[Bug 1836475] Re: update-notifier-common weekly cron job runs at the same time for all computers across the globe

[Dave Jones]

Uploaded a test package to the following PPA which converts the two
remaining cronjobs into systemd timers and tidies up a couple of other
packaging bits:

https://launchpad.net/~waveform/+archive/ubuntu/update-
notifier/+packages

Needs testing to ensure that the upgrade actually removes the existing
cronjobs (couple of new maintscript bits *should* take care of this),
and that the timings are reasonable.

In this version, only the motd timer has a calendar-based schedule
(every Sunday, but smeared across 24h as requested). The package-data-
downloader timer is started 5 minutes after system start, and then
periodically each 24h after that, which roughly mimics what the old
cronjob did under anacron (though there's also a dpkg trigger that may
fire the task at arbitrary points too). I've added "After=" rules to
both to try and ensure they're always scheduled after networking is
available (using similar rules to the existing apt-daily timer), and
service conditions which mimic the previous [ -x ] tests in the
cronjobs.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1836475

Title:
  update-notifier-common weekly cron job runs at the same time for all
  computers across the globe

Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in update-notifier package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Groovy:
  Confirmed
Status in update-notifier source package in Groovy:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  Hi,

  /etc/cron.weekly/update-notifier-common is run at the same time on all
  machines across the globe. It's putting unnecessary stress on
  Canonical's infrastructure (changelogs.ubuntu.com, specifically).
  Could we please have this job spread out over 24h ?

  And could we please SRU this change ?

  Thanks

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