workmanager_linux

Experimental Linux implementation of workmanager for Flutter, backed by systemd user units. Unlike the web, Linux has a real OS scheduler, so the plugin contract — "execute Dart code in the background, even when the app is closed" — is implemented with actual systemd timers, not an approximation.

⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL. Read Honest limitations before using this package. Requires a systemd user session; Flatpak/Snap sandboxing is not supported yet.

How it works

Task type	Mechanism
One-off	Transient units via systemd-run --user --unit=workmanager-<hash> --on-active=<delay> (or --no-block for immediate runs). Transient units vanish after the task ran.
Periodic	A .timer/.service unit pair in ~/.config/systemd/user/. The timer uses OnUnitActiveSec for the frequency and Persistent=true for WorkManager-style catch-up of runs missed while the system was off.

The service/timer launches your app binary in headless mode with --background-task <taskName> --payload <path>. The payload is the inputData JSON persisted at registration time (Android-style on-disk payload) under $XDG_DATA_HOME/workmanager/payloads/.

There is no native code and no Pigeon: the package is pure Dart that shells out to systemctl --user / systemd-run --user through an injectable process runner (so all tests run without systemd).

Setup

1. Requirements

• A systemd-based Linux distribution with a user session.
• The user session must be able to reach the systemd user manager. When the app is launched from a normal desktop session this just works; for headless/autostart contexts run loginctl enable-linger $USER so user units keep running after logout (see the caveat below).
• Flatpak and Snap sandboxes cannot write user units — punted for v1.

2. Add the dependency

dependencies:
  workmanager: ^0.10.0
  workmanager_linux: ^0.1.0

The main workmanager package delegates to this package on Linux automatically, so Workmanager() works out of the box. Registering with the main package API is all you need for scheduling:

Workmanager().initialize(callbackDispatcher);
Workmanager().registerOneOffTask("task-id", "sync", initialDelay: Duration(minutes: 5));
Workmanager().registerPeriodicTask("periodic-id", "sync", frequency: Duration(hours: 1));

3. Headless main()

Your main() must detect the --background-task invocation and run the callback instead of starting the UI:

Future<void> main(List<String> args) async {
  if (await WorkmanagerLinux.maybeRunBackgroundTask(args, callbackDispatcher)) {
    // The process was launched headless by systemd to run a background task.
    // The result was logged and the process already exited (0 = success).
    return;
  }
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

@pragma('vm:entry-point')
void callbackDispatcher() {
  // Register with WorkmanagerLinux.executeTask — not Workmanager().executeTask —
  // because the headless process has no native platform-channel counterpart.
  WorkmanagerLinux.executeTask((taskName, inputData) async {
    print("Background task: $taskName");
    // Your background work here. Flutter plugins are allowed.
    return true;
  });
}

The dispatcher's exit code is the task result: 0 on success, 1 on failure or when no handler was registered — so failed runs show up as failed units in journalctl --user.

Honest limitations

• Constraints are accepted but ignored (networkType, requiresCharging, ...). No battery/AC/network gating in v1.
• Backoff policy is accepted but ignored — failed one-off tasks are not retried. A failed periodic task simply waits for the next interval.
• existingWorkPolicy is effectively REPLACE: re-registering a unique name overwrites the units (the previous timer is replaced). KEEP is not implemented.
• Tags are accepted but not tracked, so cancelByTag throws UnsupportedError (a tag registry is needed; cancel by unique name or use cancelAll instead).
• Frequency is honored as-is (no Android-style 15-minute floor; systemd supports arbitrary intervals). Frequencies below 1 minute are not useful in practice — systemd resolves OnUnitActiveSec to whole seconds.
• User timers stop while the user is logged out unless loginctl enable-linger $USER is set. On many desktops, systemd user services also only run after the first graphical login of that user.
• registerProcessingTask, registerHealthResearchTask, registerContinuedProcessingTask throw UnsupportedError (iOS-only task types).
• Flatpak/Snap sandboxing is unsupported (no way to write user units).

Testing

The package is pure Dart with an injectable process runner — the test suite asserts the exact systemctl/systemd-run commands, unit file contents, payload round-trips and the headless argument parsing, and runs anywhere without systemd:

cd workmanager_linux
dart test

Design

See DESIGN.md for the decisions behind the systemd-based approach.