Using Apt

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Using Apt
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This page is intended to help end-users use the Advanced Packaging Tool[1], or APT, to obtain free software packages from the Internet.

The Debian Project's own manual for Apt can be found here. You can begin/add to this guide, or contribute to one of our other open community tasks.

Two Minute Guide for apt-get

Freespire by default creates a sudo account and this Guide is assuming that you are logged in as sudo user - Default User which you create during Freespire Install.

If you have created the root account and using it in Freespire, please dont prefix sudo to the commands.Visit Creating a Root Login Account to learn how to enable the root account.

Update your local apt cache

Apt-get needs to be updated regularly with the new applications being added to the Repositories. To update apt cache, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get update

Install an Application

To install an application, for example Synaptic, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get install synaptic

It would ask you for a confirmation if necessary.

Reinstall an application

To reinstall an application, for example Synaptic,execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get install --reinstall synaptic

Remove an application without configuration files

To uninstall/remove an application, for example Synaptic, execute the command from konsole,

           sudo apt-get remove synaptic

It would ask you for a confirmation if necessary.

Remove an Application and all configuration files:

To remove an Application and its configuration files, for example Synaptic, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get --purge remove synaptic

To remove a installed package, for example Synaptic, and all dependencies, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get autoremove synaptic

Download the Source code of a program

To download the source of an application, for example Synaptic, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get source synaptic

It will download the source to your current directory.

To resolve all unmet dependences, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get -f install

Upgrade all your programs and libraries (can be useful in maintaining an up-to-date system)

           sudo apt-get upgrade

Upgrade your distribution (tries to choose packages needed to upgrade your dist)

           sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

To clean out .deb archives from packages which are no longer installed on the system, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get autoclean

You can regain lots of disk space that way. If you're really desperate for disk space,

           sudo apt-get clean

is more radical, and will remove .deb files even for packages currently installed. But most of the time you probably don't need the .debs any more, so it might be worth it if you're strapped for megabytes.

Search for an Application

To search for applications available for install, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-cache search packagename

Show information about package

           sudo apt-cache show packagename

Show information about packages

           sudo apt-cache showpkg pkgs

Prints out an available list

           sudo apt-cache dumpavail

Fast listing of every package in the system

           sudo apt-cache pkgnames

Extra

           sudo apt-get moo

It shows a cow ;)

Other possible arguments for apt-get

To view the other possible arguments for apt-get, execute the command from konsole

           sudo apt-get --help

See also Package managers

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