# How can you be notified of software that needs to be updated?



## johnblue (Dec 26, 2009)

With the exception of:

a) portaudit mentioning something in the periodic report mailed to root about security related updates and
b) manually scanning the ports tree for out-of-date software

... is there anything else that automates the process of notification?


----------



## DutchDaemon (Dec 26, 2009)

Assuming you use portsnap to update your ports tree, running `pkg_version -vL=` should give you a nice overview of outdated ports.

You can use my script and run it from cron every day. It does the portsnap update and the pkg_version for you.


----------



## johnblue (Dec 26, 2009)

DutchDaemon said:
			
		

> It does the portsnap update and the pkg_version for you.


nice.  Thanks!


----------



## ohauer (Dec 26, 2009)

If you don't need daily reports you can also use

file:/etc/periodic.conf

```
weekly_status_pkg_enable="YES"
```

If you update from time to time a port to an new version (to test and make patches for a PR) the following pkg_version command is usefull since it displays additional which port is more recent

```
pkg_version -voIL=
```


----------



## johnblue (Dec 26, 2009)

ohauer said:
			
		

> If you don't need daily reports you can also use
> 
> file:/etc/periodic.conf
> 
> ...


I hate when I miss stuff in man.  *sigh*  Thanks.


----------

