I need a reliable way to know that a reboot is required. The eos-reboot-required service seems to only send a desktop prompt. If it could also write the reboot required alert to a file that would be great. I imagine it would need to be emptied or deleted after the reboot though to be fully useful.
Doesnāt it write it already into /var/log/pacman.log?
Actually the reboot recommendation feature writes file
/var/log/reboot-recommendation-trigger.log
but it is not really meant for your purpose because it warns very early. And it is not deleted at boot.
Note that the feature only recommends reboot at some later time, trying to avoid package incompatibilities etc.
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[2025-09-01T20:05:19+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-09-09T12:03:18+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-09-14T12:06:07+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-09-30T12:33:12+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-10-09T13:55:46+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-10-14T18:22:08+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-10-24T13:48:17+0100] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-11-15T13:08:19+0000] [ALPM] installed eos-reboot-recommended (25.11-1)
[2025-11-15T13:09:39+0000] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-11-26T18:18:16+0000] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
[2025-11-28T08:43:29+0000] [ALPM] running āeos-reboot-required.hookāā¦
I spotted that already however this only tells you when the reboot required notice was posted. You still then have to work out if a reboot has happened since the date/time stamp in the log.
Maybe Iām being a bit lazy because I could check the last reboot date/time and compare I suppose, but to honestly an easy way to confirm if a reboot is needed would be helpful. The ideal answer is something that works on any Arch install not just Endeavour, but Iāll take an EOS only solution.
I am not sure if I understand well what you are asking for. You want something to tell you, as a reminder to yourself, that you have actually performed a reboot after an update which requires one? Because reboot doesnāt āhappenā by themselves. You have to perform them yourself.
The following may not be what you are asking for but will let you know beform you perform an update if a reboot is necessary not. You can make running it part of your update routine.
My use case is for my server. It has a desktop so not headless but I donāt have keyboard mouse or screen plugged in usually. Anyway, to do updates I just ssh onto it and do a yay -Syu but it is not 100% obvious that a reboot is required afterwards. Thatās why Iād like a command I could run, or a file I can check, to check if a reboot is required.
I donāt think Arch or Endeavouros is really the best option for such use case because sometimes manual intervention is required either before or after an update (see https://archlinux.org/news/). This is essential especially if the server is used for something requiring 24/7 operation. Some other distros may be more suitable for such use.
But it is your system and your rules.
Since Arch and EndeavourOS get updates daily, would it be possible to simply reboot the server once a week at a specific (quiet) time?
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I prefer to do updates myself rather than automatically, and same with reboots. There is no easy way to know after running yay -Syu if an update is required / recommended. That is what Iām hoping to resolve. I could write as script to look for the log entry previously mentioned and compare the date/time to the when the updates finished. This would tell me if a reboot is required. It would just be nice to be able to eos-reboot-required and have it tell me āyesā or ānoā at the command line and not just in the log or gui popup.
I think it could be done by writing a specific file into the /tmp folder. Then after reboot the file should be gone.
Let me think this through, I might implement it if causes no unforeseen issues.
Putting it in /tmp makes great sense. I should have thought of that. Happy to test as needed. Thanks.
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eos-reboot-recommended version 25.11.1-1 writes file
/tmp/reboot-recommended
to indicate reboot is recommended.
Please test it and report here.
If the file seems to be written too early (while update process is still running), please report that incident as soon as possible.
Thanks. Iāll check my updates over the next few days and report back.
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Have tested and so far it seems to appear at the right time. Iāll update if anything odd happens. I appreciate the added feature. Many Thanks.
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