Home > Articles > Operating Systems, Server > Linux/UNIX/Open Source

This chapter is from the book

Working on the Command Line

With so much software available for installation, it is no surprise that Debian-based distros have many ways to manage software installation. At their root, however, they all use Debian’s world-renowned Advanced Package Tool (APT). A person posting on Slashdot.com once said, “Welcome to Slashdot. If you can’t think of anything original, just say how much APT rocks and you’ll fit right in.” You see, even though many other distros have tried to equal the power of APT, nothing else even comes close.

Why is APT so cool? Well, it was the first system to properly handle dependencies in software. Other distros, such as Red Hat, used RPM files that had dependencies. For example, an RPM for Gimp would have a dependency on Gtk, the graphical toolkit on which Gimp is based. As a result, if you tried to install your Gimp RPM without having the Gtk RPM, your install would fail. So, you grab the Gtk RPM and try again. Aha: Gtk has a dependency on three other things that you need to download. And those three other things have dependencies on 20 other things. And so on, and so on, usually until you can’t find a working RPM for one of the dependencies, and you give up.

APT, on the other hand, was designed to automatically find and download dependencies for your packages. So, if you want to install Gimp, it downloads Gimp’s package and any other software it needs to work. No more hunting around by hand, no more worrying about finding the right version, and certainly no more need to compile things by hand. APT also handles installation resuming, which means that if you lose your Internet connection part-way through an upgrade (or your battery runs out, or you have to quit, or whatever), APT picks up where it left off the next time you rerun it.

Day-to-Day Usage

To enable you to search for packages both quickly and thoroughly, APT uses a local cache of the available packages. Try running this command:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get update

The apt-get update command instructs APT to contact all the servers it is configured to use and download the latest list of file updates. If your lists are outdated, it takes a minute or two for APT to download the updates. Otherwise, this command executes it in a couple of seconds.

After the latest package information has been downloaded, you are returned to the command line. You can now ask APT to automatically download any software that has been updated, using this command:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade

If you have a lot of software installed on your machine, there is a greater chance of things being updated. APT scans your software and compares it to the latest package information from the servers and produces a report something like this:

mmatthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  cabextract google-chrome-beta icedtea6-plugin language-pack-en
  language-pack-en-base language-pack-gnome-en language-pack-gnome-en-base
  libfreetype6 libfreetype6-dev libsmbclient libwbclient0 openjdk-6-jre
  openjdk-6-jre-headless openjdk-6-jre-lib samba-common samba-common-bin
  smbclient upstart winbind xserver-common xserver-xorg-core
21 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 84.8MB of archives.
After this operation, 623kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Each part of that report tells you something important. Starting at the top, the line “the following packages will be upgraded” gives you the exact list of packages for which updates are available. If you’re installing new software or removing software, you see lists titled “The following packages will be installed” and “The following packages will be removed.” A summary at the end shows a total of 21 packages that APT will upgrade, with 0 new packages, 0 to remove, and 0 not upgraded. Because this is an upgrade rather than an installation of new software, all those new packages take up only 623KB of additional space. Although you have an 84.8MB download, the packages are overwriting existing files.

It’s important to understand that a basic apt-get upgrade never removes software or adds new software. As a result, it is safe to use to keep your system fully patched because it should never break things. However, occasionally you will see the “0 not upgraded” status change, which means some things cannot be upgraded. This happens when some software must be installed or removed to satisfy the dependencies of the updated package, which, as previously mentioned, apt-get upgrade will never do.

In this situation, you need to use apt-get dist-upgrade, so named because it’s designed to allow users to upgrade from one version of Debian/Ubuntu to a newer version—an upgrade that inevitably involves changing just about everything on the system, removing obsolete software, and installing the latest features. This is one of the most-loved features of Debian because it enables you to move from version to version without having to download and install new CDs. Keeping regular upgrades and distro upgrades separate is very useful for making sure that security updates and simple bug fixes don’t change software configurations that you may be counting on, especially on a machine that needs to be consistently available and working, such as a server.

