Linux Administration/Installation/Debian Packages

< Linux Administration < Installation

This lesson covers Debian package manager software.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for the Debian packages portion of Linux+ certification include:[1]

  • Use Debian package management
    • Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary packages
    • Find packages containing specific files or libraries that may or may not be installed
    • Obtain package information such as version, content, dependencies, package integrity and installation status (whether or not the package is installed)
    • The following is a partial list of the used files, terms and utilities:
      • /etc/apt/sources.list
      • dpkg
      • dpkg-reconfigure
      • apt-get
      • apt-cache
      • aptitude

Readings

  1. Wikipedia: deb (file format)
  2. Wikipedia: dpkg
  3. Wikipedia: APT (Debian)
  4. Wikipedia: aptitude (software)

Multimedia

Activities

  1. Complete the tutorial IBM: Learn Linux, 101: Debian package management

Lesson Summary

  • Advanced Package Tool, or APT, is a free-software user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on Debian, Ubuntu, and related Linux distributions.[2]
  • apt-get update is used to re-synchronize the package index files from their sources.[3]
  • apt-get upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list.[4]
  • apt-get dist-upgrade Performs smart upgrade with dependency conflict resolution.[5]
  • apt-get install packagelist installs listed packages.[6]
  • apt-get remove packagelist removes listed packages.[7]
  • apt-cache searches and generates package metadata.[8]
  • apt-cache showpkg packagelist displays package information and reverse dependencies.[9]
  • dpkg -l lists all packages installed on a system.[10]
  • dpkg -L package lists the files installed by a given package.[11]
  • dpkg -S filename lists the package that installed a given file.[12]
  • sudo dpkg -i filename.deb installs a local .deb file.[13]
  • dpkg-deb packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.[14]
  • dselect was the primary user interface for installing, removing and managing Debian packages. It is the traditional front-end to dpkg.[15]

Key Terms

References

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