[clug] monitoring number of updates available on debian/ubuntu

[jeff]

  I'm looking for a means to tell how many packages, if any, are 
available to be installed on a debian based system. I've done some 
searching but haven't come across anything so it's either not easy to 
find or I'm not looking in the right places. This is for use in a 
monitoring system so that it can warn someone that they need to check 
the available updates and install as needed. To put it another way I'm 
looking for the debian equivalent of "yum check-update". A full blown 
script would be much appreciated if you happen to have such a beast 
lying around :-).

Jeff.