Currently we have the following pieces as part of the default UX on Ubuntu 18.04 and later:
1) unattended-upgrades automatically installs security updates daily by default
2) the motd reports the number of available updates, including security updates.
A user who knows about 1) also knows that a non-zero number of pending security updates listed in 2) is nothing to worry about.
However, unattended-upgrades will also cleverly detect when a security update cannot safely be installed non-interactively due to conffile changes on the system.
In this case, unattended-upgrades should also inform the user via the motd that these updates are not being installed. Otherwise, there's nothing to tell the user that the non-zero count of available security updates in motd is a *problem*.
Suggested wording:
N security updates will not be automatically installed due to local changes.
See /var/log/foo for details.
Currently we have the following pieces as part of the default UX on Ubuntu 18.04 and later:
1) unattended-upgrades automatically installs security updates daily by default
2) the motd reports the number of available updates, including security updates.
A user who knows about 1) also knows that a non-zero number of pending security updates listed in 2) is nothing to worry about.
However, unattended-upgrades will also cleverly detect when a security update cannot safely be installed non-interactively due to conffile changes on the system.
In this case, unattended-upgrades should also inform the user via the motd that these updates are not being installed. Otherwise, there's nothing to tell the user that the non-zero count of available security updates in motd is a *problem*.
Suggested wording:
N security updates will not be automatically installed due to local changes.
See /var/log/foo for details.