I see, this must have been updated on a later version. Under Ubuntu 16.04.5, and up to apt-1.2.27, the man page reads:
PERIODIC AND ARCHIVES OPTIONS APT::Periodic and APT::Archives groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is done by the /etc/cron.daily/apt script. See the top of this script for the brief documentation of these options. This must have been fixed upstream in a later version. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to apt in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1764928 Title: Please document apt-daily Status in apt package in Ubuntu: Invalid Bug description: The following systemd services are installed along with apt: /lib/systemd/system/apt-daily.timer /lib/systemd/system/apt-daily-upgrade.timer /lib/systemd/system/apt-daily-upgrade.service /lib/systemd/system/apt-daily.service By default, these run the equivalent of "apt update", and "apt upgrade" at specified times. However, this behavior is documented nowhere in the man pages or /usr/share/doc. Furthermore, they run the command /usr/lib/apt/apt.systemd.daily, which is also undocumented, nor does it respond to a --help option. A non-savvy Linux user will not be able to determine that this is a shell script and find out what it does. Or worse, a partially-savvy Linux user will be able to determine that this is a shell script, and will read it imperfectly (usage is also not described in script comments) ending up with a wrong idea of what it does. The idea is to keep the system updates. That is a GOOD THING (tm). But it relies on undocumented behavior. That is a BAD THING (tm). Can we have the apt-daily service documented? madumlao@lezard ~ $ lsb_release -rd Description: Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS Release: 16.04 apt version: 1.2.26 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1764928/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp