Setup Automatic Updates on Debian

  1. Log into the Debian device
  2. Run the following commands in a terminal:
    # update software repositories
    sudo apt update
    # install software updates
    sudo apt upgrade -y
    # install unattended-upgrades
    sudo apt install unattended-upgrades -y
    # edit unattended-upgrades config
    sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
  3. Update the unattended-upgrades conf as needed

    Uncomment the ::Mail line and edit the email address to receive email notifications

    Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "i12bretro@i12bretro.local";

    Uncomment and set the value to true to automatically remove unused dependencies

    Unattended-Upgrade::Remove-Unused-Dependencies "true";

  4. Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes
  5. Continue with the following commands
    # at the prompt, select Yes to enable automatic updates
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low unattended-upgrades
    # enable and start the unattended upgrades service
    sudo systemctl enable unattended-upgrades --now
  6. That's it, updates will now be installed automatically. Logs can be found in /var/log/unattended-upgrades
  7. To run updates on demand, simply run the following command
    sudo unattended-upgrade -d