As I manage a couple of computers running Mac OS X (not all mine), keeping them up to date with the latest security and software updates can be a bit tiresome. This is especially true for machines I have to use remote control on in order to update. With slow Internet connections, the VNC-protocol can be a bit slow, in particular when the machine is also downloading huge security updates.
To help with this, I just found out that is possible to update the machine remotely (or locally) using the terminal. All you have to do is fire up the terminal, optionally ssh to the remote machine, and type in the command
sudo softwareupdate -i -a
This will download and install all available Apple updates. If you just want to see what updates are available, try
softwareupdate -l
