Scheduled Publishing with Cron for Quartz Sites

Scheduled Publishing with Cron for Quartz Sites

Set up automatic publishing for your Quartz site using cron. Configure twice-daily automatic deployments so your site stays updated without manual intervention.

Table of Contents

1. What You’ll Build
2. Prerequisites
3. Setup Instructions
4. Testing Your Cron Jobs
5. Monitoring and Maintenance
6. Troubleshooting

What You’ll Build

Automatic publishing system that:

• Publishes your Quartz site twice daily (9 AM and 6 PM)
• Runs on your always-on Mac mini
• No manual intervention needed
• Works alongside your Alfred workflows
• Logs all publish attempts for review

The automated workflow:

Edit in Obsidian → Files sync automatically → Cron triggers → Quartz builds → Site live

Why scheduled publishing?

• Never forget to publish changes
• Consistent update schedule
• Hands-free operation
• Works while you’re away

Time to complete: 10-15 minutes

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Prerequisites

Before setting up cron, you must have:

Required

• Alfred workflows set up and working
  • Your publish.sh script must be working
• Always-on Mac (Mac mini recommended)
  • System Settings → Energy → Prevent sleeping: ON
• Executable script:

  chmod +x ~/Developer/mementropy-quartz/scripts/publish.sh

Verify Prerequisites

Test that manual publishing works:

cd ~/Developer/mementropy-quartz && ./scripts/publish.sh

If this fails, fix the publish script first before setting up cron.

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Setup Instructions

Step 1: Edit Your Crontab

crontab -e

This opens the cron editor (vim by default).

If you’ve never used vim:

• Press i to enter INSERT mode
• When done: Press Esc, type :wq, press Enter to save

Step 2: Add Publish Jobs

Add these lines:

# Quartz automated publishing - 9 AM daily
0 9 * * * cd $HOME/Developer/mementropy-quartz && ./scripts/publish.sh >> /tmp/quartz-publish.log 2>&1

# Quartz automated publishing - 6 PM daily
0 18 * * * cd $HOME/Developer/mementropy-quartz && ./scripts/publish.sh >> /tmp/quartz-publish.log 2>&1

What these lines do:

• 0 9 * * * - Run at 9:00 AM every day
• 0 18 * * * - Run at 6:00 PM every day
• cd $HOME/Developer/mementropy-quartz - Change to your Quartz project
• ./scripts/publish.sh - Run the publish script
• >> /tmp/quartz-publish.log 2>&1 - Append output to log file

Step 3: Save and Verify

Save (:wq in vim), then verify:

crontab -l

You should see your two entries.

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Understanding Cron Time Format

* * * * * command
| | | | |
| | | | +--- Day of week (0-7, Sunday = 0 or 7)
| | | +----- Month (1-12)
| | +------- Day of month (1-31)
| +--------- Hour (0-23)
+----------- Minute (0-59)

Common Schedules

Pattern	Meaning
0 9 * * *	Every day at 9 AM
0 18 * * *	Every day at 6 PM
0 9,18 * * *	Daily at 9 AM and 6 PM (single line)
0 12 * * 1-5	Weekdays at noon
*/30 * * * *	Every 30 minutes

Use crontab.guru to test expressions.

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Testing Your Cron Jobs

Test 1: Manual Trigger

Create a test job that runs in 2 minutes:

1. Check current time: date
2. Edit crontab: crontab -e
3. Add test job (adjust time to 2 minutes from now):

   # TEST - Remove after verifying
   32 14 * * * cd $HOME/Developer/mementropy-quartz && ./scripts/publish.sh >> /tmp/quartz-test.log 2>&1

4. Save and wait
5. After 2 minutes: cat /tmp/quartz-test.log
6. Remove test job

Test 2: Check Log After Real Run

After 9 AM or 6 PM:

tail -50 /tmp/quartz-publish.log

Expected output:

• Build output from Quartz
• Git commit/push messages
• “Published successfully” or “No content changes”

Test 3: Verify Site Updated

1. Make a change to any content file
2. Wait for next cron run
3. Check site ~3 minutes after scheduled time
4. Your change should be visible

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Monitoring and Maintenance

View Recent Publishes

# Last 50 lines
tail -50 /tmp/quartz-publish.log

# Today's entries
grep "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" /tmp/quartz-publish.log

# Count today's publishes
grep "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" /tmp/quartz-publish.log | wc -l

Log Rotation

Add to crontab to keep log manageable:

# Rotate log monthly (1st of month at midnight)
0 0 1 * * tail -1000 /tmp/quartz-publish.log > /tmp/temp.log && mv /tmp/temp.log /tmp/quartz-publish.log

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Troubleshooting

Cron Job Doesn’t Run

Check cron is running:

ps aux | grep cron

Check script permissions:

ls -la ~/Developer/mementropy-quartz/scripts/publish.sh
# Should show: -rwxr-xr-x

Test script manually:

cd ~/Developer/mementropy-quartz && ./scripts/publish.sh

Log File Empty

Check paths:

crontab -l
# Verify paths are correct

Give cron Full Disk Access:

• System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access
• Add /usr/sbin/cron

Changes Don’t Appear

1. Check cron ran: grep "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)" /tmp/quartz-publish.log
2. Check for changes: Log shows “No content changes”?
3. Check GitHub Actions: Visit repo Actions tab
4. Wait for deployment: Takes 2-3 minutes after push

Disable Cron

Temporarily (comment out):

crontab -e
# Add # at start of lines

Permanently:

crontab -e
# Delete the lines

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Combining Manual and Scheduled

Use both Alfred and cron together:

Method	When to Use
Alfred publish	Immediate publishing, testing
Cron	Regular automatic updates

They use the same script, so they work seamlessly together.

Typical workflow:

1. Write content throughout the day
2. Use preview to test locally
3. Either publish immediately or let cron handle it

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Quick Reference

Cron Commands

crontab -l    # List jobs
crontab -e    # Edit jobs
crontab -r    # Remove ALL jobs (careful!)

Log Commands

tail -f /tmp/quartz-publish.log    # Watch live
cat /tmp/quartz-publish.log        # View all

Test Expressions

Visit crontab.guru to test cron expressions.

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Related

• Alfred Workflows for Quartz - Core workflow setup
• Remote Publishing - iPhone/iPad control
• Troubleshooting Guide - Debugging tips

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Last updated: 2025-01-13