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I'm looking to know how to update Ubuntu through the Terminal command line.

I want to update the operating systems software for when and if the people behind ubuntu launch an update for v16.

This works on 14.04 sorry for making it look alike. How to install updates via command line?

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1 Answer 1

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Ubuntu 16.04 uses the apt package manager. To update from the terminal command line type in the following:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

or to get a full explanation of all apt commands, run

man apt

which will show you pages like this:

APT(8)                                APT                               APT(8)

NAME
       apt - command-line interface

SYNOPSIS
       apt [-h] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release]
           [-a=architecture] {list | search | show | update |
           install pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
           remove pkg...  | upgrade | full-upgrade | edit-sources |
           {-v | --version} | {-h | --help}}

DESCRIPTION
       apt provides a high-level commandline interface for the package
       management system. It is intended as an end user interface and enables
       some options better suited for interactive usage by default compared to
       more specialized APT tools like apt-get(8) and apt-cache(8).

       Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end user interface
       and as such only mentions the most used commands and options partly to
       not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to avoid
       overwhelming readers with a cornucopia of options and details.

       update (apt-get(8))
           update is used to download package information from all configured
           sources. Other commands operate on this data to e.g. perform
           package upgrades or search in and display details about all
           packages available for installation.


       upgrade (apt-get(8))
           upgrade is used to install available upgrades of all packages
           currently installed on the system from the sources configured via
           sources.list(5). New packages will be installed if required to
           statisfy dependencies, but existing packages will never be removed.
           If an upgrade for a package requires the remove of an installed
           package the upgrade for this package isn't performed.

       full-upgrade (apt-get(8))
           full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade but will remove
           currently installed packages if this is needed to upgrade the
           system as a whole.

       install, remove, purge (apt-get(8))
           Performs the requested action on one or more packages specified via
           regex(7), glob(7) or exact match. The requested action can be
           overridden for specific packages by append a plus (+) to the

Hope this helps!

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  • does this command update the drivers too ?
    – DiaJos
    Sep 13, 2018 at 18:06
  • 1
    @Webman If the drivers are from a PPA or Repository, then yes it does update them. If not, you will have to update them manually from whatever site you got them from.
    – Terrance
    Sep 13, 2018 at 18:13

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