1

I have a nodejs gui program (does not requires user interaction), which needs to be run at every 40th minutes at each hour. Say run at 05:40PM, 06:40PM, 07:40PM and so on. In a Debian server, I have enabled a systemd timer using:

systemctl --user enable my_program.timer

Problem is, scheduling starts at the given time and finishes successfully. But immediately after that program starts again and finishes successfully.

Say program started at 5:40PM and finished at 5:45PM. After a minute or so, say at 5:46PM program starts again and finishes. Then this happens again at next time, so at 6:40PM.

This happens every time every hour. Also, if I reboot the server, after logging into that user account, program starts immediately instead of waiting 5 minute.

  1. How to stop auto running second time?
  2. How to force to start 5 minutes after reboot?

Content of /home/user/schedule.sh

#! /usr/bin/bash cd /home/user/my_program && DISPLAY=:0 /usr/bin/node ./index.js

Content of /home/user/.config/systemd/user/my_program.service

[Unit] Description=My Program [Service] ExecStart=/home/user/schedule.sh

Content of /home/user/.config/systemd/user/my_program.timer

[Unit] Description=My Program Timer Requires=my_program.service [Timer] Unit=my_program.service OnCalendar=*-*-* *:40:* OnBootSec=5 minutes [Install] WantedBy=timers.target
Improve this question
4
  • 1
    OneBootSec should be OnBootSec. Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 0:50
  • @ajgringo619 Thanks, changed it. But still after reboot, starts immediately. Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 7:31
  • Try OnBootSec=5min. Commented Dec 15, 2020 at 20:28
  • @ajgringo619 no change, still starts immediately Commented Dec 16, 2020 at 8:29

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Let's focus on one question here: the duplicate runs each hour. You've used this syntax for it:

OnCalendar=*-*-* *:40:*

According to man systemd.time, the wildcard in the seconds place means it matches every second of the 40th minute of every hour. You can confirm this with the included systemd-analyze tool, which has a calendar sub-command:

systemd-analyze calendar --iterations=5 "*-*-* *:40:*" Normalized form: *-*-* *:40:* Next elapse: Thu 2020-12-17 17:40:00 EST (in UTC): Thu 2020-12-17 22:40:00 UTC From now: 15min left Iter. #2: Thu 2020-12-17 17:40:01 EST (in UTC): Thu 2020-12-17 22:40:01 UTC From now: 15min left Iter. #3: Thu 2020-12-17 17:40:02 EST (in UTC): Thu 2020-12-17 22:40:02 UTC From now: 15min left Iter. #4: Thu 2020-12-17 17:40:03 EST (in UTC): Thu 2020-12-17 22:40:03 UTC From now: 15min left Iter. #5: Thu 2020-12-17 17:40:04 EST (in UTC): Thu 2020-12-17 22:40:04 UTC From now: 15min left

So that's a problem.

The second problem is that you have included Requires= in your timer. In man systed.unit, the documentation for the Requires= directive says this:

If this unit gets activated, the units listed [In Requires=] will be activated as well.

So that could also cause the target service to be loaded a second time as well.

Open a new question about OnBootSec= timing-- that's a separate issue.

Improve this answer
1
  • Using OnCalendar=*-*-* *:40:00 and removed Requires= from timer. And it solved both problems. Commented Dec 18, 2020 at 13:59

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.