NAME

aptitude-robot-session - call aptitude-robot non-interactively

SYNOPSIS

aptitude-robot-session

DESCRIPTION

aptitude-robot-session is a helper script meant to be run from cron or init scripts. It will call aptitude-robot with some options suitable for non-interactive use. It will also redirect all output (STDERR and STDOUT) to LOGFILE defined in "/etc/default/aptitude-robot".

CONFIGURATION

There are a few configuration options that can be defined in "/etc/default/aptitude-robot".

LOGFILE

the name of the file where all the output of aptitude-robot is collected. Defaults to "/var/log/aptitude-robot.log"

LOG_SESSION

the name of the file where the session log is accumulated. aptitude-robot-session will append its PID to this file in order not to overwrite a log file left over from a crashed earlier invocation. If aptitude-robot-session finishes properly it will append the session log to LOGFILE and delete the session log.

SESSION_REPORT_COMMAND

optional command invoked with the session log as the only argument at the end of an aptitude-robot-session run. This can be used to file reports to monitoring systems or support mail addresses.

MAX_LOGFILES_SIZE_BLOCKS

file size limit in blocks for the session log. This prevents endless loops if a package installation continues to ask the same question for which no terminal is available to provide an answer.

But be aware that this limit also affects _all_ daemons started or restarted during the aptitude-robot-session run, including e.g. the OpenSSH daemon which again will propagate the limit to its remote login sessions. Use with care.

POST_SESSION_HOOK

a command that is run at the end of a successful aptitude-robot-session. E.g., use it for apt-get clean.

BUGS

The non-interactive nature of aptitude-robot-session may trigger the condition reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/aptitude/+bug/257279

SEE ALSO

aptitude-robot(8), aptitude(8)

AUTHORS

Elmar S. Heeb <elmar@heebs.ch> and Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>