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I am running Ubuntu Server 16.04. Whenever I login it will tell me if I have updates which is great, I will run those updates and go about my business. The next time I login, it tells me that the server needs a restart.

My question is, besides logging out and logging back in, is there a way to tell if the machine needs a reboot?

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Check this answer to a previous and very similar question:

How can I tell, from the command line, whether the machine requires a reboot?

In essence, you just need to check if this file has been created after updates, configuration changes or security updates: /var/run/reboot-required. If you need to check which installed packages need the reboot then open the file /var/run/reboot-required.dpkgs

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  • Suggestion - if the above file name of which packages produced the reboot notice doesn't work for an installation, try changing the file name extension from .dpkgs to .pkgs (drop the 'd')
    – kenneth558
    Jan 15, 2021 at 18:42

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