How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Vladimir Nikishkin]

Hello, everyone

I need to pay a fee by every 28th of the month, and I want this task
to show up in the agenda from the 20th of the next not paid month.

What's the proper DEADLINE  format?

DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun .+1m -10d>  ?
DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun -10d .+1m>  ?

Thanks!
-- 
Yours sincerely, Vladimir Nikishkin

Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Kyle Meyer]

Vladimir Nikishkin <lockywolf@gmail.com> writes:

> I need to pay a fee by every 28th of the month, and I want this task
> to show up in the agenda from the 20th of the next not paid month.
>
> What's the proper DEADLINE  format?
>
> DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun .+1m -10d>  ?
> DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun -10d .+1m>  ?

Those are equivalent.  Though you might consider whether you'd prefer
'+' or '++' for this rather than '.+'.  See (info "(org)Repeated tasks")
if you're not aware of the differences.

And note that a utility like datefudge or libfaketime is useful for
testing these sorts of things out.  For example:

  $ datefudge "2020-02-18" emacs [...]

Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Vladimir Nikishkin]

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Ah, great, thanks!

I have been looking at the wrong node all the time.

However, the manual node you're pointing to disagrees with the claim that
those are equivalent:

>If you need both a repeater and a special warning period in a deadline
>entry, the repeater should come first and the warning period last
>     DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m -3d>

However, the manual may be incomplete.

Thank you, problem seems to be solved.

Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> 於 2020年4月30日 週四 13:02 寫道：

> Vladimir Nikishkin <lockywolf@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I need to pay a fee by every 28th of the month, and I want this task
> > to show up in the agenda from the 20th of the next not paid month.
> >
> > What's the proper DEADLINE  format?
> >
> > DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun .+1m -10d>  ?
> > DEADLINE: <2020-02-28 Sun -10d .+1m>  ?
>
> Those are equivalent.  Though you might consider whether you'd prefer
> '+' or '++' for this rather than '.+'.  See (info "(org)Repeated tasks")
> if you're not aware of the differences.
>
> And note that a utility like datefudge or libfaketime is useful for
> testing these sorts of things out.  For example:
>
>   $ datefudge "2020-02-18" emacs [...]
>

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Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Kyle Meyer]

Vladimir Nikishkin <lockywolf@gmail.com> writes:

> However, the manual node you're pointing to disagrees with the claim that
> those are equivalent:
>
>>If you need both a repeater and a special warning period in a deadline
>>entry, the repeater should come first and the warning period last
>>     DEADLINE: <2005-10-01 Sat +1m -3d>

Thanks for pointing that out.  AFAICT things work fine if you swap them,
but it's best to follow the manual's recommendation here.

Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2020-04-30, at 07:02, Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> wrote:

> And note that a utility like datefudge or libfaketime is useful for
> testing these sorts of things out.  For example:
>
>   $ datefudge "2020-02-18" emacs [...]

Shameless plug: I wrote about this use-case of datefudge sime time ago:
http://mbork.pl/2019-08-05_datefudge_and_agenda_testing

(I don't know libfaketime).

Another way of testing that is using a VM or perhaps docker to run Emacs
in an environment where you set up the system clock to whatever you
want.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl

Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[tomas]

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On Sat, May 02, 2020 at 09:37:40AM +0200, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> 
> On 2020-04-30, at 07:02, Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> wrote:
> 
> > And note that a utility like datefudge or libfaketime is useful for
> > testing these sorts of things out.  For example:
> >
> >   $ datefudge "2020-02-18" emacs [...]
> 
> Shameless plug: I wrote about this use-case of datefudge sime time ago:
> http://mbork.pl/2019-08-05_datefudge_and_agenda_testing
> 
> (I don't know libfaketime).

It just plays games with LD_PRELOAD to trick the application (which is
supposed to use the usual libs when asking for time, but most do that).

Infinitely more lightweight than a container or a VM. On Debian:

  tomas@trotzki:~$ apt show libfaketime
  Package: libfaketime
  [...]
  Download-Size: 31.2 kB
  APT-Sources: http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
  Description: Report faked system time to programs (preload library)
   The Fake Time Preload Library (FTPL, a.k.a. libfaketime) intercepts
   various system calls which programs use to retrieve the current date
   and time [...] FTPL allows you to specify both absolute dates (e.g.,
   2004-01-01) and relative dates (e.g., 10 days ago).

You might need a VM for an app which bypasses the "usual libraries",
but then, I don't know whether I would like to have such a thing on
my box. Probably not without a good reason :-)

Cheers
-- t

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Re: How to properly set up reminders for paying cellphone fees in org?

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2020-05-02, at 10:12, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:

> On Sat, May 02, 2020 at 09:37:40AM +0200, Marcin Borkowski wrote:
>>
>> On 2020-04-30, at 07:02, Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> wrote:
>>
>> > And note that a utility like datefudge or libfaketime is useful for
>> > testing these sorts of things out.  For example:
>> >
>> >   $ datefudge "2020-02-18" emacs [...]
>>
>> Shameless plug: I wrote about this use-case of datefudge sime time ago:
>> http://mbork.pl/2019-08-05_datefudge_and_agenda_testing
>>
>> (I don't know libfaketime).
>
> It just plays games with LD_PRELOAD to trick the application (which is
> supposed to use the usual libs when asking for time, but most do that).
>
> Infinitely more lightweight than a container or a VM. On Debian:
>
>   tomas@trotzki:~$ apt show libfaketime
>   Package: libfaketime
>   [...]
>   Download-Size: 31.2 kB
>   APT-Sources: http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
>   Description: Report faked system time to programs (preload library)
>    The Fake Time Preload Library (FTPL, a.k.a. libfaketime) intercepts
>    various system calls which programs use to retrieve the current date
>    and time [...] FTPL allows you to specify both absolute dates (e.g.,
>    2004-01-01) and relative dates (e.g., 10 days ago).
>
> You might need a VM for an app which bypasses the "usual libraries",
> but then, I don't know whether I would like to have such a thing on
> my box. Probably not without a good reason :-)

One use-case when this might be reasonable is an application which talks
to a database, when you have to convince both the application and the
database server that the time is different than in reality.

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl