How to make package installation automatic?

Question

I have to run an installation script on ssh. I've pretty much made it automatic except for packages like apt-fast etc. These packages throw up prompts when you install them normally and on ssh they require user input. For example one of the packages sudo requires input like this:

Configuration file '/etc/sudoers'
 ==> Modified (by you or by a script) since installation.
 ==> Package distributor has shipped an updated version.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      D     : show the differences between the versions
      Z     : start a shell to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** sudoers (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?

I want that I can somehow pass 'N' through some command without having to manually type in N.

Possibly related How do I apt-get -y dist-upgrade without a grub config prompt? — steeldriver, Mar 24 '17 at 16:00

Elder Geek · Answer 1 · 2017-03-24T20:01:11.193

The configuration files are managed by ucf and you can set system wide configuration via editing /etc/ucf.conf For reference, here's an unedited example from one of my Ubuntu 16.04 installations:

#
# This file is a bourne shell snippet, and is sourced by the
# ucf script for configuration.
#

# Debugging information: The default value is 0 (no debugging
# information is printed). To change the default behavior, uncomment
# the following line and set the value to 1.
#
# DEBUG=0

# Verbosity: The default value is 0 (quiet). To change the default
# behavior, uncomment the following line and set the value to 1.
#
# VERBOSE=0


# The src directory. This is the directory where the historical
# md5sums for a file are looked for.  Specifically, the historical
# md5sums are looked for in the subdirectory ${filename}.md5sum.d/
#
# conf_source_dir=/some/path/

# Force the installed file to be retained. The default is have this
# variable unset, which makes the script ask in case of doubt. To
# change the default behavior, uncomment the following line and set
# the value to YES
#
# conf_force_conffold=YES

# Force the installed file to be overridden. The default is have this
# variable unset, which makes the script ask in case of doubt. To
# change the default behavior, uncomment the following line and set
# the value to YES
#
# conf_force_conffnew=YES

# Please note that only one of conf_force_conffold and
# conf_force_conffnew should be set.

If you wish to keep your currently installed versions of all configuration files you can simply edit this file and remove the comment marker # from the line that contains # conf_force_conffold=YES

For more precise handling, it's worth mentioning that you can control specific configuration files with ucf. That however is beyond the scope of this answer.

Source:

http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/xenial/man5/ucf.conf.5.html

AFAIK the Assume-No configure option doesn't apply to ucf dialogs (which is what the OP's question appears to show): according to this previous answer How do I apt-get -y dist-upgrade without a grub config prompt? ucf behavior can be modified UCF_FORCE_CONFFOLD and UCF_FORCE_CONFNEW environment variables — steeldriver, Mar 24 '17 at 15:59
@steeldriver Thank you! I'll delve into this deeper when I return from the dentist. — Elder Geek, Mar 24 '17 at 16:21
@steeldriver Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. Complete rewrite complete. — Elder Geek, Mar 24 '17 at 20:03

How to make package installation automatic?

1 Answers1