Cron job not executing if I set it to trigger few minutes from now

Question

I am attempting to test my cron job by setting it a few minutes (let's say 10) from the current time. For instance, if right now is 5:00 PM, I set:

10 17 * * * dotnet <full path to .net core dll>

When the clock strikes 5:10 PM, the job is not executed.

On the other hand, if I set the cron job to execute every minute:

* * * * * dotnet <full path to .net core dll>

It is successfully executed every minute.

I've looked up reasons for why a bash command doesn't execute. Unfortunately none of the suggestions explain why one works and the other one does not.

OS: Ubuntu AWS Instance Note: the date command gives me the correct time I am using as a reference.

Answer 1

Have you checked your timezone? Cron runs using local system time, so if, for instance, your system is running on UTC time but you have a TZ environment variable that's adjusting your user time, your crontab will still be executing in UTC time.

Suggested test:

Set it to execute at

10 * * * *

so it will execute in a few minutes regardless of the hour. If it works, then the most likely issue is a timezone offset making the hour you specified not the hour you meant to specify :)