Technical:apt-get

From K12LTSP Wiki

Apt was created by the Debian Linux distribution and is now used by a number of different distributions including (but not limited to) Debian, Ubuntu, and the LTSP 4.2 distribution. Apt provides powerful dependency conflict resolution algorithms and takes care of almost all package conflicts. See the man pages for a much better description of the apt-get, apt-cache, sources.list commands.

Basic commands follow:

apt-get update

Update the package repository database.

apt-get upgrade

Upgrade all installed packages to the newest version. If a dependency requires the installation of additional software the package will be left in its original un-upgraded state. An upgrade summary will be displayed and the operator will be prompted to continue before changes will be committed.

apt-get dist-upgrade

Upgrade all installed packages to the newest version. Additional software will be installed if needed to satisfy a dependency. An upgrade summary will be displayed and the operator will be prompted to continue before changes will be committed.

apt-get install <packagename>

Install a specific package and any necessary dependencies.  An upgrade summary will be displayed and the operator will be prompted to continue before changes will be committed.

apt-get remove <packagename>

Remove a specific package and any dependencies soley supporting that package.  An upgrade summary will be displayed and the operator will be prompted to continue before changes will be committed.

apt-cache search <somestring>

Search for a specific string in the package database.

apt-cache show <packagename>

Show detailed information regarding the package listed in the command. Verbose description with a plain english component.

apt-get mirror-select

Reselect the package mirror that apt will use as the package repository.