def _check_apt_updates(self):
        """
        This method will use the 'checkupdates' command line utility
        to determine how many updates are waiting to be installed via
        'apt list --upgradeable'.
        """
        output = str(subprocess.check_output(["apt", "list", "--upgradeable"]))
        output = output.split(LINE_SEPARATOR)
        return len(output[1:-1])