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Running "yum update"

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Victor Porton

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Feb 27, 2013, 5:31:00 PM2/27/13
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I ordered a VPS with CentOS today to be used as a Web server.

Should I run "yum update" regularly?

Can it be automated with Cron?

--
Victor Porton - http://portonvictor.org

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

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Feb 27, 2013, 5:52:34 PM2/27/13
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Op 27-02-13 23:31, Victor Porton schreef:
> I ordered a VPS with CentOS today to be used as a Web server.
>
> Should I run "yum update" regularly?
>
> Can it be automated with Cron?
>
Victor,


yes, otherwise you create a honeypot. Honeypot is a hackersterm, meaning
easy to breack server.

And it can be scheduled, but you need:
yum -y update
for cron does not like user intervention


Kind regards,


ir. Jan Gerrit Kootstra

Victor Porton

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Feb 27, 2013, 5:55:50 PM2/27/13
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But won't say automatic updating of glibc without reboot break normal
functionality of the system?

I yet doubt that automating it with Cron may cause ill-effects. Maybe it's
better to update it manually?

Or are my fears unreal?

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

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Feb 27, 2013, 6:10:54 PM2/27/13
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Op 27-02-13 23:55, Victor Porton schreef:
Victor,


If you are rather save then sorry, then a backup + manual patching is
always better.

Using CENTOS instead off RHEL is using a non supported Operating System,
so you choose already for the not so save way.

It is up to you, my RHEL system patches itself each day twice. This is
not the approach we use at the office.


Kind regards,


Jan Gerrit Kootstra

Victor Porton

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Feb 27, 2013, 6:21:46 PM2/27/13
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I think the best way is to make my CentOS server to send me an email every
time new updates become available.

Could you assist me to write a Cron script sending me such emails?

In Bash

new=`yum list`

would not function as I need because backtics convert \n into space.

Or maybe it's better to write it in Perl rather than Bash?

Hm, is there a ready package to email system updates?

Victor Porton

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Feb 27, 2013, 6:31:37 PM2/27/13
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Hm, was it a stupid idea? I could subscribe to the updates list directly,
without using my VPS as a "proxy".

Well no, not that stupid. If fetching data from my VPS, I will not receive
reminders about software not installed on my Web server and this would
greatly reduce the amount of information I receive.

^^^ Just some thoughts
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