Cron Timezone Guide: Handle DST and UTC Offsets in Scheduled Jobs
Manage timezones in cron jobs. Set CRON_TZ, handle daylight saving transitions, and use UTC for predictable cross-region schedules.
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Tags: developer-tools, cron, timezones
Cron Timezone Guide: Handle DST and UTC Offsets in Scheduled Jobs Cron runs in the timezone of the server it lives on — not your timezone, not the user's timezone. When that server is in a different timezone, or when daylight saving time shifts clocks, schedules behave unexpectedly. This guide explains how cron handles timezones, why UTC is the right default, and how to deal with DST edge cases. Why UTC Is the Right Default for Production Servers Setting your production server to UTC eliminates an entire category of bugs: No DST shifts. UTC never observes daylight saving time. A job scheduled at always runs at 02:00:00 UTC — never skipped, never doubled. Consistent across regions. If you have servers in multiple regions, UTC gives you a common reference. means the same thing everywhere.…
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