Whereas apt-get upgrade and apt-get dist-upgrade are there for upgrading packages, apt-get install is responsible for adding new software. For example, if you want to install the MySQL database server, you run this:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Internally, APT queries “mysql-server” against its list of software and find that it matches the mysql-server-5.5 package. It then finds which dependencies it needs that you don’t already have installed and gives you a report like this one:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
[sudo] password for matt:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libaio1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libmysqlclient18
  libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libterm-readkey-perl mysql-client-5.5
  mysql-client-core-5.5 mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5
Suggested packages:
  libipc-sharedcache-perl tinyca mailx
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libaio1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libmysqlclient18
  libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libterm-readkey-perl mysql-client-5.5
  mysql-client-core-5.5 mysql-server mysql-server-5.5 mysql-server-core-5.5
0 upgraded, 13 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 26.8 MB of archives.
After this operation, 96.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

This time, you can see that APT has picked up and selected all the dependencies required to install MySQL Server 5.5, but it has also listed one recommended package and two suggested packages that it has not selected for installation. The “recommended” package is just that: The person who made the MySQL package (or its dependencies) thinks it would be a smart idea for you to also have the mailx package. If you want to add it, press N to terminate apt-get and rerun it like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server mailx

The “suggested” packages are merely a lower form of recommendation. They don’t add any crucial features to the software you selected for install, but it’s possible that you might need them for certain non-crucial (to the main piece of software being installed) features or tasks.

If you try running apt-get install with packages you already have installed, APT considers your command to be apt-get update and looks to see whether new versions are available for download.

The last day-to-day package operation is removing things you no longer want, which you do through the apt-get remove command, as follows:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get remove firefox

Removing packages can be dangerous because APT also removes any software that relies on the packages you selected. For example, if you were to run apt-get remove libgtk2.0-0 (the main graphical toolkit for Ubuntu), you would probably find that APT insists on removing more than a hundred other things. The moral of the story is this: When you remove software, read the APT report carefully before pressing Y to continue with the uninstall.

A straight apt-get remove leaves behind the configuration files of your program so that if you ever reinstall it you do not also need to reconfigure it. If you want to remove the configuration files as well as the program files, run this command instead:

matthew@seymour:~$ sudo apt-get remove —purge firefox

That performs a full uninstall.

Finding Software

With so many packages available, it can be hard to find the exact thing you need using command-line APT. The general search tool is called apt-cache and is used like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ apt-cache search kde

Depending on which repositories you have enabled, that tool returns about a thousand packages. Many of those results will not even have KDE in the package name but will be matched because the description contains the word KDE.

You can filter through this information in several ways. First, you can instruct apt-cache to search only in the package names, not in their descriptions. You do this with the –n parameter, like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ apt-cache –n search kde

Now the search has gone down from more than 1,000 packages to a few hundred.

Another way to limit search results is to use some basic regular expressions, such as ^, meaning “start,” and $, meaning “end.” For example, you might want to search for programs that are part of the main KDE suite and not libraries (usually named something like libkde), additional bits (such as xmms-kde), and things that are actually nothing to do with KDE yet still match our search (like tkdesk). Do this by searching for packages that have a name starting with kde, as follows:

matthew@seymour:~$ apt-cache –n search ^kde

Perhaps the easiest way to find packages is to combine apt-cache with grep, to search within search results. For example, if you want to find all games-related packages for KDE, you could run this search:

matthew@seymour:~$ apt-cache search games | grep kde

When you’ve found the package you want to install, run it through apt-get install as usual. If you first want a little more information about that package, you can use apt-cache showpkg, like this:

matthew@seymour:~$ apt-cache showpkg mysql-server-5.0

This shows information on “reverse depends” (which packages require, recommend, or suggest mysql-server-5.0), “dependencies” (which packages are required, recommended, or suggested to install mysql-server-5.0), and “provides” (which functions this package gives you). The “provides” list is quite powerful because it allows different packages to provide a given resource. For example, a MySQL database-based program requires MySQL to be installed, but isn’t fussy whether you install MySQL 4.1 or MySQL 5.5. In this situation, the Debian packages for MySQL 4.1 and MySQL 5.0 both have “mysql-server-4.1” in the provides list, meaning that they offer the functionality provided by MySQL 4.1. Therefore, you can install either version to satisfy the MySQL-based application.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020