How to get apt get package

How to Use the Apt-Get Command in Linux

Home » SysAdmin » How to Use the Apt-Get Command in Linux

Every Linux user knows how critical apt-get commands are. From the very first time you install Ubuntu (or a similar Linux distribution), you come across this powerful tool.

This tutorial serves as a good introduction for beginners on the apt-get command. It can also help more experienced users refresh their memory and improve their knowledge of terminal commands.

What Is apt-get and What Is It Used For?

apt-get is a command line tool for interacting with the Advanced Package Tool (APT) library (a package management system for Linux distributions). It allows you to search for, install, manage, update, and remove software.

The tool does not build software from the source code. Instead, it compiles the source code or uses precompiled files to install software packages.

Note: All these commands, except the apt-cache (search) command, only work within root or superuser (sudo) privileges.

apt-get Syntax

The main syntax for using apt-get commands is:

How to Use apt-get Command in Linux

How to Update or Upgrade Using apt-get

Before you install a package, it is crucial to resynchronize the package index files and update the package repository to the latest version. This ensures that the packages you install are up-to-date.

Update the package repository by running the command:

To update the package cache and checks for broken dependencies:

To upgrade all installed packages, use the apt-get command:

Upgrade a specific package by running:

Search for dependencies with newer versions, install new packages, and remove old ones automatically:

Note: Be careful when using dist-upgrade as it may remove some packages you still need on your system.

To follow the changes made to the Status field of available packages by the traditional Debian packaging tool dselect and perform actions necessary to realize that state, use the command:

How to Install Packages with apt-get

Replace [package_name] with the name of the software package you intend to install. If you do not know the exact name of the package, type in the first few letters and press TAB. The system will suggest all the packages available, starting with those letters.

To install a specific version of a package, run:

Before the system installs the package, you will receive an output showing:

For example, if you want to install curl, you will receive the output as in the image below:

Finally, it will ask you whether you wish to continue with the installation. To answer, you must type in y for yes or n for no.

To install multiple packages at the same time with a single command:

If you have packages with many reverse dependencies and you need the most up-to-date versions, use the apt-get reinstall command.

To download a package with all required dependencies without installing by running:

How to Remove Packages with apt-get

To remove a package use the command:

However, this command only removes the package, leaving its configuration files on the system.

To remove the package along with its configuration files, use the command:

To clean the local repository of retrieved package files, use the command:

The clean command removes everything except the local file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/.

Another way to empty the local repository of retrieved files is to use autoclean and clear out packages that are no longer available:

To remove the unnecessary packages that apt-get automatically installs to satisfy dependencies for other packages, run the command:

How to Use apt-get Options

The apt-get command is modified by adding one or more options to the syntax.

Below you will find a list of all commonly used apt-get options.

You can also define custom options by modifying the configuration file.

In this article, you learned the most common apt-get and apt-cache commands. These commands are simple to use and easy to remember.

Once you have mastered the use of each command, you can manage all your packages with ease and confidence.

25 Useful Basic Commands of APT-GET and APT-CACHE for Package Management

This article explains how quickly you can learn to install, remove, update and search software packages using apt-get and apt-cache commands from the command line. This article provides some useful commands that will help you to handle package management in Debian/Ubuntu based systems.

APT-GET and APT-CACHE Commands

What is apt-get?

The apt-get utility is a powerful and free package management command line program, that is used to work with Ubuntu’s APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) library to perform installation of new software packages, removing existing software packages, upgrading of existing software packages and even used to upgrading the entire operating system.

What is apt-cache?

The apt-cache command line tool is used for searching apt software package cache. In simple words, this tool is used to search software packages, collects information of packages and also used to search for what available packages are ready for installation on Debian or Ubuntu based systems.

1. How Do I List All Available Packages?

To list all the available packages, type the following command.

2. How Do I Find Out Package Name and Description of Software?

To find out the package name and with it description before installing, use the ‘search‘ flag. Using “search” with apt-cache will display a list of matched packages with short description. Let’s say you would like to find out description of package ‘vsftpd‘, then command would be.

To find and list down all the packages starting with ‘vsftpd‘, you could use the following command.

3. How Do I Check Package Information?

For example, if you would like to check information of package along with it short description say (version number, check sums, size, installed size, category etc). Use ‘show‘ sub command as shown below.

