Ubuntu - Unattended Upgrade Ubuntu

  • Thu, Feb 10, 2022
  • One-minute read

You can enable unattended upgrades in a few simple steps.

Install unattended-upgrades:

sudo apt install unattended-upgrades

Navigate to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

Make adjustments to 2 files:

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

In /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades make the following changes:


...
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}";
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
        // Extended Security Maintenance; doesn't necessarily exist for
        // every release and this system may not have it installed, but if
        // available, the policy for updates is such that unattended-upgrades
        // should also install from here by default.
        "${distro_id}ESMApps:${distro_codename}-apps-security";
        "${distro_id}ESM:${distro_codename}-infra-security";
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};
...

Make sure you uncomment "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";

...
// Remove unused automatically installed kernel-related packages
// (kernel images, kernel headers and kernel version locked tools).
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Kernel-Packages "true";

// Do automatic removal of newly unused dependencies after the upgrade
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-New-Unused-Dependencies "true";

// Do automatic removal of unused packages after the upgrade
// (equivalent to apt-get autoremove)
Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";
...

Test your configuration using:

unattended-upgrade --dry-run --verbose
UbuntuUnattendedcheat sheet