A while ago I blogged about the script I use to update my Ubuntu machines. Today it’s the turn of Mac OS X.
#!/bin/bash
echo "updateall v.1.0 for OS X. This software will upgrade all your Apple/Homebrew software."
#Run this as a normal user. Your admin password will be asked for if required.
#Update all Apple software (requires admin password at this point)
sudo softwareupdate -i -a
#Update all software installed via Homebrew (as a normal user)
brew update
echo "The script has now finished running."
This assumes you’re an admin user (and know your admin password), and that you already use Homebrew to manage command line packages. That’s certainly how my machines are set up, as I find it’s easier to have the same set of command line tools on all my machines regardless of OS. I also find this a quicker and more reliable way of updating multiple machines on patch release day, and it can also be run as a scheduled job through Apple Remote Desktop for the brave at heart.
This one needs saving as a file called updateall. You can then make it executable (sudo chmod -X updateall), copy it to /usr/local/bin, and then run it by typing updateall in a terminal window.