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 * [[https://book.dpmb.org/debian-paketmanagement.online.html#aptitude|Aptitude in the Debian Package Management Book]] (German only)

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Introduction

Aptitude is an Ncurses and command-line based front-end to numerous Apt libraries, which are also used by Apt, the default Debian package manager. Aptitude is text based and run from a terminal.

Aptitude has a number of useful features, including:

  • a mutt-like syntax for matching packages in a flexible manner
  • mark packages as "automatically installed" or "manually installed" so that packages can be auto-removed when no longer required (feature available in Apt, too, since quite a few Debian release)

  • preview of actions about to be taken with different colors marking different actions
  • persistence of user actions (similar to dselect)
  • the ability to interactively retrieve and display the Debian changelog of all available official packages
  • apt-like (i.e. apt-get and apt-cache) command line mode ("aptitude install foo")

  • Score-based dependency resolver which is more suitable for interactive dependency resolution with additional hints from the user like "I don't want that part of the solution but keep that other part of the solution for your next try". Apt's dependency resolver on the other hand is optimized for good "one shot" solutions.

The primary command is "aptitude", as is the name of its primary Debian package.

Aptitude User Manual

Interactive Use

To run interactively, enter the following from a terminal:

aptitude

After running it, use:

  • F10 or Ctrl-T to access the menu.
  • '?' for help
  • The 'up', 'down', 'left', 'right' keys to navigate.
  • The 'Enter' key to select or open and close a single level
  • The bracket keys ('[' and ']') to open and close levels recursively
  • The '+' or '-' key to install/update or remove a package
  • The 'g' key to preview/confirm actions
  • 'q' to quit – this also closes the currently open window (‘g’ goes forward, ‘q’ goes back)
  • Forward and backward slash ('/' and '\') for searching forward or backward.

The common use of aptitude in TUI (text user interface) is; run aptitude; press 'u' (update the lists of available packages); press 'U' (Mark all upgradable packages to be upgraded); (search/select some stuff to install, is optional); press 'g' (to see the pending actions and modify if needed); press 'g' (again, to start the download).

Some time when you need to resolve conflicts, you discover that you made a mistake; you can easily use 'Cancel pending actions' in the 'Actions' menu so that you can re-select.

When reviewing dependency resolutions (shown after pressing 'e'), press:

  • cursor keys or vi style j/k to select actions or action groups,
  • 'a' to explicitly insist on an action (use again to go back to no specific decision)
  • 'r' to reject an action (use again to go back to no specific decision)
  • dot ('.') to show the next proposed dependency resolution
  • comma (',') to show the previous proposed dependency resolution
  • exclamation mark ('!') to accept the currently shown dependency resolution

When reviewing pending actions, press:

  • 'g' again to go ahead and execute the pending actions
  • 'q' to go back to the previous view

See Accessing package information for understanding the letters in the package synopsis line (e.g., 'i' means "will be installed", 'p' means "not installed", etc.)

Commandline Use

Functions only useful as root

You can also use aptitude in the same manner as apt-get:

Update the packages list :

# aptitude update

Upgrade the packages :

# aptitude safe-upgrade

Install foo :

# aptitude install foo

Remove bar :

# aptitude remove bar

Purge foo :

# aptitude purge foo

Functions useful for every user

Search for packaging containing foo :

$ aptitude search foo

Personally, I still use apt-cache search foo to perform a search – aptitude search foo is slower. But you should try the aptitude search foo way. You should discover that the output is a bit different from apt-cache, in some cases, it may be useful to search for a package to see if it is already installed.

showing if a specific package is installed :

$ aptitude show foo

How to upgrade your distribution

Upgrading from one stable release to the next (e.g. Lenny to Squeeze) is done by following the release notes for your architecture. For most people with 32 bit systems that means the Release Notes for Intel x86. For most with 64 bit systems that means the Release Notes for AMD64.

Using full-upgrade in the regular course of events is no longer the recommended practice (unless you are running sid, in which case you should not need to be reading this.)

Minor release upgrades (e.g. from lenny 5.0.1 to 5.0.2) and security updates are done with safe-upgrade.

  • Find out the current version of Debian that you are running:

$ cat /etc/debian_version

Example for upgrading from, e.g., etch 4.0r1 to 4.0r2 ...etc., or applying security upgrades:

# aptitude update
# aptitude safe-upgrade

apt vs aptitude

Action

apt command

aptitude command

Install foo

apt install foo

aptitude install foo

Search foo

apt search foo

aptitude search foo

List installed packages

apt list

aptitude search ~i

Remove foo

apt remove foo

aptitude remove foo

List reverse dependencies

apt rdepends foo

aptitude search ~Dfoo

Print information on priorities for foo

apt policy foo (since Buster), apt-cache policy foo

aptitude versions foo

Show package information for foo

apt show foo

aptitude show foo

Download foo's sources

apt source foo

aptitude source foo

Download foo's sources and build a binary .deb package

apt source --compile foo

(none)

Advanced search patterns

Looking for packages installed from anything else than stable:

aptitude search '?narrow(?installed, !?archive(stable))'

Looking for packages installed from testing (assuming you have sources lists with stable and testing repositories):

aptitude search '?narrow(?installed, ?archive(testing) !?archive(stable))'

See Also

and ... apt.conf, preferences, sources.list, Aptitude::Parse-Description-Bullets=true, AptitudeTodo


  • ?CategoryQuickPackageManagement