Failed to start systemd.service

Help
1

In configuration.nix i have defined the following:

  systemd.timers."daily" = {
    wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
    timerConfig = {
      OnCalendar = "daily";
      Persistent = "true";
      Unit = "daily.service";
    };
  };

  systemd.services."daily" = {
    script = ''
      ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cp "-u /home/sperber/.doom.d/ /home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/"
      ${pkgs.rsync}/bin/rsync "-r -t -p --delete -s --exclude hardware-configuration.nix /etc/nixos/ /home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/Nixos"
      ${pkgs.rsnapshot}/bin/rsnapshot "-c /home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/rsnapshot.conf daily"
      ${pkgs.duply}/bin/duply "/home/sperber/.duply/manitu backup+purgeAuto --force"

      # ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cp "-u -r /srv/ /home/sperber/Dokumente/Programmieren/"

    '';
    serviceConfig = {
      Type = "oneshot";
      User = "sperber";
    };
  };

However, in my system log it says failed to start daily service.

What is wrong with the definition of my service?

2

There’s probably more specific error output if you check the output of systemctl status daily, but I suspect the issue is that the service doesn’t have permissions on the user’s home directory, since it’s a system service and not running as your user.

EDIT: Apparently I didn’t notice the User = "sperber";. And completely missed the quoting issue. Oh well, it got solved.

1 Like
3

You are quoting all the arguments as one:

  ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cp "-u /home/sperber/.doom.d/ /home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/"

vs

  ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cp -u /home/sperber/.doom.d/ /home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/

or if you really want to quote:

  ${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/cp -u "/home/sperber/.doom.d/" "/home/sperber/Dokumente/Install/Linux/"
3 Likes
4

Ah, i see. I thought i had to quote everything as in the wiki article but this was obviously just related to the echo command (stupid me).

Thank you!