I am trying to set up a python script to query a DB for all updates over the past 5 minutes. Given the number of updates, it must be as precise as possible (our records are timestamped to the microsecond). There are two ways I'm considering tackling this - first is using cron. However this relies on cron being precise enough to always run at the exact same interval every time it runs. So if the first execution time is 00:00:00.123456789, it would need to run again at 00:05:00.123456789. Otherwise, there is a possibility of records being missed in the gaps in between.
The other option is finding a way to "snap" the sql query to the nearest minute, rounded down. But if I can use cron, i'd prefer to do that to keep things as simple as possible.