Question: Currently, to get things up to date on my Raspberry Pi, I have to type in `sudo apt-get update` and `sudo apt-get upgrade`. Is there a way to set it up to automatically do this? I am running Raspbian Jessie.

Answer: 
Tasks can be automated using the cron utility.

To setup cron to update apt, in a terminal type:

```
sudo su

```

to access a root-level prompt. Then, run:

```
crontab -e

```

to begin editing your crontab, a table of tasks to run automatically at a given time. It will open in your preferred text editor. Modify it to include the following line:

```
0 7 * * 1 apt update && apt upgrade -y

```

This will tell the system to automatically update and upgrade your apps at 7AM every Monday. After saving and exiting, it is now activated, no further actions. Read-up on crontab to see how to adjust to your liking.

Note time trigger "0 7 \* \* 1" translates to 0 hours past 7 every day of every month that is a Monday. To help with changing the trigger, you can use <https://cron.help>.
You can install and configure cron-apt. Install it by doing the following:

`apt-get install cron-apt`

the main configuration file is /etc/cron-apt/config

One thing I add to my configuration is:

```
MAILON="always"

```

this will send an email every time it runs, not only if it encounters an error. 

Note that the default setup will not automatically install the updates (there are some good reasons to not do this), but you can config it to do so. One advantage this program provides over a simple cron solution is that it gives you control over what gets installed (only download new packages, install security updates or install all updates).

To set the time it runs edit the /etc/cron.d/cron-apt file.

You can find more info and config options [here](http://www.the-art-of-web.com/system/cron-apt-wheezy/)

The package includes very good documentation, however it is gzipped. To extract the file:

1. create a directory to work in - mkdir cron-apt\_documentation
2. change to the new directory - cd cron-apt\_documentation
3. copy the compressed file - cp /usr/share/doc/cron-apt/README.gz . (note the trailing dot)
4. uncompress the file - gunzip README.gz
5. read the file - cat README | less