How can I automatically answer yes in python?

Question

Say I have a script that runs apt upgrade -y later on I'll need to manually answer these questions for different packages. How can I automatically do that?

Setting up virtualbox-guest-x11 (5.0.32-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2) ...

Configuration file '/etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient'
 ==> File on system created by you or by a script.
 ==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      D     : show the differences between the versions
      Z     : start a shell to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** 98vboxadd-xclient (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?  conffile prompt detected: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient /etc/X11/Xsession.d/98vboxadd-xclient.dpkg-new

My script is able to detect the confile prompt but how should I go about answering yes automatically?

by using python-apt api I am able to detect the prompt via this funtion

def conffile(self, current, new):
    print " conffile prompt detected: %s %s" % (current, new)

    """(Abstract) Called when a conffile question from dpkg is detected."""

Why Python specifically? Is there a way to force "Yes" to any prompts when installing from apt-get (from a bash script)? tells me that apt-get -y upgrade should not prompt you at all. — Martijn Pieters
– Martijn Pieters, Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 7:14
Also there is the DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive environment variable. — Klaus D.
– Klaus D., Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 7:15
Then at least show us your Python code used to run the command, so we can help correct it. — Martijn Pieters
– Martijn Pieters, Commented Apr 10, 2017 at 7:23

hek2mgl · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-10 11:44:44Z

2

Use the yes command:

yes Y | apt ...

answered Apr 10, 2017 at 11:44

hek2mgl

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Yann Vernier · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-10 11:39:52Z

1

Since (per comment under the question) you're using Python-APT, the first way that comes to mind is using the Configuration class to set conf['APT::Get::Assume-Yes'] = True.

edited Apr 10, 2017 at 11:39

answered Apr 10, 2017 at 7:44

Yann Vernier

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2 Comments

answerSeeker Over a year ago

I tried it like this: conf = apt_pkg.config() conf['APT::Get::Assume-Yes'] = True I ended up getting apt_pkg.Configuration, object is not callable

Yann Vernier Over a year ago

That would likely be because apt_pkg.config is already an instance. The very paragraph mentioning it also says you don't need another instance. Also, I haven't tested it so it's possible the True should be a string or something.

answerSeeker · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-05 20:26:15Z

0

For all those who were lost like me, the answer is:

import apt_pkg

apt_pkg.init_config()
apt_pkg.config.set("DPkg::Options::", "--force-confnew")

This will make apt automatically accept new config files.

answered May 5, 2017 at 20:26

answerSeeker

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