Python script to check apt-get updates

package_updates_check.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
#coding=utf-8

import apt
import apt_pkg
from time import strftime
import os
import subprocess
import sys


"""
Following functions are used to return package info of available updates.
See: /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt_check.py
"""
SYNAPTIC_PINFILE = "/var/lib/synaptic/preferences"
DISTRO = subprocess.check_output(["lsb_release", "-c", "-s"],
                                 universal_newlines=True).strip()


def clean(cache,depcache):
    """ unmark (clean) all changes from the given depcache """
    # mvo: looping is too inefficient with the new auto-mark code
    # for pkg in cache.Packages:
    #    depcache.MarkKeep(pkg)
    depcache.init()


def saveDistUpgrade(cache,depcache):
    """ this functions mimics a upgrade but will never remove anything """
    depcache.upgrade(True)
    if depcache.del_count > 0:
        clean(cache,depcache)
    depcache.upgrade()


def get_update_packages():
    """
    Return a list of dict about package updates
    """
    pkgs = []

    apt_pkg.init()
    # force apt to build its caches in memory for now to make sure
    # that there is no race when the pkgcache file gets re-generated
    apt_pkg.config.set("Dir::Cache::pkgcache","")

    try:
        cache = apt_pkg.Cache(apt.progress.base.OpProgress())
    except SystemError as e:
        sys.stderr.write("Error: Opening the cache (%s)" % e)
        sys.exit(-1)

    depcache = apt_pkg.DepCache(cache)
    # read the pin files
    depcache.read_pinfile()
    # read the synaptic pins too
    if os.path.exists(SYNAPTIC_PINFILE):
        depcache.read_pinfile(SYNAPTIC_PINFILE)
    # init the depcache
    depcache.init()

    try:
        saveDistUpgrade(cache,depcache)
    except SystemError as e:
        sys.stderr.write("Error: Marking the upgrade (%s)" % e)
        sys.exit(-1)

    # use assignment here since apt.Cache() doesn't provide a __exit__ method
    # on Ubuntu 12.04 it looks like
    # aptcache = apt.Cache()
    for pkg in cache.packages:
        if not (depcache.marked_install(pkg) or depcache.marked_upgrade(pkg)):
            continue
        inst_ver = pkg.current_ver
        cand_ver = depcache.get_candidate_ver(pkg)
        if cand_ver == inst_ver:
            continue
        record = {"name": pkg.name,
                  "security": isSecurityUpgrade(pkg, depcache),
                  "section": pkg.section,
                  "current_version": inst_ver.ver_str if inst_ver else '-',
                  "candidate_version": cand_ver.ver_str  if cand_ver else '-',
                  "priority": cand_ver.priority_str}
        pkgs.append(record)

    return pkgs


def isSecurityUpgrade(pkg, depcache):

    def isSecurityUpgrade_helper(ver):
        """ check if the given version is a security update (or masks one) """
        security_pockets = [("Ubuntu", "%s-security" % DISTRO),
                            ("gNewSense", "%s-security" % DISTRO),
                            ("Debian", "%s-updates" % DISTRO)]

        for (file, index) in ver.file_list:
            for origin, archive in security_pockets:
                if (file.archive == archive and file.origin == origin):
                    return True
        return False
    inst_ver = pkg.current_ver
    cand_ver = depcache.get_candidate_ver(pkg)

    if isSecurityUpgrade_helper(cand_ver):
        return True

    # now check for security updates that are masked by a
    # canidate version from another repo (-proposed or -updates)
    for ver in pkg.version_list:
        if (inst_ver and
            apt_pkg.version_compare(ver.ver_str, inst_ver.ver_str) <= 0):
            #print "skipping '%s' " % ver.VerStr
            continue
        if isSecurityUpgrade_helper(ver):
            return True

    return False


def print_result(pkgs):
    """
    Print package updates in a table
    """
    security_updates = filter(lambda x: x.get('security'), pkgs)
    text = list()
    text.append('Check Time: %s' % strftime('%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S'))
    if not pkgs:
        text.append('No available updates on this machine.')
    else:
        # Updates are available, build a table
        text.append('%d packages can be updated.' % len(pkgs))
        text.append('%d updates are security updates.' % len(security_updates))
        text.append('-' * 100)
        # List available security updates
        text.append('Package Name'.ljust(30) +
                    'Current Version'.ljust(30) +
                    'Latest Version'.ljust(30) +
                    'Security'.ljust(10))
        text.append('-' * 100)
        for pkg in pkgs:
            text.append('{:<30}{:<30}{:<30}{:<10}'.format(pkg.get('name'),
                pkg.get('current_version'),
                pkg.get('candidate_version'),
                '*' if pkg.get('security') else ''))
    text.append('=' * 100)
    return '\n'.join(text)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    pkgs = get_update_packages()
    print print_result(pkgs)

Example output:

 ~  $  package_updates_check 
Check Time: 03/18/2015 16:40:37
1 packages can be updated.
1 updates are security updates.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Package Name                  Current Version               Latest Version                Security  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
libxfont1                     1:1.4.4-1ubuntu0.2            1:1.4.4-1ubuntu0.3            *         
====================================================================================================

Nice !

hello, i would like to start learning python , 1st thing that i think it will be simple and interesting to me to do is , to make a update-ubuntu.py with the apt-get update ... end the rest of the commands that i like to do my "py" file , can you help me understand ? ... or just tell me a place where can i read , so i can make it happen the ubntu-update.py file ? plssssss help

Hi @Seth666tl
You can try Python APT Library. Check out the documentation https://apt-team.pages.debian.net/python-apt/library/apt.cache.html https://apt.alioth.debian.org/python-apt-doc/library/apt.cache.html#apt.cache.Cache.update for apt-get update command.

