How to install updates via command line?

Question

When I log into my web server via SSH I see the information:

88 packages can be updated.
80 updates are security updates

I tried apt-get update then apt-get upgrade but each time I log in I still see the message about updates. How do I install them?

Answer 1

Try this:

sudo apt-get update        # Fetches the list of available updates
sudo apt-get upgrade       # Strictly upgrades the current packages
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade  # Installs updates (new ones)

Documentation about each apt-get option can be found in the the man-pages for apt-get. These are also available by running man apt-get on your computer.

Answer 2

This is normal behavior.

The message you see on login has been appended to the server status 'Message-Of-The-Day', which is only updated each calendar day (or on server boot / startup). Have a look at the contents, using

cat /etc/motd

Still seeing the same updates available, after running

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

is to be expected. If you then re-run this command you will only be prompted for any further updates if even further (newer) updates have been released.

Answer 3

Execute all the commands by typing sudo once:

sudo -- sh -c 'apt-get update; apt-get upgrade -y; apt-get dist-upgrade -y; apt-get autoremove -y; apt-get autoclean -y'

or

sudo -s -- <<EOF
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -y
apt-get dist-upgrade -y
apt-get autoremove -y
apt-get autoclean -y
EOF

Answer 4

Once your log into your server, run the command below.

sudo apt-get upgrade

It should do the trick. Maybe you just need to restart your server.

Answer 5

In my case, I had an incorrect or not accessible URL in /etc/apt/sources.list. After removing this URL, I was able to update all packages successfully.

Commands:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Answer 6

My (really late, I like necromancer badges :-) ) solution:

1. Install wajig (once):

   sudo apt-get install wajig 
   

2. When you want to update/upgrade fully your system

   wajig dailyupgrade
   

   (it will ask for password if needed, and do all the update, upgrade, dist-upgrade, and autoremove steps for you).

Answer 7

You may also need to do this -

sudo touch /etc/motd.tail

From - Ubuntu tells me I have packages to upgrade when I don't

It worked for me on 14.04

Answer 8

If you run apt-get update again after apt-get upgrade has been concluded, those messages at ssh login should go away.

Answer 9

this script is handy to automate updates including removing unneeded packages and performing a reboot only if the OS wants one

remote_user=usernamehere
remote_host=example.com

ssh -A -n -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no ${remote_user}@${remote_host} && \
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get -f install -y && \
sudo apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" -yy dist-upgrade -y && \
sudo apt-get autoremove -y && \
[ -f /var/run/reboot-required ] && \
echo "sudo reboot now" && \
sudo reboot now 

to run on your local box just leave off that first line doing the ssh

Answer 10

You can try all of these:

sudo apt-get install software-center (gets the software center)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade