Re: apt-get vs. aptitude
Le 08.10.2013 13:33, Florian Lindner a écrit :
Hello,
Since I'm about to setup a new server using current stable wheezy, I
want to
recheck some of debian knowledge.
What is the prefered tool for installing on the CLI? apt-get or
aptitude? Last
time I read about it, it was aptitude, due to better dependency
checking. What
is the current state? apt-get or aptitude? Does it matter? What about
using
both?
Thanks!
Florian
Both are front-end for dpkg, so there will be no real difference on the
system after using one, the other or both.
I use both without any problem.
The differences between them is that aptitude:
* is slower
* have more built-in features
* have a ncurse interface
The slowness of aptitude should not be noticeable on a fast computer
like a server, so you can probably forgot about that.
Built-in features aptitude have that apt-get *might* (I am not sure)
not have *built-in* (but you can add apt-* stuff to add them I think)
are some tools to support debtags (if installed), research of solutions
when something is broken, and... I do not know what else :)
The aptitude's ncurse GUI is nice, at least for an end-user like me. On
a server, where I think you probably know what and why to
install/update, I doubt it will be.
But for the end user, it allows to quickly search and find a package
depending on it's name, sorted by either categories or by debtags.
The problem imho of that interface is that:
* if you have any broken package ( by a modification you put, but did
not validated ) it will be slow as hell ( it will checks solutions at
each move for nothing )
* debtags are only shown as a tree, there is no really good interface
to manage them ( but it is better than nothing )
* if you need multiarch, you will have to brows each package multiplied
by the number of archs you use. Sadly, the interface did not used a way
like the one used for versions for that...
Conclusion:
On a production server, I would use apt-get: faster.
For testing needs, or R&D, I would go for aptitude and use it's
interface to browse packages and find solutions depending on the current
state of the system ( it is easier to check which dependencies are being
installed with aptitude's ncurse GUI than on a command line ).
Hope it helps.
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