softwareupdate(8) – System Manager’s Manual

NAME

softwareupdate – system software update tool

SYNOPSIS

softwareupdate
command
[args …]

DESCRIPTION

Software Update checks for new and updated versions of your software based on information about your computer and current software.

Invoke
softwareupdate
by specifying a
command
followed by zero or more
args.

softwareupdate
requires admin authentication for all commands except
–list.
If you run
softwareupdate
as a normal admin user, you will be prompted for a password where required. Alternatively, you can run
softwareupdate
as root and avoid all further authentication prompts.

The following
commands
are available:

-l | –list

List all available updates.

-i | –install

Each update specified by
args
is downloaded and installed.
args
can be one of the following:

-r | –recommended

All updates that are recommended for your system. These are prefixed with a
*‌
character in the
–list
output.

–os-only

Only macOS updates

–safari-only

Only safari updates

-R | –restart

Automatically restart (or shut down) if required to complete installation. If the user invoking this tool is logged in then macOS will attempt to quit all applications, logout, and restart. If the user is not logged in, macOS will trigger a forced reboot if necessary. If you wish to always perform a forced reboot, pass -f (–force).

-a | –all

All updates that are applicable to your system, including those non-recommended ones,
which are prefixed with a
–
character in the
–list
output. (Non-recommended updates are uncommon in any case.)

item …

One or more specified updates. The
–list
output shows the item names you can specify here, prefixed by the
*‌
or
–
characters. See
EXAMPLES.

–stdinpass

Password to authenticate as an owner. Apple Silicon only.

–user

Local username to authenticate as an owner. Apple Silicon only.

–list-full-installers

List the available macOS Installers.

–fetch-full-installer

Install the latest recommended macOS Installer.
Use –full-installer-version to specify the version of macOS to install. ie. –full-installer-version 10.15

–install-rosetta

Install Rosetta. Only applies to Apple silicon Macs. Pass –agree-to-license to agree to the software license agreement without any user interaction.

-d | –download

Each update specified by
args
is downloaded but not installed. The values of
args
are the same as for the
–install
command. Updates downloaded with
–download
can be subsequently installed with
–install,
or through the App Store (as long as they remain applicable to your system).
Updates are downloaded to
/Library/Updates,
but are not designed to be installed by double-clicking the packages in that
directory: always use
–install
or the App Store to actually perform the install.

–schedule

Returns the per-machine automatic (background) check preference.

-h | –help

Print command usage.

EXAMPLES

The following examples are shown as given to the shell:

softwareupdate --list

Software Update Tool  

Finding available software  
Software Update found the following new or updated software:  
   * Label: MacBookAirEFIUpdate2.4-2.4  
        Title: MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update, Version: 2.4, Size: 3817K, Recommended: YES, Action: restart,  
   * Label: ProAppsQTCodecs-1.0  
        Title: ProApps QuickTime codecs, Version: 1.0, Size: 968K, Recommended: YES,  
   * Label: JavaForOSX-1.0  
        Title: Java for OS X 2012-005, Version: 1.0, Size: 65288K, Recommended: YES,

sudo softwareupdate --install JavaForOSX-1.0

Software Update Tool  

Finding available software  

Downloading Java for OS X 2012-005  
Downloaded Java for OS X 2012-005  
Installing Java for OS X 2012-005  
Done with Java for OS X 2012-005  
Done.

sudo softwareupdate --schedule

Automatic check is on

Mac OS X – September 11, 2012