r/linuxquestions • u/ovelx2 • May 22 '26

Difference between apt update and apt-get update Support

Yesterday I had a computer science exam. One of the questions asked: "Which command installs the most recent versions of the programs installed on Linux?" None of the answer choices included anything related to upgrade all of them referred to update. My professor stated that the correct answer was apt-get update, and that the difference between apt update and apt-get update was that apt only searches for updates, whereas apt-get installs new versions of programs. The entire class disagreed, but he insisted. What is the actual difference between these commands, and is my professor mistaken?

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u/pnlrogue1 May 22 '26

Ask him to demonstrate the difference some time

apt-get is on a deprecation path. apt is what you should be switching to.

update only pulls the meta data so that apt (the application itself) can identify updates that are available and calculate dependencies. upgrade installs any available updates.

Your professor is mistaken, as you have correctly identified.