When using synaptic on my Ubuntu desktop computer i can review all changelog of all the packages to be upgraded, and unselect a package for upgrade if I want. On my desktop I usually install everything, but I like to at least review what the changes are so that I can delay the upgrade if I suspect it could cause problems with the development tools I use.

On a server (Ubuntu Server) with no x-server how can I do the same thing on the console:

• list all packages that will be updated (apt-get --dry-run upgrade does this along with a lot of noisy simulated install messages),
• view the changelog (if any) from last upgrade to the version it will be upgraded to.
• select which packages I want to ignore, or which I want to upgrade

I've searched a lot for this but I haven't found anything, possibly I'm not using the correct terminology; but surely this must be possible. Synaptic must get it's info from some some low-level tool I assume?

Complicated shellscripts are welcome too, if this is not already easily done with the existing tools.