Package Management

Reference: Debian Package Management

aptitude is now the preferred text front end for apt. aptitude is like synthetic motor oil; once you start using it, it is best to continue using it rather than alternative methods of installing packages; otherwise you lose the advantage of aptitude keeping track of which packages you have deliberately installed.

Local documentation can be found by browsing to file:///usr/share/doc/aptitude/README

Or install the Aptitude user's manual package

	aptitude install aptitude-doc-en

and then browse to file:///usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en/index.html

Many of the examples below use shorthand search terms. Here is a quick guide to search terms

Remove all packages with joe in the name

	aptitude remove ~njoe

List all packages

	aptitude search ~n

List all packages that are not installed

	aptitude search "?not(?installed)"

List all packages that are installed

	aptitude search "(?installed)"

List all automatically installed packages:

	aptitude search ~M

List all virtual packages

	aptitude search ~v

List all orphaned packages

	deborphan

Remove all orphaned packages

	deborphan | xargs aptitude -y purge

The aptitude data is in /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates and can be consulted to determine:

The installed packages:
cat /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates|grep -B 2 -A 2 ^"State: 1"
The packages that have not been installed:
cat /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates|grep -B 2 -A 2 ^"State: 3"
Packages that have been uninstalled but not purged:
cat /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates|grep -B 2 -A 2 ^"State: 4"

Count the total number of packages available:

	cat /var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates|grep Package:|wc -l

.deb files are located in /var/cache/apt/archives/
They are actually BSD ar archives

	$ cp /var/cache/apt/archives/joe_3.5-2_i386.deb .
	$ ar x joe_3.5-2_i386.deb
	$ cat debian-binary
	2.0
	$ tar -xzOf control.tar.gz
	$ tar tzf data.tar.gz

Or use less:

	$ export LESSOPEN="|lesspipe $s"
	$ less joe_3.5-2_i386.deb

Or use MC. The control files will be in ./DEBIAN and the contents under .CONTENTS

APT (Advanced Package Tool) - Package manager
dpkg - Debian package file install
apt-get - Command line front end for APT
aptitude - Console interface to APT
dselect - Command line menu driven package manager
synaptic - GUI interface to APT
tasksel - Task installer
apt-file - Interface to the Contents file found in APT repositories

synaptic is now the preferred Gtk GUI front end for APT

Using package tools

You know a package name and want information about it:

	aptitude show joe

You have .deb file and you want information about it:

	dpkg-deb info xxx.deb
	dpkg-deb --field fieldname xxx.deb

You have a file, say /usr/bin/htdbm, and you want to know which package it came from. Solution:

	$ dpkg --search /usr/bin/htdbm
	apache2-utils: /usr/bin/htdbm
	$

You need a file, say /usr/bin/convert, and you want to know which package to get. Solution:

	$ apt-file search /usr/bin/convert
	...
	imagemagick: /usr/bin/convert
	...
	$

You need to identify configuration files that need manual migration after a package upgrade:

	$ find /etc -name '*.dpkg-*'

You want a list of all files provided by a package:

	apt-file list pkg.name
	dpkg --search pkg.name

You want to know the version of an installed package:

	$ apt-show-versions joe
	joe/lenny uptodate 3.5-2
	$

You can also use dpkg:

	dpkg --list joe

You want to list all installed packages:

	apt-show-versions

You want to list all the packages that are not installed:

	apt-show-versions -R

Using web package resources

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	Warning: This is a Debian centric site
	Many thanks to Debra and Ian Murdock for making Debian possible
	First created Apr 22, 2008 ~ Last revised October 14, 2009