Software Updates on Ubuntu Server

[spynappels]

Hi guys,

This may sound like a dumb question, but does Ubuntu Server Edition automatically download and install/apply updates? I did a search and could not seem to find a definitive answer to this one.

It is just that the Desktop Edition asks you whether you want to install updates, but I've never had such a request from my server ed. If it does not do it automatically, what is the syntax I need to use to check for updates?

Thanks for your help.
Stefan

[lykwydchykyn]

It does not do it automatically, though you can configure it that way with the help of a package called cron-apt.

To install you can use apt-get or aptitude. The syntax looks like this:

# To refresh the package list:
apt-get update
# To download and install packages:
apt-get upgrade


You can also use aptitude instead of apt-get in those commands. It has a little more sophisticated dependency resolver for some of those tricky situations. It also has a menu-driven interface if you just type "aptitude".

[spynappels]

Great, thanks.

Stefan