4. How Do I Check Dependencies for Specific Packages?

Use the ‘showpkg‘ sub command to check the dependencies for particular software packages. whether those dependencies packages are installed or not. For example, use the ‘showpkg‘ command along with package-name.

5. How Do I Check statistics of Cache

The ‘stats‘ sub command will display overall statistics about the cache. For example, the following command will display Total package names is the number of packages have found in the cache.

6. How to Update System Packages

The ‘update‘ command is used to resynchronize the package index files from the their sources specified in /etc/apt/sources.list file. The update command fetched the packages from their locations and update the packages to newer version.

7. How to Upgrade Software Packages

The ‘upgrade‘ command is used to upgrade all the currently installed software packages on the system. Under any circumstances currently installed packages are not removed or packages which are not already installed neither retrieved and installed to satisfy upgrade dependencies.

However, if you want to upgrade, unconcerned of whether software packages will be added or removed to fulfill dependencies, use the ‘dist-upgrade‘ sub command.

8. How Do I Install or Upgrade Specific Packages?

The ‘install‘ sub command is tracked by one or more packages wish for installation or upgrading.

9. How I can Install Multiple Packages?

You can add more than one package name along with the command in order to install multiple packages at the same time. For example, the following command will install packages ‘nethogs‘ and ‘goaccess‘.

10. How to Install Several Packages using Wildcard

With the help of regular expression you can add several packages with one string. For example, we use * wildcard to install several packages that contains the ‘*name*‘ string, name would be ‘package-name’.

11. How to install Packages without Upgrading

Using sub ‘–no-upgrade‘ command will prevent already installed packages from upgrading.

12. How to Upgrade Only Specific Packages

The ‘–only-upgrade‘ command do not install new packages but it only upgrade the already installed packages and disables new installation of packages.

13. How Do I Install Specific Package Version?

Let’s say you wish to install only specific version of packages, simply use the ‘=‘ with the package-name and append desired version.

14. How Do I Remove Packages Without Configuration

To un-install software packages without removing their configuration files (for later re-use the same configuration). Use the ‘remove‘ command as shown.

15. How Do I Completely Remove Packages

To remove software packages including their configuration files, use the ‘purge‘ sub command as shown below.

Alternatively, you can combine both the commands together as shown below.

16. How I Can Clean Up Disk Space

The ‘clean‘ command is used to free up the disk space by cleaning retrieved (downloaded) .deb files (packages) from the local repository.

17. How Do I Download Only Source Code of Package

To download only source code of particular package, use the option ‘–download-only source‘ with ‘package-name’ as shown.

18. How Can I Download and Unpack a Package

To download and unpack source code of a package to a specific directory, type the following command.

19. How Can I Download, Unpack and Compile a Package

You can also download, unpack and compile the source code at the same time, using option ‘–compile‘ as shown below.

20. How Do I Download a Package Without Installing

Using ‘download‘ option, you can download any given package without installing it. For example, the following command will only download ‘nethogs‘ package to current working directory.

21. How Do I Check Change Log of Package?

The ‘changelog‘ flag downloads a package change-log and shows the package version that is installed.

22. How Do I Check Broken Dependencies?

The ‘check‘ command is a diagnostic tool. It used to update package cache and checks for broken dependencies.

23. How Do I Search and Build Dependencies?

This ‘build-dep‘ command searches the local repositories in the system and install the build dependencies for package. If the package does not exists in the local repository it will return an error code.

24. How I Can Auto clean Apt-Get Cache?

The ‘autoclean‘ command deletes all .deb files from /var/cache/apt/archives to free-up significant volume of disk space.

25. How I Can Auto remove Installed Packages?

The ‘autoremove‘ sub command is used to auto remove packages that were certainly installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and but they were now no longer required. For example, the following command will remove an installed package with its dependencies.

I’ve covered most of the available options with apt-get and apt-cache commands, but still there are more options available, you can check them out using ‘man apt-get‘ or ‘man apt-cache‘ from the terminal. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, If I’ve missed anything and you would like me to add to the list. Please feel free to mention in the comment below.

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Как пользоваться командой apt-get в Linux

Если вы начали использовать Ubuntu или любой дистрибутив Linux, основанный на Ubuntu, такие как Linux Mint, ElementaryOS и др., вы, должно быть, уже столкнулись с командой apt-get.

