New Linux User

Repos, repositories - what?

by Clair on March 5th, 2008

For those who are using Linux, new users are getting accustomed with the terms and it might not be easy to remember all the time. Take for example the term repository.

Repositories are where users could get packages of software they want to install. Hmmm. Maybe one could say it’s a place of installers — it’s a loose analogy but people who have been using Windows might be more familiar with the concept of installers. Anyhow, the nice thing about repositories is that there a lot of software that could be fetched there and installed on your system. You find it easy to understand? Great! :)

Package managers handle the interaction with the repositories. An example would be apt - Advanced Packaging Tool. Users need to search the repositories and apt helps us by letting us search for specific packages as well as packages of a certain type or with a certain name. Apt also helps us install the apps by letting us list the package names of the apps we want/need and by installing the dependencies too. Dependencies are the other packages needed by our chosen package/s.

In the case of Debian, there’s are repositories called Universe and Multiverse. Universe contains packages which are maintained by the free software community and Multiverse has non-free packages.

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