Unattended Upgrades on Debian, Ubuntu and similar distros

This note was created on 2023-03-20
This note was last edited on 2023-03-20

1. Install required packages:
   # apt install unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges

2. Configure unattended-upgrades:
   # nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
   Uncomment: 
   ~~~
   "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
   Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "root";
   ~~~
   Change:
   ~~~
   Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Kernel-Packages "true";
   Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";
   Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
   Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-Time "02:00";
   ~~~

3. Enable automatic updates:
   # nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
   In most cases, the file will be empty. Copy and paste the following lines:
   ~~~
   APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
   APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";
   APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";
   APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
   // Send report mail to root
   //APT::Periodic::Verbose "2"; 
   ~~~

4. Check configuration:
   # unattended-upgrades --dry-run --debug
   $ cat /var/log/unattended-upgrades/unattended-upgrades.log