Since systemd 212, systemd timers support the Persistent=true option for OnCalendar timers. This is functionality similar to anacron: Persistent= Takes a boolean argument. If true the service unit is immediately triggered when the timer unit is activated and the timer elapsed at least once since the last time the service unit has been triggered by the timer unit. The time when the service unit was last triggered is stored on disk. This is useful to catch up for missed timers when a machine is shutdown temporarily and then is powered up again. Note that this setting only has an effect on timers configured with OnCalendar=. This means that we could replace the cron.* dropin scripts with systemd services and timers. Pros: * enabled by default (in contrast to cronie) * systems without need for crontabs can disable/uninstall cron * service will be simpler than the rather long dropin scripts Cons: * services are run in parallel instead of sequentially (is this even a con? timer start will be randomized, and we can increase accuracy to an hour to randomize even more) * no holdoff time after boot as it seems Affected packages: community/awstats 7.2-1 /etc/cron.hourly/awstats community/snapper 0.2.1-1 /etc/cron.hourly/snapper community/sysstat 10.3.1-1 /etc/cron.hourly/sysstat core/logrotate 3.8.7-1 /etc/cron.daily/logrotate core/man-db 2.6.6-1 /etc/cron.daily/man-db core/mlocate 0.26-1 /etc/cron.daily/updatedb core/shadow 4.1.5.1-7 /etc/cron.daily/shadow extra/hylafax 6.0.6-4 /etc/cron.daily/hylafax community/atop 2.0.2-1 /etc/cron.daily/atop community/dspam 3.10.2-8 /etc/cron.daily/dspam_maintenance community/logwatch 7.4.0-3 /etc/cron.daily/0logwatch community/snapper 0.2.1-1 /etc/cron.daily/snapper community/sysstat 10.3.1-1 /etc/cron.daily/sysstat extra/pkgstats 2.3-3 /etc/cron.weekly/pkgstats community/squid 3.4.4-1 /etc/cron.weekly/squid I'd be willing to convert all the core packages and put them to testing if people agree that this is the right course.