pytaskr

This is a lightweight task scheduler implemented in Python. Scheduling tasks with it requires writing plugins for the system. Plugins contain the schedule and operations for tasks, see the helloworld plugin for a simple example. Plugins can specify their task schedule via crontab-like schedules (e.g. 5 15 * * * would run at 3:05pm).

Creating Plugins

• Create a subdirectory under the plugins folder
• Your plugin filename and subdirectory name MUST match each other
• You MUST create a file with the same name but with the extension '.plugin' in the same directory as your plugin
  • e.g. if your plugin is helloworld/helloworld.py then you should also create helloworld/helloworld.plugin
  • An example of this file is located here.
  • This file is where your Crontab schedule is held under the key crontab
• Crontab schedules are in UTC
• Plugins can do essentially anything you could do in Python. Parse files, lookup resources in AWS to check for compliance and make changes if needed, etc..
• Plugins are fairly easy to implement. Neither advanced knowledge of Python nor the overall plugin and scheduling system is required. If you can write Python, you can write a plugin.

Crontab Reference

You might find crontab guru helpful in crafting crontab schedules for your tasks.

Note: crontab schedules are in UTC.

* * * * *

• 1st = minute
• 2nd = hour
• 3rd = day (month)
• 4th = month
• 5th = day (week)

Docker

This project can be easily containerized. A Dockerfile is provided in the repository. In order to build and use an image from it:

• Change into the src directory after cloning this repository
• Build the image by running docker build --no-cache=true --rm -t pytaskr .
• Run the container with docker run --rm -d --name pytaskr pytaskr
• Output from the application can be viewed br running docker logs -f pytaskr

Why on earth was this made

It was somewhat a learning effort on my part with Python. But it's also handy to have a simple task scheduler that is portable between environments.