Package: systemd Version: 241-3 Severity: normal Hello, the other day I noticed that lintian pointed out a new missing piece in my package (apt-listbugs): missing-systemd-timer-for-cron-script
Basically, it alerts me that my package ships a cron.daily script, without shipping a corresponding systemd timer. Hence, I began doing some research on the proper way to ship a systemd timer along with an equivalent cron script (while avoiding conflicts between the two). I looked for examples in other packages (such as man-db and logrotate). I am starting to get an idea of how to set this up, but some aspects are still unclear. My main needs are: a) the script (to be executed by the systemd timer) may generate output: this output should be sent to root@localhost via local mail (if a sendmail-compatible MTA is installed and able to deliver local mail) b) the cron.daily job should not run, if systemd is installed and used as PID 1 I searched for documentation about the recommended Debian way to add a systemd timer to a package, but failed to find much. The Debian Policy manual talks about [cron jobs], but does not seem to mention systemd timers. There seems to be an [open bug report] about this, which also [mentions] the need to avoid running cron jobs which are superseded by systemd timers. I found some information about the need to send local mail on the [archlinux wiki], but the suggested workaround looks inconvenient (since it requires writing a dedicated script for something that cron provides out of the box!) and suitable for failing jobs only (while I need to send local mail, whenever the job generates output)... [cron jobs]: <https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#cron-jobs> [open bug report]: <https://bugs.debian.org/770440> [mentions]: <https://bugs.debian.org/770440#20> [archlinux wiki]: <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Timers#Caveats> Could you please document the recommended Debian way to add a systemd timer to a package, which also ships a cron job? Thanks for your time and for any help you may provide. Bye.