[systemd-devel] systemd unit timer

[Lennart Poettering]

On So, 09.08.20 15:56, Dave Howorth (systemd at howorth.org.uk) wrote:

> Is there anywhere that explains the rationale for systemd timers?

Probably somewhere in the git logs.

> What's their USP? Why was it necessary to invent the facility?

It kinda makes sense to invoke cronjobs the same way as any other
piece of system code in userspace: as a service, so that you can take
benefit of deps management, priv handling, logging, sandboxing and so
on, so that you can run stuff either manually or by timers or by any
other kind of activation, and so on, and it always ends up in exactly
one instance. And there's tons of other stuff too.

i.e. it unifies how system programs are invoked, and that's a good
thing. it turns time-based activation into "just another type of activation".

Lennart

--
Lennart Poettering, Berlin