How To Install cron-apt on Ubuntu 18.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install cron-apt on Ubuntu 18.04.
What is cron-apt
cron-apt is:
Contains a tool that is run by a cron job at regular intervals. By default it just updates the package list and downloads new packages without installing. You can instruct it to run anything that you can do with apt-get (or aptitude).
It can optionally send mail to the system administrator on errors, log to syslog or a separate log file.
Observe that this tool may be a security risk, so you should not set it to do more than necessary. Automatic upgrade of all packages is NOT recommended unless you are in full control of the package repository.
There are three methods to install cron-apt on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install cron-apt Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install cron-apt using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install cron-apt
Install cron-apt Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install cron-apt using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install cron-apt
Install cron-apt Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install cron-apt using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install cron-apt
How To Uninstall cron-apt on Ubuntu 18.04
To uninstall only the cron-apt package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove cron-apt
Uninstall cron-apt And Its Dependencies
To uninstall cron-apt and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove cron-apt
Remove cron-apt Configurations and Data
To remove cron-apt configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge cron-apt
Remove cron-apt configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove cron-apt configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge cron-apt
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install cron-apt package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.
