Dec 5, 2023
How to configure automatic updates on Fedora with e-mail reports
Requirements
You first need to install dnf-automatic, postfix and mailx:
dnf install -y dnf-automatic postfix mailx
After all programms have been installed, you can start configuring the e-mail server.
E-Mail Server
Notice as of May 7th, 2024: Alternatively, send DNF Automatic's email reports via an already existing server.
Postfix's configuration is located at /etc/postfix/main.cf. These are the values that should be set:
myhostname: This value is used for various settings regarding, amongs other things, your e-mail domain.mydomain: see myhostnamemynetworks_style(ormynetworks): This defines which places in your network are authorized to send e-mails.
I have configured Postfix like this:
myhostname = notmalware.info
mydomain = notmalware.info
mynetworks_style = host
To test your Postfix configuration, you can execute this command:
echo "Hi, I'm your e-mail's body!" | mailx -r "test@server" -s "A test e-mail from Postfix!" "you@example.com"
Now that your e-mail server is working fine, you can configure DNF Automatic! 🤩
DNF Automatic
Automatic is a component of DNF. It's configuration file is located at /etc/dnf/automatic.conf.
Here are all the necessary configuration parameters:
[commands]
random_sleep: The interval (in seconds) between searching for new updates. — e. g.3600download_updates: If packages that can be updated should be downloaded automatically. —yes/noapply_updates: If updates for packages should be installed automatically. —yes/noreboot: Whether to reboot after updates. —never/when-changed/when-needed
[emitters]
emit_via: How to inform the system administrator on activities. —email/command_email/command
[command_email]
command_format: Which command and parameters to execute when sending an e-mail.email_from: Which e-mail to use for sending a report.email_to: Where to send a report via e-mail.
This is my configuration:
[commands]
# Check for updates daily
random_sleep = 86400
download_updates = yes
apply_updates = yes
reboot = when-needed
[emitters]
emit_via = command_email
[command_email]
command_format = "mailx -s {subject} -r {email_from} {email_to}"
email_from = dnf@notmalware.info
email_to = me@example.com
Finally, you need to enable one of DNF Automatic's systemd timers.
SystemD
If you have set e. g. download_updates to yes in your configuration, the timers settings will be overritten by the parameter(s).
You can choose between these three timers:
dnf-automatic-notifyonly.timer: Notify via the selected emitter, that updates are available.dnf-automatic-download.timer: Also download the updatesdnf-automatic-install.timer: And install them
I chose the installer timer:
systemctl enable --now dnf-automatic-install.timer
Done
Next time there are updates due, you will receive an e-mail telling you to not worry about it! 🥳
If you want to have a closer look at DNF Automatic, check out it's documentation.