systemctl to start cron-like job

Question

In /etc/systemd/system directory I have:

rsnapshot-backup.service file, with following content:

[Unit]
Description=rsnapshot backup automation [cron like]

[Service]
Nice=19
IOSchedulingClass=2
IOSchedulingPriority=7
ExecStart=/usr/bin/notify-send "Rsnapshot Hourly Backup In Progress"

and rsnapshot-backup.timer file, with following content:

[Unit]
Description=hourly rsnapshot backup

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* *:43:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

But I don't see notify-send being triggered? What might be wrong?

systemctl list-timers gives:

NEXT                          LEFT          LAST           PASSED                  UNIT                         ACTIVATES
Sat 2014-08-16 09:43:00 CEST  2min 37s left Sat 2014-08-16 09:31:18 CEST  9min ago rsnapshot-backup.timer       rsnapshot-backup.service

systemctl status rsnapshot-backup.service gives:

● rsnapshot-backup.service - rsnapshot backup automation [cron like]
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/rsnapshot-backup.service; static)
    Active: inactive (dead) since Sat 2014-08-16 09:31:21 CEST; 11min ago
    Process: 228 ExecStart=/usr/bin/notify-send Rsnapshot Hourly Backup In Progress (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Main PID: 228 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

systemctl status rsnapshot-backup.timer gives:

● rsnapshot-backup.timer - hourly rsnapshot backup
    Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/rsnapshot-backup.timer; enabled)
    Active: active (waiting) since Sat 2014-08-16 09:31:16 CEST; 12min ago

EDIT Doing journalctl -u rsnapshot-backup, I can confirm that the service was successfuly started, however nothing seen on display (notify-send)..

-- Reboot --
Aug 16 09:43:14 ----------------- systemd[1]: Starting rsnapshot backup automation [cron like]...
Aug 16 09:43:14 ----------------- systemd[1]: Started rsnapshot backup automation [cron like].
Aug 16 10:00:06 ----------------- systemd[1]: Starting rsnapshot backup automation [cron like]...
Aug 16 10:00:07 ----------------- systemd[1]: Started rsnapshot backup automation [cron like].
Aug 16 10:19:04 ----------------- systemd[1]: Starting rsnapshot backup automation [cron like]...
Aug 16 10:19:04 ----------------- systemd[1]: Started rsnapshot backup automation [cron like].

You'll need to specify `Environment=DISPLAY=:0` for `notify-send` to run on... — jasonwryan, Aug 16 '14 at 07:52
How and where would I need to specify that? Do you mean by adding that line, above `ExecStart`? — branquito, Aug 16 '14 at 07:55
Yes I read it, even tried `/bin/sh -c 'notify-send "msg"'`, without any success, see my edits for a journalctl log. — branquito, Aug 16 '14 at 08:24
See: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/85244/setting-display-in-systemd-service-file — jasonwryan, Aug 16 '14 at 08:36
After adding one more line: `User=myusername` it works. It has to be username of the user who started the X server. Thanks for pointing me in right direction, by giving that link. — branquito, Aug 16 '14 at 09:23

systemctl to start cron-like job

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