Run this command to install the “unattended-upgrades” package, along with a package to identify the changes:

sudo apt-get install unattended-upgrades apt-listchanges

After that is installed, then edit the unattended-upgrade configuration:

sudo vim /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Paste the following into this file after emptying it, then modify items with ** **. Remember to remove the asterisks.

APT::Periodic::Enable "1";
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "7";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
Unattended-Upgrade::Mail "**YOUR_EMAIL_HERE**";

// Automatically upgrade packages from these (origin, archive) pairs
Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins {
"${distro_id} stable";
"${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-updates";
"${distro_id} ${distro_codename}-security";
};

// You can specify your own packages to NOT automatically upgrade here
Unattended-Upgrade::Package-Blacklist {
// "nginx";
// "php5-fpm";
};

Unattended-Upgrade::Automatic-Reboot "false";

Install “apticron” to manage automatic execution of APT updates:

sudo apt-get install apticron

Open /etc/apticron/apticron.conf and set the EMAIL variable to your email address, so you can receive the list of changes.

EMAIL="**me@myemailprovider.com**"
DIFF_ONLY="1"
LISTCHANGES_PROFILE="apticron"
SYSTEM="**HOSTNAME.OF.SERVER**"
NOTIFY_HOLDS="0"
NOTIFY_NO_UPDATES="0"

Open /etc/apt/listchanges.conf to configure APT to save the changes to a database:

[apt]
frontend=pager
email_address=**me@myemailprovider.com**
confirm=0
save_seen=/var/lib/apt/listchanges.db
which=news