"At" Command on WSL (Ubuntu 20.04)

Question

I am using WSL (ubuntu 20.04) on my machine. Today I learned about the at command, which can be used for scheduling jobs. I attempted to use it on WSL but the job was not fired although its time came.

Can't we use this command on WSL?

If we can, what can be the problem?

Thank you.

AFAIK (like cron) the service is not enabled by default on WSL but may be. What does service atd status say? — steeldriver, Apr 07 '22 at 12:04
Yes, the service was not running, i started it using sudo service atd start. Thank you so much @steeldriver — mustafabaki, Apr 07 '22 at 12:14
@mustafabaki Also see How to start a specific service when Ubuntu is started on WSL2 — NotTheDr01ds, Apr 07 '22 at 12:21

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '22 at 12:23

As with cron, the atd service is not started by default on WSL:

$ at now + 1 minute
warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> echo "Hello from at" > ~/at.log
at> <EOT>
job 1 at Thu Apr  7 08:02:00 2022
Can't open /var/run/atd.pid to signal atd. No atd running?
$ service atd status

atd is not running

but it may be started if you wish:

$ sudo service atd start
[sudo] password for steeldriver:
 * Starting deferred execution scheduler atd                                                                                                                         [ OK ]

then

$ at now + 1 minute
warning: commands will be executed using /bin/sh
at> echo "Hello from at" > $HOME/at.log
at> <EOT>
job 2 at Thu Apr  7 08:03:00 2022
$ atq
2       Thu Apr  7 08:03:00 2022 a steeldriver
$ atq

(queue is now empty)

$ cat ~/at.log
Hello from at

Thanks alot worked like charm – Sanmeet Sep 01 '23 at 14:53 — Sanmeet, Sep 01 '23 at 14:53

"At" Command on WSL (Ubuntu 20.04)

1 Answers1