[SOLVED] .timer and .service

walteweiss · 2020-01-21 19:31:27

Just a quick reply to my questions:

1.

Should I mark those two — .service and .timer — files as executables or not?

No, you shouldn't. It's not written in the wiki. You can check your .timer and .service files with

systemd-analyze verify ~/.config/systemd/user/daily.service

(as far as I got it, it checks both files).

Use the calendar command of systemd-analyze(1) to validate and normalize calendar time specifications for testing purposes. The tool also calculates when a specified calendar event would elapse next.

— the very end of man systemd.time(7)

To check whether your timer is present, you can use

systemctl --user list-timers

, which is (again) not in the wiki, it is not specified you need to make

--user

. Maybe when you have enough understanding it'll be obvious, I don't know, but it wasn't for me.

2. Also, I was confused whether the timer works or not, and I didn't know how to check it further than analyze it. I thought

systemctl --user start daily.timer

will trigger it at least once, but seems like it waits for the midnight, even though

Persistent=true

.

3.

mkdir $(date +"%m-%d-%a")

This command didn't work for me, I used it this way:

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c  'mkdir $(date +"%m-%d-%a")'

I tried it with double quote marks as well, no difference for me. I put this into a .sh file, which I run like this:

[Service]
ExecStart=/path/to/the/file.sh

Also, I don't understand whether I need to specify Type= at all, or not. I didn't understand the difference between simple, exec and oneshot. May try to give it a re-read one day later. At this point I'm trying to do my .service file without Type=

***

Those links may be useful for someone, who will read Arch Wiki, and will have more questions, finding this thread:

- man systemd.time(7)
- man systemd.service(5)
- Gentoo Wiki on Systemd Timers
- systemd.unit — Unit configuration

P.S. Didn't expect the forum formatting being so uncomfortable to use! I assume it has no in-line code tag.

Last edited by walteweiss (2020-01-22 10:48:48)

walteweiss · 2020-01-23 17:52:10

One last add from me, I think. My daily timer works, but today it wasn’t triggered at the midnight, but at the time I tried to check why it wasn’t by doing

systemctl --user list-timers
NEXT                         LEFT     LAST                         PASSED  UNIT          >
Fri 2020-01-24 00:00:00 EET  16h left Thu 2020-01-23 07:58:01 EET  23s ago notes_daily.ti>

I have no idea why that happened. Anyone has any ideas?

My files, just in case.

daily.service

[Unit]
Description=Add Day Directory

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/walter/
ExecStart=/home/walter/.scripts/daily.sh

daily.timer

[Unit]
Description=Add Day Directory

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Arch Linux

#26 2020-01-21 19:31:27

Re: [SOLVED] .timer and .service

#27 2020-01-23 17:52:10

Re: [SOLVED] .timer and .service

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