macOS: How to Update Your Mac in the Terminal

Besides the regular route of using the Mac App Store, it’s possible to use the Terminal to update your Mac. The big difference between using the Mac App Store and the Terminal is that when you use the Terminal method, you can keep using your Mac as the update downloads and the initial installation will take place in the background (via MacRumors).

Update Your Mac with Terminal

You can find the Terminal app by opening Finder and going to Applications > Utilities. Or, you can use Spotlight. Once Terminal is open, type the following command:

softwareupdate -l

Your Mac will search Apple’s servers for any macOS updates currently available. If there aren’t any updates available, it will give you a “No software available” message. If there are updates, it will display them in a list, and you can use the arrow keys to choose it.

Using softwareupdate -l

To download and install an update, use the following command but replace NAME with the name of the update:

softwareupdate -i NAME

or

softwareupdate --install NAME

You’ll have to type out the entire thing in single quotes. Example:

softwareupdate --install 'macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update-'

If there are spaces at the end of an update name, those will also have to be included. Yeah, Terminal is that picky. Now, to download an update without immediately installing it, change the ‘i’ in the above command with a ‘d’, like so:

Using softwareupdate -h

softwareupdate -d NAME

Finally, to download and install all available updates, use this command:

softwareupdate -i -a

You can further enable or disable your Mac’s scheduled background checks for updates with:

softwareupdate --schedule ON or OFF

You can keep using your Mac while they download, but eventually Terminal will alert you to restart your Mac so the full installation procedure can take place. For a full list of commands you can use with softwareupdate, type:

man softwareupdate or softwareupdate -h

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