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Enable Automatic Software Updates on CentOS 8

CentOS 8 updates using automatic RPM Package

The first thing is to install the DNF-automatic RPM package. The package provides a DNF component that starts automatically. To install it, use the following command.

# dnf install dnf-automatic

More details on the package can be pulled with the rpm command.

# rpm -qi dnf-automatic Name        : dnf-automatic Version     : 4.0.9.2 Release     : 5.el8 Architecture: noarch Install Date: Thu 26 Sep 2019 12:50:23 AM EAT Group       : Unspecified Size        : 46825 License     : GPLv2+ and GPLv2 and GPL Signature   : RSA/SHA256, Tue 02 Jul 2019 12:14:36 AM EAT, Key ID 05b555b38483c65d Source RPM  : dnf-4.0.9.2-5.el8.src.rpm Build Date  : Mon 13 May 2019 10:35:13 PM EAT Build Host  : ppc64le-01.mbox.centos.org Relocations : (not relocatable) Packager    : CentOS Buildsys <bugs@centos.org> Vendor      : CentOS URL         : https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf Summary     : Package manager - automated upgrades Description : Systemd units that can periodically download package upgrades and apply them.

Configure dnf-automatic updates

Once the installation is complete, go to the /etc/dnf directory and edit the configuration automatic.conf.

# cd /etc/dnf/ vim automatic.conf

On the [commands] section, change the upgrade_type as you need. You can use default for upgrading all packages or use the security option to upgrade all packages related security.

[commands] upgrade_type = default download_updates = yes

On the [emitters] section, uncomment the system_name option and change the value with your hostname. Then change the emit_via option to motd, so you will be displayed about package updates on every login.

[emitters] system_name = lintut-centos8 emit_via = motd

Other options for emit_via configuration are stdio which is default configuration and email for sending package updates information to your email.

Now go to the [email] section and change each configuration with your own.

[email] email_from = root@server.com email_to = root email_host = localhost

Save and close.

Finally, you can now run dnf-automatic, execute the following command to schedule DNF automatic updates for your CentOS 8 machine.

# systemctl enable --now dnf-automatic.timer

The command executed will enable and start the systemd timer. To check the status of dnf-automatic service, run:

$ sudo systemctl list-timers *dnf-* NEXT                         LEFT       LAST                         PASSED       UNIT                        ACTIVATES Sat 2019-09-28 11:24:09 EAT  23min left Sat 2019-09-28 10:24:09 EAT  36min ago    dnf-makecache.timer         dnf-makecache.service Sun 2019-09-29 06:01:45 EAT  19h left   Sat 2019-09-28 06:02:11 EAT  4h 58min ago dnf-automatic-install.timer dnf-automatic-install.service Sun 2019-09-29 11:02:13 EAT  24h left   Sat 2019-09-28 10:59:02 EAT  1min 21s ago dnf-automatic.timer         dnf-automatic.service  3 timers listed. Pass --all to see loaded but ina

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