"debian-updates" is a simple Perl script which is designed to warn you of any packages you have installed upon your Debian hosts which need upgrading after being featured in a Debian Security Advisory.

It should run quite happily from a cronjob, sending an email to a defined user whenever a vulnerable package needs upgrading.

(If you're unfamiliar with using cron this article on command scheduling with cron may be useful.)

The script is written in perl and requires the use of the LWP::Simple and the Compress::Zlib modules. Since the script works by querying the remote Debian security advisories itrequires connection to the internet to be present while it executes.

These two modules are available as Debian packages already (libwww-perl and libcompress-zlib-perl respectively). Installing the debian-updates binary package will ensure you have them installed correctly.

Usage is fairly straight-forward and obvious, the following options are supported:

debian-updates v1.7 - Check for security updates from the Debian archives.
                    - See http://www.steve.org.uk/Software/
Usage: debian-updates [options]
 --help           Display this usage information.
 --file file      Read the RDF from the given file; do not download anything.
 --mail address   E-mail the results to this address, do not display anything.
 --packages URL   The URL of the gzipped package file to compare DSAs against.
 --proxy URL      The URL of a proxy server to use, (eg  http://host:port/).
 --skip DOMAINS   Do not proxy requests to the given (comma or space separated
                  list of) DOMAINS.
 --user username  The username required for proxy use, if any.
 --pass password  The password required for proxy use, if any.
 --url URL        The URL to download the Debian Security feed from.
 --verbose        Report on what is going on internally (repeated use
                  increases the verbosity).
 --version        Displays the version of this software.
 Report bugs to : Steve Kemp <email>

• debian-updates-1.7.tar.gz
  • The GPG Signature - (GPG signature which may be validated using my public key).
• A binary .deb package is available from my Debian repository.
• This project is developed in an open fashion using a mercurial server, you can view or checkout the project via the following link:
  • http://debian-updates.repository.steve.org.uk/