Apple Software Update

Apple Software Update is a program developed by Apple, Inc. It is used to find and install the latest updates of different Apple software, such as Security Updates, Firmware Updates, Device Drivers Updates and Incremental Mac OS and related application updates. The program can be found in the Apple menu or as a component of the OS X CoreServices.

The Apple Software Update application provides scanning schedules. Scanning of software updates can be done daily, weekly, or monthly. Enabling or disabling automatic installation of updates is also available. This application can download .pkg files, too. This is a type of file format used by Apple, Inc. in their software packages. The downloaded .pkg files are stored in the computer system, which can be installed at a later time. This program also provides a history of installed software updates.

Available updates are listed in the main window of this program. Each update contains a detailed description about the Apple Software. The program also provides a Make Inactive option. This option is used to make a software/driver update inactive. Inactive updates will no longer be displayed the next instance the Apple Software Update program is used.

The available features of this program can be accessed through a command-line program called softwareupdate. The following are some of the available command lines in this program:

a list of necessary updates (-l)
download only (-d)
install (-i)
ignore specific updates (--ignore <label>)