So, you're reading this because you want to know how to use Debian's awesome package management tool!
apt configuration is located at: /etc/apt/
The most important file, is the /etc/apt/sources.list file. This tells apt where to grab it's packages, and what version you'd like to use (stable, unstable, or testing).
Our sources.lst looks like this:
charlie:/boot# cat /etc/apt/sources.list#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main deb http://debian.lcs.mit.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib deb-src http://debian.lcs.mit.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib deb http://lug.mtu.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib deb-src http://lug.mtu.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib deb http://lyre.mit.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib deb-src http://lyre.mit.edu/debian/ unstable main contrib charlie:/boot#
We don't need to have the sources, but it's nice to have sometimes.
Q: How do I perform a system update?
A: apt-get update; apt-get upgrade
Q: How do I find out if a package is installed and what version?
A:
charlie:/boot# dpkg --list ejabberd Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)||/ Name Version Description+++-=================================-=================================-================================================================================== ii ejabberd 1.0.0-2 Distributed, fault-tolerant Jabber/XMPP server written in Erlang charlie:/boot# dpkg --list asterisk No packages found matching asterisk. charlie:/boot#
Q: How do I remove a package?
A:
dpkg --remove packagename (ex: dpkg --remove less)
Q: How do I remove configuration files?
A:
dpkg --purge less
That's a brief summery of working with packages on Debian systems, to recap we've seen:
* apt-get update o Update the list of available packages on your system * apt-get install 'name of package' o Install the given package, and any required dependencies * apt-get upgrade o Update all the packages on your system for which there is a newer version available * dpkg --list 'name of package' o Show the state of the package given * dpkg --remove 'name of package' o Remove the package named. * dpkg --purge 'name of package' o Remove the given package and remove all configuration files, etc.
apt-get upgrade upgrades what you have on the system already but doesn't introduce new packages unless absolutely necessary.
apt-get dist-upgrade upgrades everything on your system and resolves any new dependancies as well, thus introducing more new stuff tou your system.
An Example of Broken DPKG:
I had this problem:
Linksys NSLU2 update-modules problems
I then purged the update-modules package, it turns out its not a very important package, even though a bunch of kernel modules say that they depend on it.