software installation Archives • Linux Tips

The Differences Between APT and APT-GET.

Today will be a brief essay-type of article where we simply discuss the differences between APT and APT-GET. This article is really only useful to you if you use a distro that supports this. Those would be distros in the Debian family, so distros like Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

This will be a brief article and an article where I cheated. I let AI write most of this for me. It seemed like a good task for ChatGPT. So, it was largely written by an ML (Machine Learning) model.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, read on! Who knows, if it takes off I’ll do more of these types of articles. They don’t save much time because I still need to format the output and crafting the input can be a bit tricky.

Ah well… It’s still fun and informative!

The Differences Between APT and APT-GET:

Debian’s package management system has evolved over time, and two widely used tools for managing packages and software updates are apt-get and apt. Both tools serve similar purposes, but they differ in terms of user experience, functionality, and underlying technology.

apt-get was the traditional command-line tool used in Debian-based systems to handle package management tasks. It has been a reliable workhorse for system administrators and users alike. However, it had some limitations and lacked certain user-friendly features.

apt, on the other hand, stands for “Advanced Package Tool” and was introduced as a more user-friendly alternative to apt-get. It was designed to provide a more intuitive and streamlined user experience while retaining all the functionalities of apt-get.

One of the key differences between apt-get and apt is the command structure and user interface. apt-get commands are generally longer and less intuitive, while apt commands are more concise and easier to remember. For example, to install a package using apt-get, you might use:

sudo apt-get install package_name

1	sudo apt-get install package_name

Whereas with apt, the command becomes simpler:

sudo apt install package_name

1	sudo apt install package_name

Both commands perform the same function of installing the specified package, but apt provides a more user-friendly syntax.

More Differences:

Another notable difference is that apt has a more modern and user-friendly progress bar during package downloads and installations. It offers clearer and more informative output, making it easier for users to track the progress of their package operations.

Additionally, apt supports various new features and functionalities that were not present in apt-get. For instance, apt includes the apt autoremove command, which helps in removing unnecessary dependencies that were automatically installed but are no longer needed. This feature simplifies package management and helps keep the system clean by removing residual dependencies.

Furthermore, apt also integrates the functionality of other apt-get commands like apt-cache and apt-config, providing a more unified and cohesive package management experience. Users can perform tasks like searching for packages, checking their metadata, and managing configurations more efficiently within a single tool (apt).

Despite these differences, both apt-get and apt use the same underlying package management libraries and repositories. They share a common package database and can perform all the essential package management tasks such as installing, updating, upgrading, and removing packages.

In summary, apt is an evolution of apt-get, offering a more user-friendly interface, improved output readability, and additional functionalities while utilizing the same package management backend. Users transitioning from apt-get to apt will find the latter more intuitive and efficient, but both commands remain viable options for managing packages on Debian-based systems.

Closure:

Well, AI did a pretty good job of this. If you wanted to know the differences between apt and apt-get, now you do! You can decide for yourself which you prefer. As you’ve seen throughout these many articles, I default to apt.

I also wrote this article with AI because I have a storm coming. I want to get this scheduled ahead of time. My brain only works for so long and I run out of ideas to write about. I flip through my notes and they look like articles I want to write, but I can’t figure out what to write about.

Basically, I only have so much creative energy and these articles consume that energy pretty quickly. Sometimes, I have spurts of creative energy and can write a few articles ahead, but that’s not something I can count on. Articles are generally written the night before they’re published. By then, I’ll have enough creative energy again.

I needed to do this the same day that I published an article because Mother Nature doesn’t care about my publication schedule. I’ve had a few years without major outages. It seems like that’s going to be different this year. I suppose I can be grateful for those times when I had no major outages. I’ll be warm, secure, and have electricity – I just may not have internet.

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Install A .deb Package In The Terminal

Today’s article is a basic article where we discuss how you can install a .deb package in the terminal. It isn’t all that complicated and there is almost always more than one way to accomplish things, especially when it comes to the terminal. If you want to install a .deb package in the terminal, this article is for you.

Obviously, this article only applies to distros that use the aptitude package manager, or ‘apt’ for short. These are generally the Debian-based distros. You’ll find that apt is used in Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, ElementaryOS, and many more. It’s a pretty common theme among the more commonly mentioned desktop distros.

If you type man apt into the terminal, we get the following:

apt – command-line interface

That’s not very helpful, but it does give us some clues. It’s a command-line interface (often called “CLI”) for the package management system. If we read the man page a little further, it goes into more detail.

apt provides a high-level commandline interface for the package management system. It is intended as an end user interface and enables some options better suited for interactive usage by default compared to more specialized APT tools like apt-get(8) and apt-cache(8).

See? That’s a bit more helpful. When you’re reading the man page for an application, it’s a good idea to read the description portion of the man page. It explains a great deal, more often than not.

We will also be using ‘dpkg’ in this article. The man page (accessed with man dpkg) describes it accurately enough:

dpkg – package manager for Debian

Where apt is a “high-level” application, the ‘dpkg’ application is considered a “medium-level” application. The ‘dpkg’ application may be used by a higher-level application, providing a more stable command set and being used behind the scenes.

As a previous article about installing .deb files didn’t mention it, I figured it’d be worth an article of its own. I’ll still include installing software with apt, just so the folks arriving by search engine needn’t view multiple articles.

