I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. “If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like old faithful. Scripts can check for the existence of this variable to determine if they are executing in a command line environment (i.e. Variable: COMMAND_LINE_INSTALL Set when downloading or installing using the softwareupdate command. The following examples are shown as given to the shell: $ softwareupdate -list $ softwareupdate -fetch-full-installer -full-installer-version 10.15.4

Manage the per-user list of ignored updates. This option is available in Catalina ( 10.15) and greater fetch-full-installer ĭownload the latest 'Install macOS' application to the /Applications folder. SyntaxĮach update specified by args is downloaded, unarchived, and If not, you may be better off sticking with the default Mac App Store method as it keeps both your first and third party app updates all in one place.Check for new and updated versions of your software based on informationĪbout your computer and current software. So, if you only want to quickly install macOS system and first party updates, or if you don’t use any third party apps from the Mac App Store, the Terminal method has you covered. Since the softwareupdate UNIX command also served as the basis of the original Software Update utility, this limitation makes sense. This utility, which is how Apple delivered system and first party updates to users prior to the launch of the Mac App Store, did not support third party applications. Longtime Mac users may recognize this limitation is the same as the original Mac Software Update utility. This is compared to the Mac App Store, which will update your third party apps alongside the official Apple updates. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Terminal method only works with macOS system updates and first party Apple apps like iTunes. The One Big Downside of Using Software Update via the Terminalĭespite its benefits for many users, there’s one big caveat of running the Mac Software Update via the Terminal. While not every update will see a significant speed increase, the Terminal method at least won’t add any time compared to the Mac App Store. While not universal, many users report that updates install faster when installed via Terminal, both in terms of the initial installation as well as the post-restart portion as the Mac reboots. Users with multiple Macs to manage can create scripts or remotely initiate a software update via a method such as SSH without needing to manually use screen sharing or remote management software.Īnother potential benefit is speed. One big reason is automation and remote management. Now that you know how to run the Mac Software Update from the Terminal, the likely question is why you’d want to use this method instead of simply clicking a few buttons in the Mac App Store. You can do this via the normal macOS interface, but since we’re already using UNIX commands in Terminal, you can also type sudo shutdown -r now, which instructs shutdown command to restart the Mac (“-r”) immediately (“now”).īenefits of Using Software Update via the Terminal If you installed software updates that require a reboot, you’ll see a final message instructing you to restart your Mac. There’s no traditional progress bar, but you will see updated text entries in the Terminal window as each step is completed, letting you know both when certain updates have been downloaded and when the entire installation process is complete.Again, you’ll need to enter your admin password when prompted. The “-a” switch simply instructs the command to install all updates. To install all available software updates, instead use the command sudo softwareupdate -i -a.As this is a superuser ( sudo) command, you’ll need to enter your admin account password when prompted. To install an individual software update, enter the command sudo softwareupdate -i name, where “name” is the exact name of one of the available updates revealed by the list command.This will provide a list of all available updates along with their individual file sizes and a note indicating whether you’ll need to restart your Mac to complete the update process. From the Terminal, type softwareupdate -l (that’s a lowercase “L” and not the number one).Launch the Terminal application (which can be found in the /Applications/Utilities folder or by searching for it with Spotlight).

Check for mac software updates