Introduction to systemd timers

[@ConstructionBusiness]

It looks like I am the first one to watch your video. I was just googling info about systemd timers yesterday, and today your video was suggested to me in KZbin. Thanks for the video.

[@neetishraj]

I wasn't getting notified of your videos although subscribed. I guess it's been more than a year. For some reason, YT algorithms decided to show me this video today and it was spot on relevant and relatable. A few years back, I got rejected in an interview for not being able to answer "tail" command. I told myself I'll do whatever it takes to not get into that situation again. Your series and book recommendations gave me the foundation to understand & explore Linux commands. Your videos told me - "what to focus" and "introduction". Mixed with man and experimentation, I was able to create perfect notes spanning 200 pages and covering relevant examples. I was the rockstar developer in my team because of my in-depth understanding of Linux. Right now I hire rockstar developers. I am gonna watch all the videos.

[@tutoriaLinux]

Wow, that is serious motivation and I love that it paid off. Glad to have you back, cheers!

[@ZoQed]

@@tutoriaLinux I'm a very beginner with linux and just took your course on udemy because I wanted to have more than the basics.... thanks for your videos , it's so helpful !!!

[@pfranklin]

All of my scheduling experience is with chron. Thank you for presenting this option. I have found that one work around for long chron entries, the way I do it anyway, is just create a bash script and call it from cron. This works most of the time. The script can be as simple or complex as needed but the chrontab only needs a simple call to the script.

[@Tech-ub8dd]

i love how crisp , clean and on point this tutorial is. thank you!

[@Oswee]

You did it! :) Great vid. Thank You. I could mention, that in automation placing entire unit file is much easier than to control single line in the file. When you operate with lines, you always need to handle some conditions, like the line ordering, position, is that line already provisioned, etc, etc. But with unit files, you just add or remove the file. My point is that operating with self contained files is easier than with lines in some "general" files.

[@rippie7262]

Thanks for all the videos Dave! Just got through first couple of interviews and actually got a DevOps job after ~6 months of study. Started not even knowing a single command in Linux (only some networking knowledge, CCNA and such). Couldn't be happier rn

[@tutoriaLinux]

Congratulations! It takes work to get in but it’s worth it. Happy for you.

[@АрсланГаджиев-ж5ж]

Ripple.Please tell me where devops was taught, give me the links

[@mikezgardan1967]

The video Is great for an introduction into the subject, however, I feel like it misses any strong arguments as for when systems is beneficial. As an admin myself, I can see the benefits of using systemd units and times when some prerequisites are required, for example start timer only after networking units has started, dns has started, or other system events are triggered. But this might not be obvious for everyone, and I can understand people's confusion about why use 10 lines over 2 files instead of one-liner in crontab.

[@damianrivas]

Although he doesn't place any emphasis on it, he does touch on that towards the end of the video

[@tolson-vkn]

I saw you pushed a repo for this last night and became very excited.

[@Grianan66]

Thank you so much for this video - I was having difficulty wrapping my head around these timers, but you have explained it so well that I can't understand now why I ever had any trouble. I'll be back to check out some other videos later. Thanks again -- Jen

[@ipstacks11]

My favorite command is: chronyc sources -v which shows the output and documents the command all in one! Whoever made this has ninja level skills. If you showed systemctl edit, I missed it but if you are going to be editing files, you should use it. Your example was creating new ones and you can't use edit for that but sometimes you might be looking at existing timer files maybe.

[@alexminsky1]

It felt exhausting compared to cron jobs! Great video tho

[@elieobeid77]

in my opinion, systemd is great for devops tasks, but not for application level stuff and the very simple reason for that is very few people know what it does and how to create it, actually few know about linux daemons, but everyone knows about crons. So if you you create a systemd timer and you leave a company, very few people will know what it does and how to maintain it. I've written a deployment system in perl for my previous company because our servers can't run deployment software (centos 6) and no one knows how to use my script now. Same story here. Besides, in the age of containers and dockerizations, systemd stuff don't exist, and cron stuff are dying out in favour of some cloud functions. So I'd consider systemd timers a "nice read" but don't use it unless you really, really, really have to. Always use application level solutions written in programming languages which most of your teammates know how to maintain.

[@manw3bttcks]

But how do you set up a systemd timer to BOTH run immediately at boot time and at the OnCalendar time? I've been searching and searching and nothing I've tried works. I tried inserting "OnBootSec=0s" to the service file which I thought would allow for an one-shot type run of the service's "ExecStart" command at boot time when the time after boot is 0secs. Then I was hoping the OnCalendar=daily would take over and do the usual daily run of the service (specifically talking about plocate-updatedb service). It didn't work.

[@TheDotBot]

I'd add the possibility of putting all your unit files into ~/.config/systemd/ for invocation with systemctl --user, otherwise good video!

[@littlenewton6]

A good and helpful tutorial. Thank you :-)

[@kvv8197]

Super useful as usual! Thanks!

[@jig1056]

Very helpful. Thanks.

[@luiscavanzo]

great video, i didn't know about timers in systemd !!! It Would be great if you make a video reviewing the books in your back :)

[@tutoriaLinux]

Ohhh I want to, trust me - I’m still working through a datastructures and algorithms course but I might make some videos when I finish!

[@TheTwolaters]

I really love your videos, keep up the good job!!

[@timothycarry]

I have watched the whole systemd series. Well done and very clear and in a good time frame. I still cannot get it in my head how to recreate an Anacron job with timers. OnCalendar=Daily and Persistent=True is so close but how can you add the delay.

[@WarrenG86]

Great video. I was wondering what was the book you mentioned was the best book about programming you ever read in one of your other videos? I think it was on a page of yours with your recommendations but I can't find it.

[@tutoriaLinux]

Probably the little schemer or “the structure and interpretation of computer programs.”

[@nbensa]

how to I mail the output of the command?

[@kroeti1979]

Your great:-) i like your Linux Videos :-)

[@MrGSSG]

please put it higher!!!

[@realcirno1750]

thanks

[@smeggers]

Awesome (ﾉﾟ0ﾟ)ﾉ~

[@peterSobieraj]

I can see some benefits in systemd, but I think it's not worth it. It's to complicated. Cron is simple.

[@kubikrubik2215]

Easier??? Really??? What are you talking about? It`s just a joke :) So if you need 10 cron jobs, you just need 10 cron strings. For systemd you need 20 different files! There is nothing easier and nothing easier with time syntax in systemd, so no profit at all with this "feature" :)

[@juliosawa265]

journalctl -fu too.service :)