What 0 */3 * * * means
Eight times a day at midnight, 3am, 6am and so on — a lighter cadence than hourly for jobs that can tolerate a few hours of staleness.
In plain English, cron reads this as: on the hour, every 3 hours, every day.
Field-by-field breakdown
| Field | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Minute | 0 | at 0 |
| Hour | */3 | every 3 |
| Day of month | * | every value |
| Month | * | every value |
| Day of week | * | every value |
Editing this schedule
To adjust this expression or explain a different one, open the full cron expression parser — it explains any crontab line, lists upcoming runs and breaks down each field as you type. New to the syntax? The practical guide to cron expressions walks through every field with worked examples.