and if fanned out, the fanout numeric id is attached.

Hooks

Hooks allow specific schedule executions that are not possible with regular cron expressions

List of available hooks:

• on_start
• on_exit

More hooks are being considered, and if you find a use case for a new hook you may open a PR or a discussion.

Startup and Shutdown Hooks

Jobs scheduled with on_start run once immediately when the runner boots.

Jobs scheduled with on_exit run once when the process is shutting down. The runner registers handlers for SIGINT and SIGTERM and also uses atexit to ensure shutdown hooks are executed on normal program termination.