Can't seem to get systemd timers to run

tothecloudd0

I've used cron specifically in my other distros (mostly servers) to take care of automating my backups and since cron isn't supported in Solus I am trying to use systemd timers to do the job (saw a post here that cron wasn't supported)

No matter what I do I keep getting this error

/etc/systemd/system/backup.timer:1: Assignment outside of section. Ignoring.
backup.timer: Timer unit lacks value setting. Refusing.
Unit backup.timer has a bad unit file setting.

I'm definitely no expert so I just follow guides online. Says timer unit lacks value so I've been changing the entries under [Timer] but no dice. Here are my .sh,service and timer entries

.sh

#!/bin/bash

rsync -a / /mnt/nas/

service

 # backup service for timer  /etc/systemd/backup.service

[Unit]
Description=A script to backup root directory to nas

[Service]
ExecStart=/home/user/backup.sh

timer

# back up timer /etc/systemd/backup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Runs every sunder at midnight

[Timer]
OnCalendar=Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

I'm doing something wrong right? thanks guys!

viyoriya

tothecloudd0

OnCalendar=Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
check using this systemd-analyze calendar Sun *-*-* 00:00:00

this one throws error (Failed to parse calendar specification dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service)
seems there is a link

try this
OnCalendar=Sun
check using this command
systemd-analyze calendar Sun
it matches your cron so keep monitoring for sync everyweek 🙂

finally check systemctl list-timers --all

viyoriya

tothecloudd0 strange i added multi-user-target and /bin/bash in service then everything works

[Unit]
Description=A script to backup root directory to nas

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/user/backup.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

do check the file permission
else do chmod +x backup.*

systemctl enable backup.service
systemctl start backup.service
systemctl status backup.service
systemctl enable backup.timer
systemctl start backup.timer
systemctl status backup.timer

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl reset-failed

if you get exec 127 error then u need to provide root permission to script/service

tothecloudd0

viyoriya I just tried OnCalendar=Sun but it's still throwing the same error

I ran systemd-analyze calendar Sun *-*-* 00:00:00 and mine didn't return an error

user@linux ~ $ systemd-analyze calendar Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
  Original form: Sun
Normalized form: Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
    Next elapse: Sun 2019-09-15 00:00:00 MDT
       (in UTC): Sun 2019-09-15 06:00:00 UTC
       From now: 3 days left

  Original form: *-*-*
Normalized form: *-*-* 00:00:00
    Next elapse: Thu 2019-09-12 00:00:00 MDT
       (in UTC): Thu 2019-09-12 06:00:00 UTC
       From now: 6h left

  Original form: 00:00:00
Normalized form: *-*-* 00:00:00
    Next elapse: Thu 2019-09-12 00:00:00 MDT
       (in UTC): Thu 2019-09-12 06:00:00 UTC
       From now: 6h left

I appreciate the tip, do you have any other suggestions?

viyoriya

check the file is UTF-8 encoding

tothecloudd0

viyoriya files are set to us-ascii

user@linux ~ $ file -bi backup.sh 
text/x-shellscript; charset=us-ascii
user@linux ~ $ file -bi backup.service
cannot open `backup.service' (No such file or directory)
user@linux ~ $ file -bi /etc/systemd/backup.service
text/plain; charset=us-ascii
user@linux ~ $ file -bi /etc/systemd/backup.timer
text/plain; charset=us-ascii

ender

ender Try deleting the commented lines? ( To me assignment outside section would mean an assignment was made outside a section so maybe your section entries got commented out say because of peculiar EOL, also 'cat -e' would show them)

I've also removed them and tested it again but still no go

viyoriya strange i added multi-user-target and /bin/bash in service then everything works

Just tried this and it worked! much appreciated!

kyrios I never got to try your tip as @viyoriya suggestion worked but I appreciate your your thanks!

Thanks everyone for your help 😃

ender

Try deleting the commented lines? ( To me assignment outside section would mean an assignment was made outside a section so maybe your section entries got commented out say because of peculiar EOL, also 'cat -e' would show them)

kyrios

You have to use WantedBy=default.target for user units instead of WantdBy=multi-user.target
And to have it starting at boot, you have to run loginctl enable-linger username (do not forget to replace username) otherwise it will only be started at user login and will be killed when the user logout