Enabling automatic updates on flatpak (ehancement request)

[Anthonyntilelli]

I know this is a relatively simple issue to solve. Though I think its a bit of an oversight that its not in the documentation.

Cron

crontab -e <<'EOF'
15 3 * * * /usr/bin/flatpak update -y --noninteractive >>"$HOME/flatpak-update.log" 2>&1
EOF

Systemd Timers

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

SERVICE_DIR="${HOME}/.config/systemd/user"
mkdir -p "$SERVICE_DIR"

cat >"$SERVICE_DIR/flatpak-update.service" <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Daily Flatpak update (user)

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/flatpak update -y --noninteractive
EOF

cat >"$SERVICE_DIR/flatpak-update.timer" <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Run Flatpak update daily

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
EOF

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now flatpak-update.timer
systemctl --user list-timers --all | sed -n '1,5p'

Potantial issues:

I would think it would be bad if an update and flatpak install ran at the same time, does that flatpak binary check a lock file or something similar before updating or installing??

[TingPing]

I would think it would be bad if an update and flatpak install ran at the same time, does that flatpak binary check a lock file or something similar before updating or installing??

Yes, ostree uses a lock file for repo operations.

[bbhtt]

This is generally handled by distributions by things like GNOME Software, Discover etc. or other OS/app update mechanisms they have.

I wonder if it wouldn't be better to ship an inactive systemd timer as part of the project. Users or distributors who want can just enable or edit it. I can imagine the usecase for minimal, server environments or users with minimal DE/WMs etc.

[Anthonyntilelli]

@bbhtt - I complete agree it would be nice for the desktop env or flatpak itself to offer a solution.

Buts defiantly not easy to find, The searching I did, did not have it easy to find kde on flatpak and Gnome.

It would be nice if the official docs made mention of this and reference a few of the popular desktop env docs or give an official stand alone solution.

@TingPing I tested it by installing a few package while running update. The install and updates ran at same time and none of the applications in question seem to get damage or operated off in any way.