How do I find out when debian packages were last updated?

Question

I access an ubuntu 10.04LTS server that is administered by someone else, I have a feeling that it hasn't been getting updates/upgrades recently.

Is there a way to check on the command line when updates were last taken, without sudo privileges?

Answer 1

If permissions haven't changed from default an unprivledge user in Ubuntu can read the apt history log:

less /var/log/apt/history.log

If you just care about how often you can:

grep Start-Date /var/log/apt/history.log