$ mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/userThere’s a catch when it comes to managing plugins with Antigen as done in Configure ZSH.
This is something you might not want to put in your .zshrc. Instead, run it occasionally to update your plugins.
I hate having to do any form of maintenance occasionally, especially simple maintenance. This has two potential outcomes:
Completely forget to do it ever.
Do it incessantly.
Okay, there are more than just those two options. You could create some sort of plan for how often to do this. But, if you are going to so much work you might just want to automate it.
This tutorial explains how to configure systemd services and timers to automatically update a user’s ZSH plugins with Antigen once a week. This tutorial is broken into two sections, each of which accomplishes the same goal. The first describes how to use systemd user service and the second a system service for those unfortunate enough to be using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and CentOS 7.
This particular use-case is a good fit for systemd user services because an Antigen and ZSH setup is a user-specific configuration.
Create the systemd user configuration directory.
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/userCreate a systemd service to update the Antigen plugins.
[Unit]
Description=Update Antigen
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/zsh -c '. "$0" && exec "$@"' /home/jordan/.zshrc antigen update
[Install]
WantedBy=default.targetThe command-line here is tricky because the antigen update command requires that the user’s Antigen functions and configuration be loaded.
Of course, systemd is not going to run a command from this context automatically because it throws reproducibility right out the window.
Thankfully some bash magic can make it happen.[1]
Test run the new systemd unit.
$ systemctl --user start update-antigen.serviceCheck the output of the command to make sure everything worked.
$ systemctl --user status update-antigen.service
● update-antigen.service - Update Antigen
Loaded: loaded (/home/jordan/.config/systemd/user/update-antigen.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2020-09-22 15:36:26 CDT; 2min 51s ago
TriggeredBy: ● update-antigen.timer
Process: 557748 ExecStart=/usr/bin/zsh -c . "$0" && exec "$@" /home/jordan/.zshrc antigen update (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 557748 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Sep 22 15:36:23 jwillikers systemd[7678]: Starting Update Antigen...
Sep 22 15:36:24 jwillikers zsh[557748]: Updating robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh@master... Done. Took 0s.
Sep 22 15:36:25 jwillikers zsh[557748]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions@master... Done. Took 1s.
Sep 22 15:36:25 jwillikers zsh[557748]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-completions@master... Done. Took 0s.
Sep 22 15:36:26 jwillikers zsh[557748]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting@master... Done. Took 1s.
Sep 22 15:36:26 jwillikers systemd[7678]: update-antigen.service: Succeeded.
Sep 22 15:36:26 jwillikers systemd[7678]: Finished Update Antigen.Add a systemd timer to update the Antigen plugins once per week.
[Unit]
Description=Update Antigen weekly
[Timer]
Persistent=true
OnCalendar=weekly
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.targetThis timer has Persistent=true to account for the situation when the timer would fire but the user has no session running.
With this option, the timer will just fire the next time the user logs on.
Set the the Antigen update timer to start when logging in.[2]
$ systemctl --user enable update-antigen.timer
Created symlink /home/jordan/.config/systemd/user/timers.target.wants/update-antigen.timer → /home/jordan/.config/systemd/user/update-antigen.timer.The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and CentOS 7 distributions don’t support user-level systemd services, but a system-level service is still possible, as this section describes.[3]
Add a systemd service to update the Antigen plugins.
[Unit]
Description=Update Jordan's Antigen plugins for ZSH
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
User=jordan
Group=jordan
ExecStart=/usr/bin/zsh -c '. "$0" && exec "$@"' /home/jordan/.zshrc antigen update
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.targetThis systemd unit executes the antigen update command after loading the .zshrc file for the user jordan.[4]
This is run as the user jordan and it requires the network be online in order to update.
Verify the network-online.target exists.[5]
$ systemctl is-enabled NetworkManager-wait-online.service
enabledTest run the new systemd unit.
$ sudo systemctl start update-jordan-antigen.serviceCheck the output of the command to make sure everything worked.
$ sudo systemctl status update-jordan-antigen.service
● update-jordan-antigen.service - Update Jordan\'s Antigen plugins for ZSH
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/update-jordan-antigen.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Sep 16 14:12:36 jwillikers systemd[1]: Starting Update Jordan\'s Antigen plugins for ZSH...
Sep 16 14:12:37 jwillikers zsh[315]: Updating robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh@master... Done. Took 1s.
Sep 16 14:12:38 jwillikers zsh[315]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions@master... Done. Took 1s.
Sep 16 14:12:38 jwillikers zsh[315]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-completions@master... Done. Took 0s.
Sep 16 14:12:39 jwillikers zsh[315]: Updating zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting@master... Done. Took 1s.
Sep 16 14:12:39 jwillikers systemd[1]: Started Update Jordan\'s Antigen plugins for ZSH.Add a systemd timer to update the Antigen plugins once per week.
[Unit]
Description=Update Antigen weekly
[Timer]
Persistent=true
OnCalendar=weekly
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.targetActivate the Antigen update timer on system startup.
$ sudo systemctl enable update-jordan-antigen.timer
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/timers.target.wants/update-jordan-antigen.timer to /etc/systemd/system/update-jordan-antigen.timer.This timer has Persistent=true to account for the situation when the timer would fire but the system is not powered on.
With this option, the timer will just fire the next the system boots.
That’s the tutorial. You should now have a working systemd service to automatically update your ZSH plugins for you each week. Don’t forget to disable your update service when you decide to make the switch to the Fish shell. 🐟