Linux Administration/Installation/Debian Packages

This lesson covers Debian package manager software.

Objectives and Skills

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

• 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)

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.
• apt-get update is used to re-synchronize the package index files from their sources.
• 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.
• apt-get dist-upgrade Performs smart upgrade with dependency conflict resolution.
• apt-get install packagelist installs listed packages.
• apt-get remove packagelist removes listed packages.
• apt-cache searches and generates package metadata.
• apt-cache showpkg packagelist displays package information and reverse dependencies.
• dpkg -l lists all packages installed on a system.
• dpkg -L package lists the files installed by a given package.
• dpkg -S filename lists the package that installed a given file.
• sudo dpkg -i filename.deb installs a local .deb file.
• dpkg-deb packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.
• dselect was the primary user interface for installing, removing and managing Debian packages. It is the traditional front-end to dpkg.

References

← Shared Libraries

Linux Administration/Installation

RPM and YUM Packages →