I’m trying to move away from cron jobs, not that they don’t work, but I want to get on with the times and also learn some things.

I created two user timers (and the associated services), one for backing up my data and the second to upload to B2. I’m using two scripts I had in my cron jobs for a few years and they worked without problems. But with systemd timers both scripts fail with exit code 15 (process terminated) and I have no idea why.

I run Debian 12 Bookworm.

Here’s the output for the status of the upload service:

> systemctl --user status rclone-up.service
○ rclone-up.service - Run rclone up for b2
     Loaded: loaded (/home/clmbmb/.config/systemd/user/rclone-up.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
TriggeredBy: ● rclone-up.timer

Apr 11 06:10:39 tesla systemd[1698218]: Starting rclone-up.service - Run rclone up for b2...
Apr 11 06:12:18 tesla systemd[1698218]: rclone-up.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=15/TERM
Apr 11 06:12:18 tesla systemd[1698218]: rclone-up.service: Failed with result 'signal'.
Apr 11 06:12:18 tesla systemd[1698218]: Stopped rclone-up.service - Run rclone up for b2.
Apr 11 06:12:18 tesla systemd[1698218]: rclone-up.service: Consumed 12.811s CPU time.

Also, here’s the log created by rclone while running:

2024/04/11 06:10:42 INFO  : integrity.2376: Copied (new)
2024/04/11 06:10:43 INFO  : hints.2376: Copied (new)
2024/04/11 06:10:43 INFO  : nonce: Copied (replaced existing)
2024/04/11 06:10:47 INFO  : config: Updated modification time in destination
2024/04/11 06:10:55 INFO  : index.2376: Copied (new)
2024/04/11 06:11:40 INFO  :
Transferred:      443.104 MiB / 2.361 GiB, 18%, 16.475 MiB/s, ETA 1m59s
Checks:              1503 / 1503, 100%
Transferred:            4 / 19, 21%
Elapsed time:       1m0.8s
Transferring:
 *                                   data/2/2328: 19% /502.259Mi, 2.904Mi/s, 2m19s
 *                                   data/2/2329: 52% /500.732Mi, 10.758Mi/s, 22s
 *                                   data/2/2330: 14% /501.598Mi, 3.150Mi/s, 2m15s
 *                                   data/2/2331:  0% /500.090Mi, 0/s, -

2024/04/11 06:12:18 INFO  : Signal received: terminated

Where should I look to get some more information about what’s going on? Why would the service be terminated like that?

LE:

Setting TimeoutSec=infinity inside the [Service] section of the unit file seems to help. Not 100% if it’s a good idea, but I’ll experiment with it.

  • @rollingflowerDeutsch
    2•2 months ago

    Here is my template

    sudo cat > /etc/systemd/user/rsync-backup.service <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=do rsync backups with some conditions
# After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
# require a power connection (optional)
# ExecStartPre=sh -c '[ $(cat /sys/class/power_supply/AC/online) = 1 ]'

# require battery over 40%
# ExecStartPre=sh -c '[ $(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity) -ge 40 ]'

# require the connected network to NOT be "metered"
# ExecStartPre=sh -c '! $(nmcli -t -f GENERAL.METERED dev show | grep -q 'yes')'

ExecStart=/home/user/.local/bin/rsync-backup
# you might add everything you need
# ExecStart=/path/to/something/else

# delete old logs (disabled for testing)
# ExecStartPost=rm -f /var/log/rsync-backups.log
# log the updates
# ExecStartPost=sh -c 'echo "Last backup: $(date)" > /var/log/rsync-backup.log'
# write errors to log
StandardError=file:/var/log/rsync-backups.log

# GUI message
#ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/notify-send -t 0 -a "Backup" "rsync backup finished." "$(output of some command if you want infos about the backup)"

# run with low priority, when idling
# Nice=15
IOSchedulingClass=idle

# when conditions were not met, try again after 15 minutes
# Restart=on-failure
# RestartSec=900

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

    Timer file:

    sudo cat > /etc/systemd/user/rsync-backup.timer <<EOF
[Unit]
Description=do rsync backups with some conditions

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true
EOF

    (I think the unit is needed)

    That is a slightly modified variant of my automatic rpm-ostree system updates which took an hour or so with the help of ChatGPT and a lot of testing around.

    Systemd services are lit.

    If you add a “repeat when conditions are not met” you need another timer to start it. Like 2 loops, one big loop to start the process, and one small loop to keep trying until conditions are met. I do that with my system updates to prevent them being done

    • with low battery (or even using an AC requirement)
    • over a metered network
    • when the system is busy
    • calm.like.a.bombOPEnglish
      3•2 months ago

      I can’t see anywhere that a [Timer] section can be added to a service unit. I tried it and it doesn’t work:

      Apr 11 13:16:15 computer systemd[2593025]: /home/clmbmb/.config/systemd/user/test.service:10: Unknown section 'Timer'. Ignoring.

      The service/script ran as it should, but the Timer section is ignored, as you can see.

      • @rollingflowerDeutsch
        1•2 months ago

        Okay good notice. You should put that in a deparate .timer file then