On the contrary, sudo apt upgrade updates all the currently installed packages in our machines to their latest versions. When we enter this command, we send a command to browse the package list and copy the latest version to our local machine. The command checks for the latest list of available packages in the repositories. It is necessary to note that update doesn’t install any packages or even upgrade them. sudo apt update updates the list of all packages that are available along with their versions. apt, as mentioned earlier, invokes the Advanced Package Tool. Let’s learn the sudo apt update command in detail first.Īs you’re trying to add or modify packages, you need to have root privileges. How to Use the apt update and apt upgrade Commands?ĭifference Between the sudo apt update and sudo apt update Commands.Difference Between the sudo apt update and sudo apt update Commands.It is, however, true that both needed to be worked on simultaneously in most cases.

But they are fundamentally very different based on their job description. Superficially, update and upgrade sound similar, and as the other words are already the same, both should do the same thing. Many users are curious about the differences between these two commands, and many Linux forums are flooded with this question. Whatever your goal, the use of apt update and apt upgrade is inevitable. Or maybe you needed to fix something, and an article suggested you run these commands. You might remember the first time you tried to install a package in your system and used these commands as follows. Sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade are two of the most used commands in Ubuntu and Debian-based distributions. Most software packages contain an executable program, metadata files, documentation, and configuration files. Software packages can be software like text editors, IDEs, media players, device drivers, and more. Repositories, also called repos, are storage locations for maintaining software packages. It consists of a bunch of tools that can install, update, remove, or manage the packages that are installed or available for distribution. Linux has an advanced package management tool called Advanced Package Tool, commonly referred to as APT ( apt).