Keeping Stuff Up To Date

Introduction

Unattended Upgrades is a package that automates the process of installing security updates, ensuring your system stays up-to-date without manual intervention. This guide will walk you through the steps to set up and configure Unattended Upgrades on both Debian and Fedora systems.

Installation

Debian

Ensure that your system is running a Debian-based distribution, such as Debian itself or Ubuntu. Then, install the Unattended Upgrades package using the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install unattended-upgrades

Fedora

For Fedora, use the following commands:

sudo dnf install dnf-automatic
sudo systemctl enable --now dnf-automatic.timer

Configuration

Debian

The configuration for Unattended Upgrades on Debian is done through the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades file. Open this file in a text editor:

sudo vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Fedora

For Fedora, the configuration is done in the /etc/dnf/automatic.conf file. Open this file in a text editor:

Applying Changes

Debian

Save the changes to the configuration file and apply them by running:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

Fedora

For Fedora, the changes are automatically applied when you save the configuration file.

Testing

To test if Unattended Upgrades is working correctly, you can simulate an upgrade:

Debian

sudo unattended-upgrades --dry-run --debug

Fedora

sudo dnf-automatic upgrade --downloadonly

This will show what packages would be upgraded without actually installing them.