crontab steps plus increment

Question

I want to issue two commands, c1 and c2, both every five minutes, but not at the same time, e.g.

0,5,10,15,20,... * * * * c1
2,7,12,17,22,... * * * * c2

is there a more elegant version using an asterisk instead of listing the numbers for c2?

Answer 1

Something like this will do the job:

*/5     * * * * c1
2-59/5  * * * * c2

The first command (c1) will run at 0, 5, 10, 15, etc.
The second command (c2) will run at 2, 7, 12, 17, etc.

This may not work with all versions of cron.