Arch Linux User Repository

Updated, and disowned.

systemd[1]: /usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service:6: PIDFile= references a path below legacy directory /var/run/, updating /var/run/cron.pid → /run/cron.pid; please update the unit file accordingly.

Please update the crond.service file to replace /var/run with /run. Thanks!

There's no difference between /usr/bin/ and /usr/sbin on Arch since 2013. See: https://www.archlinux.org/news/binaries-move-to-usrbin-requiring-update-intervention/ and https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/arch_packaging_standards#Directories

Shouldn't cron be installed in /usr/sbin. See: askubuntu.com/questions/308045/ddg#308048

Thanks for spotting that. I've updated it in -13

The systemd unit file distributed with this package is incorrect.

The problem:
'Restart' is set to 'always', but no 'Type' is specified, meaning that systemd assumes the default of 'simple'. Since cron actually forks and returns an exit status of 0 to the parent process (in this case, systemd), systemd assumes that cron died and tries to restart it ad infinitium. As a result, systemd's built-in brake mechanism takes over, and it refuses to try to restart it again after several attempts, resulting in:

systemd[1]: start request repeated too quickly for crond.service
systemd[1]: Failed to start Vixie-cron Periodic Command Scheduler.



The solution:
The following unit file (usually /usr/lib/systemd/system/crond.service)
-----------------------
[Unit]
Description=Vixie-cron Periodic Command Scheduler

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/var/run/cron.pid
ExecStart=/usr/bin/cron
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

-12 moves /usr/sbin to /usr/bin and adds systemd unit file

Adopted and updated to remove depreciated $startdir usage

The fcron package uses a conflicts to ensure that dcron is replaced

I'm not sure the provides line is correct or maybe it needs a conflicts line?
When installing I'm not prompted to remove dcron first and as such filesystem conflicts [rightfully] prevent installation.