{"id":9918,"date":"2025-03-17T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=9918"},"modified":"2025-03-08T11:54:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T16:54:36","slug":"update-linux-from-the-command-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=9918","title":{"rendered":"Update Linux from the command line"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n

One common task on a desktop computer is applying updates. Software updates keep your system on the latest patches, ensuring that everything runs smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you run a graphical desktop like KDE or Xfce or GNOME, you probably use the built-in tool to apply updates. But you can also install updates from the command line. This is very useful for servers, or for some other Linux system that runs in text mode<\/em>. Here\u2019s how to do it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

List the updates to apply<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fedora Linux uses the dnf<\/strong> package manager. Although the latest Fedora actually uses dnf5<\/strong>, the system provides an alias<\/em> as dnf<\/strong> so you can run it with either command name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general usage of dnf<\/strong> is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

dnf5 subcommand [options..] [arguments..]<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To list the updates that are available to install on your system, use the list<\/code> subcommand, which can list the packages that are already installed or the packages that can be installed. To list the updates, use --upgrades<\/code> as the option to the list<\/code> subcommand:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ sudo dnf list --upgrades<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
An alias to --upgrades<\/code> is --updates<\/code>, which I find easier to remember because I want to update<\/em> the packages on my system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I ran the command on my system, I saw that there were four updates available to install:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ sudo dnf list --updates\nUpdating and loading repositories:\nRepositories loaded.\nAvailable upgrades\nlibcupsfilters.x86_64   1:2.1.1-1.fc41 updates\nllvm-libs.x86_64        19.1.7-3.fc41  updates\npython3-boto3.noarch    1.37.7-1.fc41  updates\npython3-botocore.noarch 1.37.7-1.fc41  updates<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Install the updates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
To install the updates on your system, use the update<\/code> subcommand Since I only have four available available to update, the dnf<\/strong> command first lists the packages, then asks if I really<\/em> want to proceed with the update:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ sudo dnf update\nUpdating and loading repositories:\nRepositories loaded.\nPackage                       Arch   Version                 Repositor      Size\nUpgrading:\n libcupsfilters               x86_64 1:2.1.1-1.fc41          updates     1.5 MiB\n   replacing libcupsfilters   x86_64 1:2.1.0-6.fc41          <unknown>   1.5 MiB\n llvm-libs                    x86_64 19.1.7-3.fc41           updates   124.5 MiB\n   replacing llvm-libs        x86_64 19.1.7-2.fc41           <unknown> 124.5 MiB\n python3-boto3                noarch 1.37.7-1.fc41           updates     2.1 MiB\n   replacing python3-boto3    noarch 1.37.5-1.fc41           <unknown>   2.1 MiB\n python3-botocore             noarch 1.37.7-1.fc41           updates   100.1 MiB\n   replacing python3-botocore noarch 1.37.5-1.fc41           <unknown>  99.8 MiB\n\nTransaction Summary:\n Upgrading:          4 packages\n Replacing:          4 packages\n\nTotal size of inbound packages is 40 MiB. Need to download 40 MiB.\nAfter this operation, 361 KiB extra will be used (install 228 MiB, remove 228 MiB).\nIs this ok [y\/N]: <\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re ready to proceed, press y<\/strong> on your keyboard. You\u2019ll see dnf<\/strong> download all the updates, then install them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
...\nIs this ok [y\/N]: y\n[1\/4] python3-boto3-0:1.37.7-1.fc41.noa 100% | 629.5 KiB\/s | 419.9 KiB |  00m01s\n[2\/4] libcupsfilters-1:2.1.1-1.fc41.x86 100% | 762.1 KiB\/s | 605.9 KiB |  00m01s\n[3\/4] python3-botocore-0:1.37.7-1.fc41. 100% |   2.1 MiB\/s |   7.8 MiB |  00m04s\n[4\/4] llvm-libs-0:19.1.7-3.fc41.x86_64  100% |   3.5 MiB\/s |  31.5 MiB |  00m09s\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n[4\/4] Total                             100% |   4.2 MiB\/s |  40.3 MiB |  00m09s\nRunning transaction\n[ 1\/10] Verify package files            100% |  13.0   B\/s |   4.0   B |  00m00s\n[ 2\/10] Prepare transaction             100% |  16.0   B\/s |   8.0   B |  00m00s\n[ 3\/10] Upgrading python3-botocore-0:1. 100% |  45.1 MiB\/s | 100.6 MiB |  00m02s\n[ 4\/10] Upgrading python3-boto3-0:1.37. 100% |  22.6 MiB\/s |   2.1 MiB |  00m00s\n[ 5\/10] Upgrading llvm-libs-0:19.1.7-3. 100% | 152.2 MiB\/s | 124.5 MiB |  00m01s\n[ 6\/10] Upgrading libcupsfilters-1:2.1. 100% |  43.2 MiB\/s |   1.6 MiB |  00m00s\n[ 7\/10] Removing python3-boto3-0:1.37.5 100% |  22.8 KiB\/s | 187.0   B |  00m00s\n[ 8\/10] Removing python3-botocore-0:1.3 100% | 154.8 KiB\/s |   2.8 KiB |  00m00s\n[ 9\/10] Removing llvm-libs-0:19.1.7-2.f 100% |   2.9 KiB\/s |  18.0   B |  00m00s\n[10\/10] Removing libcupsfilters-1:2.1.0 100% |  42.0   B\/s |  39.0   B |  00m01s\nComplete!<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
To skip this confirmation when you install updates, add the -y<\/code> or --assumeyes<\/code> option:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$ sudo dnf update --assumeyes<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Learn more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The dnf5-list<\/em>(8) manual page has full documentation about the list<\/code> subcommand, including the --installed<\/code> option to list only the installed<\/em> packages, or --available<\/code> to list only the packages that are available<\/em> to install. For more information on the install<\/code> subcommand, see the dnf5-install<\/em>(8) manual page. The update<\/code> subcommand is an alias of upgrade<\/code>; you can find full documentation in the dnf5-upgrade<\/em>(8) manual page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Be a power user by updating your system from the command line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":4654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[100,5],"tags":[104,732,91],"class_list":["post-9918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-command-line","category-linux","tag-command-line","tag-dnf5","tag-linux"],"modified_by":"David Both","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9919,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9918\/revisions\/9919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}