Howto get notifications for system updates

nickvergessen · March 17, 2017, 3:24pm

Original blog post: nickvergessen

Install the admin_notifications app (Note: this is not needed anymore with Nextcloud 14)
Create system-notifications.sh with the following content on your system, and make sure to adjust the path to your nextcloud /var/www/nextcloud/occ as well as your admin account name:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# @license MIT
# @copyright 2017 Joas Schilling coding@schilljs.com

ADMIN="admin"
OCC_PATH="/var/www/nextcloud/occ"

PACKAGES=$(/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p 2>&1)
NUM_PACKAGES=$(echo "$PACKAGES" | wc -l)

if [ "$PACKAGES" != "" ]; then
	UPDATE_MESSAGE=$(echo "Packages to update: $PACKAGES" | sed -r ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/, /g')
	$OCC_PATH notification:generate $ADMIN "$NUM_PACKAGES packages require to be updated" -l "$UPDATE_MESSAGE"

elif [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ]; then
	$OCC_PATH notification:generate $ADMIN "System requires a reboot"
fi

3. Add the script to the cronjob crontab -u www-data -e:

0 10 * * * /path/to/file/system-notifications.sh

[Update] Raspbian and other systems

If your operating system does not support apt-check, you can also try to replace the line:

PACKAGES=$(/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p 2>&1)

with:

PACKAGES=$(apt-get -s dist-upgrade | awk '/^Inst/ { print $2 }' 2>&1)

This at least made it work on my Raspberry Pi which runs Raspbian.

Andy_D · March 17, 2017, 4:40pm

nice feature!
any way to make this work for debian?

jospoortvliet · March 17, 2017, 4:51pm

SUPER cool, @nickvergessen !!!

nickvergessen · March 17, 2017, 11:40pm

I think it should work on debian as well?
At least that’s what the docs said.

Andy_D · March 18, 2017, 9:41am

Now it does. My mistake…
I had to install “update-notifier-common” and put "php " before “$OCC_PATH”.

Thanks!

nasenatmer · April 20, 2017, 11:14pm

Too bad pacman doesn’t have an equivalent to apt-check - this is really nice!

nickvergessen · April 21, 2017, 7:14am

I published a little update: https://www.schilljs.com/2017/03/17/howto-get-notifications-for-system-updates.html

If your operating system does not support apt-check, you can also try to replace the line:

PACKAGES=$(/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check -p 2>&1)

with:

PACKAGES=$(apt-get -s dist-upgrade | awk '/^Inst/ { print $2 }' 2>&1)

This at least made it work on my Raspberry Pi which runs Raspbian.

zati81 · June 15, 2017, 7:20pm

@nickvergessen cool!

dice · October 8, 2017, 10:17am

Thanks a lot! I’d love to have that feature.
But i cant seem to get it working.

I installed admin-notifications,
the cron task (space at the end of the line, empty line at eof),
and changed the path and admin vars in the script.

I can see that cron was running in syslog and i can manually set a notification
(sudo -u www-data php /path/to/nextcloud/occ notification:generate admin “test”).
And i checked that apt-check works for www-data.

Nonetheless they wont show up
Any idea what i might be missing?

System is Nextcloud 12.0.3; Ubuntu 14.04; php 7.1.9

nickvergessen · October 10, 2017, 1:59pm

Can you run sudo -u www-data /path/to/file/system-notifications.sh manually? Or does that maybe error?

dice · October 10, 2017, 5:39pm

If i mark it as executable i get “not authorized” on line 15
($OCC_PATH notification:generate $ADMIN “$NUM_PACKAGES packages require to be updated” -l “$UPDATE_MESSAGE”).

But as i know it shouldnt be necessary to mark it as such?!
(due to #! )

ps.: owner of the file is www-data as i use apache
pss: copypasted the wrong line, now its right

riegerCLOUD · November 14, 2017, 8:44pm

great and many thanks!
but i had to add “php” to the OCC_PATH variable?!

“OCC_PATH=“php /var/www/nextcloud/occ””

should that be fixed or is it just related to my setup?

magicvodi · April 5, 2018, 11:50am

For reference: i think it’s possible to edit the script for arch linux using checkupdates instead of apt-check.
See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_unsupported

Martha_Simons · February 27, 2019, 2:20pm

was fixed ??

kaiaseamus · March 1, 2019, 10:45am

think it’s possible to edit the script for arch linux using checkupdates instead of apt-check .
get the details from the service host superfetch

SmallOne · March 1, 2019, 12:07pm

This works with debian 9:

ADMIN="admin"
OCC_PATH="php /var/www/nextcloud/occ"

#PACKAGES=$(apt list --upgradable 2>&1)
PACKAGESRAW=$(apt-get -s dist-upgrade | awk '/^Inst/ { print $2 }' 2>&1)
NUM_PACKAGES=$(echo "$PACKAGESRAW" | wc -l)
PACKAGES=$(echo "$PACKAGESRAW"|xargs)


if [ "$PACKAGES" != "" ]; then
        UPDATE_MESSAGE=$(echo "Packages to update: $PACKAGES" | sed -r ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n/, /g')
        $OCC_PATH notification:generate $ADMIN "$NUM_PACKAGES packages require to be updated" -l 
"$UPDATE_MESSAGE"
        echo $NUM_PACKAGES $UPDATE_MESSAGE

elif [ -f /var/run/reboot-required ]; then
        $OCC_PATH notification:generate $ADMIN "System requires a reboot"
fi

gas85 · March 5, 2019, 4:37pm

No, you have to added it. I correct this issue and added check if user is the same as OCC owner. Also will create Log line with status. Works good under debian and ubuntu.

github.com

GAS85/nextcloud_scripts/blob/master/nextcloud-system-notification.sh

#!/bin/bash

# By Georgiy Sitnikov.
#
# AS-IS without any warranty.
# Original tread https://help.nextcloud.com/t/howto-get-notifications-for-system-updates/10299

# Adjust to your NC installation
# Administrator User to notify
USER="admin"

# Your NC OCC Command path
Command=/var/www/nextcloud/occ

# Inform about Security updates in message
MarkSecurity=true

# Your PHP location
PHP=/usr/bin/php

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ged22 · May 30, 2019, 7:18am

Thenks

rakekniven · October 28, 2019, 6:05pm

Still using it and installed it right now on a nc 17 cloud.

Please add to step 1 that is only needed for nc14 or older at https://www.schilljs.com/2017/03/17/howto-get-notifications-for-system-updates.html

Step 2: Make your sh file executable.

Elen_Smile · November 20, 2019, 7:34am

Agree wheth you