Schedule A Database Job In MySQL

As of MySQL 5.1, one can use event to schedule a job:

CREATE EVENT event_name
ON SCHEDULE schedule
DO event_body
;

schedule can be: AT timestamp [+ INTERVAL interval] ...
or EVERY interval
[STARTS timestamp [+ INTERVAL interval] ...]
[ENDS timestamp [+ INTERVAL interval] ...]

interval can be: quantity followed by unit
unit can be: {YEAR | QUARTER | MONTH | DAY | HOUR | MINUTE |
WEEK | SECOND | YEAR_MONTH | DAY_HOUR | DAY_MINUTE |
DAY_SECOND | HOUR_MINUTE | HOUR_SECOND | MINUTE_SECOND}

event_body can be SQL query or EXECUTE sp_name.

For instance:
CREATE EVENT event_name
ON SCHEDULE EVERY 5 MINUTE
DO SELECT * FROM tab
;

ALTER, DROP and SET GLOBAL event_name = 1 to switch on the event, etc.


http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/create-event.html
http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/177-how-to-use-events-to-schedule-database-actions-in-mysql/
http://rpbouman.blogspot.com/2005/10/scheduling-procedure-execution-in.html