Fedora comes with a utility called 'yum'. Red Hat provides a frontend to this called up2date (this used to be the Red Hat network front end). However, if you have a Fedora Core 1 install, up2date is broken as Red Hat signed packages with a key that has now expired. Run
yum update
to download all the package headers (slow the first time) and all the updates packages (also slow the first time.)
...urpmi? A Mandrake user needs to fill me in...
http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-freeThen, every one in a while do an
apt-get update apt-get upgrade
This will pull the latest security updates from Debian's server. Security packages are stable packages with only the fixes for security vulnerabilities applied. It's normally safe to install updates on a schedule with a script if you're using only security.debian.org - packages in security are very reliable.
If you want to be kept informed about Debian security updates, check out http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/.
If you're running Testing, you're out of luck. Wait 10 days for the security-fixed-in-unstable patch to filter down to you. If you're running Unstable, security fixes should be quickly integrated into your regular flood of updates.
...emerge world? A Gentoo user needs to fill me in...
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