# mtdowling/cron-expression

CRON for PHP: Calculate the next or previous run date and determine if a CRON expression is due

Repository: https://github.com/mtdowling/cron-expression
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cron-expression
Homepage: http://mtdowling.com/blog/2012/06/03/cron-expressions-in-php/
Language: PHP
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-04-19T17:16:35+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5614, "days_push": 866, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4861, forks 340 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:01.548458+00:00)

## What it is
A PHP library for parsing CRON expressions, determining whether a schedule is due, and calculating the next or previous run dates. This original fork by mtdowling is deprecated; development has moved to the dragonmantank/cron-expression fork.

## Use cases
- parse cron expressions in php
- calculate next run date of a cron schedule
- check if a cron job is due to run
- compute previous run date of a cron expression
- validate cron syntax like ranges and lists
- schedule tasks with cron strings in php applications

## When to choose
- you are maintaining a legacy PHP project already depending on mtdowling/cron-expression
- you need a battle-tested cron parser for PHP 7.0+ with no new features required

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new PHP project - use dragonmantank/cron-expression instead
- you need ongoing maintenance, bug fixes, or modern PHP version support
- you need scheduling execution itself rather than expression parsing

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: scheduling, date-time, parser
- domain: developer-tools, backend
- platform: php, cross-platform
- tags: cron, cron-expression, deprecated, scheduling, automation

## Member repositories
- mtdowling/cron-expression (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.548458+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:21.976917+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mtdowling/cron-expression (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:01.548458+00:00, sha 105154b72811)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.