for apt, why not use something like apt list --upgradeable | wc -l to determine whether updates are needed / the number of upgradeable packages? apt list output is not stable yet, but should be soon, one hopes.
for apt, why not use something like apt list --upgradeable | wc -l to determine whether updates are needed / the number of upgradeable packages? apt list output is not stable yet, but should be soon, one hopes.