Systemd Task Generator (taskgen)

The Systemd Task Generator (taskgen) is a versatile shell script designed to simplify the creation and management of systemd timers and services. By abstracting the complexities of systemd's configuration files, taskgen provides an easy-to-use interface for scheduling and executing tasks on modern Linux systems.

Why Systemd over Cron?

Systemd offers several advantages over traditional cron jobs for scheduling tasks:

Integrated System Management: Systemd provides a unified framework for managing system processes, including scheduled tasks, improving consistency and reliability.
Flexibility: Systemd timers support more complex scheduling scenarios than cron, including dependencies on system states or other units.
Logging and Monitoring: Logs for systemd jobs are managed through the journal, offering centralized and comprehensive logging.
Resource Control: Systemd allows for precise control over the resources available to scheduled tasks, ensuring that critical system resources remain unaffected by background tasks.
Security: Enhanced security features, such as sandboxing, are available for tasks managed by systemd.

Below is a sample documentation for the enhanced systemd timer and service creation script, designed to be posted on GitHub. This documentation includes an introduction, why to use systemd instead of cron, installation instructions, usage examples, and explains all possible uses.

Installation

To install the script, use either wget or curl to download it, and then use sudo install to place it in the /usr/local/bin directory, making it executable and available system-wide.

wget https://github.com/dnviti/taskgen/releases/download/latest/taskgen -O taskgen && \
sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 taskgen /usr/local/bin/taskgen && \
rm -f taskgen

Usage

The script supports creating and deleting systemd timers and services with a variety of options for detailed customization.

Basic Command Structure

taskgen --name NAME --command COMMAND [--frequency FREQUENCY] [--operation OPERATION] [--timer-options OPTIONS]

Examples

Creating a Daily Backup Task

Create a service to perform daily backups at midnight.
```
taskgen --name daily-backup --command "/usr/bin/backup.sh" --frequency daily
```
Deleting a Task

Delete the previously created daily-backup task.
```
taskgen --name daily-backup --operation delete
```
Specifying Advanced Timer Options

Create a timer that starts a task 10 minutes after boot, repeating every 2 hours, with a randomized delay of up to 30 seconds.
```
taskgen --name example-task --command "/path/to/script" --timer-options "OnBootSec=10min,OnUnitActiveSec=2h,RandomizedDelaySec=30s"
```

Weekly Email Report

Send an email report every Monday at 08:00 AM.

taskgen --name weekly-email --command "/usr/bin/send-email-report.sh" --frequency weekly

Reboot System at Specific Time

Schedule a system reboot every day at 3:00 AM.

taskgen --name system-reboot --command "/sbin/reboot" --frequency "*-*-* 03:00:00"

Advanced Configuration

For more complex scheduling needs or specific systemd functionality, use the --timer-options parameter to directly input systemd timer options. This allows for leveraging the full capability of systemd timers, including dependencies, conditions, and environmental settings.

The initial version of this readme and the taskgen script has been generated with GPT-4

dnviti / taskgen