List All Available Mac Software Updates from Command Line

To get a list of available software updates, type the following command:

Mac Os Updates

The use of sudo is required to get superuser privileges to actually install the updates.

Install Recommended Updates Only from Terminal in OS X

Free Mac Os X Software

You can also install only the recommended updates with:

Mac Os X Software Update Terminal 4

If there are any updates you want to ignore, you can do so with the –ignore flag, for example:

This is really useful for remotely updating Macs, setting up automated updates via a bash script, or if you just want to geek out.
This tool is available in all versions of OS X and therefore it can be used to update just about any Mac with necessary software updates. This is one way to avoid using the Mac App Store to update a Mac if that is necessary for whatever reason.

Jan 13, 2011  Installing Specific Software Updates to Mac from Terminal of Mac OS X You can also just install specific software updates by specifying the shorthand package name from the previous list retrieved from the softwareupdate tool, just point the command at a particular package and make sure the syntax matches up like so. Sep 30, 2014  Just Mac OS X Mavericks. It says it's 10.9.4 in the terminal, and in 'About This Mac', so I believe it there, but it also says the 10.9.5 update has been applied in the Software Update 'Updates Installed in the Last 30 Days'. Seems like a bungled up software update issue, maybe my last resort here is to just apply the Combo Update for 10.9.5.