Newsgroups:  gmane.linux.debian.user
Date:        Sat, 11 Nov 2006 12:25:04 -0600

> What is the recommended way to 'aptitude update' daily and update the
> files in /var/cache/apt/archives/ as well (without actually install
> anything)?

 Package: cron-apt
 Priority: optional
 Section: admin
Installed-Size: 88
 Description: automatic update of packages using apt-get

Contains a tool that is run by a cron job at regular intervals. By default it just updates the package list and download new packages without installing. You can instruct it to run anything that you can do with apt-get (or aptitude).

It can optionally sends mail to the system administrator on errors, log to syslog or a separate log file.

Observe that this tool may be a security risk, so you should not set it to do more than necessary. Automatic upgrade of all packages is NOT recommended unless you are in full control of the package repository.

Tag: admin::package-management, interface::daemon, role::sw:server, suite::debian, use::downloading, works-with::software:package

John Hasler

> Package: cron-apt
> Description: automatic update of packages using apt-get...