mailto alternative for systemd timers

[wirestyle22]

I read that systemd timers can't mailto. With cron phasing out there must be a way to receive e-mails when a timer fails. If not, how do you resolve this when you are managing several hundred servers?

[JaredBusch]

@wirestyle22 said in mailto alternative for systemd timers:

I read that systemd timers can't mailto. With cron phasing out there must be a way to receive e-mails when a timer fails. If not, how do you resolve this when you are managing several hundred servers?

You write a shell script to send email and then call said script with your script that you use to create the timer.

[wirestyle22]

@jaredbusch Thanks

[JaredBusch]

@wirestyle22 There are lots of examples. you simply need to pick one.

I would recommend either mailx or ssmtp

[JaredBusch]

I would recommend writing the script to take parameters. Because then it is generic and you can plug it in on every system as part of the system setup process.
https://tecadmin.net/pass-command-line-arguments-in-shell-script/

[wirestyle22]

Extremely helpful. Thanks @JaredBusch

[scottalanmiller]

I use mailx most of the time.

[stacksofplates]

@jaredbusch said in mailto alternative for systemd timers:

I would recommend writing the script to take parameters. Because then it is generic and you can plug it in on every system as part of the system setup process.
https://tecadmin.net/pass-command-line-arguments-in-shell-script/

Here's a template that I loosely follow for this:

#!/bin/bash


#Script functions
function script_help () {
  echo "
      Usage: $(basename $0) [options] -a word

                  -a   Echos the word you type

          -h   this help text

      Example:
        $(basename $0) "-a word

  exit ${1:-0}
}

function thing () {

echo $variable


}

#Show help if no arguments or options are passed
[[ ! "$*" ]] && script_help 1
OPTIND=1


#Read command line options
# A colon after a flag means it takes an argument
while getopts "a:ih" opt; do
    case "$opt" in
          a) variable=$OPTARG ;;
      h) script_help ;;
      \?) script_help 1 ;;
    esac
done
shift $(($OPTIND-1));

#Run argument function
thing

In this case, it calls the thing function on the argument from the -a flag and also has a help function.