How to deploy a scheduled Checkpoint with cron

This guide will help you deploy a scheduled Checkpoint with cron.

Prerequisites: This how-to guide assumes you have:

Completed the Getting Started Tutorial
Have a working installation of Great Expectations
Set up a working deployment of Great Expectations
You have created a Checkpoint.

Steps#

First, verify that your Checkpoint is runnable via shell:
```
great_expectations --v3-api checkpoint run my_checkpoint
```
Next, to prepare for editing the cron file, you'll need the full path of the project's great_expectations directory.

Next, get full path to the great_expectations executable by running:

which great_expectations/full/path/to/your/environment/bin/great_expectations

Next, open the cron schedule in a text editor. On most operating systems, crontab -e will open your cron file in an editor.

To run the Checkpoint my_checkpoint every morning at 0300, add the following line in the text editor that opens:

0  3  *  *  *    /full/path/to/your/environment/bin/great_expectations --v3-api checkpoint run ratings --directory /full/path/to/my_project/great_expectations/

Finally save the text file and exit the text editor.

Additional notes#

The five fields correspond to the minute, hour, day of the month, month and day of the week.

It is critical that you have full paths to both the great_expectations executable in your project's environment and the full path to the project's great_expectations/ directory.

If you have not used cron before, we suggest searching for one of the many excellent cron references on the web.