A CRON job script sounds awesome if you can pull it off without upsetting the Joomla team
My biggest concern is whether the JInstaller class is able to run an extension installation in a CLI environment. I am still analysing the code. Seeing that someone else has written a CLI tool to install extensions I have high hopes ;)
Seems to me it makes sense to have that available as part of the whole Joomla package, just like most software vendors do.
If I can make it work for one software package I will have to merely change an easy 20 lines of code to turn it into a generic auto-updater for all installed extensions. As we've done in the past when creating a universally useful feature (update notifications, Joomla! Update, two factor authentication) we'll propose it for inclusion in Joomla! itself.
Take Microsoft for example. Whilst I love to hate them, their auto updates save a bunch of time, even if some of their updates are bigger viruses than most viruses!! :-)
You have summed up the pros and cons of automatic updates :) Having automatic updates helps you with better security of your sites, but a botched update can screw your site. It's a "use with caution" kind of thing.
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
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