На самом деле, первым в списке вещей, которые необходимо сделать после установки Ubuntu является использование apt-get update и apt-get upgrade. Теперь вы знаете о нескольких командах apt-get и их использовании, но вы можете быть не осведомлены о некоторых других.

В этом руководстве для начинающих, я собираюсь объяснить использование различных команд apt-get с примерами, чтобы Вы могли использовать их так же, как и опытный пользователь Linux.

Что такое apt-get?

У APT есть два основных инструмента: apt-get и apt-cache. apt-get предназначен для установки, обновления и очистки пакетов, в то время как команда apt-cache используется для поиска новых пакетов. Мы рассмотрим все эти команды с примерами позже в этом руководстве.

В этом руководстве я использую Linux Mint 18, но вы можете использовать любой другой дистрибутив Linux, основанный на Ubuntu, например, ElementaryOS, Linux Lite и т.п.

Использование apt-get команд

Давайте начнем с команды apt-get. Нельзя просто уйти от этой команды. Лучше ее понять, чтобы Вы могли работать с Вашей системой Linux немного более эффективно.

Обновление базы данных пакетов с помощью apt-get

apt-get в основном работает с базой данных доступных пакетов. Если вы не обновите эту базу данных, система не будет знать, есть ли более новые пакеты или нет. Фактически, это первая команда, которую вам нужно выполнить на любой Linux-системе, основанной на Debian, после свежей установки.

Обновление базы данных пакетов требует привилегий суперпользователя, поэтому вам нужно использовать sudo.

Когда вы запустите эту команду, вы увидите информацию, полученную с различных серверов.

Здесь вы увидите три типа строк: hit, bit и ign. Позвольте мне объяснить их вам:

Обновление установленных пакетов с помощью apt

Чтобы обновить только определенную программу, используйте команду ниже:

Есть еще один способ выполнить полное обновление, используя команду ниже:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Но вы должны избегать использования этой команды. Я объясню, почему в следующем разделе.

Разница между upgrade и dist-upgrade

Команда apt-get upgrade очень послушна. Она никогда не пытается удалить какие-либо пакеты или установить новый пакет самостоятельно.

Команда apt-get dist-upgrade, с другой стороны, проактивна. Она ищет зависимости с более новой версией устанавливаемого пакета и пытается установить новые пакеты или самостоятельно удалить существующие.

Похоже, что команда apt-get dist-upgrade более мощная и интеллектуальная, не так ли? Но в этом и есть риск.

Смотрите, у нее есть «умная» система разрешения конфликтов. Она будет пытаться обновлять наиболее важные пакеты за счет менее важных. Это может привести к удалению некоторых пакетов, чего Вы, возможно, не захотите. Это основная причина, по которой следует избегать ее использования на рабочих станциях на предприятиях.

Использование команд apt-cache для поиска пакетов

Скажу честно, это не лучший способ поиска пакетов. Но это очень удобно, когда вы ищете какую-то определенную библиотеку.

Все, что вам нужно сделать, это использовать следующую команду (здесь вам даже не нужно sudo):

Здесь не нужно знать точное название пакета. Команда ищет в именах пакетов и их кратких описаниях, затем показывает результат, основанный на этом.

Если вы просто хотите искать в apt-пакетах с определёнными именами пакетов, вы можете воспользоваться командой, приведённой ниже:

Команда выдаст список всех пакетовпо, удовлетворяющие вашему поисковому запросу.

Как только вы узнаете точное имя пакета, вы можете получить дополнительную информацию о нем, например, о версии, зависимостях и т.д., с помощью команды, приведенной ниже:

Как установить новые пакеты с помощью apt-get

Если вы знаете имя пакета, вы можете легко установить его с помощью команды ниже:

sudo apt-get install

Просто замените на нужный вам пакет. Предположим, я хотел установить редактор изображений Pinta. Все, что мне нужно будет сделать, это использовать команду:

sudo apt-get install pinta

Хорошо, что в этой команде есть автозавершение. Поэтому, если вы не уверены в точном названии пакета, вы можете набрать несколько букв и нажать клавишу табуляции, и она предложит все пакеты, доступные с этими буквами. Например:

Как установить сразу несколько пакетов

Вы не ограничены установкой только одного пакета за раз. Вы можете установить несколько пакетов за раз, указав их имена:

sudo apt-get install

Что если запустить установку, а пакет окажется уже установлен

Как установить пакеты без обновления

Предположим, по какой-то причине вы хотите установить пакет, но не хотите обновлять его, если он уже установлен. Звучит странно, но у вас могут быть на то причины.

