Q. How do I know what packages are available to be updated on my Debian / Ubuntu Linux system?
A. You can use standard command line utility called apt-get or GUI tool called Synaptic Update-Manager.
List all packages which could be updated
To list outdated package use apt-get command has following two options:
=> -u : Show upgraded packages; Print out a list of all packages that are to be upgraded.
=> upgrade : It is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system
Type the following command at shell prompt:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get -i upgrade
Output:
Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done The following packages will be upgraded: debconf debconf-i18n e2fslibs e2fsprogs file findutils klibc-utils libblkid1 libc6 libc6-i686 libcomerr2 libklibc libkrb53 libmagic1 libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g libss2 libssl0.9.8 libuuid1 linux-image-2.6-686 linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 locales perl perl-base perl-modules tar tzdata 28 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 39.6MB of archives. After unpacking 148kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
To updated just say yes to prompt – “Do you want to continue”. Alternatively, you can type the following command:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Synaptic GUI Package Update Notifier
Synaptic works hand-in-hand with Update-Manager to inform you about updates to the software installed on your system. If software or security updates are available, Update-Manager will display a pop-up message and an icon in the notification area on your GNOME desktop. To update your system, click on the notification icon, enter your password and click OK.
(Fig. 01: Synaptic GUI Package Update Notifier [ Image credit Ubuntu Project] )
4 comment
You have a typo. Should read:
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get -u upgrade
how can i list avaliable and installed package on ubuntu?
hi!
help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
morteza@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libpcap0.8-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libpcap-dev libpcap0.8-dev
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 70 not upgraded.
E: Could not get lock /var/cache/apt/archives/lock – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the download directory
There is a simple way to show a continuos list:
sudo apt-get upgrade -s |grep "Inst"| awk ' { print $2 } '| tr '\n' ' 'But check if in your Language commands before grep shows Inst or another word.
Hady: you have another instance of apt-get or other packages manager open at same time: aptitude, synaptics, etc. If you’re sure all are close, you must remove the lock file.