How to auto update all packages on a scheduled frequency without user intervention?

I’m using Manjaro as my media server and it runs headless. Is there a way to auto update all packages on a weekly/monthly basis without user intervention?

I’m looking for something similar to debian’s unattended upgrades, but I’ve searched quite a bit on google, the forums, manjaro wiki, reddit and it doesn’t seem to be a common ask.

Is this even possible?

Hi @zangman, and welcome!

You can, yes. You can set up a cronjob to run, say, monthly with the following command:

pamac upgrade -a --force-refresh

However, and this is a big however, it WILL cause breakage and I do NOT recommend it.

This is what the end result will be for you, regularly:

You have been warned.

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Thanks! Couple of questions though:

  • I assume you mean pamac upgrade as root correct?
  • Could you please elaborate on why this would break the system? Is this because because Manjaro is based on Arch (i.e. being on the bleeding edge of packages), there is a higher chance of breakage on upgrades?
  1. I suspect so, yes.
  2. Not only that, but because this will overwrite any and all affected configs without prompting and make changes you might not have been aware of. I might not be a problem the first time, or thee second time, or even the fifth. But sooner or later it will happen.

Ah - that is cause for concern. Is there a general recommendation what to do in such situations? Do I have to login at least once a month/quarter and update manually?

That would be my recommendation, yes.

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Thanks for the super fast help! I’d rather have a working system than risk a system that breaks without warning. I guess I’ll just stick to manual updates once a month or so for now and see how I get on.

Appreciate the help. I’ll keep the thread open for a day in case anyone else has any alternative suggestions. If not, will mark it as solved tomorrow :slight_smile: .

you can use yay -Syyu and write a .desktop file

crontab may help you

Regardless of how it’s done, the end result and effect would the same:

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No matter how tempting the idea is - as already said - you will most likely run into problems - not today and not tomorrow - but inevitably you will.

The topic has been discussed before - and unattended syncing a system with the latest package set will go

:bomb:

and when you seek assistance you will be the

:clown_face:

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Thanks!

Done, thanks!

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