I am using openSUSE 13.2 x86_64, and I am asking about yast2-online-update-configuration. In past versions of openSUSE, when this module was used to configure automatic periodic software updates, an email was sent to root whenever certain types of updates were available, such as those that required a reboot (e.g. kernel updates) or agreement with a license (e.g. Adobe Flash Player). The current PC is configured to check for updates daily, and manual emailing works on it. These emails have not been sent under 13.2, and I know there has been both kernel and Adobe Flash Player updates available for over 48 hours. I have not been able to find anything that talks about this emailing feature. I don’t want to report it as a bug if it is not a bug. Thanks in advance.
You can configure cron’s email sending behaviour in /etc/sysconfig/cron.
In particular have a look at the option SEND_OUTPUT_ON_NO_ERROR.
That said, I haven’t used that feature since years, and do not know whether it still works in 13.2 or not.
OTOH, cron only sends emails to the user root normally.
You’d have to setup some aliasing/forwarding to send to different users or even mail accounts.
Normally they are only sent on the localhost (to /var/spool/mail/$USER), you’d have to configure your mail program first to be able to read those mails.
Thanks. I’m aware of all that. I should have been clear that the automatic updater sent emails, to root, only when interaction was required. Otherwise, the system updated silently. I’d have to build that logic into the cronjob. My guess is that, with the change in yast to using Ruby, this functionality was either dropped or a bug prevents them from being sent.
YaST itself is not at all involved here. It just copies the shipped script to /etc/cron.daily/ or similar and modifies the settings in /etc/sysconfig/automatic_online_update.
That cronjob calls zypper with the appropriate parameters according to the config file.
If that cronjob produces output or returns an error, cron then sends it if configured to do so.
But as I said, I haven’t used this in years.
You might have a look at /etc/sysconfig/packagekit-background too, that offers similar funtionality using PackageKit. Maybe this is more what you want.
On 2015-04-24 21:56, wolfi323 wrote:
>
> bwayson;2706692 Wrote:
>> Thanks. I’m aware of all that. I should have been clear that the
>> automatic updater sent emails, to root, only when interaction was
>> required. Otherwise, the system updated silently. I’d have to build
>> that logic into the cronjob. My guess is that, with the change in yast
>> to using Ruby, this functionality was either dropped or a bug prevents
>> them from being sent.
> YaST itself is not at all involved here. It just copies the shipped
> script to /etc/cron.daily/ or similar and modifies the settings in
> /etc/sysconfig/automatic_online_update.
You are confused, it is about YaST.
You can configure in YaST a module to do automatic updates on its own
(accessed via module “online_update_configuration”). And this module, at
least in the past, did send emails.
Those are the configuration module. The actual work is done by something
else, probably called by a cron job. But the mail the OP is asking about
is not the one send by any cron job, but something very specific created
by the script or code that did the actual update.
It is not a feature I use, but I read about it in the past.
But YaST does not install the updates or is involved in that.
Again, as I wrote, that module just sets the options in /etc/sysconfig/automatic_online_update, and copies the script to /etc/cron.daily/, .weekly/, or .monthly/ if it is not there already.
But it is not at all involved in te automatic online update, and it doesn’t (and never did) send any EMails either.
The cronjob calls zypper to install the updates, and always did.
So the functionality might be missing in the cronjob, or it might even have changed because of changes in zypper.
But it has absolutely nothing to do with YaST’s rewrite in ruby. (which was for 13.1 already btw, and it was actually no rewrite but an automatic translation, so no features should be missing because of that)
And regarding the emails: I only remember getting emails when that cronjob failed to install updates for some reasons. And I’ve been using it for years starting with 10.3 (upto 12.1 I think).
But I don’t remember all configuration options there have been back then.
And as far as I do remember, that cronjob never sent any emails by itself either, it relied on cron for sending zypper’s output as email.