This emphasis on this section focuses on how to run useful shell scripts or shell script that we have created at specific dates/times. It would be silly to expect a system administrator to stay up late (eg. 2 a.m.) to manually run a shell script to terminate processes or to re-boot Linux servers. Database files (tables) are used to provide instructions on how frequent shell scripts or commands can be run. The '''cron''' daemon is used to refer to these files and to run them on a pre-determined basis. Just like file-system tables, there are The term '''cron''' comes from the old word '''chronograph''' meaning a special type of watch (actually a ''stop-tables (crontabswatch'') that allow the user to set the scheduling for the scripts or commands to be runhelp monitor and schedule routine tasks.