diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b9b18bc..903bd73 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -57,6 +57,5 @@ This project is a fork and re-structuring of schickling's [postgres-backup-s3](h
   - backup blobs and all schemas by default
   - drop and re-create all database objects on restore
   - some env vars renamed or removed
-  - `SCHEDULE` env var is required (but backups can still be triggered ad-hoc)
   - filter backups on S3 by database name
 
diff --git a/src/run.sh b/src/run.sh
index 51b8617..1571598 100644
--- a/src/run.sh
+++ b/src/run.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ if [ "$S3_S3V4" = "yes" ]; then
 fi
 
 if [ -z "$SCHEDULE" ]; then
-  echo "You need to set the SCHEDULE environment variable."
+    # TODO: how to make CTRL-C work?
+    echo "WARNING: $SCHEDULE is null. Going to sleep."
+    tail -f /dev/null # do nothing forever
 else
   exec go-cron "$SCHEDULE" /bin/sh backup.sh
 fi