Syntax for periodic calendar events (systemd.time)

Hi!

When trying to adjust a timer that ran with “_OnCalendar_=daily” to a period like 15 minutes, I made a series of mistakes (after having read systemd.time), so I can make a number of suggestions for improvement:

First I had tried to put the specification inside double-quotes as the string contained a space. The result was a syntax error (“Failed to parse calendar specification”). Couldn’t systemd just tolerate the unneeded double-quotes?

I had succeeded for 30 minutes, listing “00,30” in the minutes field, but when I wanted to change it to 5 minutes, I thought the list would become too ugly (i.e.: long), so I tried the “slash syntax”.

Unfortunately “*-*-* *:00/5m:00“ and “*-*-* *:/5m:00” weren’t accepted, just as plain “/5m” was not. Couldn’t the first two be accepted, even though the minutes are redundant? And for the last one: Why can’t it be accepted; it would look so nice and clean, and (IMHO) it’s unambiguous, too.

The eventual syntax I used was “*-*-* *:00/5:00” (for “every 5 minutes”). Isn’t it “more ugly then needed”?

Kind regards,

Ulrich