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The latest regularly recurring flamewar topic: aptitude (was: xorg in sid)



Adam Hardy:
> 
> apt-get is all I use - there's too much for me to deal with in the GUI 
> programs, and combined with a bunch of single-key commands, I find it 
> difficult. I use
> 
> apt-get install xxxxx
> apt-get remove xxxxx
> apt-cache search xxxxx

Besides replacing apt-get (not apt-cache) with aptitude, there's nothing
new you need to get used to. aptitude is just a little slower. See
aptitude-doc for details, it is a really smart program. From --help:

install      - Install/upgrade packages
remove       - Remove packages
purge        - Remove packages and their configuration files
hold         - Place packages on hold
unhold       - Cancel a hold command for a package
markauto     - Mark packages as having been automatically installed
unmarkauto   - Mark packages as having been manually installed
forbid-version - Forbid aptitude from upgrading to a specific package version.
update       - Download lists of new/upgradable packages
upgrade      - Perform a safe upgrade
dist-upgrade - Perform an upgrade, possibly installing and removing packages
forget-new   - Forget what packages are "new"
search       - Search for a package by name and/or expression
show         - Display detailed information about a package
clean        - Erase downloaded package files
autoclean    - Erase old downloaded package files
changelog    - View a package's changelog
download     - Download the .deb file for a package

So you can easily (un-)hold packages, read changelogs *before*
installing and tell aptitude which packages you really wanted to install
and which you only have because some other program depends on it. Of
course, if you use aptitude for installing, it will remember this
without any action on your side.

The only thing I don't like about aptitude is the default setting to
treat Recommends as Depends, but you can switch it off easily.

J.
-- 
I start many things but I have yet to finish a single one.
[Agree]   [Disagree]
                 <http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html>

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