Ubuntu - Httqm's Docs

What are phased updates ?

It's a safety process which makes a new version of a package available only to a fraction of users so that, should there be a problem, it will not hit everybody.

How does it work ?

When a new version of a package is released, initially only 10% of users can get it.
In case of a regression, this percentage is set to 0% to stop its deployment.
On the other hand, if the package has no bug, the percentage is increased by 10% every 6 hours. As a result, every released package is made available to everybody within 54 hours.

What should I do when I see The following packages have been kept back: ?

This is not an error : nothing's broken. Just be patient : packages will be available for install in about 2 days.

Why are apt's messages regarding phased updates so unclear?

This is an issue Ubuntu developers are working on. Scroll a little bit to a detailed answer.

Can I disable phased updates ?

This is just an apt setting away, so you can. But you shouldn't : disabling this means clicking on .

How can I have details about the progress of phased updates ?

Global status : Phasing Ubuntu Stable Release Updates

For a single package :

apt-cache policy gstreamer1.0-pipewire

gstreamer1.0-pipewire:
  Installed: 0.3.48-1ubuntu3
  Candidate: 0.3.48-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 0.3.48-1ubuntu3 500 (phased 40%)
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     0.3.48-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages

Retry this in a few hours and see the percentage increase.

For all packages :
- count packages in every update step (source) :
  apt show -a $(apt list --upgradable 2>&1 | grep / | cut -d/ -f1) 2>&1 | grep Phased | sort -n | uniq -c
```
	3 Phased-Update-Percentage: 0			looks like phased updates just saved my life ?
	1 Phased-Update-Percentage: 50
```
- list packages and their Phased-Update-Percentage :
  apt show -a $(apt list --upgradable 2>&1 | grep / | cut -d/ -f1) 2>&1 | awk '/^Package:/ { packageName=$2 } /^Phased-Update-Percentage:/ { print packageName" "$2"%" }' | sort -k2 -n | column -t

Ubuntu - I am what I am because of who we all are

Phased updates