add a cron-like systemd::timer interface about puppet-systemd HOT 4 OPEN

@anarcat I think its a good idea.

Indeed95% of cron jobs are

• run X
• daily, weekly or every 2 minutes.
• run as user Y
• Maybe some random component.

Maybe this should be an interface in https://github.com/voxpupuli/puppet-cron -probably not.

from puppet-systemd.

I did write systemd::timer a while back, but what you're suggesting sounds like adding a systemd::manage_unit style layer on top. That sounds useful to me.

As reference: this was the original reason I wanted the systemd::timer resource: https://github.com/theforeman/puppet-puppet/blob/master/manifests/agent/service/systemd.pp. As you can see, https://github.com/theforeman/puppet-puppet/blob/b08528470b9a95ba659f308ca2cafc6bec084c37/templates/agent/systemd.puppet-run.timer.erb#L8 isn't really a complete implementation of the cron spec.

Perhaps it makes sense to write a cron2timer() function and leave it up to the end user to combine the two?

from puppet-systemd.

Maybe this should be an interface in https://github.com/voxpupuli/puppet-cron -probably not.

i would rather not. i would like to eventually remove that module if we stop using cron altogether, and putting the shim there would make that difficult.

thinking about this more: i think we should have a straight out compatibility shim in there. and yes, systemd doesn't provide the exact same interface, but we can let the user shoot themselves in the foot there, i think.

i would do a systemd::timer::cron define that would match the cron interface and shove that in a OnCalendar thing and call it a day, to be honest. that would sweep a lot under the rug (like syntax differences between OnCalendar and cron, email notifications and so on), but that's things i expect people would handle during the conversion. we could even have docstrings pointing out those caveats...

from puppet-systemd.