---
slug: "ubuntu-apt-show-updatable-package-number"
title: "Display the Number of Upgradable Packages in Ubuntu (apt)"
description: "When you log in to Ubuntu via SSH, you see the following message:\n\"10 packages can be updated.\n5 updates are security updates.\""
url: "https://www.ytyng.com/en/blog/ubuntu-apt-show-updatable-package-number"
publish_date: "2021-01-10T07:50:50Z"
created: "2021-01-10T07:50:50Z"
updated: "2026-02-27T09:28:06.305Z"
categories: []
keywords: ""
featured_image_url: "https://media.ytyng.com/resize/20230812/b56dc8733a694b01a09c795290a0f683.png.webp?width=768"
has_video: false
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music_urls: []
lang: "en"
---

# Display the Number of Upgradable Packages in Ubuntu (apt)

<p>When you SSH login to Ubuntu, you may see the following message:</p>
<p></p>
<pre>10 packages can be updated.<br />5 updates are security updates.</pre>
<p></p>
<p>This display.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The mechanism that displays this message uses <code>motd</code> (message of the day).</p>
<p>To get this message via a command, use:</p>
<p></p>
<pre>/usr/lib/update-notifier/apt-check --human-readable</pre>
<p></p>
<p></p>