Setup unattended upgrades on Ubuntu with Gmail

ubuntu_unattended_upgrades_gmail.markdown

Install the unattended-upgrades package

$ sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades 

Edit the periodic configuration

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10periodic

Set the following:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "1";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";

Where the number is the frequency (in days)

Edit the unattended upgrades configuration

$ sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Configure the default packages you want to automatically upgrade:

Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};

Optionally configure additional packages you want to upgrade

In order to automatically upgrade custom packages do the following:

1. Look in /var/lib/apt/lists/ to find the custom package that you want to update. It should end with Release e.g. /var/lib/apt/lists/files.freeswitch.org_repo_deb_debian_dists_wheezy_InRelease
2. Open up the file $ nano /var/lib/apt/lists/files.freeswitch.org_repo_deb_debian_dists_wheezy_InRelease
3. Look for the Origin and Suite entries. e.g. Origin: freeswitch Suite: stable and note these values.
4. Edit the unattended upgrades configuration again. $ sudo nano /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades
5. Add an entry for the origin and suite in the configuration

E.g.

Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-security";
        "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-updates";
        "freeswitch:stable";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-proposed";
//      "${distro_id}:${distro_codename}-backports";
};

Setup automatic reboot (optional)

This will reboot the server if required automatically.

Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "true";
Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot-Time "19:00"; // Optional

Setup Mail

Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "[email protected]";

Send notifications via Gmail

Install mailx

$ heirloom-mailx

Set mail defaults

$ sudo su
$ cd ~
$ nano .mailrc

Add the following to .mailrc in root's home directory.

set smtp-use-starttls
set ssl-verify=ignore
set smtp=smtp://smtp.gmail.com:587
set smtp-auth=login
set [email protected]
set smtp-auth-password=secret
set from="[email protected]

Change the permissions of .mailrc

chmod 400 .mailrc

Test it out

$ sudo unattended-upgrade -v -d --dry-run

Trigger it now

$ sudo unattended-upgrade -v -d

You do not need to install mailx to be able to send notifications via Gmail. See here.

It works perfect in Ubuntu 14.04 but it doesn't work in Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04... I think it is something relative to systemd + environments.
The final solution that works for me was install sendmail.