Documentation

Getting started

1. Open Tempo: the home page lists your timers, with the next one to run at the top.
2. To schedule something, drop a script or a program on the window, or press Ctrl+O. Tempo looks at it and says what to fix first.
3. Fill the form: when it runs, under which conditions. Check the next runs, try it once if you want, then save.

Yours, personal and system timers

“Yours” are the timers Tempo created: it can change, pause and delete them. “Personal” ones were written by hand in your own folder; “System” ones come from your distribution or an app, Snap included. Tempo never changes those two kinds: it shows what they do and the commands to stop, turn off or mask them, to copy into a terminal.

Run, pause, turn off, delete

Run Now starts the task at once. Pause stops the timer until you resume it; Turn Off also keeps it from starting with your session. Delete removes the timer and its task; an Undo button brings them back for a few seconds.

What Tempo looks for in a file

It reads the start of the file, never runs it: whether it is a program or a script, which interpreter it needs and whether that is installed, Windows line endings, whether it can be run, and whether it lives somewhere that may disappear (a temporary folder, Downloads, a removable drive). It also warns about sudo, a question waiting for the keyboard, desktop tools and recursive deletes. Tempo can keep its own copy of the file, so the timer still works if the original moves.

Schedules and conditions

Every few minutes or hours, every day at a time, on given weekdays, or after the computer starts. A timer can wait until a program is not running, until the computer is on mains power, or until a file exists. Options catch up a run missed while the computer was off, spread the start, run at low priority and stop a task that runs too long.

Logs

Each timer has a log page: what the timer and its task wrote, newest last, updated while it runs. “Problems Only” keeps warnings and errors. Copy or save the log to send it to someone.

Notifications

A timer made by Tempo can tell you when a run fails (“Tell me when it fails” in the form, on by default). systemd itself starts the notification, so Tempo does not need to be open: it says which timer failed and why, and a click opens Tempo. Timers made before this option existed get it when you edit and save them.

Updates

Once a day, Tempo asks this site whether a newer version exists and says so in a banner, with the way to get it: run the install command again, or download the new package. After an update, the first start offers to show what’s new. Check for Updates and Check Automatically are in the main menu.

Keyboard

• Ctrl+O, Ctrl+N choose a file to make a timer from
• F5, Ctrl+R read systemd again
• Esc, Alt+← go back
• Ctrl+Q quit

Troubleshooting

• A timer stops when you log out: user timers run while your session is open. To keep them running without a session, run loginctl enable-linger once.
• A timer fails after a file moved: create it again and let Tempo keep a copy of the file.
• Tempo says the files were changed outside Tempo: someone edited them by hand. Saving in Tempo replaces those changes.
• Something else? Open an issue on GitHub with what you did and what you saw.