If you don’t already know, “.deb” files are packages for installing software. They adhere to the standard and are standard ar formatted archives. They’re meant to be used for installing software on your system, especially when you don’t have that software in your repositories. They often contain changes to system configurations and do the aforementioned software installations, so you need elevated permissions to run them.

If you’re curious about what’s inside, I wrote an article about that.

Extract Files From .DEB Files

For most users, they’re not all that interesting on the inside. You can extract them (even graphically) to see what’s on the inside. You can also use the extracted files if you can find a use for them.

So, today we’re going to learn how to extract a deb package from the terminal. We’ll cover a couple of different ways. If you want to do this graphically, you can do that. I’ve written another article about installing .deb files (not quite like this one) and the second section covers doing this graphically.

How To: Install .DEB Files In Ubuntu

With all that said, and hopefully understood, let’s get to it!

Install A .deb Package In The Terminal:

As the title implies, this is installing .deb packages in the terminal. To do this, you’ll need an open terminal. If you don’t know how to open a terminal, you may wish to learn. A terminal is a handy tool and you can usually open it by pressing CTRL + ALT + T.

With your terminal open, the absolute easiest way to install a .deb package in the terminal is to use that apt command mentioned earlier. It’s very simple:

sudo apt install /path/to/file.deb

1	sudo apt install /path/to/file.deb

Frankly, that’s probably the best choice. Using the higher level apt means that any dependencies will be sorted – if they can be sorted. If they’re not able to be sorted by downloading them from the default repositories, the application will fail gracefully and throw an error message. At that point, you can try to resolve the dependencies on your own, but that can be a pain in the butt.

Note the use of a full path. If you use apt, you must supply a path – something like ./foo.deb, ~/Downloads/foo.deb, or even /home/Downloads/foo.deb. Without a path, apt will not find the .deb file.

Anyhow, you can also install a .deb package in the terminal with the dpkg tool. It’s possibly a bit more complicated, but the syntax is as follows:

sudo dpkg -i /path/to/file.deb

1	sudo dpkg -i /path/to/file.deb

This is often adequate, but not always. The limitation is that the dpgk command doesn’t automatically resolve dependencies. It is because of this that I seldom recommend using dpkg and prefer to suggest using apt.

Never fear, this is still not lost. You can trivially resolve the dependencies (if they can trivially be resolved) with the following command:

sudo apt install -f

1	sudo apt install -f

That command will go through your installed software and try to fix (-f) any missing dependencies. If there are no dependencies needed, you do not have to run this command after installing packages with dpkg.

Though, as you can see, it still relies on using apt. My thinking is that you can save all that hassle by just using apt in the first place. But, it’s your system. You have options when you want to install a .deb file in the terminal. It’s worth the article just to let folks know.

Some folks still recommend installing with dpkg and then running the apt command to resolve dependencies. I do not know why. If you have any good ideas about why, do feel free to let me know in a comment.

Closure:

Well, there you have it. You have yet another article, and yes it’s another one that relies on using the terminal. There are GUI tools that happily take care of all of this for you.

There’s no need to use the terminal to install software, but I prefer it. It’s just as quick for me to type out a command as it is for me to open software, type my password, and then click a button or two. It’s probably faster for me, as I always have a terminal open.

Show Files Installed With A Package (Using ‘dpkg’)

Today’s article is going to be quick and easy, as we simply cover how to show files installed with a package. Because I am reasonably compelled to optimize for search engines, the title just plain sucks. It should be much longer. Even though the exercise is really simple, explaining what we’re doing is a bit more complicated.

NOTE: The ‘dpkg’ may confuse some folks, but it means this article is only valid for those folks who are using .deb files, the apt package manager, and nothing else. So, if you’re using Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, or similar, then this article is meant for you. If you’re using a different distro, maybe I’ll cover those in another article.

So, what exactly are we doing?

Well, when you install software you don’t generally install just a single file. At least not if the software is all that complicated.

Instead, you install all sorts of other files along with the software you’re installing. You don’t just install a single binary file, you install quite a few other files along with it.

Today, we’re going to list the files, the dependencies if you will, that go along with the applications we install. It’s not difficult, just a single command, but you can see why this would make for a very long article title.

Let’s keep this article short, as I’ve done some longer material lately:

Show Files Installed With A Package:

Yeah, you’re going to need a terminal for this. If you want to use ‘dpkg’ then you will need an open terminal. As that’s what we’re using, we need said terminal. In most distros you can just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal should open.

The tool we’re using is ‘dpkg’ and the man page describes it like this:

dpkg – package manager for Debian

The ‘Debian’ bit is important. As I mentioned above, this only works for distros that use dpkg to begin with. Anyhow, that’s an accurate description of what dpkg does.

The command we’ll use is simply:

dpkg -L <application_name>

1	dpkg -L <application_name>

For example, you might try:

dpkg -L firefox

1	dpkg -L firefox

If you have Chrome installed, you might try this command:

dpkg -L google-chrome-stable

1	dpkg -L google-chrome-stable

As you can see from the output, you’re generally installing a bunch of files when you install a new application. It may not appear that way during the installation process, but you’re most likely installing more than a single file each time you install an application.

Closure:

If you’ve ever wanted to show files installed with an application, now you know. It’s a pretty handy command to have if you’re into that sort of thing. If you’re playing the game of the lightest-possible-distro, then maybe you want to keep the number of files installed to a minimum and use the lightest software you can. Either way, it’s an informative command that should amuse my readers for five to ten minutes.