systemctl script froze - how to do to prevent this?

My script to record all played steemmonster games from https://beempy.com froze:

I restarted the script (I'm using systemctl for this) and it is now catching up.

How to prevent a frozen script

There was no bug, it just froze. This happend already before and I will now try to fix this.
I'm thinking of restarting the systemctl service every day. By this, a frozen script can only lead to a maximum stop of 24 hours.

Possible ideas to implement this:

• cron job with a systemctl restart service_name
• systemctl timer with a systemctl restart service_name
• Using RuntimeMaxSec

Cron job

A new rule can be entered by:

sudo crontab -e

The new rule could look like:

0 0 * * * /bin/systemctl restart yourService

systemctl timer

We need two files, one restart_service.timer

[Unit]
Description=Do something daily

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

and a restart_service.service:

[Unit]
Description=Restart service

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/systemctl try-restart my_program.service

They have to be copied to /etc/systemd/system and can be started by:

systemctl enable --now restart_service.timer

RuntimeMaxSec

When systemctl is newer than version 229, this is a good solution. The version can be found out by:

systemctl --version

The manual says about RuntimeMaxSec:

Configures a maximum time for the service to run. If this is used and the service has been active for longer than the specified time it is terminated and put into a failure state. Note that this setting does not have any effect on Type=oneshot services, as they terminate immediately after activation completed. Pass "infinity" (the default) to configure no runtime limit.

This seems to be exactly what I need.

Restart and RuntimeMaxSec has to be added to the service file in the [Service] part:

[Service]
Restart=always
RuntimeMaxSec=10800

This works for my scripts as they do not run forever. I'm using RestartSec to restart the script when it is finished.

Conclusion

RuntimeMaxSec seems to me a good measure to robustify systemctl scripts. I will try this on my systemctl services.