Ubuntu Apt Get Progress Bar Non-Interactive Flag

This guide provides a solution for displaying installation progress during automated Ubuntu system tasks. It outlines the specific command-line argument required to force a progress bar when running package managers in non-interactive mode.

When scripting package installations with apt-get, the terminal progress bar is hidden by default. This occurs because the command detects that the output is not connected to a direct terminal session. To re-enable the visual indicator, you must use the --progress-bar=progress flag.

Execute the command using the following syntax:

sudo apt-get --progress-bar=progress install package-name

This setting ensures that users or monitoring systems can track the installation status visually even within scripts. While the newer apt command often handles this automatically, apt-get requires this explicit flag for consistent progress reporting in non-interactive environments.