system-helpers/_man/src/check_updates.1.md

1.5 KiB

% check_updates(1) check_updates % Alexander Schäferdiek % January 2023

NAME

check_updates - Notifies about available updates. Configuration is done in environment files.
It's part of system-helpers.

SYNOPSIS

check_updates [CONFIG_FILE (absolute path)]

DESCRIPTION

check_updates checks for available updates using checkupdates and sends out a mail. It comes with systemd services.

If no CONFIG_FILE is provided, check_updates tries to read from $HOME/.check_updates.conf and /etc/check_updates.conf for configuration. It will exit with a non-zero exit code if it cannot find an proper configuration file.

The following are at least required for the script to work:\

  • CHECK_UPDATES_MAIL_ADDRESS="" which requires mail.rc to be configured and 'mailx' command has be available.
  • CHECK_UPDATES_UPDATES_CMD is the command for retrieving which updates are available, by default it's set to /usr/bin/checkupdates (Arch Linux default).
  • CHECK_UPDATES_UPDATES_AMOUNT_CMD is the command used to determine the amount of updates, by default it's set to /usr/bin/checkupdates | wc -l (Arch Linux default).

You can copy this script to /usr/local/bin and use create a custom CONFIG_FILE as user.

EXAMPLE

Create a $HOME/.check_updates.conf and add CHECK_UPDATES_MAIL_ADDRESS="alias@domain.tld". Notifications will be delivered to alias@domain.tld. Examples can be found in /usr/share/doc/check_updates.

EXIT VALUES

0
Success
1
Error