Ubuntu Server Guide

Unattended Upgrades Doc Bug

Bug #1690224 reported by Vincent Cardillo
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ubuntu Server Guide
Fix Released
Undecided
Doug Smythies

Bug Description

Re: https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/automatic-updates.html

Specifically:

To configure unattended-upgrades, edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades and adjust the following to fit your needs:

Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
        "Ubuntu xenial-security";
// "Ubuntu xenial-updates";
};

However:

$ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
// Automatically upgrade packages from these (origin:archive) pairs
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
 "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};

The "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}" format is not mentioned in the docs.

Revision history for this message
Doug Smythies (dsmythies) wrote :

Confirmed: serverguide/C/package-management.xml line 332.

Changed in serverguide:
status: New → Confirmed
assignee: nobody → Doug Smythies (dsmythies)
Doug Smythies (dsmythies)
Changed in serverguide:
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Vincent Cardillo (vincent-z) wrote :

There's another issue I noticed in 16.04 that doesn't happen in 14.04:

Initially, the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades is as expected, with everything commented out except the "-security" repository, meaning that only security updates will be applied automatically. *However*, after the first time the `unattended-upgrades` program is run, it overwrites the existing `50unattended-upgrades` file (also indicated in the output logs), and adds an additional, uncommented line, which is: "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}";

Therefore after first run, the state is:

Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
 "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}";
 "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
// "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};

This could create unexpected and undesirable behavior for a sysadmin. The documentation should instruct the operator to run the unattended-upgrades program once, and correct that file after it runs the first time.

Revision history for this message
Vincent Cardillo (vincent-z) wrote :

These are the relevant lines from unattended-upgrades-dpkg.log:

Setting up unattended-upgrades (0.90ubuntu0.1) ...
Replacing config file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades with new version
update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults

Notice the middle line.

Revision history for this message
Doug Smythies (dsmythies) wrote :

@Vincent: There is a mess going on right now with updates. I have asked for help from the Server team.

Doug Smythies (dsmythies)
Changed in serverguide:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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