Both
Debian and Ubuntu Linux provides a number of package management tools.
This article summaries package management command along with it usage
and examples for you.
- apt-get
: APT is acronym for Advanced Package Tool. It supports installing
packages over internet using ftp or http protocols. You can also upgrade
all packages in a single operations, which makes it even more
attractive.
- dpkg : Debian packaging tool which can be use to install, query, uninstall packages.
Gui
tools: You can also try GUI based or high level interface to the Debian
GNU/Linux package system. Following list summaries them:
- aptitude: It is a text-based interface to the Debian GNU/Linux package system.
- synaptic: GUI front end for APT
Red hat Linux package names generally end in .rpm, similarly Debian package names end in .deb, for example:
apache_1.3.31-6_i386.deb
Where,
- apache : Package name
- 1.3.31-6 : Version number
- i386 : Hardware Platform on which this package will run (i386 == intel x86 based system)
- .deb : Extension that suggest it is a Debian package
Remember whenever I refer
.deb
file it signifies complete file name, and whenever I refer package name
it must be first part of .deb file. For example, when I refer to a
package sudo it means sudo only and not the .deb file i.e.
sudo_1.6.7p5-2_i386.deb. You can find out debian package name with the
following command:
apt-cache search {package-name}
apt-cache search apache
Finally, most of the actions listed in this post are written
with the assumption that they will be executed by the root user running
the bash or any other modern shell.
apt-get add a new package
Add a new package called samba. The syntax is:
apt-get install {package-name}
To install a package called samba, run:
# apt-get install samba
apt-get remove the package called samba but keep the configuration files
The syntax is:
apt-get remove {package-name}
Example:
# apt-get remove samba
apt-get remove (erase) package and configuration file
The syntax is:
apt-get --purge remove {package-name}
Example:
# apt-get --purge remove samba
apt-get update (upgrade) package
The syntax is:
apt-get upgrade
To upgrade individual package called sudo, enter:
# apt-get install sudo
apt-get display available software updates
Following
command will display the list of all available upgrades (updates) using
-u option, if you decided to upgrade all of the shown packages just hit
'y'
# apt-get upgrade samba
However if you just wish to upgrade individual package then use apt-get command and it will take care of rest of your worries:
apt-get install {package-name}
dpkg command to get package information such as description of package, version etc.
The syntax is:
dpkg --info {.deb-package-name}
Example:
# dpkg --info sudo_1.6.7p5-2_i386.deb | less
List all installed packages
The syntax is:
dpkg -l
Example:
# dpkg -l
To list individual package try such as apache
# dpkg -l apache
You
can also use this command to see (verify) if package sudo is install or
not (note that if package is installed then it displays package name
along with small description):
# dpkg -l | grep -i 'sudo'
To list packages related to the apache:
# dpkg -l '*apache*'
List
files provided (or owned) by the installed package (for example what
files are provided by the installed samba package). The syntax is:
dpkg -L {package-name}
Example:
# dpkg -L samba
(H) List files
provided (or owned) by the package (for example what files are provided
by the uninstalled sudo package). The syntax is:
dpkg --contents {.deb-package-name}
Example:
# dpkg --contents sudo_1.6.7p5-2_i386.deb
Find, what package owns the file /bin/netstat?
The syntax is:
dpkg -S {/path/to/file}
Example:
# dpkg -S /bin/netstat
Search for package or package description
Some
times you don't know package name but aware of some keywords to search
the package. Once you got package name you can install it using apt-get
-i {package-name} command:
apt-cache search "Text-to-search"
apt-cache search "httpd"
apt-cache search "web server"
apt-cache search "web server"| grep something
Find out all the Debian package which can be used for Intrusion Detection
Type the following command:
# apt-cache search "Intrusion Detection"
Find out all sniffer packages, run:
# apt-cache search sniffer
Find out if Debian package is installed or not (status)
The syntax is:
dpkg -s {package-name} | grep Status
Example:
# dpkg -s samba| grep Status
List ach dependency a package has...
