[Linux] Automatic Update?

[markwolfe Veteran]

For some reason, I prefer to manually start my updates. I was thinking about just automating it, and have it get updates daily (possibly excluding kernel, and do those manually, due to nVidia updates tied in).

What do you other Linux (or BSD, etc.) users currently do for updates? And, if you do it manually, why do you prefer that over a cron scheduled event?

For me, it is manual (as stated above), and a couple times a week, as I think of it while at my PC. Surely an automated update would be better?

[benjaminzsj]

I manually update it almost daily. I think automated update is for those who don't know and don't wanna know what's going on. I don't like automatic update slowing my system without notice. Well, if ever I get so concentrated on something else :hmmm: , I'll consider automating it.

[Kreuger]

I check it myself every few days

[Login_Here]

I do it manually every once in a while, usually once or twice a week.

[h3xis]

I do it manually once a week...or when I'm bored in lecture I'll ssh into it and do it that way :p I don't really see a need to automate it as I have no problem doing it myself.

[chavo]

It depends on which version I'm currently running. Right now I'm running Kubuntu 6.10 and there shouldn't be too many updates. I had been running edgy while it was in testing though, so I was updating daily for a while. In a couple of months I'll upgrade to feisty fawn and start the daily update cycle again.

So for now I'm just going to check a couple of times a week.

[NullPointerException]

I check for updates manually every day usually. I want to know exactly what is going to be updated and i want to take my time to check the forums/mailing list of my distro if any of the updates break anything or if i have to change any configuration files after updating. I had a gentoo box once and it was set to auto update via cron every night when after a (manual) kernel compile my system wouldn't boot because of some changes to udev config that had to be made after the update. Never tried it again since.

[Barney T. Administrators]

Manual for me too.

Barney

[devilotX]

I like the update-manager in ubuntu, it tells me when I miss stuff, but usually I find myself doing a manual update if not every day, then a few times a week.

An "automatic Updates" thing might be ok for Desktops, but I'm more wary about servers, I don't want my Servers just tossing in new patches asap. I prefer to monitor my updates one at a time to make sure nothing craps out.

[MrA]

Manual. I could set it as a cron job, but I:

a) like to see what updates get installed so I can avoid problematic updates (i.e. mdadm)

b) am too lazy to write a 2 line bash script

[ichi]

Manual. Esync and glsa-check -l 3 or 4 times per week, sometimes more often if I'm waiting for something specific to get into portage.

I don't feel like automatically installing stuff like a new baselayout, or even an update for some game that might break compatibility with old saved games.

[Aaron Veteran]

I let ubuntu's manager alert me when an update is available, the I manually choose to do it. So I guess I automatically manually update?