[GRLUG] [ANNOUNCE] Wednesday, January 10, 2024 - SLUUG meeting - MAIN Topic: Systemd Timers Better Than cron

[Grand Rapids Linux Users Group]

BASE Topic: History of the Shell

Presenter: Ed Howland <https://www.sluug.org/bio/Ed_Howland>
Do you ever feel the raw power thrumming between your fingers when you open your terminal?

Are you amazed by the fact that most of our entire digital world is held together by the Duck Tape called shell scripts?

Did the concept of the World Wide Web spring forth in whole cloth out of the grey cells of Sir Berners-Lee?

These answers and more will be explored in this month's thrilling episode of the Base session on Wednesday night's meeting of the St. Louis Unix User's Group. Let Ed be your guide on this fascinating journey through time as we explore the history of the Shell! Starting with the Dawn B.T.E. ( Before the Epoch ) and the arrival of the Big Blue monolith, and continuing through the co-evolution of hardware, operating systems and user interfaces before arriving at "The One True Way": The Shell. Don't miss the notable landmarks on this fast-paced trek such as JCL, CICS, GECOS, MULTICS and, of course, UNICS.

Something more advanced, detailed, important, new, profound, significant, timely or useful.

MAIN Topic: Systemd Timers Better Than cron

Presenter: Sean Twiehaus <https://www.sluug.org/bio/Sean_Twiehaus>
In this presentation Sean will show you three features that make Systemd Timers better than crontabs. These features help to understand which jobs will run when, reduce the amount of shell code the administrator must maintain, and allow modification of vendor jobs while avoiding conflict.

Here are the three features (subject to change)

Detailed View of all Jobs on a System

When each job will run next in a human-readable time format
Less shell code required
Built-In Randomization Timers
Build in conditions like ACPower
Overridable without conflicts
If a Systemd Timer is installed by a package, such as Unattended Upgrades, it will have a default time that it runs. With Systemd Timers you can override the default time without having conflicts if the package maintainers update the timer.
(Bonus if time permits) Centralized Logging
Systemd services log to the journal