Yar... cron-apt is the ticket
Here is the manpage for it:
NAMEcron-apt -- program to update the system using apt-get
SYNOPSIScron-apt [configfile]
DESCRIPTIONThis manual page documents briefly the cron-apt command.
cron-apt is a program that uses the information in /etc/cron-apt/action.d as arguments to apt-get line by line in file order.
OPTIONS These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included below. For a complete description, see the Info files.--help
Show summary of options.
CONFIGURATIONConfiguration can be done by editing /etc/cron-apt/config and by adding rules to /etc/cron-apt/action.d/ The variables that you can set in /etc/cron-apt/config is documented in the configuration example in /usr/share/doc/cron-apt/examples/config
SEE ALSOapt-get (1).
This thing works wonders. You can have it just D/L the updates (
apt-get update && apt-get -d upgrade) and wait till you get back, therefore not having to wait for D/L.
You can also have it do the download and trivial stuff (
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade)
It can do everything that doesn't need any operator interaction as well.
There are many maintainance things you might just wanna look st for this thinger. I know Drew Kime (drook on jabber, dkime here) used to use it for his workstation. I use it to D/L everything at place I don;t have a Local Mirror of needed architectures.
All in all a nice application.
