Topgrade wrapper

Linux bash script for cronjob using notify-send to show a notification to the main desktop user when topgrade starts and ends.

• The notification disappears after a few seconds if everything is OK or
• stays until you click on the error message.

So you stay informed if something goes wrong.

👤 Author: Axel Hahn
📄 Source: https://github.com/axelhahn/bash-topgrade-wrapper
📜 License: GNU GPL 3.0

Related links:

• Topgrade

👉🏼 Requirements

• Linux
• topgrade
• sudo permission for your desktop user (for topgrade)
• notify-send (topgrade will start if it is not installed - but then you won't need this wrapper)

🖥️ Installation

Extract a downloaded archive in /opt/ or better use git clone.

As root:

cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/axelhahn/bash-topgrade-wrapper topgrade-wrapper

No configuration is needed.

💡 Usage

⌨️ Interactive test

For a first test in a terminal start the script with your user.

/opt/topgrade-wrapper/start_topgrade.sh

── 22:04:37 - System update ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Warning: Building packages as dynamic user
Warning: Setting build directory to /var/cache/pamac
Preparing...
Synchronizing package databases...                                            
(...)

You should see a disappearing notification box as well:

If the script ends you get a notification again.

• It is a disappearing notification on success or
• an error message on failure that stays on the screen until clicking on it.

👹 Troubleshooting

topgradeis started without sudo.

On my Manjaro installations it asked for a password even if my user had sudo to all commands without password.

Solution: The installer pamacon Manjaro uses polkit. To allow pamac passwordless actions create a file /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/99-pamac-override.rules:

/*
 * source: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/how-to-override-polkit-password-prompt-in-pamac/151774/2
 */
polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) {
    if (action.id == "org.manjaro.pamac.commit" && subject.isInGroup("wheel")) {
        return polkit.Result.YES;
    }
})

🕓 Cronjob

Create a cronjob eg. as file in /etc/cron.d/.

In your cronjob

• Execute the wrapper script as user that has sudo permissions
• Redirect the output

Example:

50 8,12,16,20 * * * axel /opt/topgrade-wrapper/start_topgrade.sh >/tmp/topgrade.log 2>&1

OR

When starting the job as root

• Add a variable SUDO_USER=<your-user> to set a target user for notification

SUDO_USER=axel
50 8,12,16,20 * * * root /opt/topgrade-wrapper/start_topgrade.sh >/tmp/topgrade.log 2>&1

I prefer my Cronwrapper to simplify monitoring all cronjobs

📗 Docs: see https://www.axel-hahn.de/docs/cronwrapper/

Then it can look like this:

50 8,12,16,20 * * * axel /opt/cronwrapper.sh 1440 "/opt/topgrade-wrapper/start_topgrade.sh" 'os-update'