systemd Timer

As a modern systemd replacement for chron, the following is an example of oneshot Unit triggered periodically by a Timer.

Reference: https://www.buggycoder.com/network-backups-using-rsync/

Some people dislike systemd, but on a modern linux distro, it's the best way to keep everything as "stock" and "plain vanilla" as possible.

Example oneshot Unit file:

/etc/systemd/system/<example-unit.service>

[Unit]
Description= <Example Unit Name>

#target requirements (may vary)
Requires=network.target
After=network.target


[Service]
Type=oneshot

#optional settings
Nice=19
StandardOutput=journal
IOSchedulingClass=best-effort
IOSchedulingPriority=5

ExecStart= <command> or </absolute/path/to/exec>


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Example Timer file to execute the Unit:

/etc/systemd/system/<example-unit.timer>

[Unit]
Description= <Example Timer Name>
Requires=<example-unit>.service

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Unit=<example-unit>.service

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable the Unit and Timer:

systemctl daemon-reload

systemctl enable <example-unit>.service
systemctl enable <example-unit>.timer

systemctl start <example-unit>.service
systemctl start <example-unit>.timer

# Ensure all is well
journalctl -f -u <example-unit>.service