sysupdate

A fast, beautiful CLI for managing system updates on Linux. Runs package manager updates concurrently with real-time progress tracking.

Supported Package Managers

Package Manager	Distribution
APT	Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS
DNF	Fedora, RHEL, CentOS, Rocky Linux
Pacman	Arch Linux, Manjaro, EndeavourOS
Flatpak	All distributions
Snap	All distributions

Features

• Concurrent Updates: All available package managers run in parallel
• Multi-Distro Support: Works on Debian, Fedora, Arch-based systems and more
• Parallel Downloads: Uses aria2c for faster APT package downloads (optional)
• Real-time Progress: Live progress bars with package names and speed
• Self-Update: Built-in command to update sysupdate itself from GitHub Releases
• Gorgeous Terminal UI: Animated startup banner with a diagonal sheen reveal, truecolor gradient progress bars, and per-manager accent colors — with graceful fallbacks for narrow, non-Unicode, or piped output
• Detailed Logging: Timestamped logs saved for troubleshooting

Installation

Pre-built binary (recommended)

Grab a self-contained binary from the latest release — no Python or uv required. Replace x86_64 with aarch64 on ARM systems.

# Download the binary for your architecture
curl -LO https://github.com/cosmix/sysupdate/releases/latest/download/sysupdate-linux-x86_64

# (Optional) verify the checksum
curl -LO https://github.com/cosmix/sysupdate/releases/latest/download/SHA256SUMS.txt
sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS.txt

# Install onto your PATH (the filename must stay 'sysupdate' for self-update to work)
chmod +x sysupdate-linux-x86_64
sudo mv sysupdate-linux-x86_64 /usr/local/bin/sysupdate

# Run
sysupdate

Once installed this way, sysupdate self-update upgrades the binary in place from future releases.

From source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/cosmix/sysupdate.git
cd sysupdate

# Install with uv
uv sync

# Run
uv run sysupdate

Optional: Parallel Downloads

Install aria2 for faster parallel package downloads:

sudo apt install aria2

Usage

# Run updates
sysupdate

# Dry run (show what would be updated)
sysupdate --dry-run

# Verbose mode (detailed package info)
sysupdate --verbose

# Disable banner/summary animations (or set SYSUPDATE_NO_ANIMATION=1)
sysupdate --no-animation

# Show version
sysupdate --version

# Check for sysupdate updates
sysupdate self-update --check-only

# Update sysupdate to latest version
sysupdate self-update

Example Output

On Fedora, APT is replaced with DNF. On Arch, it's replaced with Pacman. Narrow or non-Unicode terminals automatically fall back to compact ASCII art.

Requirements

• Python 3.11+
• Linux (Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora/RHEL, Arch, or derivatives)
• sudo privileges
• At least one supported package manager (APT, DNF, or Pacman)
• flatpak (optional)
• snap (optional)
• aria2 (optional, for parallel APT downloads)

Log Files

Logs are saved to /var/log/sysupdate/ when running as root, or ~/.local/state/sysupdate/logs/ for non-root users:

sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_main.log
sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_apt.log      # Debian/Ubuntu
sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_dnf.log      # Fedora/RHEL
sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_pacman.log   # Arch
sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_flatpak.log
sysupdate_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_snap.log

Testing

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Run with verbose output
uv run pytest -v

# Test with downgraded packages
./test_downgrade.sh --count 3
uv run sysupdate

test_downgrade.sh

Utility to simulate package downgrades for testing:

./test_downgrade.sh --dry-run    # Preview
./test_downgrade.sh --count 5    # Downgrade 5 packages
./test_downgrade.sh              # Downgrade 3 packages (default)

Legacy Script

The original bash script is available as sysupdate-legacy.sh:

./sysupdate-legacy.sh

License

MIT - See LICENSE