How to automatically update Atom editor?

TL;DR If you do not want to use the PPA, you can use a script to download and automatically install via cron.

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1. Create a new file atom-auto-update

   sudo nano /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update
   

2. Add the following lines

   #!/bin/bash
   wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
   wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
   dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
   

3. Save the file and make it executable

   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update
   

4. Test the script

   sudo atom-auto-update
   

5. Create a cronjob for the script

   sudo crontab -e
   

6. Add this line

   e.g.: at 10 am every week

   0 10 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update
   

   e.g.: at 10 am every day

   0 10 * * * /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update      
   

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Explanation

• wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest

  Download the site with the latest version information

• wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

  1. … awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest …

     Extract the download link

  2. wget -q $( … ) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

     Download the DEB file

• dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

  Install the DEB file

A.B's Answer is a nice solution! I added show progress bar option in the bash code to notify progress: 

#!/bin/bash
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
wget --progress=bar -q 'https://github.com'$(cat /tmp/latest | grep -o -E 'href="([^"#]+)atom-amd64.deb"' | cut -d'"' -f2 | sort | uniq) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb -q --show-progress
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

As the previous answer with minor modification, to let updating on start-up, here is the procedure

1. Create file by running the command:

   sudo nano /usr/local/bin/atom-update  
   

then type the below script (use text-editor like "gedit" or "mousepad" instead of "nano" is more convenient) and then save it.

#!/bin/bash    
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
MATCHEDROW=$(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/' /tmp/latest)
LATEST=$(echo $MATCHEDROW | grep -o -P '(?<=href=").*(?=" rel)')
VER_LATEST=$(echo $MATCHEDROW | rev | cut -d"/" -f 2 | rev | sed 's/v//g')
VER_INST=$(dpkg -l atom | tail -n1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d" " -f 3)

if [ "$VER_LATEST" != "$VER_INST" ]; then
   wget --progress=bar -q "https://github.com/$LATEST" -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb --show-progress
   dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
   echo "Atom has been update from $VER_LATEST to $VER_INST"
   logger -t atom-update "Atom has been update from $VER_INST to $VER_LATEST"
else
   echo "Atom version $VER_INST is the latest version, no update require"
   logger -t atom-update "Atom version $VER_INST is the latest version, no update require"
fi

2. To make the file executable:

   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/atom-update
   

3. Now you could manually update Atom by typing the command:

   sudo atom-update
   

4. Login to your root, and then add the below row to /etc/rc.local (sudo nano /etc/rc.local) just before exit 0 command:

   /usr/local/bin/atom-update  
   

This will let the atom update script execute every time you turn on your PC.

5. To check that the script has run properly on start up, restart your PC and open the terminal then type:

   cat /var/log/syslog | grep 'atom.*'  
   

You will see the log message accordingly.