How can I run anacron in user mode?

You can set up a separate anacron instance to run in user mode:

  1. Create a .anacron folder in your home directory and in it two subfolders, etc and spool:

    mkdir -p ~/.anacron/{etc,spool}
    
  2. Create a new file ~/.anacron/etc/anacrontab with contents similar to the following:

    # /etc/anacrontab: configuration file for anacron
    
    # See anacron(8) and anacrontab(5) for details.
    
    SHELL=/bin/bash
    PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
    
    # period  delay  job-identifier  command
    1         10     testjob         test.sh
    
  3. Add the following line to your crontab using crontab -e:

    @hourly /usr/sbin/anacron -s -t $HOME/.anacron/etc/anacrontab -S $HOME/.anacron/spool