I have a cronjob nonroot which is set to run at 2:01:00 and a second cronjob which is set to run at 2:05:00 every day, 7 days a week. My friend casually commented that there is a better way to handle such things using sysstemctl but I have no clue as where to start and how to create a systemctl service to accomplish such a feat. Any help would be greatfly appreicated guys

systemd timers do have some advantages over cron and I assume your friend was suggesting using it because you can create one that is triggered after an event. In your case the second being started after a fixed time from when your first completes.

I don't know in your case if one is better then the other. You could also create a script with the two commands and then run them from a single cron job or run them from the same cron job separated by a semicolon i.e.
1 2 * * * first command; second command

They will execute in order with the first completing before the second starts.

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I thought about && the 2 commands but what takes me back a little is the timing, you see it takes a few seconds for the first command to finish it's task or rm the backup dir which is around 700MB in size, thus the 5 minute delay in the second command, I set it so that the first command would finish before the second one initiated and I don't know enough about creating cronjobs with a time delay in them, you see where I am going with this ? Step 1, rm the dir in question, Step 2 replace the dir with a new updated dir of the same kind just a lil bigger most likely. If you could come up with a cron command that does just that, I will call it a day.

Unless you run the command in the background i.e. add a & to the end, the first command completes before the second one starts regardless. You do not need a time delay if run together. Deleting files does not actually delete the contents just the reference to where the files are located unless you are using some sort of shred like utility. The && translates to only run the second command if the first completes successfully.

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So how about this command Should that take care of it? If so my problem is solved.

Yes.

Welp acccording to syslog nothing happened it didn't work.

FYI: There are also many open-source "batch processing" and "workflow monitor" systems out there which are specifically designed to – for example – "launch this unit of work as soon as the prior one completes," and "do this-or-that if the process abends." Immediately after the previous step in the "job" or "workflow" completes, the next step(s) will be launched.

("abend" = an IBM term: "abnormal end." Either "it crashed," or maybe "it returned a nonzero return-code.")

"Simple cron" is very good at launching processes at specific times, but it isn't smart. There are better ways to do it.

(And, in my opinion, this is not the use-case that "systemctl" was designed to address. Don't try to "wedge" another facility "into a round hole," merely because it is there. Find the right tool for the job.)

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What time did you set it to run?

It's 2:55am here right now, I set it for 50 2 * * * so 2:50am and nothing showed up in syslog. Also i checked the directory and the file wasn't in there. I did service cron reload just in case.

I don't know at the moment. Did the job actually get saved correctly? look at the the output of
crontab -l

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Yeah i check all my crontab edits with crontab -l after they're done. Restarting the cron did the trick @michaeik

You can try a test cron job command like
* * * * * env > /tmp/env.txt

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Not trying to be an ass but this needs to be said.

Google. Seriously. It got me switched from cron > systemd timers fairly quickly. It's surprisingly easy thing to get hold of. Once you have a template just modify it as needed. I have made several services with varying times using the first timer file I made as a template. Search systemd timers

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