yum-cron

You can configure cron to start yum command on daily basis to check for update. First install yum-cron command.

$ sudo yum install yum-cron

Installation will place 0yum.cron file under /etc/cron.daily directory. And cron executes yum-cron on daily basis.

You can control yum-cron’s behavior by modifying configuration file, /etc/sysconfig/yum-cron. I hereby quote some parameters in which you may be interested.

# Don't install, just check (valid: yes|no)
CHECK_ONLY=no

# Don't install, just check and download (valid: yes|no)
DOWNLOAD_ONLY=no

And start service for now. And configure system to start yum-cron service upon restart.

$ /etc/init.d/yum-cron start
$ sudo chkconfig yum-cron on

history

You can check if cron has started or not by referencing /var/log/cron* logs.

Aug 26 03:16:01 <hostname> run-parts(/etc/cron.daily)[24221]: starting 0yum.cron
Aug 26 04:07:46 <hostname> run-parts(/etc/cron.daily)[24421]: finished 0yum.cron

Log message are yielded in /var/log/yum.log file

Aug 09 04:09:11 Updated: nss-softokn-devel-3.14.3-3.el6_4.i686
Aug 09 04:09:12 Updated: nss-devel-3.14.3-4.el6_4.i686
Aug 09 04:09:13 Updated: nss-tools-3.14.3-4.el6_4.i686
Aug 14 03:36:46 Updated: httpd-tools-2.2.15-29.sl6.i686
Aug 14 03:36:48 Updated: httpd-2.2.15-29.sl6.i686

as specified in yum’s configuration file, /etc/yum.conf.

[main]
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log

Or you can check history by yum history command.

$ sudo yum history
Loaded plugins: auto-update-debuginfo, downloadonly, fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
ID     | Login user               | Date and time    | Action(s)      | Altered
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   138 | root <root>              | 2013-08-14 03:36 | Update         |    2
   137 | root <root>              | 2013-08-09 04:09 | Update         |   12
...

And You can check more details of update with “yum history <ID>”.

sigh

Ah...

By default, SL has similar functionality yum-autoupdate, which is enabled and executed on daily basis. So above configuration is duplicate and not necessary.

You can disable yum-autoupdate by configuring /etc/sysconfig/yum-autoupdate file.

ENABLED="false"