# Install jobber with Homebrew, Nix

Alternative to cron, with better status-reporting and error-handling. Version 1.4.4 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#jobber.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:jobber
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install jobber
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#jobber
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/jo/jobber/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:jobber
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.4.4
- **Source summary:** Alternative to cron, with better status-reporting and error-handling
- **Homepage:** <https://dshearer.github.io/jobber/>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/dshearer/jobber>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- jobber (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.4.4
## Project history and usage

Jobber is a Go-based Unix job scheduler positioned as a better-behaved alternative to cron. Its project site emphasizes scheduled command execution plus job execution history, error handling, retry/backoff behavior, and failure reporting.

### Project history

The GitHub repository was created in September 2014, and the release sequence shows a beta in January 2015 followed by v1.0.0 in January 2016. The project then moved through 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 lines, with v1.4.4 published in June 2020.

Jobber's documentation settled around a per-user jobfile model: each user defines jobs in ~/.jobber, while jobbermaster and jobberrunner coordinate execution. The README later notes that the project is stable but not actively maintained due to lack of maintainer time.

### Adoption history

Jobber reached package-manager users through Homebrew and Nix, but its adoption stayed narrower than cron itself because it asks users to install a daemonized scheduler rather than rely on the base system. Its strongest niche is where operators want cron-like scheduling plus visible run history and more explicit failure behavior.

### How it is used

Users define YAML jobs with commands, schedules, onError behavior, result sinks, and optional run logs. The command-line interface supports loading jobs, listing jobs and recent runs, testing a job, pausing and resuming jobs, and printing a job command.

### Why package nerds care

Jobber is interesting as a packaged cron alternative that tried to make failure semantics part of the job definition. For package maintainers and ops-minded users, it shows the tradeoff between richer scheduler behavior and the extra service-management surface of replacing a ubiquitous system tool.

### Timeline

- 2014: GitHub repository created.
- 2015: v0.1.0 beta release published.
- 2016: v1.0.0 and early 1.x releases published.
- 2018: v1.3.x releases published.
- 2019: v1.4.0 release published.
- 2020: v1.4.4 release published.

### Related projects

- cron is the direct point of comparison and replacement target.
- systemd timers, anacron, and language-level job schedulers occupy adjacent scheduling territory, but Jobber's own documentation frames cron as the main comparison.

### Sources

- The GitHub release API supplies the release timeline.
- The project site and README supply the cron-alternative positioning, project status, and feature set.
- The v1.4 documentation supplies the jobfile, daemon, CLI, error-handling, and run-log behavior.


## Security Notes

formula declares a Homebrew service.

- **Geiger risk:** orange / medium
- formula declares a Homebrew service


## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: ~/.jobber
## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - jobber: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/jo/jobber/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/jobber.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/jobber.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph