Enable automatic updates in Fedora and Debian

linux-autoupdate.md

• Debian
• Fedora ≥ 41

~debian-autoupdate.md

1. Install plugin

   sudo apt install unattended-upgrades

2. Edit package behavior

   Create a new configuration override file and set its contents to the following, changing values to your liking.

   sudo $EDITOR /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-local

   Unattended-Upgrade::Origins-Pattern {
       "origin=*";
   };
   
   Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "false";
   

   This will upgrade all packages, regardless of which repository they come from. It won't reboot after installing upgrades.

See Debian Reference § 2.7.3: Automatic download and upgrade of packages, /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades and /usr/share/doc/unattended-upgrades/README.md.gz for documentation, defaults, and examples.

~fedora-autoupdate.md

1. Install plugin

   sudo dnf install dnf5-plugin-automatic

2. Edit plugin behavior

   sudo cp /usr/share/dnf5/dnf5-plugins/automatic.conf /etc/dnf/automatic.conf
   sudo $EDITOR /etc/dnf/automatic.conf

   commands.apply_updates can be set to yes to actually install the updates instead of only downloading them
3. Edit timer

   sudo systemctl edit dnf5-automatic.timer

   For example, to make DNF install updates at exactly 1:05 AM every day, you can set the file contents to

   [Timer]
   # Empty string disables the default 6-7 AM update
   OnCalendar=
   OnCalendar=*-*-* 1:05
   RandomizedDelaySec=0

   more systemd timer examples
4. Enable timer

   sudo systemctl enable --now dnf5-automatic.timer

5. Verify timer status

   systemctl status dnf5-automatic.timer
   systemctl list-timers --all dnf5-automatic

Interesting! Yes if you need it to reboot at a specific time, and prefer to have your files pre-populated with configs then that totally makes sense. I prefer an empty config file and to build up.

I'm pretty sure the config format didn't change between dnf5-automatic and dnf-automatic, though? Can't find any reference to them changing online. Edit: wait I see what you mean! The config format hasn't changed, but the pre-configured automatic timers have been removed from dnf5-automatic plugin!! https://dnf5.readthedocs.io/en/latest/changes_from_dnf4.7.html#changes-to-individual-commands. I'll update the Fedora docs to reflect this.