docker_cron

Scheduling container tasks with docker-compose.

Docker_cron is a docker container used to control as many other containers as you like.

version: "3.9"

services:
    example:
        image: chrisbesch/docker_cron_example
        environment:
            # this container's task runs every day at 03:00
            - "CRON_TIME=0 3 * * *"
            # it receives a HUP signal (since this is the default, this env variable can be omitted)
            # all signals here: https://github.com/fsouza/go-dockerclient/blob/01804dec8a84d0a77e63611f2b62d33e9bb2b64a/signal.go
            - CRON_SIGNAL=0x1
      
    docker_cron:
        image: chrisbesch/docker_cron
        volumes:
            - "/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:rw"
        environment:
            - TZ=Europe/Berlin

This example can be found here.

The docker_cron container

All you have to do is add the docker_cron container to your docker-compose.yaml, give it read/write access to the docker socket and specify your timezone. Now all containers that defined the CRON_TIME environment variable receive a HUP signal whenever their CRON_TIME matches the current minute. (This magic is performed by docker-gen.)

CRON_TIME

CRON_TIME consists out of five fields separated by characters:

1. Minute [0,59]
2. Hour [0,23]
3. Day of the month [1,31]
4. Month of the year [1,12]
5. Day of the week ([0,6] with 0=Sunday) Each field can also be an *, meaning all valid values. This is from an extract from man crontab.

The HUP Signal

When the current minute matches the CRON_TIME of a container, that container receives a HUP signal. This is equivalent to docker kill -s HUP <container name> (which can also be used to force running your task for debugging). The container is not restarted or otherwise nonconsensually touched. It's your container's job to trap this HUP signal and do with it as it likes. Here is a bash example doing this:

#!/bin/bash
trap 'bash /actual_job.sh' HUP
while :; do
    sleep 10 & wait ${!}
done

Make sure that you don't set -e because that causes the trap to exit the script.

Sending Other Signals

If you want your container to receive a different signal, set the CRON_SIGNAL environment variable of the target container to the integer that identifies your desired signal. Use this table to reference the correct one (from here):

Signal	int
SIGABRT	0x6
SIGALRM	0xe
SIGBUS	0x7
SIGCHLD	0x11
SIGCLD	0x11
SIGCONT	0x12
SIGFPE	0x8
SIGHUP	0x1
SIGILL	0x4
SIGINT	0x2
SIGIO	0x1d
SIGIOT	0x6
SIGKILL	0x9
SIGPIPE	0xd
SIGPOLL	0x1d
SIGPROF	0x1b
SIGPWR	0x1e
SIGQUIT	0x3
SIGSEGV	0xb
SIGSTKFLT	0x10
SIGSTOP	0x13
SIGSYS	0x1f
SIGTERM	0xf
SIGTRAP	0x5
SIGTSTP	0x14
SIGTTIN	0x15
SIGTTOU	0x16
SIGUNUSED	0x1f
SIGURG	0x17
SIGUSR1	0xa
SIGUSR2	0xc
SIGVTALRM	0x1a
SIGWINCH	0x1c
SIGXCPU	0x18
SIGXFSZ	0x19

man crontab extract

1. Minute [0,59]

2. Hour [0,23]

3. Day of the month [1,31]

4. Month of the year [1,12]

5. Day of the week ([0,6] with 0=Sunday)

Each of these patterns can be either an <asterisk> (meaning all valid values), an  ele‐
ment, or a list of elements separated by <comma> characters. An element shall be either
a number or two numbers separated by a <hyphen-minus> (meaning an inclusive range). The
specification of days can be made by two fields (day of the month and day of the week).
If month, day of month, and day of week are all <asterisk> characters, every day  shall
be matched. If either the month or day of month is specified as an element or list, but
the day of week is an <asterisk>, the month and day of month fields shall  specify  the
days that match. If both month and day of month are specified as an <asterisk>, but day
of week is an element or list, then only the specified days of the week match. Finally,
if  either the month or day of month is specified as an element or list, and the day of
week is also specified as an element or list, then any day matching  either  the  month
and day of month, or the day of week, shall be matched.