[Bug 1842159] Re: Please suggest running apt update & apt upgrade in MOTD when list of available packages is old

[Łukasz Zemczak]

Hello Balint, or anyone else affected,

Accepted update-notifier into eoan-proposed. The package will build now
and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-
notifier/3.192.26.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed
repository.

Please help us by testing this new package.  See
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how
to enable and use -proposed.  Your feedback will aid us getting this
update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug,
mentioning the version of the package you tested and change the tag from
verification-needed-eoan to verification-done-eoan. If it does not fix
the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag
to verification-failed-eoan. In either case, without details of your
testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification .  Thank you in
advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s)
fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in
-proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

** Changed in: update-notifier (Ubuntu Eoan)
       Status: New => Fix Committed

** Tags added: verification-needed verification-needed-eoan

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1842159

Title:
  Please suggest running apt update & apt upgrade in MOTD  when list of
  available packages is old

Status in update-notifier package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in update-notifier source package in Xenial:
  New
Status in update-notifier source package in Bionic:
  New
Status in update-notifier source package in Disco:
  New
Status in update-notifier source package in Eoan:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  [Impact]

   * Users don't have up to date information about available updates when network connectivity or other issues prevented automated apt updates.
   * It is desired to give the user accurate and up to date information about available updates or warn them if the information is outdated.
   * The fix notifies user about stale updates information in MOTD

  [Test Case]

   * Install update-motd and the the fixed package.
   * Observe the output of sudo update-motd printing the usual output
   * "Date back" the updates information:
     $ sudo touch -t 01010101 /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available
   * Observe the output of sudo update-motd printing warning about outdated update information.
   * Remove the updates information:
     $ sudo rm /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available
   * Observe the output of sudo update-motd printing warning about outdated update information.

  [Regression Potential]

   * An error may be printed in MOTD or the warning message may appear
  needlessly in case of making a mistake in implementing the fix.

  [Original Bug Text]

  When logging into a system where the package list is not updated for
  long time (for example because is offline) I may see:

  ...
  0 updates can be installed immediately.
  0 of these updates are security updates.
  ..

  Which is true, but the user may think that there are no available
  updates released.

  Also, if the /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available is missing
  (which can happen due to network connectivity issues of due to bugs)
  there is no mention of updates in MOTD.

  If the  /var/lib/update-notifier/updates-available is older than a few
  days (weeks?) or it is missing and the packages list is older than a
  few days (weeks?) please recommend running apt update & upgrade in the
  MOTD snippet:

  ...
  The list of available updates is not refreshed in N days.
  Please run "sudo apt update" and then "sudo apt upgrade" to
  keep your system up to date.
  ...

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