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I want to update Firefox alone without updating all applications. And I want to do it through terminal. Is that possible? Because I have a slow internet connection.

I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 with a GNOME desktop environment.

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4 Answers 4

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35

To only upgrade Firefox on its own do:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade firefox

or

sudo apt-get upgrade firefox

from man apt-get

upgrade
    upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages
    currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
    /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently installed with new versions
    available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances are
    currently installed packages removed, or packages not already
    installed retrieved and installed. New versions of currently
    installed packages that cannot be upgraded without changing the
    install status of another package will be left at their current
    version. An update must be performed first so that apt-get knows
    that new versions of packages are available.

dist-upgrade
    dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also
    intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of
    packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it
    will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of
    less important ones if necessary. The dist-upgrade command may
    therefore remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list file
    contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package
    files. See also apt_preferences(5) for a mechanism for overriding the
    general settings for individual packages.
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  • 5
    When I used the command sudo apt-get upgrade wput it upgraded every program, not just wput. I see your description of what upgrade does, but it might be helpful to know that this doesn't seem to just upgrade the program specified (at least not in every case).
    – Battousai
    Jun 30, 2017 at 21:22
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    Tested sudo apt-get dist-upgrade firefox. It updates all the programs, so doesn't solve the problem. sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install firefox only updates Firefox app and solves the problem.
    – Ugnius Malūkas
    Nov 5, 2017 at 8:29
  • @UgniusMalūkas: I'm sure that this at least used to be the case. What version of Ubuntu are you testing this on? I don't remember there ever being such a flag. But I'm on Arch now so apt-get may have changed.
    – user364819
    Nov 5, 2017 at 13:48
  • @ParanoidPanda: to be honest, I've tested it on Linux Mint 18.2
    – Ugnius Malūkas
    Nov 6, 2017 at 9:17
  • I think this is outdated. I wanted to update kodi -- only kodi -- and when I ran sudo apt-get dist-upgrade kodi it upgraded everything. Mint 20.
    – jcollum
    Oct 15, 2022 at 18:28
9

To check if the firefox package can be upgraded run the following command:

apt list --upgradable | grep ^firefox

To upgrade only Firefox from the terminal type:

sudo apt upgrade firefox

The above command works without the --only-upgrade option. If your Firefox is already the latest version the command will not install any new package, and you will get the following message:

firefox is already the newest version.
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  • This also works without the --only-upgrade parameter (only sudo apt-get install firefox) if the package firefox is already installed. The additional parameter only prevents it from installing Firefox if it was not installed yet, but as that is not the case you might omit it here.
    – Byte Commander ♦
    Aug 4, 2015 at 17:45
  • both of u r right, i tried both with --only-upgrade and without it and it worked. thanks
    – user433732
    Aug 5, 2015 at 11:46
6 
sudo apt-get install firefox

this will only upgrade firefox to the newest version.

for details, use man apt-get and go to install section :

install

This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or more already-installed packages without upgrading every package you have on your system.
Unlike the "upgrade" target, which installs the newest version of all currently installed packages, "install" will install the newest version of only the package(s) specified.
Simply provide the name of the package(s) you wish to upgrade, and if a newer version is available, it (and its dependencies, as described above) will be downloaded and installed.

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1

You can update an application by using the command line using the following command:

$ sudo apt upgrade <app name>

If there is no update in the system’s repositories, follow this steps:

You can install Snap package manager to install new applications releases.

To install it, follow this command:

$ sudo apt install snapd

Then you can install applications from it by this command:

$ sudo snap install <app name>

Note: that not all applications are present in it.

the applications are always the latest releases

Snap site is at in these URL:

https://snapcraft.io/store

And to inquire about Snap's orders, use command:

$ man snap
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  • Doesn't work on Mint 20. sudo apt upgrade kodi (a media player) gave me a list that included mintupdate and libreoffice.
    – jcollum
    Oct 15, 2022 at 18:36

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