[PLUG] Debian Package Help

Rogan Creswick creswick at gmail.com
Mon Jul 16 06:38:41 UTC 2007


On 7/15/07, Frank Hunt <linux at frankhunt.com> wrote:
> I am new to Debian and am running into all kinds of confusion when I
> want to load an application - let's pick php5 as an example.  Is there a
> place where I can get all the various pieces and parts and dependencies

Here are some "must-have" commands for debian and it's derivitives:

# update your local copy of the debian package repositories:
apt-get update

Run an apt-get update whenever you need to install something, just do
the update *first*.  It's not a bad idea to schedule apt-get update to
run periodically.

# upgrade all your installed packages:
apt-get upgrade

# apt-get dist-upgrade is a more ... extreme upgrade. if you go from
one release to another, then dist-upgrade is what you want.  Others
can explain dist-upgrade better than I can, and you're probably safe
not needing it, at least at this point.

# search for packages:
apt-cache search php5

That will return all packages that have to deal with php5.

apt-cache search php5 apache

That would return packages that match both php and apache.

#install something
apt-get install apache php5

I *think* that will leave you with working and cooperating php and
apache installs.

# list currently installed packages
dpkg --list

# uninstall a package
apt-get remove php5


Hopefully that helps -- apt-cache search is key.  Documentation for
all the install packages can usually be found in
/usr/share/doc/<package-name>.

--Rogan



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