---
name: "painintheapt"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "painintheapt"
version: "0.20220226-4"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/painintheapt"
---

# painintheapt(8)

Pester people about available package updates by email or jabber. Pain in the APT pesters people about available package upgrades, just like apticron or cron-apt. However, it does so by SMTP and XMPP (direct or MUC/conference room or pubsub node), but also by calling mailx.

## NAME

painintheapt - Pester people about available package updates by email or jabber.

*Pain in the APT* pesters people about available package upgrades, just like apticron or cron-apt. However, it does so by SMTP and XMPP (direct or MUC/conference room or pubsub node), but also by calling **mailx**.

## WHAT DOES IT DO?

- 1\.

  updates the APT cache and checks for updates

- 2\.

  sends list of available updates to Jabber contacts or a conference room or pubsub node immediately

- 3\.

  sends list of available updates and relevant changelogs (slow) to email recipients

- 4\.

  downloads packages, but does not install them

Messages are only sent when there is any change in either the list of updates or in the configuration of **painintheapt**.

## OPTIONS

- **-c, --configfile *configuration file***

  configuration file, (defaults: /etc/painintheapt.conf)

- **-d, --debug**

  print debug output to stderr

- **-f, --force**

  send message, even if updates did not change

- **-h, --help**

  print help

- **-s, --stampfile *stamp file***

  stamp file (default: /var/lib/painintheapt/stamp)

- **-t, --testmessage**

  send a test message only

- **-v, --version**

  print version

## CONFIGURATION

The default configuration file is **/etc/painintheapt.conf** in inifile format.

There are up to three sections, **SMTP**, **XMPP**, and **MAILX**. The keys for **SMTP** are **server**, **port**, **username**, **password\_file**, **from**, **to**, **cc**, and **send\_changes**. The keys for **XMPP** are **jid**, **password\_file**, **to**, **room**, **pubsub\_service**, **pubsub\_node**, and **send\_changes**. The keys for **MAILX** are **from**, **to**, **cc**, and **send\_changes**. See the sample configuration for their usage.

The typical cron file is **/etc/cron.d/painintheapt**. One may call **painintheapt** without arguments daily, and with the **--force** option weekly, to make sure the transport does work.

It is highly recommended to set the accompanying logo as Jabber avatar for the respective user.

## RESOURCES

- •

  Homepage:  \<https://salsa.debian.org/debacle/painintheapt\>

## LICENSE

Affero General Public License 3 or higher

## LOGO

```
 (___)
○(@ @)○
 -\∞/-
/__‾__\
```

Maybe a cow, a gnu, or a dragon?

## AUTHOR

Martin \< \<debacle@debian.org\> \>