Maybe I'm misunderstanding how "oneshot" services are handled by associated timers. Here's a dummy unit and a timer supposed to trigger it every 5' (on systemd-247.3-7+deb11u1):
# systemctl cat dummy.timer dummy.service # /etc/systemd/system/dummy.timer [Unit] Description=Trigger dummy service every 5' [Timer] OnCalendar=*:0/5 Persistent=true [Install] WantedBy=timers.target # /etc/systemd/system/dummy.service [Unit] Description=dummy one-shot service for timer testing [Service] Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=yes ExecStart=echo "Dummy start" ExecStop=echo "Dummy stop" [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target The dummy service is not a daemon but it is supposed to change the system's state, hence the reason for RemainAfterExit and for ExecStop to rollback the effects of repeated system updates made by ExecStart.
At first, everything looks fine:
# systemctl start dummy.timer dummy.service ... # systemctl status dummy.timer dummy.service ● dummy.timer - Trigger dummy service every 5' Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dummy.timer; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (waiting) since Fri 2023-04-07 21:05:39 CEST; 1s ago Trigger: Fri 2023-04-07 21:10:00 CEST; 4min 19s left Triggers: ● dummy.service ● dummy.service - dummy one-shot service for timer testing Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dummy.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (exited) since Fri 2023-04-07 21:05:39 CEST; 1s ago TriggeredBy: ● dummy.timer Process: 1805980 ExecStart=echo Dummy start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 1805980 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) CPU: 1ms However, the timer doesn't fire and gets stuck in a "running" state:
# systemctl status dummy.timer dummy.service ● dummy.timer - Trigger dummy service every 5' Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dummy.timer; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Fri 2023-04-07 21:05:39 CEST; 35min ago Trigger: n/a Triggers: ● dummy.service ● dummy.service - dummy one-shot service for timer testing Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/dummy.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (exited) since Fri 2023-04-07 21:05:39 CEST; 35min ago TriggeredBy: ● dummy.timer Process: 1805980 ExecStart=echo Dummy start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 1805980 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) CPU: 1ms Apr 07 21:05:39 myvps echo[1805980]: Dummy start # systemctl list-timers dummy NEXT LEFT LAST PASSED UNIT ACTIVATES n/a n/a Fri 2023-04-07 21:10:09 CEST 30min ago dummy.timer dummy.service It looks like the timer doesn't understand "active (exited)" as terminated. Am I trying something impossible? Otherwise there something fishy.
