Re: apt-get cron job

[Daniel Martin <Daniel.Martin@jhu.edu>]

Peter Cordes <peter@llama.nslug.ns.ca> writes:

>  I use this line in /etc/crontab on my woody system:
> 42 6    * * sun root    /usr/bin/apt-get update ; /usr/bin/apt-get -q -d -y -u dist-upgrade ; /usr/bin/apt-get autoclean
> 

I use a similar but much more complicated method to acheive a similar
result.  My situation is that I have only a dialup line and
furthermore share the line with three other people.

First, the cron job:

0 3 * * 6-7             /usr/sbin/pppd call providerapt maxconnect 7200
0 2 * * 1-5             /usr/sbin/pppd call providerapt maxconnect 10800

That says to do downloading from 3-5 am on weekends and from 2-5 am on 
weeknights.  Then, I have in /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/providerapt the contents 
of /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/provider plus the line
   ipparam apt-get

Then finally, in /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/local_aptget I have:
#!/bin/sh
#
if echo "$PPP_IPPARAM" | grep 'apt-get'; then 
  (
    http_proxy="http://localhost:80/";
    export http_proxy
    apt-get -y update
    apt-get -y -d -f dselect-upgrade
    poff
  ) > /var/local/apt-get.log 2>&1 &
fi

Actually, that isn't completely correct; I have a local web proxy
(that is, close to the other end of my ppp line, but with a fast
connection to the net) that I like to load with what I'm going to get
before I go and get it, so that makes things a bit more complicated.

I should at some point put all of my local configurations up on a web
page somewhere; I'd done that once, but got busy with other things and 
didn't keep it up to date.