Automatic background updates

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 11:09 PM, Steve <yorvik.ubunto at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:51:39 -0000, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:49 PM, Aart Koelewijn <aart at mtack.xs4all.nl>
>> wrote:
>>> On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:37:32 +0000, Liam Proven wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:27 PM, Steve <yorvik.ubunto at googlemail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:41:25 -0000, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Is there an "official" way to do this, rather than just using cron to
>>>>>> schedule a script that says something like...
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   apt-get update
>>>>>>   apt-get upgrade -y
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ...?
>>>>>>
>>>>> There’s a setting for install security updates with out confirmation
>>>>> in
>>>>> Update Manager > Preferences along with download in background, or am
>>>>> I
>>>>> missing something.
>>>>
>>>> I'm hoping to not have to use the GUI at all.
>>>>
>>>> There seems to be some skeletal stuff in /etc/cron.daily/apt
>>>>
>>>> ... such as:
>>>>
>>>> #  APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "0"; #  - Run the
>>>> "unattended-upgrade" security upgrade script #    every n-days
>>>> (0=disabled)
>>>> #    Requires the package "unattended-upgrades" and will write #    a
>>>> log in /var/log/unattended-upgrades
>>>>
>>>> But I don't know how this works or how to "activate" it...?
>>>>
>>>> This is on 9.04, BTW...
>>>
>>> same in 9.10. Delete the comment sign (#) in front of the line and
>>> change
>>> the 0 to 1 (or 2 or 3 or ..). Now it reads:
>>> APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
>>> Now save, that is all.
>>
>> Terrific! Thanks, I will try that.
>>
> One problem I foresee is, will you be informed if a restart is required of
> either an application or the machine.

That's true, and thanks, but I am expecting these machines to be
turned off after use & so rebooted daily. I reckon we can live with a
possible delay of a few hours between installation & reboot.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
AOL/AIM/iChat/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • LiveJournal/Twitter: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508