Run a cron job on the last day of the month

Q: How do I run a job on the last day of the month with a systemd timer?

OnCalendar=*-*~01 00:00:00 UTC . systemd timer uses OnCalendar=, not cron lines.

Q: How do I run a job on the last day of the month on AWS EventBridge?

cron(0 0 L * ? *) . AWS EventBridge Scheduler takes cron() with 6 fields, a year last, and ? in one day field.

0 0 0 L * ? Check it below, then take the line for any of 17 schedulers.

Click to edit · paste a crontab line · hover a field for its values

At 00:00 on the last day of the month.

Nothing to watch out for on Quartz.

Trigger

TriggerBuilder.newTrigger()
    .withSchedule(CronScheduleBuilder.cronSchedule("0 0 0 L * ?")
        .inTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC")))
    .build();

Details

Upcoming runs

Calendar 12 days a year

Between two dates

Daylight saving

When things go wrong Server off: Fires once when it can (smart misfire policy), if the job store survived

Server was off: Fires once when it can (smart misfire policy), if the job store survived. The default RAM store doesn't.
Last run still going: Runs concurrently, unless the job has @DisallowConcurrentExecution.
A run fails: Logged. The trigger keeps its schedule. No retry.
Time zone: The JVM's zone, or inTimeZone() on the trigger.
Precision: 1 second.

Sources: github.com,github.com

Other schedulers As written in 1 of 16

↻ Debian / Ubuntu cron 0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && … Debian / Ubuntu cron takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. vs RunWisp
↻ cronie 0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && … cronie takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. vs RunWisp
✗ BusyBox crond BusyBox crond takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. BusyBox crond can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
↻ systemd timer *-*~01 00:00:00 UTC systemd timer uses OnCalendar=, not cron lines. vs RunWisp
↻ RunWisp 0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +%d)" = 01 ] && … RunWisp takes 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first.
✗ Kubernetes CronJob Kubernetes CronJob takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Kubernetes CronJob can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
✗ Ofelia Ofelia doesn't take L for the last day. Ofelia can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax. vs RunWisp
✗ Dagu Dagu takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Dagu can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax. vs RunWisp
↻ PM2 cron_restart 0 0 L * * PM2 cron_restart takes 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first. vs RunWisp
✗ Jobber Jobber doesn't take L for the last day. Jobber can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax. vs RunWisp
✗ GitHub Actions GitHub Actions takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. GitHub Actions can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
✗ GitLab CI schedule GitLab CI schedule takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. GitLab CI schedule can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
↻ AWS EventBridge Scheduler cron(0 0 L * ? *) AWS EventBridge Scheduler takes cron() with 6 fields, a year last, and ? in one day field.
✗ Google Cloud Scheduler Google Cloud Scheduler takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Google Cloud Scheduler can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
✗ Jenkins Jenkins takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Jenkins can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
✓ Spring @Scheduled 0 0 0 L * ?

✓ works as written · ↻ different syntax · ≠ runs at other times · ? not documented · ✗ can't

Schedulers

On the last day of the month, in every scheduler

Works as written in 2 of 17. Times are UTC; the checker above takes any zone.

Runs in 2027: 12
Days with a run: 12
Longest gap: 31 days

Plain cron has no L. The crontab version runs on the 28th to the 31st and lets GNU date check that tomorrow is the 1st.

Scheduler		Line	Notes
Debian / Ubuntu cron	↻	`0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && command`	Debian / Ubuntu cron takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday.
cronie	↻	`0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && command`	cronie takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday.
BusyBox crond	✗		BusyBox crond takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. BusyBox crond can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
systemd timer	↻	`OnCalendar=-~01 00:00:00 UTC`	systemd timer uses OnCalendar=, not cron lines.
RunWisp	↻	`0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +%d)" = 01 ] && command`	RunWisp takes 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first.
Kubernetes CronJob	✗		Kubernetes CronJob takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Kubernetes CronJob can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
Ofelia	✗		Ofelia doesn't take L for the last day. Ofelia can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
Dagu	✗		Dagu takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Dagu can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
PM2 cron_restart	↻	`0 0 L * *`	PM2 cron_restart takes 5 fields, or 6 with seconds first.
Jobber	✗		Jobber doesn't take L for the last day. Jobber can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
GitHub Actions	✗		GitHub Actions takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. GitHub Actions can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
GitLab CI schedule	✗		GitLab CI schedule takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. GitLab CI schedule can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
AWS EventBridge Scheduler	↻	`cron(0 0 L * ? *)`	AWS EventBridge Scheduler takes cron() with 6 fields, a year last, and ? in one day field.
Google Cloud Scheduler	✗		Google Cloud Scheduler takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Google Cloud Scheduler can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
Jenkins	✗		Jenkins takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Jenkins can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.
Quartz	✓	`0 0 0 L * ?`	Works as written.
Spring @Scheduled	✓	`0 0 0 L * ?`	Works as written.

✓ works as written · ↻ different syntax · ≠ runs at other times · ? not documented · ✗ can't

RunWisp

Cron runs the line. Nobody tells you how it went.

RunWisp is an open-source cron replacement that ships as a single binary. It reads the same cron line and keeps a record of every run: output, exit code, duration.

crontab

# crontab -e  (runs on the server's clock: UTC)
0 0 28-31 * *  [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && /usr/local/bin/job.sh

runwisp.toml

[tasks.job]
cron     = "0 0 28-31 * *"
timezone = "UTC"
run      = "[ \"$(date -d '+1 day' +%d)\" = 01 ] && /usr/local/bin/job.sh"

	cron	RunWisp
The server was off at run time	Skipped. anacron only catches up cron.daily, weekly and monthly.	Runs the most recent missed run at start-up (catch_up = 1) and sends a missed-run alert.
The last run is still going	Starts another copy on top.	Queues it. on_overlap = "queue" is the default.
A run fails	Output is mailed if MAILTO and a mail server work. No output, no mail, whatever the exit code.	Marked failed and sent to your alert channels. retry_attempts adds retries.

Keep your crontab. sudo runwisp takeover runs it where it is and retires cron, crontab -e keeps working, and runwisp service uninstall puts cron back. It needs Linux with systemd; elsewhere, runwisp import cron converts the file. RunWisp doesn't do L, W or #, and it runs on one machine, not a cluster. Moving from cron →

FAQ

Questions

What does 0 0 0 L * ? mean?

At 00:00 on the last day of the month. In 2027 that's 12 runs on 12 days. Times are in the scheduler's time zone, usually the server's.

How do I run a job on the last day of the month in a crontab?

0 0 28-31 * * [ "$(date -d '+1 day' +\%d)" = 01 ] && command. Debian / Ubuntu cron takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday.

How do I run a job on the last day of the month with a systemd timer?

OnCalendar=*-*~01 00:00:00 UTC. systemd timer uses OnCalendar=, not cron lines.

How do I run a job on the last day of the month in a Kubernetes CronJob?

Kubernetes CronJob takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. Kubernetes CronJob can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.

How do I run a job on the last day of the month in GitHub Actions?

GitHub Actions takes 5 fields: minute hour day month weekday. GitHub Actions can't run this: it has no last-day or nearest-weekday syntax.

How do I run a job on the last day of the month on AWS EventBridge?

cron(0 0 L * ? *). AWS EventBridge Scheduler takes cron() with 6 fields, a year last, and ? in one day field.

Similar schedules

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