В этом случае вы можете использовать флаг no-upgrade следующим образом:

sudo apt-get install

Как обновить пакет, не установливая его

Если вы хотите обновить пакет при условии, что он уже установлен, но не хотите устанавливать его снова, вы можете сделать это с помощью следующей команды:

sudo apt-get install

Как установить конкретную версию приложения

По умолчанию, последняя версия, доступная в репозитории, будет установлена для любого приложения. Но если по какой-то причине вы не хотите устанавливать последнюю версию, вы можете указать номер версии пакета. (Вам нужно будет знать точный номер версии, которую вы хотите установить).

Все, что вам нужно сделать, это добавить номер версии к названию пакета:

sudo apt-get install

Как удалить установленные пакеты с помощью apt-get

sudo apt-get remove

Автозавершение работает и здесь. Поэтому просто начните набирать имя пакета и нажмите клавишу табуляции, и терминал предложит все установленные пакеты, начиная с этих букв.

sudo apt-get purge

Какая разница между apt-get remove и apt-get purge?

Таким образом, если вы «удалили» (removed) определенный кусочек программного обеспечения и затем установите его снова, ваша система будет иметь те же самые конфигурационные файлы. Конечно, вас попросят переопределить существующие конфигурационные файлы при повторной установке.

Очистка особенно полезна, когда вы испортили конфигурацию программы, когда вы хотите полностью стереть ее следы из системы и начать все заново.

В большинстве случаев простого удаления более чем достаточно для удаления пакета.

Как очистить систему с помощью apt-get

Ах, да! Вы также можете очистить систему с помощью apt-get и освободить некоторое место на диске.

Вы можете использовать команду ниже для очистки кэша apt (локально сохраненных файлов пакета):

sudo apt-get clean

sudo apt-get autoclean

sudo apt-get autoremove

В завершение

Есть еще кое-что, но и этой информации достаточно для начала. Вы всегда можете просмотреть man-страницы, чтобы получить больше информации.

Как вам это руководство по apt-get командам в Linux? Было ли оно полезным для Вас и достаточно понятным для понимания? Ваши отзывы помогут создать больше подобных руководств в ближайшем будущем.

How to use apt Package Manager on Ubuntu Linux

Home » SysAdmin » How to use apt Package Manager on Ubuntu Linux

In Linux, special tools were developed for managing applications. Application software for Linux typically comes in a package. The default package manager for Ubuntu is apt-get.

Linux operating systems use a software tool known as a package manager to make sure the software is correctly installed and up-to-date. It also keeps a current list of available software, stored externally in a database called a repository.

This guide shows you how to use apt-get to manage packages on Ubuntu.

Since apt-get is a command-line utility, we will need to use the Ubuntu terminal.

Select the system menu > Applications > System Tools > Terminal.

Alternatively, you can use use the Ctrl + Alt + T keys to open Terminal.

Update Ubuntu Package Repositories with apt

Refreshing your local list of software before installing a new application is a good habit to develop.

To refresh your local list of software on Ubuntu, type the following in a terminal:

Your system will check the repositories for updated information. The output shows done when finished.

Note: The sudo command tells Linux to perform the operation as a temporary administrator. It may ask you for your password.

Installing a Package with apt

One way to add repositories is to install a software package called software-properties-common. This package enables the add-apt-repository command and avoids the common error in Ubuntu «Add-Apt-Repository Command Not Found».

The section below will walk you through how to install a package using apt-get.

In your terminal window, type:

Your system will reach out to the repositories, then download and install the software. If you already have the latest version, the output will let you know and show the current version.

Once that completes, enter the following:

Replace [repository_string] with the name of the repository you’re adding. The name is usually located on the software developer’s website.

Once that completes, run another update.

Update Installed Software using apt

One handy feature of apt-get is that it can check for and apply software updates to all your packages at once. Usually, this is handled automatically on a schedule.

But if you’d like to manually scan and install updates, including updates for your core operating system, run the following command:

Your system will contact the servers, and start downloading all available software updates. This may take some time. Allow the process to complete.