Display
a listing of each dependency a package has and all the possible other
packages that can fulfill that dependency. You hardly use this command
as apt-get does decent job fulfill all package dependencies. The syntax
is:
apt-cache depends package
Display dependencies for lsof and mysql-server packages:
# apt-cache depends lsof
# apt-cache depends mysql-server
Further reading
a décidé de prendre les devants et va dorénavant marquer comme dangereux les sites et applications web qui utiliseront ce plugin.
dpkg -S /etc/passwd
It should give me hint about the .deb file that what package owns the file /etc/passwd file…
Redhat packages end with ‘.rpm’ and NOT ‘.rmp’ as stated.
Redhat packages end with ‘.rpm’ and NOT ‘.rmp’ as stated.
Thanks for pointing it out. Typo is corrected.
dpkg -l | grep -i 'sudo'because dpkg’s output depends on the width of the terminal. For example compare :
dpkg -l '*excel-perl*'and
dpkg -l |grep '*excel-perl*'To obtain the “wide” listing (and thus be able to safely use pipes) you can use :
COLUMNS=200 dpkg -l '*excel-perl*'….^_^ thank’s
Or if you have more deb files and you want to install them all at once:
dpkg -i *.deb
This is kindergarten stuff for .rpm systems, but google gives me no joy here.
aptitude install apache
does exactly that. About the only time to use apt-get these days is to install aptitude. ;)
Is there no way to upgrade an installed package to a downloaded .deb file?
This is kindergarten stuff for .rpm systems, but google gives me no joy here.**
I know that you can do a dpkg -i –force-overwrite (packagename.deb) and that will overwrite an existing installation.
Same syntax.
From a message by Joey Hess on a Debian User List entry:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/07/msg02135.html
Seven reasons why you should be using aptitude instead of apt-get.
1. aptitude can look just like apt-get
If you run ‘aptitude update’ or ‘aptitude upgrade’ or ‘aptitude
install’, it looks and works just like apt-get, with a few enhancements.
So there is no learning curve.
2. aptitude sanely handles recommends
A long-standing failure of apt-get has been its lack of support for
the Recommends relationship. Which is a problem because many packages
in Debian rely on Recommends to pull in software that the average user
generally uses with the package. This is a not uncommon cause of
trouble, even though apt-get recently became able to at least mention
recommended packages, it’s easy to miss its warnings.
Aptitude supports Recommends by default, and can be confgigured to
support Suggests too. It even supports installing recommended packages
when used in command-line mode.
3. aptitude tracks automatically installed packages
Stop worrying about pruning unused libraries and support packages from
your system. If you use aptitude to install everything, it will keep
track of what packages are pulled in by dependencies alone, and remove
those packages when they are no longer needed.
4. use aptitude as a normal user and avoid hosing your system
Maybe you didn’t know that you can run aptitude in gui mode as a regular
user. Make any changes you’d like to try out. If you get into a real
mess, you can hit ‘q’ and exit, your changes will not be saved.
(aptitude also lets you use ctrl-u to undo changes). Since it’s running
as a normal user, you cannot hose your system until you tell aptitude to
do something, at which point it will prompt you for your root password.
5. aptitude has a powerful UI and searching capabilities
Between aptitude’s categorical browser and its great support for
mutt-style filtering and searching of packages by name, description,
maintainer, dependencies, etc, you should be able to find packages
faster than ever before using aptitude.
6. aptitude makes it easy to keep track of obsolete software
If Debian stops distributing a package, apt will leave it on your system
indefinitly, with no warnings, and no upgrades. Aptitude lists such
packages in its “Obsolete and Locally Created Packages” section, so you
can be informed of the problem and do something about it.
7. aptitude has an interface to the Debian task system
Aptitude lets you use Debian’s task system as it was designed to be
used. You can browse the available tasks, select a task for install, and
then dig into it and de-select parts of the task that you don’t want.
apt-get has no support for tasks, and aptitude is better even than
special purpose tools like tasksel.
apt-get -s upgrade
-s option simulates and apt-get action
can be handy at times