Derrick 'dman' Hudson wrote:
I'm sure this list isn't exhaustive, but it gives an idea why it is recommended to use a program intended for end-user (admin) use such as aptitude instead of a development proof-of-concept program (which is what 'apt-get' and 'apt-cache' are).
And to anyone who hasn't tried aptitude, don't be put off by its description as a "a curses-based apt frontend". You can use it right from the command line just like you would apt-get for most everything you are probably now doing with apt-get and apt-cache: "aptitude install", "aptitude update", "aptitude dist-upgrade", "aptitude search", "aptitude show", "aptitude purge".
See the man page. Oh, and be sure to check /usr/doc/share/aptitude/README. It will explain its powerful searching and regular expression package selection capabilities (again, all from the command line). You don't ever have to use the curses GUI if you don't want to - I don't.
dircha