How can I tell Ubuntu 12.10 to perform auto updates silently without any questions and messages? In GUI tool there is an option to do this if security updates are available. But I want all updates to be installed this way.
I think it can be done using apt-get with cron. But is it the best way?
The package unattended-upgrades is used by Ubuntu to silently install important security updates to your system. It is enabled by default and runs on every current Ubuntu release.
You can use the same utility to upgrade your system by enabling unattended-upgrades to upgrade non security related updates. For that use your favourite text editor to edit the necessary config file located on /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades, ie:
sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
and remove the // marks on the start of the line "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates"; so it looks like this
Dont forget to save the file.
You can change the configuration of the unattended updates by editing the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic, options for the configuration are in the /etc/cron.daily/apt script header. Read them to configure the frequency of the unattended updates.
That is it! Your system will be updating itself, user independent and without interaction needed.
