yum, crontab, and logwatch

[Erik Hemdal]

Hi Sharon:

> 
> I'm trying to write a crontab entry to run yum update at 0100 and this is as 
> far as I've got '0 1 * * * /usr/bin/yum update' but I'm unsure if this will 
> work. Can anyone reassure me please, or if not, what is the correct syntax?
> 

This looks like you are editing root's personal crontab using crontab
-e.  Your entry is on track, but the following:

0 1 * * * /usr/bin/yum -y update

is better; without the -y, yum will wait for root to accept the updates
to be installed, but this won't happen via cron. -y assumes a yes answer
to the confirmation prompt, so the updates will be installed.

If you are running this in /etc/crontab, use the following:

0 1 * * * root /usr/bin/yum -y update


When I run it as a service, I seem to get logwatch updates only if it
fails, but I DO get notices via logwatch.  You can edit the wordiness by
editing /etc/cron.daily/yum.cron.  If you make your own cron entry as
you have asked, you need to add the appropriate options on the command
line (-e and -d come to mind as the right options).

Erik