Installation

Installation

This page covers every way to install yacron2: the published container image, pip, pipx, and the self-contained PyInstaller binaries. It documents the Python and platform requirements, the runtime dependencies, the exact binary release assets, and the writable-and-executable temp-directory requirement that applies to the standalone binary only.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Python (pip/pipx)	>= 3.13; only 3.13 and 3.14 are supported (requires-python = ">=3.13"). Python 3.7–3.12 are not supported.
Operating system	POSIX only (Linux, macOS). yacron2 imports grp/pwd at module load; there is no Windows support.
CPU architectures	amd64 (x86_64) and arm64 for the image and the prebuilt binaries.

Python is required only for the pip/pipx installs. The container image bundles its own interpreter, and the standalone binaries embed Python, so neither needs Python on the target host.

Runtime dependencies (pip/pipx)

Installing the yacron2 distribution pulls in the following, taken from pyproject.toml:

Dependency	Version constraint
strictyaml	>=1.7,<2
crontab	>=1,<2
aiohttp	>=3.10,<4
sentry-sdk	>=2,<3
aiosmtplib	>=3,<6
jinja2	>=3,<4
tzdata	>=2024.1

tzdata ships the IANA time-zone database so zoneinfo resolves time zones on minimal/slim images that do not include the system tz data. See Schedules and Timezones.

Install methods at a glance

Method	Source	Embeds Python?	Self-extracts at startup?
Container image	ghcr.io/ptweezy/yacron2	Yes (in-image interpreter)	No
pip	PyPI (yacron2)	No (uses your interpreter)	No
pipx	PyPI (yacron2)	No (uses your interpreter)	No
Standalone binary	GitHub Releases	Yes (embedded)	Yes

Only the standalone binary self-extracts at startup and therefore needs a writable and executable temp directory (see Standalone binary temp-directory requirement). The image and the pip/pipx installs run yacron2 as a normal Python package with the interpreter on disk and never self-extract.

Run with Docker

Prebuilt, multi-architecture (linux/amd64 + linux/arm64) images are published to the GitHub Container Registry on every release. Mount your crontab and run:

docker run --rm \
  -v "$PWD/yacron2tab.yaml:/etc/yacron2.d/yacron2tab.yaml:ro" \
  ghcr.io/ptweezy/yacron2:latest

The image runs as the non-root user 65534:65534 and its entrypoint is yacron2 with default arguments -c /etc/yacron2.d, so it reads configuration from /etc/yacron2.d unless you override the arguments. For production, pin a specific version instead of latest (e.g. ghcr.io/ptweezy/yacron2:1.0.4).

To bake configuration into your own image, base it on the published image:

FROM ghcr.io/ptweezy/yacron2:latest

# The base image already runs as the non-root user 65534.
COPY yacron2tab.yaml /etc/yacron2.d/yacron2tab.yaml

The image is built from python:3.14-slim (a multi-stage build that copies a self-contained venv into the runtime stage) and sets PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 and PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1. It requires no writable paths at runtime. See Production and Container Deployment for the hardened Kubernetes/Docker setup (read-only root filesystem, dropped capabilities, fsGroup).

Install using pip

yacron2 requires Python >= 3.13. Install it in a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv yacron2env
. yacron2env/bin/activate
pip install yacron2

This installs the yacron2 console script (entry point yacron2.__main__:main). For systems with an older Python, use the standalone binary instead.

Install using pipx

pipx creates the virtualenv and installs the program into it:

pipx install yacron2

pipx still requires a supported Python (3.13 or 3.14) available to build the isolated environment.

Install using a binary

A self-contained binary can be downloaded from https://github.com/ptweezy/yacron2/releases. Python is not required on the target system; it is embedded in the executable. Every release attaches the following assets, built natively on a matching runner:

Asset	Platform	libc / arch	Notes
yacron2-linux-amd64	Linux	glibc, x86_64	Runs on any Linux with glibc 2.39 or newer (e.g. Ubuntu 24.04).
yacron2-linux-arm64	Linux	glibc, arm64	Runs on any Linux with glibc 2.39 or newer on arm64.
yacron2-linux-amd64-musl	Linux	musl, x86_64	For Alpine and other musl-based systems.
yacron2-linux-arm64-musl	Linux	musl, arm64	For Alpine and other musl-based systems.
yacron2-macos-arm64	macOS	Apple Silicon (arm64)	Developer ID signed and notarized.
yacron2-macos-amd64	macOS	Intel (x86_64)	Developer ID signed and notarized.

The glibc Linux builds target glibc 2.39 (the Ubuntu 24.04 runner's libc) and work on any Linux host with glibc 2.39 or newer on the matching CPU. The musl builds (added in 1.0.8) are built inside an Alpine container for musl/Alpine hosts. macOS builds (added in 1.0.10) cover both Apple Silicon and Intel.

Download and run (glibc amd64 Linux shown — append -musl on Alpine, or use yacron2-macos-<arch> on a Mac):

curl -fsSL -o yacron2 \
  https://github.com/ptweezy/yacron2/releases/latest/download/yacron2-linux-amd64
chmod +x yacron2
./yacron2 --version

macOS signing and notarization

Since 1.0.11 the macOS binaries are Developer ID code-signed (hardened runtime) and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper accepts them and they run without first clearing the quarantine attribute. The earlier 1.0.10 macOS binaries were unsigned and required xattr -d com.apple.quarantine before first run; that step is no longer needed.

Standalone binary temp-directory requirement

The standalone binary is a self-extracting executable: on each start it unpacks its embedded Python runtime into a temporary directory and loads shared libraries from there. It therefore needs a temporary directory that is both writable and executable (documented in 1.0.9). On an ordinary system the default /tmp already satisfies this, so no extra setup is required.

This matters only when you run the binary under a read-only root filesystem (for example, a hardened container). With the root filesystem read-only, /tmp is read-only too, and the binary aborts at startup — Could not create temporary directory, or Error loading shared library …: Operation not permitted. Give it a small writable and executable temp mount and it runs:

# Note `exec`: Docker's --tmpfs defaults to `noexec`, but the binary must be
# able to execute the libraries it unpacks.
docker run --rm --read-only \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,exec,nosuid,nodev,size=64m \
  -v "$PWD/yacron2tab.yaml:/etc/yacron2.d/yacron2tab.yaml:ro" \
  your-image-with-the-binary -c /etc/yacron2.d

Remedies:

• Docker — mount an rw,exec tmpfs at /tmp. --tmpfs defaults to noexec, which fails; pass exec explicitly as above.
• Kubernetes — mount an emptyDir at /tmp (writable and executable by default; use medium: Memory for a tmpfs).
• Any host — point the binary at another writable, executable directory with TMPDIR=/path.

This requirement is unique to the standalone binary. The published container image and the pip/pipx installs run yacron2 as a normal Python package with the interpreter on disk, so they never self-extract and need no writable temp directory. See Production and Container Deployment.

After installation

Start yacron2 by giving it a configuration file or directory with -c; it always runs in the foreground:

yacron2 -c /etc/yacron2.d

See Command-Line Reference for all flags, and Configuration Reference for the config schema. If you are coming from the original yacron, see Migration from yacron.