Working with apt-get, apt-cache and aptitude

Hi all,

Today, I would like to teach you about package management in Linux: we have an article introducing the powerful APT package management utility used mainly in Debian-based Linux distributions, but also some others. We'll cover aptitude, apt-get, apt-cache and other useful tools.

Have fun:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/aptitude.html


Regards,
Mrk

 

very nice.
I did wonder about aptitude versis apt-get and now i know.

Btw kubuntu uses kpackagekit now.

I could never get gdebi to work in debian.
when i tryed to install an local opera.deb file using gbebi it messed up and told me to run synaptec to sort out the issue and i couldnt do any other package management until i did.
once that was sorted i just added the opera deb repo using commandline and then installed using apt-get.
I may try out some of the commands in your article in my debian squeeze virtual machine.
any chance of a yum article if you have time?

 

This is very useful. Several commands I didn't know about, like adding the -s
flag for simulation. Thank you !

As regards the --purge flag, as far as I know it will remove the installed package
and the associated config files, but will not remove dependencies. To remove
the package plus the dependencies and (I think??) the config files,
apt-get autoremove packagename should be used as mentioned in your tutorial. In my
limited experience the config files are often not removed,
even when using --purge and autoremove, and I need to manually delete them.

I have also come across this one : aptitude clean --purge-unused (to find unneeded dependencies.)

 

Thanks heaps for this, mrk

I have used apt-get so many times I have lost count,
but I have never really thought about what was happening,
or other functionality that might be available.

Until now

Cheers

 

Mrk,

very good - as usual

Two remarks:

• I think you should add a warning that apt-get and aptitude should NOT be used at the same time or alternatively. Both use different databases in order to control dependencies. If you switch from apt-get to aptitude you should use the option keep-all - otherwise aptitude might deinstall many packages that it thinks are no longer necessary. On the other hand, it's not possible to synchronize the apt-get database with the aptitude one. I've heard that in some cases using both package managers leaded to corrupted databases. Thus one should decide which one to use and stick to it.
  Having said that, there are people who think that aptitude is the better choice. And isn't aptitude still the recommended package manager for Debian?
• As lodore already mentioned, Kubuntu now uses kpackagekit. Adept is no longer developed AFAIK.

 

I agree with tlu, and yes aptitude is the recommended option.

I still use apt-get because of your first point. and only started using it because it's about the only example we get to read in tutorials. In time, i joined that party