this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2025
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Working with systemd timers - Dmitry Kudryavtsev (yieldcode.blog)
submitted 19 hours ago by maxint@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev
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[โ€“] SquiffSquiff@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Cron already exists and is established as the solution in this space. It's also used as the model for a lot of other timer services outside the Linux kernel.

[โ€“] BlackEco@lemmy.blackeco.com 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Have you read the article? The fourth paragraph lists improvements systemd timers bring over cron:

Cron is easy, very simple and robust mechanism to execute periodic tasks on a *nix server, and is available by default on all popular Linux distributions. However, cron suffers from some issues:

  • If the system is down when the cron needs to run, the cron will be missed

  • There is no built-in status monitoring

  • There are no built-in logs

  • If you want to execute pre/post commands (for example by pinging an external service for success/failure) you have to do it inside the script itself

All of these issues are addressed with systemd services and timers, as the authors explains in details.