Systemd/timers

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Timers are systemd unit files whose name ends in .timer that control .service files or events. Timers can be used as an alternative to cron. Timers have built-in support for calendar-based events and monotonic time events, and can be run asynchronously.

Configuration

The following example timer runs a systemd unit every 5 minutes which invokes a bash script.

systemd.timers."hello-world" = {
  wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
    timerConfig = {
      OnBootSec = "5m";
      OnUnitActiveSec = "5m";
      # Alternatively, if you prefer to specify an exact timestamp
      # like one does in cron, you can use the `OnCalendar` option
      # to specify a calendar event expression.
      # Run every Monday at 10:00 AM in the Asia/Kolkata timezone.
      #OnCalendar = "Mon *-*-* 10:00:00 Asia/Kolkata";
      Unit = "hello-world.service";
    };
};

systemd.services."hello-world" = {
  script = ''
    set -eu
    ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/echo "Hello World"
  '';
  serviceConfig = {
    Type = "oneshot";
    User = "root";
  };
};

Alternatively here, avoid quotes when calling for the binary and its command options:

${pkgs.foo}/bin/foo command-options

This will yield the same result as running

foo command-options

in your terminal.

Verifying your timestamp for systemd.time

If you do not understand the format that systemd.time expects, you can use the systemd-analyze's calendar sub-command to understand the next N times when the timer will get triggered. Following is an example:

$ systemd-analyze calendar --iterations=5 "10:00:00"
  Original form: 10:00:00
Normalized form: *-*-* 10:00:00
    Next elapse: Sat 2024-12-07 10:00:00 IST
       (in UTC): Sat 2024-12-07 04:30:00 UTC
       From now: 33min left
   Iteration #2: Sun 2024-12-08 10:00:00 IST
       (in UTC): Sun 2024-12-08 04:30:00 UTC
       From now: 24h left
   Iteration #3: Mon 2024-12-09 10:00:00 IST
       (in UTC): Mon 2024-12-09 04:30:00 UTC
       From now: 2 days left
   Iteration #4: Tue 2024-12-10 10:00:00 IST
       (in UTC): Tue 2024-12-10 04:30:00 UTC
       From now: 3 days left
   Iteration #5: Wed 2024-12-11 10:00:00 IST
       (in UTC): Wed 2024-12-11 04:30:00 UTC
       From now: 4 days left

Using the systemd.services.<name>.startAt shorthand

If you only want a service to execute at an interval and don't plan to configure the timer much more, you can use the systemd.services.<name>.startAt option. This will have the underlying systemd module in nixpkgs create the timer for you, and set its OnCalendar field. Note that the semantics for OnCalendar are different to OnUnitActiveSec.

This example shows the previous hello-world service configured with startAt, running every 5 minutes.

systemd.services."hello-world" = {
  script = ''
    set -eu
    ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/echo "Hello World"
  '';
  serviceConfig = {
    Type = "oneshot";
    User = "root";
  };
  startAt = "*:0/5";
};

Running timer on a schedule

The following example starts once a day (at 12:00am). When activated, it triggers the service immediately if it missed the last start time (option Persistent=true), for example due to the system being powered off.

...
  timerConfig = {
      OnCalendar = "daily";
      Persistent = true; 
  };
};

More examples can be found at the Arch Wiki and at the systemd.timer manpage.

Usage

List active timers and their current state:

systemctl list-timers

Manually run a service once for testing purposes:

systemctl start hello-world