HOWTO: Use Apt-Get to Maintain my System?
The most common apt-get commands are listed here. Remember that you must be in a terminal window to type these commands.
- apt-get install foo: will install the foo package and all its dependencies
- apt-get update: will update all the packages that apt knows about on your system
- apt-get upgrade: will update all packages on your system (I don’t know what the difference between this and apt-get update is. Sorry.)
- apt-get remove foo: will remove foo package but not its dependent files
- apt-get –purge remove foo: removes foo package and all its configuration files
- apt-get dist-upgrade: Upgrades all packages on your system. It is a good idea to run this after installing a new distro
Note that apt-get is a Debian-based GNU/Linux tool and likely will not work on a non-Debian system. There is lots of good information on dealing with Debian packages in general over here.
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4 opinions for HOWTO: Use Apt-Get to Maintain my System?
New Linux User » HOWTO: Find a Package Using APT-GET if I Don’t Know The Package Name?
Oct 3, 2005 at 5:47 am
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Martin McCallion
Oct 4, 2005 at 1:51 am
Re: the difference between update and upgrade. If I’m not very much mistaken (and I’m not a Debian expert, though I do use it) update goes through the list of sources and updates what is available. Upgrade actually gets the new packages and installs them on your system.
Jon
Oct 4, 2005 at 9:51 am
Aha! Thanks Martin!
Peter
Aug 23, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Re: If I’m right the update command only refreshes the available package list and downloads it to your system. When you make ‘upgrade’, it uses the package list, which you downloaded with the update command. So first ‘update’ the package list and then ‘upgrade’. Sometimes the upgrade don’t install some packages (leave it), and then the dist-upgrade will install it (if the dependencies are OK)
hope i helped
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