[Bug 1828634] Re: update-notifier runs too often on a Ubuntu

[Steve Langasek]

I'm sorry, I don't know what app you used to determine that update-
notifier was writing to disk, but I don't think this analysis is
correct.  update-notifier certainly *shouldn't* be writing to disk, and
an strace of update-notifier on my desktop (Ubuntu 19.04, same as this
report) over a 10minute+ interval confirms that no writes are happening.
So there's no evidence that polling once every 10 minutes has any effect
other than a CPU wakeup, and once every 10 minutes is not that frequent
for CPU wakeups.

** Changed in: update-notifier (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Incomplete

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1828634

Title:
  update-notifier runs too often on a Ubuntu

Status in update-notifier package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Hello.

  update-notifier runs too often on a Ubuntu. According to sources (update-notifier.c) utility check updates every 10 minutes:
  // the timeout (in sec) when a further activity from dpkg/apt
  // causes the applet to "ungray"
  #define TIMEOUT_APT_RUN 600 /* 600 sec */

  As result, this utility writes about 2 gigabytes on disk per day
  (https://imgur.com/4jzbONU). This is to much for me. I want to save
  SSD resources. I want to decrease update check interval up to ~2h. It
  is will be  OK for me.

  Could you please make check interval configurable? 'Every 10 min'
  should be by default, but users should be able to change this interval
  via config files or GUI.

  What do you think? Thank you!

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
  Package: update-notifier 3.192.18
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-13.14-generic 5.0.6
  Uname: Linux 5.0.0-13-generic x86_64
  NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
  ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
  Date: Sat May 11 01:01:43 2019
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-05-02 (373 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180426)
  SourcePackage: update-notifier
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-04-18 (22 days ago)

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