Ubuntu Unleashed 2013 Edition: Covering 12.10 and 13.04, Eighth Edition

Using at and batch to Schedule Tasks for Later

If there is a time-intensive task you want to run, but you do not want to do it while you are still logged in, you can tell Ubuntu to run it later with the at command. To use at, you need to tell it the time at which you want to run and then press Enter. You will then see a new prompt that starts with at>, and everything you type there until you press Ctrl+D will be the commands you want at to run.

When the designated time arrives, at performs each action individually and in order, which means later commands can rely on the results of earlier commands. In this next example, run at just after 8:00 p.m., at is used to download and extract the latest Linux kernel at a time when the network should be ...