[CentOS] Understanding yum automatic upgrades

[email builder]

> >> >> Sorry if this is somewhat naive, but I'm a little  confused   as to what 
>the

> >> >> criteria is for that which will  get upgraded  automatically by  yum and
> > what
> >> >> will  not.
> >> >>
> >> >> I  see in our logwatch messages  from  time to time that yum upgraded
> >> >> a  bunch of stuff, but  I also notice that yum  will not upgrade other
> >> >>  packages at  all (easy example is clamav, but there  are  others).
> >>  >>
> >> >>  Can someone explain or point me to where I can   read  about the
> > distinction
> >> >> between what is and is  not subjected to  automatic  upgrade?
> >> >
> >> > More  info: yum-updatesd is running and I do  not have yum-cron.
> >   yum-updatesd
> >> > does a fine job from what I can tell,  but I  still cannot understand 
what
> >> > criteria it applies to know which   packages get upgraded and which do 
>not.
> >> (?)
> >>  >
> >> > The yum-updatesd  configuration file is ultra-simple, so  that doesn't 
>seem to
> >>be
> >> > where the  update  choice/distinction is being made.
> >> >
> >> > There seem  to be people  posting in various places that they prefer to 
>use
> >> >  yum-cron, but I have  no problems with yum-updatesd and I suspect  
>yum-cron
> >> > wouldn't  address/answer my question  anyway.
> >> >
> >> > Help?
> >>
> >>  Yum-updatesd  does not automatically install packages (unless you
> >>  configure it to), it only  notifies you of ones that need updating.   If
> >> no one is manually doing  it, and you don't have "do_update =  yes" in
> >> /etc/yum/yum-updatesd.conf, then  you have installed  something else
> >> that is performing the updates   automatically.
> >
> > It does look like updates are happening, but  it's not clear to me by whom.
> > do_update is set to "no", but notification  is by "dbus", so I assumed that
> > "dbus" is notifying another process to  do the actual updates.  Is there a 
>way I
> > can track that  down?
> >
> >> Are you sure the updates are actually getting  installed,  and it's not
> >> just noise in the log from  yum-updatesd?
> >
> > Well, if I can take it at its word, updates *are*  happening.  Here is a 
>snippet
> > I clipped out of a logwatch a few months  ago:
> >
> >  --------------------- yum Begin  ------------------------
> >
> >
> >  Packages Updated:
> >     php-dba - 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >    php - 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >     php-devel - 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >    php-cli -  5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >    php-common - 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >     php-gd - 5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >    php-pdo -  5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >    php-mysql -  5.1.6-27.el5_5.3.i386
> >
> >  ---------------------- yum End  -------------------------
> >
> >> P.S. The yum log doesn't have the  year in the timestamp, and  if it's
> >> not active it might not get  rotated by logrotate.  This can  cause
> >> false messages sent from  logwatch about packages that were  installed
> >> last   year.
> >
> > Hmm, is there a known fix for this?
> 
> 
> Rotate the  log file yourself once a year.  You can check if you are
> seeing this bug  by looking at the /var/log/yum.log last modified time.
>  If it was yesterday,  then I suppose the packages were installed.
> 
> As far as your other  questions, how does it determine what packages to
> update, I think you will  find it's not actually doing any updating.  I
> have not used yum-updatesd  to auto-update packages myself, but I would
> think it would automatically  install any updated package.

It's dated a couple days ago, so I'd say it's doing what it's supposed to.  I'm 
not sure what the "dbus" notification does, but I presume it's telling someone 
to do the updating.  It'd probably be more informative if I could understand who 
is picking up such notifications.

Do you know how to determine which repo a particular package is from?  For 
example, when I do "yum info" against clamav (which isn't receiving automatic 
updates), it just says "Repo: installed".  I don't know what repo it comes from.

Thanks much