Re: update system periodically

[David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>]

On Mon 22 Jul 2024 at 05:47:58 (+0800), coreyh@free.fr wrote:
> I have been running an old debian 11 for many days.
> is it safe to run 'apt upgrade' and 'apt update' periodically?
> for example put them into crontab.

I run the following from root's crontab:

  apt-get -qq -o Acquire::http::Proxy="http://192.168.1.14:3142/";
  update && apt-get -qq -d -o Acquire::http::Proxy="http://192.168.1.14:3142/";
  dist-upgrade && find /var/cache/apt/archives/ -name '*deb'

(That's all on one line.)

If find lists any .deb files, it sends me an email. I use
apt-cacher-ng on one machine as a proxy, which you might not,
in which case omit both occurrences of:

  -o Acquire::http::Proxy="http://192.168.1.14:3142/";

> I ask this question because I am worried that some software updates
> may conflict with each other after running in this way, resulting in
> system unavailability.

They shouldn't do if you're actually running Debian 11. But I prefer
to see the upgrades themselves performed, so I'm happy for just the
downloads and consequent notification to be automated.

Cheers,
David.