Introduction

Some of using computers is inevitably repetitive: checking for updates, backing up files, maybe clearing some logs. Scripts are a great way to automate some of the logic around these tasks, but you have to remember to run them or they don't do much good.

cron is a nice tool for running commands on a schedule, but it's opaque and difficult to debug. Did your command run? When will it run next? Will your command run or silently fail without your noticing? There isn't a nice way to copy cron tab entries between machines either.

Devbot is an attempt to make running commands or scripts at particular intervals more convenient and inspectable.

Given the following information: 1. how often to run 2. what commands to run 3. required preconditions

Devbot runs through all the tasks you've defined, checks if they're ready to be run, and then runs them. Simple as that. All output produced by the commands run is logged, so you can see what commands passed or failed. Failed commands are retried, using a backoff.

leaf@home ~> devbot --help
usage: (<devbot> | list | status)

leaf@home ~> devbot status
✓

leaf@home ~> devbot list
update-apt
    wizard update apt
    every 7 days, took 6 seconds, requires network, next in 2 days

dotfiles-fetch
    cd ~/DotFiles
    git fetch
    every 24 hours, took 2 seconds, requires network, next in 5 hours

Configuration

Here's an example ~/.devbot/config.yaml.

events:
  dotfiles-fetch:
    action:
      - cd ~/DotFiles
      - git fetch
    interval: daily
    require: network

  update-apt:
    action: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
    interval: weekly
    require: network

requirements:
  network: nc -w 1 -z 8.8.8.8 53

It defines two tasks and a requirement. The requirement command must succeed before the tasks will be run. Actions can be a list or single shell command. Each command requires the previous to succeed before continuing. You could think of this as:

command_to_run = ' && '.join(commands)

All the run time information is persisted to a database, so restarting devbot doesn't affect when tasks are supposed to be run.

Usage

Personally, I use devbot on all of my machines - servers, laptops and VMs. They move data between hosts, backup files, fetch git repositories, update the system, manage services.

I have devbot status plugged into my tmux status line, so I'll know right away if it's not running. I don't have to worry about crashes unless the system runs of out of resources - I've had devbot running on one host for more than 3 months.

I can easily see the status of a machine and get an idea of how it's been running with devbot list. If some part of the automation is having trouble, an error count will show up. The timing information gives me an idea of which commands are doing more work than I expect.

Implementation

There are two available implementations:

• Haskell
• Bash

Both rely on a local key value database to store run time data. The Bash implementation is tied into another command line tool, wizard, while the Haskell implementation is stand alone.

The main body of devbot is simple. Loop through all the configured tasks.

-- https://public.anardil.net/share/code/Haskell/devbot/Devbot/Bot.hs
-- simplified

type State = [Task]

data Task = Task
          { _event   :: Event
          , _process :: Maybe ProcessHandle
          , _start   :: Integer
          }

runBot :: IO ()
runBot = do
        putStrLn "devbot starting up"
        hSetBuffering stdout LineBuffering

        forever $
          events >>= runner . startingState

runner :: State -> IO State
runner state =
        threadDelay $ 1 * second
        mapM handle state >>= runner
    where
        second = 1000000

If they're ready to run, run them.

handle :: Task -> IO Task
handle task@(Task (Event _ _ d) Nothing _) = do
        -- not currently running
        time <- getTime

        if ready time d
            then run task
            else pure task
    where
        ready :: Integer -> Data -> Bool
        ready now (Data _ _when _) = now > _when

If they're already running, see if they're finished. If they're finished, see if they failed or succeeded.

handle task@(Task _ (Just h) _) = do
        code <- getProcessExitCode h
        case code of
            -- still running
            Nothing          -> pure task

            -- finished
            Just ExitSuccess -> success task
            Just _           -> failure task

Conclusion

Devbot is a lightweight alternative to cron, with simple configuration and inspectable run time information. It's features include

• Run arbitrary commands, using familar shell syntax
• Configure frequencies between every second to once a year or more. Devbot or system restarts don't affect the next time to run
• Easily inspect previous run duration, errors, and next time to run
• Safety, any command failure will immediately fail the entire task. This is the difference between cd /tmp/dir && rm -rf * and cd /tmp/dir; rm -rf *