Uninstall Package

Enter the following:

Replace [package_name] with the system name of your application. Make sure you double-check the name if you receive any errors.

Now you know how to manage packages on Ubuntu with apt. Check out our article to learn more about apt vs apt-get command and how they are different.

Package managers are an incredibly handy feature for Linux users. They handle most of the grunt work, checking for updates and dependencies for you. With a basic understanding of apt-get, you gain a lot of control over your Linux installation.

How To Manage Packages In Ubuntu and Debian With Apt-Get & Apt-Cache

What is Apt-Get?

Apt is a command line frontend for the dpkg packaging system and is the preferred way of managing software from the command line for many distributions. It is the main package management system in Debian and Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu.

While a tool called «dpkg» forms the underlying packaging layer, apt-get and apt-cache provide user-friendly interfaces and implement dependency handling. This allows users to efficiently manage large amounts of software easily.

In this guide, we will discuss the basic usage of apt-get and apt-cache and how they can manage your software. We will be practicing on an Ubuntu 12.04 cloud server, but the same steps and techniques should apply on any Debian-based distribution.

How To Update the Package Database with Apt-Get

Apt-get operates on a database of known, available software. It performs installations, package searches, and many other operations by referencing this database.

Due to this fact, before beginning any packaging operations with apt-get, we need to ensure that our local copy of the database is up-to-date.

Update the database with the following command. Apt-get requires administrative privileges for most operations:

You will see a list of servers we are retrieving information from. After this, your database should be up-to-date.

How to Upgrade Installed Packages with Apt-Get

We can upgrade the packages on our system by issuing the following command:

For a more complete upgrade, you can use the «dist-upgrade» argument, which attempts intelligent dependency resolution for new packages and will upgrade essential programs at the expense of less important ones:

How to Install New Packages with Apt-Get

If you know the name of the package you wish to install, you can install it by using this syntax:

You can see that it is possible to install multiple packages at one time, which is useful for acquiring all of the necessary software for a project in one step.

It is important to understand that apt-get not only installs the requested software, but also any software needed to install or run it.

We can install the full «vim» text editor package by typing:

How to Delete a Package with Apt-Get

To remove a package from your system, you can issue the following command:

This command removes the package, but keeps the configuration files in case you install the package again later. This way, your settings will remain intact, even though the program is not installed.

If this is not the desired outcome, and you would like to clean out the configuration files as well as the program, use the following syntax:

This uninstalls the package and removes any configuration files associated with the package.

To remove any packages that were installed automatically to support another program, that are no longer needed, type the following command:

You can also specify a package name after the «autoremove» command to uninstall a package and its dependencies.

Common Apt-Get Option Flags

There are a number of different options that can be specified by the use of flags. We will go over some common ones.

To do a «dry run» of a procedure in order to get an idea of what an action will do, you can pass the «-s» flag for «simulate»:

In place of actual actions, you can see a «Inst» and «Conf» section specifying that there is where the package would be installed and configured if the «-s» was removed.

If you do not want to be prompted to confirm your choices, you can also pass the «-y» flag to automatically assume «yes» to questions.

If you would like to download a package, but not install it, you can issue the following command:

The files will be located in «/var/cache/apt/archives».

If you would like to suppress output, you can pass the «-qq» flag to the command:

How to Find a Package with Apt-Cache

The apt packaging tool is actually a suite of related, complimentary tools that are used to manage your system software.

While «apt-get» is used to upgrade, install, and remove packages, «apt-cache» is used to query the package database for package information.

You can use the following command to search for a package that suits your needs. Note that apt-cache doesn’t usually require administrative privileges:

For instance, if we wanted to find «htop», an improved version of the «top» system monitor, we can type the following:

We can search for more generic terms also. In this example, we’ll look for mp3 conversion software:

How to View Package Information with Apt-Cache

To view information about a package, including an extended description, use the following syntax:

This will also provide the size of the download and the dependencies needed for the package.

To see if a package is installed and to check which repository it belongs to, we can issue:

Conclusion

You should now know enough about apt-get and apt-cache to manage most of the software on your server.

While it is sometimes necessary to go beyond these tools and the software available in the repositories, most software operations can be managed by these tools.

If you are planning on spending time in a Debian-based environment, it is essential to have a working knowledge of these tools.

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