How to update Linux packages with command

You might be using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu or PopOS and want to update Linux packages with the terminal. To achieve this you just need two commands.

Step 1: Run "sudo apt update" to resynchronize package index

The first command "apt-get update" is to resynchronize the package index with the source.

sudo apt update

OR

sudo apt-get update

Output

Hit:1 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable InRelease
Hit:3 http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary hirsute InRelease
Hit:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute InRelease
Hit:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/daniruiz/flat-remix/ubuntu hirsute InRelease
Hit:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute-security InRelease
Hit:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute-updates InRelease
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/obsproject/obs-studio/ubuntu hirsute InRelease
Hit:9 https://download.sublimetext.com apt/stable/ InRelease
Hit:10 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute-backports InRelease
Hit:11 http://ppa.launchpad.net/papirus/papirus/ubuntu hirsute InRelease
Hit:12 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76/pop/ubuntu hirsute InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
94 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

If you see any updates available then you can run the second command.

Step 2: Run "apt-get upgrade" to download available package updates

And the second command is "apt-get upgrade" to actually download available package updates.

sudo apt upgrade

OR

sudo apt-get upgrade

Output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
.
.
.
The following packages will be upgraded:
 apport brave-browser code curl libcurl3-gnutls libcurl4 libdrm-amdgpu1
 libdrm-amdgpu1:i386 libdrm-common libdrm-intel1 libdrm-intel1:i386
 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm-radeon1:i386
 libdrm2 libdrm2:i386 libegl-mesa0 libgbm1 libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dri
 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libglapi-mesa libglapi-mesa:i386 libglx-mesa0
 libglx-mesa0:i386 libnvidia-cfg1-465 libnvidia-cfg1-470 libnvidia-common-465
 .
 .
 .
94 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
8 standard security updates
Need to get 799 MB of archives.
After this operation, 775 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com stable/main
  amd64 brave-browser amd64 1.29.81 [91.7 MB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hirsute-security/main
  amd64 libcurl3-gnutls amd64 7.74.0-1ubuntu2.3 [248 kB]
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/system76/pop/ubuntu hirsute/main
  amd64 libdrm-common all 2.4.107-1pop0~1631647891~21.04~ab1d332 [15.2 kB]
Get:4 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable/main
  amd64 code amd64 1.60.1-1631294805 [75.9 MB]
.
.
.
Progress: [ 90%]
[############################################################..........] 

After running "sudo apt upgrade" you might be prompted to press Y to continue. So just press "Y" and the packages will be upgraded.

Based on the upgrade size it might take some time, so sit tight.

Optional Step: Run "sudo apt autoremove"

Once you run the upgrade command you might see a message about automatically installed packages that are no longer required. And this also helps in freeing up some space on your disk.

sudo apt autoremove

Or

​sudo apt-get autoremove

Output:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  fonts-lato gir1.2-xapp-1.0 gist inxi libllvm11:i386 libruby2.7 libxapp1 
  linux-headers-5.11.0-7614 linux-headers-5.11.0-7614-generic
  linux-headers-5.11.0-7620 linux-headers-5.11.0-7620-generic
  linux-image-5.11.0-7614-generic linux-image-5.11.0-7620-generic
  linux-modules-5.11.0-7614-generic linux-modules-5.11.0-7620-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-7614-generic
  linux-modules-extra-5.11.0-7620-generic python3-configobj python3-debconf
  python3-distro-info python3-distupgrade python3-requests-file
  python3-setproctitle python3-tldextract python3-update-manager rake ruby
  ruby-json ruby-minitest ruby-net-telnet ruby-power-assert ruby-rubygems
  ruby-test-unit ruby-xmlrpc ruby2.7 rubygems-integration tree xapps-common
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 38 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 1,105 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 508365 files and directories currently installed.)
.
.
.

And now you have a Linux system with fully updated packages. And make sure to run these commands regularly to make sure you don't fall behind.

Cover Photo by Gabriel Heinzer on Unsplash