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In the GUI tool you can get a list packages with security updates. Can this be done on the command line in Debian or Ubuntu?

Normally I might use "apt-get upgrade" which would show me what is being upgraded, but I would like to know which ones are security updates.

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3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Use the unattended-upgrade application.

sudo unattended-upgrade

This lets you install only security updates automatically, but you can call it manually if needed.

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I like this answer as you've actually thought about what I might be trying to do and unattended-upgrade is something I've installed today to try out. – StephenPaulger Sep 5 '12 at 20:38
up vote 3 down vote 
apt-get upgrade -s | grep -i security

... is what the Nagios check-apt plugin uses to count pending security updates which is similar to what you're looking for.

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up vote 1 down vote

On ubuntu you should be able to use apt-check, it's the one that populates your motd with the number of security updates available.

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I can't see that on debian or ubuntu. – StephenPaulger Oct 22 '12 at 15:33

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