Cron runs a command for you at the times you choose, so you stop having to remember. These questions cover the five fields of a cron line, the small environment a job runs in, and sending its output somewhere you can read it later.
Each one is marked as you go, and the explanation arrives straight after, which is
the part worth reading.
4 questions, marked as you go.
Tasks
These need your own device. Run the command in Termux, then paste what it printed.
The marking looks at what the output means, so spacing, version numbers and
ordering do not matter. If you have not installed anything yet, the
lesson covers the setup.
Log a job the way cron would
This appends a timestamped line and a result line to a log, the way a scheduled job writes its output, then reads the log back with tail.
Run this in Termux
On your own device. Nothing on this page executes it. The command runs in
your terminal, and this box only reads what you paste back.
You should see the two lines you just appended. Run it again and the log grows, because >> adds to the end rather than replacing it.
the log records the time the job ran
the log records that the job completed
the log holds the entries the job appended
the commands actually ran
What a good answer looks like
The lines you appended, ending with a run at line carrying a time and a finished ok line. Because the command appends rather than overwrites, running it more than once makes the log longer, and tail shows only the last five lines, which is the habit the lesson teaches for checking on a job. The exact time depends on when you ran it, so read the shape of the line rather than the digits.
Marking your own work
Both halves of this are checked in your browser, with no server involved, so nothing
stops you from pasting output you did not run. The tasks are written so that the
easiest way to pass one is to actually do it and read the result, which is the whole
intention.