Apt, Aptitude and Dpkg Reference

Apt, Aptitude and Dpkg are Debian package managing tools. Let's see a small reference about them:

# apt-get install foo ....................... Installs foo package
# apt-get remove foo ........................ Removes foo package
# apt-get remove --purge foo ................ Removes foo package and its configuration files.
# apt-get update ............................ Updates package database.
# apt-get -f install......................... Installs and removes packages in order to fix dependency problems.
# apt-get clean ............................. Deletes all .deb packages from local repository.
# apt-get upgrade ........................... Upgrades all packages to its newer versions.
# apt-get dist-upgrade ...................... Upgrades packages but also deals with dependency problems caused by new packages.
$ apt-get source foo ........................ Downloads foo package source files.
# apt-get -t unstable foo ................... Installs foo package searching for foo package and its dependencies at unstable version.
# apt-get foo/unstable ...................... Installs foo package from unstable version, but searchs for dependencies without overriding priorities at /etc/apt/preferences file.
# apt-get build-dep foo ..................... Installs all necessary packages to satisfy the build dependencies for foo source package.

$ apt-cache show foo ........................ Gives a long info description about foo package.
$ apt-cache search foo ...................... Searchs for packages that match "foo" pattern.

# apt-file update ........................... Resynchronize the package contents from their sources (/etc/apt/sources.list)
$ apt-file search foo ....................... Lists all packages containing files that match foo pattern. Searchs also in not installed packages.

# aptitude install foo ...................... Installs foo package
# aptitude remove foo ....................... Removes foo package
# aptitude remove --purge foo ............... Removes foo package and its configuration files.
$ aptitude search foo ....................... Searchs for packages that match "foo" pattern
# aptitude update ........................... Updates package database.
# aptitude upgrade .......................... Upgrades packages to its newer versions.
# aptitude safe-upgrade ..................... Same as aptitude upgrade.
# aptitude full-upgrade ..................... Upgrades packages to its newer versions, taking care about dependencies. Sames as dist-upgrade.
# aptitude hold foo ......................... Marks foo package so it will not be removed or upgraded when executing safe-upgrade or full-upgrade
# aptitude unhold foo ....................... Turn off the hold on foo package.
$ aptitude show foo ......................... Gives a long info description about foo package.
# aptitude clean ............................ Removes all previously downloaded .deb files from the package cache directory.
$ aptitude download foo ..................... Downloads foo package to current directory.
#aptitude build-deps foo .................... Installs all binary dependencies needed to build foo source package.

# dpkg -i foo ............................... Installs foo package
# dpkg -i --force-depends foo ............... Converts all dependency errors into warnings and installs foo package.
# dpkg -r foo ............................... Removes foo package
# dpkg --purge foo .......................... Removes foo package and its configuration files too.
$ dpkg -l *foo* ............................. Lists packages containing "foo" pattern.
$ dpkg -L foo ............................... Lists files pertaining to foo package.
# dpkg-reconfigure -plow foo ................ Reconfigures previously installed "foo" package, asking all configuration questions.
# dpkg --configure -a ........................... Configures all packages that have been unpacked but not yet configured.
$ dpkg --search foo ......................... Lists packages containing files matching foo pattern. Only searchs on installed packages.
$ dpkg -c foo.deb ........................... List files contained in foo.deb package.
$ dpkg -I foo.deb ........................... Shows info about foo.deb package.

$ dpkg-query -S foo ......................... Searchs for a filename from installed packages listed in the local dpkg database.

$ dpkg-buildpackage -us ..................... Builds debian package from its source code.


More info at:
The Debian package management tools.
APT Howto.
Debian package management.