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Why do GUI-based packages update and CLI-based packages update differ?

Many times after updating Ubuntu packages via GUI, it ask me to restart my computer. However, when I do it via the command-line it never ask me to restart the computer. These seem contradictory to me. If it is that important to restart after some important packages are installed, why does the command-line never ask for it? Should I always use the GUI method then?

1 Answers1

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On a command line interface (CLI) I guess you do

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

AFAIK a GUI does

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

dist-upgrade will/can remove/update packages that change dependencies. thus a restart can be needed.

When you do sudo apt-get dist-upgrade on CLI, you will see that a restart is recommended sometimes too.

A GUI is not technically or security wise superior. It's often slower but can be more user-friendly.

Oli
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  • The command line one also tends to add a MOTD to the login (at least on servers it does). – Rinzwind Jun 04 '15 at 09:57
  • You don't need to do `upgrade` as well as `dist-upgrade`. The latter does both parts on its own. – Oli Jun 04 '15 at 09:59
  • Ok, then they are different. Therefore you have to choose among them. I'm not sure myself which one should I use. Which one is "better"? Also, the message about ureadahead is pretty obscure. Why not making it more intuitive? –  Jun 04 '15 at 12:10
  • Well if you know what ureadahead is, it is not obscure. If you don't, you don't need to care about it. :) It makes your boot time better. – meskobalazs Jun 04 '15 at 12:24
  • Sure, but we are talking here about perhaps the most basic action any user, at any knowledge level, should do to his distro, i.e. an update. –  Jun 04 '15 at 13:27