On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 11:39:56AM +0000, Andy Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 10:17:17AM +0100, Michael wrote:
> > i very much dislike the fact that my systems do things i am not aware of.
>
> I think one of the purposes of a Linux distribution is to pull
> together a collection of disparate software of their choosing and
> make default decisions for their users.
>
> I find it hard to believe that you bother to delve into the
> behaviour of your system in most other ways, but suddenly you've
> become aware of a systemd timer and now it's a problem for you. None
> of this is hidden. You've been able to read this script and work out
> how it works.
For me, it's a combination of two things:
1) This apt-daily.timer stuff is quite complex and difficult to discover
and understand. Most subsystems have a single configuration file
that controls what they do, and it's in some place that's relatively
easy to find.
This thing has no configuration file by default; you have to read the
comments in the software itself to figure out what it does.
2) In the absence of a full understanding, it's easy to suspect that these
timers will download package lists and/or packages from the Internet.
That's what the names imply, after all.
Here's what the end user (me) sees upon first inspection:
* apt-daily.timer is enabled (by default)
* apt-daily.timer runs twice a day
* apt-daily.service has Description=Daily apt download activities
* apt-daily.service runs "/usr/lib/apt/apt-helper wait-online"
and then "/usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily update"
If the end user doesn't actually read through this 538 line shell
script to analyze its behavior, this all *looks* very much like
"run apt update twice a day".
Likewise, there's a second timer:
* apt-daily-upgrade.timer is enabled (by default)
* apt-daily-upgrade.timer runs once a day
* apt-daily-upgrade.service has
Description=Daily apt upgrade and clean activities
* apt-daily-upgrade.service runs "/usr/lib/apt/apt-helper wait-online"
and then "/usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily install"
As with the other timer and service, this all looks very much like it
will upgrade packages, once a day.
