Scheduling

Plans with a schedule can be run two ways: the embedded daemon, or exported systemd units.

Cron format

Standard 5-field cron:

minute hour day-of-month month day-of-week

schedule: "0 3 * * *"   # every day at 03:00
schedule: "30 1 * * 1"  # every Monday at 01:30
schedule: "*/5 * * * *" # every 5 minutes

A 4-field shorthand is also accepted, omitting the minute field:

schedule: "3 * * *"     # every day at 03:00 (same as "0 3 * * *")

Invalid expressions are caught when the daemon starts or by backupd check.

Option 1: embedded daemon

backupd daemon

The daemon loads the config and runs each plan when its cron expression matches. Run it under systemd or your favourite process supervisor.

Option 2: systemd units

Generate a timer and service for one or all plans:

backupd export-systemd server
backupd export-systemd            # all plans
backupd export-systemd -o /etc/systemd/system --binary /usr/local/bin/backupd

Flag	Shorthand	Description
--output	-o	Directory for the unit files (default: current directory)
--binary		Path to the backupd binary embedded in the service unit
--config		Config path used to resolve plan schedules

Install the generated units:

sudo cp *.service *.timer /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now backupd-server.timer

Cron expressions are converted to systemd OnCalendar format (e.g. 0 3 * * * becomes *-*-* 03:00:00, and weekday-specific schedules map to Mon, Tue, etc.).