After upgrading to F21, man-db now uses a systemd .timer to run its daily update of the database; this timer starts right at boot and I've noticed some delay before the graphical interface actually comes up. Looking at the output of 'system-analyze blame' it turns out man-db.service takes about 6sec to finish, this is on a fast SSD; I imagine it'll take longer on an HDD (I haven't tested). Since there's no urgent need (AFAICS) to update the man db right at boot, I think the issue can be mitigated by delaying the expiry of the timer e.g. by adding: OnActiveSec=5min that means it'll run 5min after the timer has been activated, which seems like enough time for the boot process to finish and the graphical interface to have come up.
(Of course this only happens once per day on the very first boot).
Apparently I am wrong here; man-db.service is still run at boot even with the above modification to the .timer file, so the timer only controls when subsequent runs are done.
From the systemd.timer man page: Persistent= Takes a boolean argument. If true, the time when the service unit was last triggered is stored on disk. When the timer is activated, the service unit is triggered immediately if it would have been triggered at least once during the time when the timer was inactive. This is useful to catch up on missed runs of the service when the machine was off. Note that this setting only has an effect on timers configured with OnCalendar=. maybe that's why adding OnActiveSec doesn't have an effect on delaying it at boot? (I still can't fully get my head around the stuff in the man page, so I apologize in advance for my rambling, I am just thinking aloud here).
Hello Ahmad, thanks for every note you have written. Another option is to take the service file back and use other timer/cron, that is systemd independent. I will get to this issue later. Thanks anyway. Jan
man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 21. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21
Package man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 21 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2015-0204/man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
man-db-2.6.7.1-13.fc21 has been pushed to the Fedora 21 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
Converting back to crontabs is not a fix. Why not actually fix the issue with the systemd timer unit properly.
This package has changed ownership in the Fedora Package Database. Reassigning to the new owner of this component.
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