Re: So many package tools, apt, dselect, dpkg, which should I choose?

[David Z Maze <dmaze@debian.org>]

Yuwen Dai <daiyuwen@hotmail.com> writes:
YD> I'm new to Debian but not new to Linux.  I find there're many packages
YD> in Debian.  I'm confused.  In what situation should I choose one?

dpkg: to install a .deb file you've already downloaded; to examine
information about packages already installed on the system (e.g. 'dpkg
-L packagename' to list files, 'dpkg -S /usr/bin/less' to find where a
particular file comes from).

APT: to install packages you haven't hand-downloaded; to examine
information about packages not installed on the system (e.g. 'apt-get
install xemacs21' to download and install the XEmacs text editor and
all of its dependencies, 'apt-cache show xemacs21' to get more
information about the package).  Calls dpkg to install packages once
it's downloaded them.

dselect/aptitude/...: "User-friendly" front-ends to the whole shebang.
They generally let you scroll through a list of packages and pick some
to install or remove, and then do the work for you.  Generally built
on top of APT and dpkg.

-- 
David Maze         dmaze@debian.org      http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting.  Politicking should be illegal."
	-- Abra Mitchell