---
name: "distrobox-upgrade"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "distrobox"
version: "1.8.2.5-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/distrobox-upgrade"
---

# distrobox-upgrade(1)

## NAME

-

  ```
  distrobox-upgrade
  ```

## DESCRIPTION

distrobox-upgrade will enter the specified list of containers and will perform an upgrade using the container’s package manager.

## SYNOPSIS

**distrobox upgrade**

-

  ```
  --help/-h:      show this message
  --all/-a:       perform for all distroboxes
  --running:      perform only for running distroboxes
  --root/-r:      launch podman/docker/lilipod with root privileges. Note that if you need root this is the preferred
              way over "sudo distrobox" (note: if using a program other than 'sudo' for root privileges is necessary,
              specify it through the DBX_SUDO_PROGRAM env variable, or 'distrobox_sudo_program' config variable)
  --verbose/-v:       show more verbosity
  --version/-V:       show version
  ```

## EXAMPLES

Upgrade all distroboxes

-

  ```
  distrobox-upgrade --all
  ```

Upgrade all running distroboxes

-

  ```
  distrobox-upgrade --all --running
  ```

Upgrade a specific distrobox

-

  ```
  distrobox-upgrade alpine-linux
  ```

Upgrade a list of distroboxes

-

  ```
  distrobox-upgrade alpine-linux ubuntu22 my-distrobox123
  ```

**Automatically update all distro**

You can create a systemd service to perform distrobox-upgrade automatically, this example shows how to run it daily:

\~/.config/systemd/user/distrobox-upgrade.service

-

  ```
  [Unit]
  Description=distrobox-upgrade Automatic Update
  [Service]
  Type=simple
  ExecStart=distrobox-upgrade --all
  StandardOutput=null
  ```

\~/.config/systemd/user/distrobox-upgrade.timer

-

  ```
  [Unit]
  Description=distrobox-upgrade Automatic Update Trigger
  [Timer]
  OnBootSec=1h
  OnUnitInactiveSec=1d
  [Install]
  WantedBy=timers.target
  ```

Then simply do a `systemctl --user daemon-reload && systemctl --user enable --now distrobox-upgrade.timer`