Very nice! I forked it and added small changes which sends the result to a given Slack Webhook URL. So I'm able to use it on multiple servers running as a cron: https://gist.github.com/tschwaerzl/2f7e92891e720643d9aa2b955d3c9e6e

This is awesome. Thanks for this !
I was modified fork from @tschwaerzl ( https://gist.github.com/tschwaerzl/2f7e92891e720643d9aa2b955d3c9e6e) with slack for Centos, with only package list in same form.

https://gist.github.com/petarkozic/19aa8f53dc4e00c2cfa85b84d54e9abd

@yumminhuang:

You can try Python APT Library. Check out the documentation https://apt.alioth.debian.org/python-apt-doc/library/apt.cache.html#apt.cache.Cache.update for apt-get update command.

It seems as if the links do now work any more as of Feb. 2021

Also on pypi.org this might be dead as the last update was released Jul 12, 2012

@bmxp Try this: https://apt-team.pages.debian.net/python-apt/contents.html

Looks much better ;-)
Maybe you can edit your old post and strike the links?

@yumminhuang
Really great work and would save me a lot of time. Is it ok to use your code in a project under GPLv3 license?

Happy Coding!
Heiko.

Hi @FolkertsHeiko
I am not quite sure what are the restrictions on my code if it is used in a project under GPLv3 license. Since my code is based on /usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check, you can refer to its license.

You code is a complete monitoring solution. Looks good! 👍

Great, Thank you @yumminhuang !

Hi, thank you very much for the contribution, I am trying to run on kali linux 2021.1 or ubuntu 20.4 and it gives me a SyntaxError: invalid syntax error

File "/home/username/.config/polybar/scripts/package_updates_check.py", line 152
print print_result (pkgs)

can it be corrected?

Hi, thank you very much for the contribution, I am trying to run on kali linux 2021.1 or ubuntu 20.4 and it gives me a SyntaxError: invalid syntax error

File "/home/username/.config/polybar/scripts/package_updates_check.py", line 152
print print_result (pkgs)

can it be corrected?

@panxos Which version of Python do you have?

@panxos Change print print_result(pkgs) to print(print_result(pkgs))

If there is nothing to do, the script works fine.

However, if there are some updates to do, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "package_updates_check.py", line 151, in
pkgs = get_update_packages()
File "package_updates_check.py", line 81, in get_update_packages
"section": pkg.section,
AttributeError: 'apt_pkg.Package' object has no attribute 'section'

Using 3.8.10 on Ubuntu 20.04

@tmatthews5511
No guarantee, but:
The issue is that the "section" attribute has been removed from apt_pkg.Package in version 1.6. The code should be updated to either use a newer version of apt_pkg or find an alternative way to get the package info.

An alternative for the "section" attribute could be the "candidate" attribute of the apt_pkg.Package object, which returns an apt_pkg.Version object which contains a "section" attribute. For example:

for pkg in cache.packages:
    if not (depcache.marked_install(pkg) or depcache.marked_upgrade(pkg)):
        continue
    inst_ver = pkg.current_ver
    cand_ver = depcache.get_candidate_ver(pkg)
    if cand_ver == inst_ver:
        continue
    record = {"name": pkg.name,
              "security": isSecurityUpgrade(pkg, depcache),
              "section": cand_ver.section,
              "current_version": inst_ver.ver_str if inst_ver else '-',
              "candidate_version": cand_ver.ver_str if cand_ver else '-',
              "priority": cand_ver.priority_str}
    pkgs.append(record)

Ubuntu: 22.04.1 LTS

Anyone running into this TypeError:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<path>", line 152, in <module>
    print (print_result(pkgs))
  File "<path>", line 134, in print_result
    text.append('%d updates are security updates.' % len(security_updates))
TypeError: object of type 'filter' has no len()

can update line 126

from:

security_updates = filter(lambda x: x.get('security'), pkgs)

to:

security_updates = list(filter(lambda x: x.get('security'), pkgs))

this should resolve that TypeError

I'm getting this error when executing the script and I cannot get what it's missing. Any ideas?

Traceback (most recent call last): File "package_updates_check.py", line 149, in <module> print (print_result(pkgs)) File "package_updates_check.py", line 123, in print_result security_updates = list(filter(lambda x: x.get('security'), pkgs)) TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable

I fixed all errors I faced. But it's with Discord notification. So you have to edit the last lines if you don't want to use Discord.

https://gist.github.com/kankadev/05ee806815cfb059af69e7e56c1ef637

And you have to use this directory structure:

Copy config.temp.json to ~/discord-config.json and paste your webhook URL if you want to use Discord or comment / delete related lines.

I'm getting this error when executing the script and I cannot get what it's missing. Any ideas?

Traceback (most recent call last): File "package_updates_check.py", line 149, in <module> print (print_result(pkgs)) File "package_updates_check.py", line 123, in print_result security_updates = list(filter(lambda x: x.get('security'), pkgs)) TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not iterable

Nevermind, already fix it :).
I'm thinking on making a fork of this script. I've been able to adapt it to be used as a monitoring script for Nagios/Icinga or similars.