updates

name	updates
description	Update Bluefin system image, Flatpaks, and Homebrew packages safely.
domain	sysadmin

System Updates

Bluefin is an immutable OS. Updates work differently from traditional Linux: the base image is updated atomically via OCI pull; applications (Flatpaks, Homebrew) update independently.

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When to Use

• Updating the system to the latest Bluefin image
• Checking if updates are available before a reboot
• Updating Flatpak apps and Homebrew packages
• Rolling back a bad update
• Understanding the update pipeline

When NOT to Use

• Modifying files in the base image — use a Distrobox or layered package instead
• CI/CD automation — use the OCI image build pipeline instead

Update Layers

Bluefin has three independent update layers:

Layer	Tool	When Applied
Base OS image	bootc / rpm-ostree	On next reboot
Flatpak apps	flatpak update	Immediately
Homebrew packages	brew upgrade	Immediately

System Image Update

# Check for a pending update (non-blocking)
bootc status

# Pull latest image (runs in background, applied on next reboot)
# This happens automatically — you rarely need to run this manually.
ujust update

# See what changed in the staged image
rpm-ostree db diff

# Reboot to apply the staged update
systemctl reboot

Rollback

# Roll back to the previous image (takes effect on next reboot) — preferred
bootc rollback

# Legacy/Fallback (pre-bootc systems): rpm-ostree rollback
# rpm-ostree rollback

# Or from GRUB: select the previous entry at boot

Flatpak Updates

flatpak update

Homebrew Updates

brew update && brew upgrade

Checking Update Status

# Show current and staged image info
bootc status --json | jq '{booted: .status.booted.image.image.image, staged: .status.staged}'

# Show last update time
rpm-ostree status

Automatic Updates

Bluefin automatically applies image updates in the background. Flatpaks also update automatically via a systemd timer. Manual intervention is only needed if you want to force an update immediately or roll back.