/etc/cron.daily/apt is missing - how to retrieve?

Asked by Charles Corrigan

Hi,

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 on a hosted VPS. So far all is going very well, one small niggle.

I installed the package unattended-updates and started configuring it. There are many references to /etc/cron.daily/apt in the documentation at several places on the web, particularly at https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/automatic-updates.html. However, this file is not present in my VPS.

1) is this an issue or can I ignore it and still expect the unattended upgrades to run periodically (i.e. documentation is not full up todate)?
2) if this file is needed, how can I get a copy installed or repair the installation.

thank-you for your attention
Charles

Question information

Revision history for this message
Charles Corrigan (d7a3x-charles-4w0k9) said :
#1

hrm, in some places it is called unattended-upgrades and other unattended-updates - could this be the issue

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#2

Don't you just make the file yourself, to run the upgrade commands. Or is that the point of the package?

Revision history for this message
Charles Corrigan (d7a3x-charles-4w0k9) said :
#3

My understanding of the point of the package is that it automates unattended upgrades, including error handling, email of status, periodicity (daily, weekly etc) etc.

Reading https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/automatic-updates.html indicates that the file should be part of the package or one of the dependencies.

The status is set to Needs information. What further information is needed?

Thank-you for your attention
Charles

Revision history for this message
Charles Corrigan (d7a3x-charles-4w0k9) said :
#4

Additional note: it appears that the missing file is required to initiate the unattended-upgrades as a cron job. I changed the settings to daily and monitored fore several days but nothing happened.

Charles

Revision history for this message
Didi (d10r) said :
#5

Hi Charles
I just had the same issue on several 10.04 servers (also VPS, don't know if that matters).
Couldn't find out what's the reason.
I solved it by manually extracting the missing file from the deb archive. The method described in http://serverfault.com/questions/82801/linux-how-to-restore-config-file-using-apt-get-aptitude also seems to do the trick. I don't know however if that also affects other config files of the package.

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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said :
#6

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

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Charles Corrigan (d7a3x-charles-4w0k9) said :
#7

As far as I can tell, the file is missing from the package. How can I bring it to the attention of the packagers to get them to have a look?

Thanks for your attention
Charles

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#8

According to http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/i386/apt/filelist the file /etc/cron.daily/apt should be contained in the apt package.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#9

You could download the deb and extract it, then put the file where it shoukd be

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