os-update-checker

name

os-update-checker

description

Check for available OS package updates with per-package changelog summaries and risk classification. Supports apt (Debian/Ubuntu), dnf (Fedora/RHEL), yum (CentOS 7), pacman (Arch), zypper (openSUSE), apk (Alpine), and brew (macOS). Use when: checking system update status, before approving upgrades, or in heartbeats/cron for periodic OS health monitoring. Read-only — does not install or modify anything.

OS Update Checker

Read-only, cross-platform package update checker. Auto-detects the available package manager, lists upgradable packages, fetches changelogs, and classifies risk (security, moderate, low). Designed to give enough context to approve or defer an upgrade confidently.

Supported Package Managers

OS	Package Manager
Debian / Ubuntu / Mint	apt
Fedora / RHEL 8+ / Rocky / Alma	dnf
CentOS 7 / RHEL 7	yum
Arch / Manjaro / EndeavourOS	pacman / checkupdates
openSUSE Leap / Tumbleweed / SLES	zypper
Alpine Linux	apk
macOS / Linux (Homebrew)	brew

Usage

# Human-readable summary with changelogs (auto-detects OS)
python3 scripts/check_updates.py

# JSON output (for dashboards, cron, integrations)
python3 scripts/check_updates.py --format json

# Skip changelogs for a quick count
python3 scripts/check_updates.py --no-changelog

Risk Classification

• 🔴 security — source repo contains a security indicator
• 🟡 moderate — critical package (kernel, openssh, openssl, sudo, curl, bash, etc.)
• 🟢 low — standard maintenance update

How It Works

1. Detects available package manager from PATH (apt → dnf → yum → pacman → zypper → apk → brew)
2. Lists upgradable packages using the appropriate read-only command
3. Validates each package name against a per-backend allowlist regex before any further use
4. Fetches the most recent changelog entry per package (apt: apt changelog; dnf/yum: rpm --changelog; others: package info)
5. Reports in text or JSON format

Security Design

• subprocess is used exclusively with shell=False — arguments are passed as a list, never interpolated into a shell string
• Package names are validated against per-backend allowlist patterns before use in commands
• All exceptions are caught by specific type — no bare except
• Read-only commands only — no installs, no writes, no service restarts

System Access

• Commands (read-only): apt list, apt changelog, dnf check-update, rpm -q --changelog, yum check-update, pacman -Qu, pacman -Si, zypper list-updates, zypper info, apk list, apk info, brew outdated, brew info
• Network: Outbound HTTPS to distribution changelog servers (apt only; others use local package metadata)
• No file writes

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• One supported package manager available on PATH