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You Don't Love systemd Timers Enough (blog.tjll.net)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 3 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

yes and yes and yes, except:

Cron jobs are nice and simple to create.

So are systemd timers. Seriously. I understood this sort of argument in the years when systemd was relatively new, but nowadays ... c'mon, it's 2 config files in a very simple (the simplest form is just 2 headings with one variable definition each) and common format and (optionally) one command to reload the daemon.

Maybe adding a line to your list of cron jobs is slightly quicker, but you have none of the things systemd offers on top.

OK, tbf I don't know how much (ana)cron provides. Cleaning up the process tree? Restart conditions? Avoiding service duplicates? Advanced starting & repeating like "5min after boot" or "only after this other service has succeeded"? Can it read abbreviations like 'daily' or does it all need to be in that cryptic cron syntax?

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  • [–] 15 points 5 months ago

    Its hard to argue that 2 config files both multiple lines long is simpler then a single line in an existing file. Adding a service to cron is just simpler. But adding all the extra bit you are going to want on top increases the things you need to learn to do and configure correctly.

    IMO systemd timers are simpler to get right at a little bit more of an upfront cost to learning how they work. But cron is still simpler to just get something working without caring that much. I still find that ends up biting you in the longer term though though all the missing features you need to add manually on top of that one basic line you added.

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