Unnecessarily long titles aside, this package adds a "background task progress reporting" API and provides a few functions for testing it out; start_cycling(name) which creates a dummy progress bar that cycles endlessly until stopped via stop_cycling(name), and recompile_everything() which loops through all installed packages and attempts to precompile them. The star of the show, of course, is the newly overridden Pkg.update(). After use'ing this package, running Pkg.update() will automatically invoke recompile_everything().
To try it out, just use this package, then run one of the testing functions above. Note that you will need to check out this branch of Julia 0.4 to use this package, as it needs a new REPL hook. Note that as all "background" tasks are actually implemented using green threads, the REPL will occasionally freeze, especially during Pkg operations.
To support this package for eventual world domination, use the #MakePkg.update()GreatAgain! hashtag on any social media website that will accept that as a hashtag.