Btw this is my repo for the backup automation: https://github.com/gchamon/borg-automated-backups
To do this at the user level, you can add something like "@hourly anacron -t /path/to/anacrontab -S /path/to/spooldir" to the user's crontab, though I've never tried this.
Many cron implementations have a similar mechanism.
Yet there's always something new to learn and actually consider as another useful tool.
Like imagine trying to explain systemd timers and services and unit files to a beginner.
Which makes it nice to distribute a tool for NixOS so that it can lean into systemd instead of as some bolted-on afterthought.
Makes me wonder what you'd do if you were distributing a lifecycle-heavy tool for Linux users in general since systemd isn't ubiquitous.
I use a systemd timer to run a monthly scrub for my btrfs pool. Kinda cool how you can do increasingly useful things like skip the next scheduled event if the user initiates a scrub, do or don't accumulate tasks if you have a monthly task but the machine was offline for 6 months -- or fold them into a single task, etc.
systemd.services.sync-recyclarr = {
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
path = [ pkgs.podman ];
script = ''
podman exec -it recyclarr recyclarr sync radarr
podman exec -it recyclarr recyclarr sync sonarr
'';
};
systemd.timers.sync-recyclarr = {
timerConfig = {
OnCalendar = "daily";
Persistent = true;
Unit = "sync-recyclarr.service";
};
partOf = [ "sync-recyclarr.service" ];
requires = [ "podman-recyclarr.service" ];
wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
};The problem I have found is that nixos doesn't seem to pickup and run systemd timers and services placed into the ~/.config/systems/user folder and additionally things like WantedBy=default.target have no effect.
So after I restart all my services manually on reboot I agree, systems timers are cool.
I will admit thought, timers are up there in terms of being the clunkiest systemd unit type to use on a regular basis. I get why they're split up into two files and require different start vs enable syntax's, but man sometimes I just want to create a file that runs a script and be done with it.
[Service]
Type=oneshot
WorkingDirectory={{ home }}/current/
Environment=RAILS_ENV=production
ExecStart=/bin/sh -lc "bin/db-backup --verbose"
[Service]
Type = oneshot
WorkingDirectory = %h/current/
Environment = RAILS_ENV=production
ExecStart = /bin/sh -lc "bin/db-backup --verbose"Over all I think Systemd get way to much criticism. You don't have to use all the parts, but if you care to go through the documentation you'll find interesting features such as journald log-shipping and systemd-machined which can manage containers and VMs.
If I never recall hacking in ulimit calls in the top of buggy shell scripts for crappy old services that done respect pam_limits it won’t be soon enough.
Could have been YAML.
Could have been XML.
It would also make it much simpler to make good GUI editors for the files instead of the Notepad approach most unix config files take.
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/syst...
XML is that wonderful format that gave us vulnerabilities like death by million laughs, up to a certain moment, you could MitM DTDs, and a whole slew of everything-XML stuff back when XML was like AI is today, none of which I miss today.
Oh, and remember times when programmers would argue whether argument order in XML files should be significant or not?
But XML books with their idealized XML future description did give me the same warm fuzzies as some intricate clockwork mechanism to a Victorian geek.
It's a shame docker never supported it. I feel like if they had got on board all those years ago there would be broad support across the software ecosystem for it and we wouldn't need half of these complicated iptables rules and proxies and service mesh. It would be a step towards a capability based system.
If nothing else, maybe it could be some kid's high school science fair project idea.
It sat unused and powered off for a couple of years after he passed, until I needed a color print.
Didn't do anything but hook it up to power and print. Took about 1/5 of a page until all colors were back in action, after that it printed about 20 pages flawlessly.