update-o-matic

I wanted a single, cross-platform way to say "Apply all updates in a reasonably safe and sane manner". It seems like most update commands require several discrete commands: clean up, update program database, ACTUALLY update, etc. Over the years, I've written scripts for most of the operating systems that I run at home. This is an effort to merge them into one script that can be pulled down and run from any OS that supports bash.

I wanted scripts that could be run nightly from cron on servers, and scripts that could be run by non-technical relatives on the desktop. Therefore, the emphasis is on safety rather than efficiency.

Requirements

1. The bash shell must be installed.
2. You must have the ability to run as root or equivalent (e.g. with sudo)
3. The uname command must exist
4. git is not required (you can download from github.com), but it's easier to stay up to date if it's installed.

General update order

1. Update third-party repos or tools that run on top of the OS. Macports, etc. These are updated first because many OS updates require an immediate reboot, but it's rare for add-on packages to require a reboot.
2. Run any OS cleanup, fix, or check commands. If possible, the script should abort if a problem is found and not fixed.
3. Sync update databases and get list of possible updates.
4. Download and apply updates. Avoid experimental or not-recommended updates.
5. If reboot flag is set, reboot after 5 minutes.

Supported Operating Systems (so far!)

• Linux variants
  • CentOS
  • Debian
  • Fedora
  • Raspbian
  • Redhat
  • Ubuntu
• Darwin (a.k.a. OS X)
  • with or without Macports

How to install and use

• go to whatever directory you use to store source code.
• To pull down the repository, type git clone https://github.com/brokengoose/update-o-matic.git or download the file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/brokengoose/update-o-matic/master/update-o-matic.sh
• To run the script interactively, go to the update-o-matic directory and type sudo bash ./update-o-matic.sh
• To run the script via cron, add something like the following to crontab @daily /opt/update-o-matic/update-o-matic.sh >> /tmp/update-o-matic.log 2>&1
• When it's time for updates, go to the update-o-matic directory and type git pull or download the file from github again.

Recent Changes

• Removed SuSE and FreeBSD support, as I no longer regularly use those operating systems.
• Added proper getopts command line flag processing
• Added help option
• Added reboot wait time option

Known Issues

See https://github.com/brokengoose/update-o-matic/issues