How to start and stop a task using at command?

Question

I want to start download using aria2c everyday at 02:00 am and stop it at 08:00 am.

I know I should use

at 02:00 
at>aria2c ....

I don't know how to tell 'at' to stop it! Actually aria2c stops downloading with Ctrl+C and I don't know how to tell this to 'at'!

And when aria2c starts downloading at the given time, it runs at the backgrounds and I don't know how to stop it manually either!

Any suggestions?

By the way, is there any way to do this automatically? I mean create some sort of scheduled task to do it every day.

Eric Carvalho · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-25 19:45:38Z

1

Use pkill to kill a process:

pkill aria2c

Of course, you can schedule the killing with at the same way you do the launch.

answered Jul 25, 2012 at 19:45

Eric Carvalho

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thanks that works fine. but is there a way to tell at to run aria2c at the foreground?
– Firouziam
Jul 26, 2012 at 7:56
Use screen, a text screen manager. To start the program in background: screen -d -m <command>, then use screen -r to reconnect and Ctrl+A D to detach. See manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/screen.1.html
– Eric Carvalho
Jul 26, 2012 at 18:10

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