[SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

Cuddles McKitten · 2009-10-24 17:37:55

Is there any possible reason that making a cronjob run:

yes | pacman -Syu

daily would be a bad idea? I don't think I've ever said "no" to pacman before, since he's never made any unreasonable requests before.

Last edited by Cuddles McKitten (2009-10-24 17:48:15)

Kooothor · 2009-10-24 17:39:08

Nope.

Last edited by Kooothor (2012-03-06 19:29:29)

flamelab · 2009-10-24 17:41:52

It is a bad idea. Sometimes there might be a serious update that needs care. If you don't see what has happened to that update, you might reboot into an unbootable system.

Cuddles McKitten · 2009-10-24 17:42:33

flamelab wrote:

It is a bad idea. Sometimes there might be a serious update that needs care. If you don't see what has happened to that update, you might reboot into an unbootable system.

That's what I was looking for. Thanks.

Last edited by Cuddles McKitten (2009-10-24 17:43:03)

radu242 · 2009-10-24 21:00:22

But you could use

pacman -Syuw --noconfirm

blindly and not run into any trouble (other than filling up your hard drive). It only downloads package updates, allowing you to review the changes made to your system on the next -Su, yet have your packages ready to install. Also, the --noconfirm option does what yes | pacman does.

reqamst · 2009-10-24 21:28:14

Pacman sometimes prints important informations and if you miss something, you will could have problems. Of course you can watch /var/log/pacman.log and bypass that situations. I even saw somewhere script/application for watching pacman.log. You just should be careful.

*david_a* · 2009-10-24 23:01:36

If you are constantly reading the Arch news and keeping track of the comments on this board, then your plan might be almost acceptable. However, as reqamst pointed out, Pacman often shows important messages while installing - and it would be far better for you to read those. Unless you enjoy the challenge of fixing a system that won't boot, or a printer that won't print, or whatever, without any information... :-/

Arch updates are very good, and are done correctly the vast majority of the time - but often it's necessary for you to know something before they get applied.

sand_man · 2009-10-24 23:03:58

On my FreeBSD box, and email gets sent with any output to cron jobs. I'm not sure how this gets configured exactly but its a really good idea IMO.

strugee · 2013-08-23 05:51:18

radu242 wrote:

But you could use
pacman -Syuw --noconfirm
blindly and not run into any trouble (other than filling up your hard drive). It only downloads package updates, allowing you to review the changes made to your system on the next -Su, yet have your packages ready to install. Also, the --noconfirm option does what yes | pacman does.

Note for people coming from Google (as I did): this is also dangerous. It's not quite as dangerous as pacman -Syu --noconfirm, but it's still a bad idea, and here's why:
Partial upgrades are not supported.
At first this may not make sense, but consider: what happens if you don't apply those updates and install something new? The thing you installed is new, because the package databases were refreshed, but the rest of your system hasn't caught up. Therefore you get a partial upgrade situation, which is bad.
Someday I'm going to write a script to fix this. But today is not that day.

jasonwryan · 2013-08-23 06:41:14

Please don't necrobump threads, especially solved ones:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … Bumping.27

Closing

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-24 17:37:55

[SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#2 2009-10-24 17:39:08

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#3 2009-10-24 17:41:52

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#4 2009-10-24 17:42:33

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#5 2009-10-24 21:00:22

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#6 2009-10-24 21:28:14

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#7 2009-10-24 23:01:36

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#8 2009-10-24 23:03:58

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#9 2013-08-23 05:51:18

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

#10 2013-08-23 06:41:14

Re: [SOLVED] Auto-update pacman cronjob ever a bad idea?

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