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At the present time, [[aptitude]] is the recommended tool for interaction with the APT suite. APT tools should be used for specific management actions that may not be covered by aptitude, o where the later behaves more aggressively with dependencies.
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== Reader Comment ==

[[Aptitude]] is the default package manager of the new Installer and so must be covered here. Command line apt-get is now a secondary tool for specialized tasks and so should not be covered in a introduction to Debian. -- aam 10/19/05
 * [[aptitude]]

Translation(s): Français

(!) ?Discussion


Much of why Debian is perhaps the best Linux Distribution (and in fact, the best Unix) comes from the core of Debian being its package management. Everything in Debian – every application, every component – everything – is built into a package, and then that package is installed onto your system (either by the Installer, or by you).

There are over 15 thousand software packages available for Debian – everything from the Linux kernel to games.

What is Apt?

Apt (for Advanced Package Tool) is a set of core tools inside Debian. Apt makes it possible to:

  • Install applications
  • Remove applications
  • Keep your applications up to date
  • And much more...

Apt, which basically resolves problems of dependencies and retrieves the requested packages, works with dpkg, another tool, which handles the actual installation and removal of packages (applications). Apt is very powerful, and is primarily used on the command line (?console/terminal). There are, however, many GUI/Graphical tools to let you use Apt without having to touch the command line.

At the present time, aptitude is the recommended tool for interaction with the APT suite. APT tools should be used for specific management actions that may not be covered by aptitude, o where the later behaves more aggressively with dependencies.

Further Reading

I don’t find my package

If you don’t find a package, you can look for it in http://www.apt-get.org, where you can find the line you have to add to your SourcesList to have a repository with the desired package.