How to keep my system up to date

[Wizzard]

Hello.

I upgraded to Gutsy a few days after Feisty was released. I would like to keep my system up to date and I am tired of every day manual upgrade. I also disabled adept-updater, cause it was useless.

Any idea how to do it automatically?

[Rog131]

i don't recommended but...

You could use cron (kcron)

About kcron:

KCron is an application for scheduling programs to run in the background.
It is a graphical user interface to cron, the UNIX system scheduler.

Press: Alt + F2 > kdesu kcron > Choose root and right click: program:
/usr/bin/apt-get update && /usr/bin/apt-get dist-upgrade
Choose daily + set time.

(or aptitude)

Or you could use anacron

Make script file


#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/apt-get update && /usr/bin/apt-get dist-upgrade


Put it in the /etc/cron.daily/. anacron should execute these scripts once a day.

Set permissions:

udo chmod -v 755 /etc/cron.daily/script_name

From UNIX permissions and chmod tutorial
http://www.unixcities.com/howto/index3.html

So, 755 is a terse way to say 'I don't mind if other people read or run this file, but only I should be able to modify it' and 777 means 'everyone has full access to this file'

[Wizzard]

Thank you veru much, I used anacron and put it to /etc/cron.hourly :)

[Wizzard]

Just one more question, where can I found a log to control the upgrade activity? Cannot find it in /var/...

[penguin.ch]

a log to control the upgrade activity


/var/log/dpkg.log

[Wizzard]

Thank you all very much. But it seems that it does not work as it should.

I have this file in /etc/cron.hourly:

#!/bin/sh

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade -y
apt-get -f install
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get clean
apt-get autoremove -y

But when I check /var/log/dpkg.log, there is nothing new in a lot of hours, even days. When I run that file manually, like this:

sudo /etc/cron.hourly/dist-upgrade

everything installs fine. where is the problem?

[claydoh]

Just be aware that at this stage, updates will frequently, often, and with regularity cause something to break :) so at least with manual daily updates, you can skip them if you catch any bugs/breakages before you install anything.

[Wizzard]

Yes, I know that, of course, and I am prepared for that. I have been running the development version quite a long time and I am prepared to fix any problem that can occur.

But I still do not know why the updates are not working fully automatically. Maybe one hour frequency is too low and sometimes the updates even cannot be finished when another update is released? Or should I modify some commands in that file or write full path or modify some parameters?

[Rog131]

From Anacron (wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacron

Drawbacks compared to cron

Anacron can only run tasks once a day, (or less often such as weekly or monthly). In contrast, cron allows tasks to run as often as every minute...

So use cron. The easiest way: kcron.

If you wanto use cron/crontab. From Crontab:
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Crontab

A crontab is a simple text file that holds a list of commands that are to be run at specified times. These commands, and their related run times, are controlled by the cron daemon and are executed in the system's background. More information can be found by viewing the crontab's man page.
=> man cron / man crontab


Links

The KCron Handbook
http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdeadmin/kcron/index.html

Crontab
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Crontab

[Wizzard]

Ok, when I run kcron in root mode and want to add anything, it always crashes.

So I use cron. This is what I have in /etc/crontab:



# /etc/crontab: system-wide crontab
# Unlike any other crontab you don't have to run the `crontab'
# command to install the new version when you edit this file
# and files in /etc/cron.d. These files also have username fields,
# that none of the other crontabs do.

SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

# m h dom mon dow user command
17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
#


and this is what I have in /etc/cron.hourly/dist-upgrade:



#!/bin/sh

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade -y
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get clean
apt-get autoremove -y


I think that it does something, cause dpkg.log is sometimes modified, but it never installs everything. When I manually run dist-upgrade, it always works fine. Is there anything, that I do wrong?

[Rog131]

You could check /var/log/syslog (or syslog.0 ... )

example:

cat /var/log/syslog.0 | grep cron



snip
May 9 18:17:01 myhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[6178]: (root) CMD (run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
May 9 19:17:01 myhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[6420]: (root) CMD (run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
May 9 20:17:01 myhost /USR/SBIN/CRON[6659]: (root) CMD (run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly)
snap


note
my cron.hourly is empty->only chekking.


Or (do you have mail ? In the konsole :~$ mail)

If not. Install mail (mailx)
from apt-cache show mailx

Description: A simple mail user agent
mailx is the traditional command-line-mode mail user agent.
Even if you don't use it it may be required by other programs.


From apt-cache show cron

Output from the commands is usually mailed to the system administrator
(or to the user in question); you should probably install a mail system
as well so that you can receive these messages.

So cron can send mail to you and tell what is wrong.

[Wizzard]

Thank you very much, finally it was not necessary. I moved that file to cron.daily and it works fine, one dist-upgrade a day is enough.