anacrontab

Warning

Do not use scripts with a . extension!
Do not use ~ in paths!

useful commands / locations / vars / …

sudo update-alternatives --config editor # change from nano to vim
sudo -e /etc/anacrontab # anacron config
watch tac /var/log/syslog # info abt crontab execution
MAILTO=max → crontab output stored in: watch tac /var/mail/max
ll /var/spool/anacron # see crontab execution timestamps

run scripts as another user (to take over permissions, env vars, …) use systemd timers!

sudo visudo
root ALL=(max) NOPASSWD: /home/max/.dotfiles/secrets/bin/full_restic_backup
sudo -e /etc/anacrontab
# period, delay, job identifier, command
7 7 su max -c “/path/to/command”

Home needs to be set separately, same with potentially which shell to use, see below for example anacrontab.
Note also that this will only include paths that are in your login shell.
And if you use ssh you’ll need to ssh-keyscan <hostname> >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts for each host.

tac /var/mail/max | sed "/^From /q" | tac

To log to a logfile:

LOGFILE=/home/max/logs/full_restic_backup.log
{
  echo "Starting full_restic_backup at $(date)"
} >> "$LOGFILE" 2>&1

configs

(for up to date stuff pls see the secrets dotfiles repo!)

# /etc/anacrontab: configuration file for anacron  
  
# See anacron(8) and anacrontab(5) for details.  
  
SHELL=/bin/bash # some stuff might need bash instead of default sh
HOME=/home/max  # needed for some scripts that rely on $HOME
LOGNAME=max  
MAILTO=max  
PATH=home/max/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:$PATH
 
# These replace cron's entries  
1   5  cron.daily run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily  
7   10 cron.weekly	run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly  
@monthly	15 cron.monthly   run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly  
  
1 10 full_restic_backup sudo -u max /home/max/.dotfiles/secrets/bin/full_restic_backup

sudo -u max might be replaced by su - max -c

References

Linux