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linuxsystemdsystemd-timer

Systemd Timer failed to execute: Exec format error

I've been trying to create a new systemd timer to run a simple script that pushes my Obsidian vault to a private git repository. It is as close to identical as I can get to another systemd timer that I've had running for months that triggers a scrutiny collector script.

The script I'm trying to run is:

$cat /root/obsidian_gitpush.sh

# Go to /config folder or
# Change this to your docker config folder if it is different
cd "/datastore/configs/obsidian/mikes_wiki/"

# Add all files to the repository with respect to .gitignore rules
git add .

# Commit changes with message with current date stamp
git commit -m "Obsidian Vault Backup on  `date +'%d-%m-%Y %H:%M:%S'`"

# Push changes towards GitHub
git push -u origin master

obsidian_github_sync.service:

[Unit]
Description="Obsidian Github Sync systemd timer for Mikes Wiki"
Requires=obsidian_github_sync.timer

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/root/obsidian_gitpush.sh
User=root

obsidian_github_sync.timer:

cat obsidian_github_sync.service
[Unit]
Description="Obsidian Github Sync systemd timer for Mikes Wiki"
Requires=obsidian_github_sync.timer

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/root/obsidian_gitpush.sh
User=root
root@flanders:/etc/systemd/system# cat obsidian_github_sync.timer
[Unit]
Description="Timer for the obsidian_github_sync.service"

[Timer]
Unit=obsidian_github_sync.service
OnBootSec=5min
OnUnitActiveSec=62min

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

I'm running Proxmox 6.8.8-4

I can manually trigger the script and it runs without a problem. However when I enable and start the systemd timer, I get the following message:

$ systemctl status obsidian_github_sync.service
× obsidian_github_sync.service - "Obsidian Github Sync systemd timer for Mikes Wiki"
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/obsidian_github_sync.service; static)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2024-09-05 19:56:57 BST; 11s ago
   Duration: 646us
TriggeredBy: ● obsidian_github_sync.timer
    Process: 3202705 ExecStart=/root/obsidian_gitpush.sh (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
   Main PID: 3202705 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
        CPU: 666us

Sep 05 19:56:57 flanders (tpush.sh)[3202705]: obsidian_github_sync.service: Failed to execute /root/obsidian_gitpush.sh: Exec format error
Sep 05 19:56:57 flanders systemd[1]: Started obsidian_github_sync.service - "Obsidian Github Sync systemd timer for Mikes Wiki".
Sep 05 19:56:57 flanders (tpush.sh)[3202705]: obsidian_github_sync.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /root/obsidian_gitpush.sh: Exec format error
Sep 05 19:56:57 flanders systemd[1]: obsidian_github_sync.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=203/EXEC
Sep 05 19:56:57 flanders systemd[1]: obsidian_github_sync.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Solution

  • As suggested by @Barmar I just needed to add a shebang at the start of my shell script #!/bin/bash