Someone told me to use the command "apt-get update "to update my software and hardware updates frequently. What exactly is updated and how often should I update it.
APT Updates – How Often to Update Using apt-get update
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Someone told me to use the command "apt-get update "to update my software and hardware updates frequently. What exactly is updated and how often should I update it.
Best Answer
apt-get
is an incredibly useful tool. Try reading this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto site to get an idea of whatapt-get
can be used for!As for your specific question, @Braiam and @Alaa have very well done answers, read theirs first. Your friend is rather mis-informed. This is from the man-page for
apt-get
:I like what @Braiam broke this down into:
QUOTE: @Braiam:
Obviously
apt-get update
doesn't download/install the latest and greatest program update(s), it only makes sure that any newly added PPAs are included in the sources.list file. This allows you to install programs from non-default sources and is also why you have to runapt-get update
afteradd-apt-repository
.In your case you would want to run
apt-get update
after adding a PPA. Ubuntu automatically checks for updates either every week or as you configure it. It, when updates are available, shows a nice little GUI that lets you choose the updates to install, and then downloads/installs the selected ones.Unless you want to force Ubuntu to check for updates, you don't need to run any special commands, just use your computer normally and you will eventually be alerted to the updates and be allowed to install them.