The Basics of Debian Package Management APT and Repositories [Linux 101]

1. What is Debian package management system?
2. Which package manager does a Debian machine use?
3. How do Debian packages work?
4. In which file are repositories stored for Debian package management?
5. Is Ubuntu better than Debian?
6. What is the difference between dpkg and apt?
7. How do I list installed packages in Linux?
8. What are the three families of Linux package manager?
9. What are the packages in Linux?
10. How do I find packages in Debian?
11. How do I open a Debian package?
12. What is in a Debian package?

What is Debian package management system?

Debian is a volunteer organization which builds consistent distributions of pre-compiled binary packages of free software and distributes them from its archive. ... The Debian package management system, when used properly, offers the user to install consistent sets of binary packages to the system from the archive.

Which package manager does a Debian machine use?

APT. APT is the Advanced Package Tool, an advanced interface to the Debian packaging system which provides the apt-get program. It provides commandline tools for searching and managing packages, and for querying information about them, as well as low-level access to all features of the libapt-pkg library.

How do Debian packages work?

A Debian package contains metadata and files. The metadata contains the package name, description, a list of dependencies, and more. The files are extracted into the filesystem root (/), so the file paths in a package are absolute paths.

In which file are repositories stored for Debian package management?

On a Debian system, this sources file is the "/etc/apt/sources. list" file. Your machine will know to look there and check for any source repositories you added.

Is Ubuntu better than Debian?

Generally, Ubuntu is considered a better choice for beginners, and Debian a better choice for experts. ... Given their release cycles, Debian is considered as a more stable distro compared to Ubuntu. This is because Debian (Stable) has fewer updates, it's thoroughly tested, and it is actually stable.

What is the difference between dpkg and apt?

apt-get handles lists of packages available to the system. ... dpkg is the low level tool that actually installs package contents to the system. If you try to install a package with dpkg whose dependencies are missing, dpkg will exit and complain about missing dependencies. With apt-get it also installs the dependencies.

How do I list installed packages in Linux?

How do I see what packages are installed on Ubuntu Linux?

1. Open the terminal application or log in to the remote server using ssh (e.g. ssh user@sever-name )
2. Run command apt list --installed to list all installed packages on Ubuntu.
3. To display a list of packages satisfying certain criteria such as show matching apache2 packages, run apt list apache.

What are the three families of Linux package manager?

5 Best Linux Package Managers for Linux Newbies

1. DPKG – Debian Package Management System. Dpkg is a base package management system for the Debian Linux family, it is used to install, remove, store and provide information about . ...
2. RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) ...
3. Pacman Package Manager – Arch Linux. ...
4. Zypper Package Manager – openSUSE. ...
5. Portage Package Manager – Gentoo.

What are the packages in Linux?

Answer: In Linux distributions, a “package” refers to a compressed file archive containing all of the files that come with a particular application. The files are usually stored in the package according to their relative installation paths on your system.

How do I find packages in Debian?

Search for Available Packages Using the apt-cache Command

In Debian 10, you can search for available packages in the Debian repository using the apt-cache command. With the apt-cache command, you can also search the DEB packages installed on your system that are not in the Debian repository.

How do I open a Debian package?

So if you have a .deb file, you can install it by:

1. Using: sudo dpkg -i /path/to/deb/file sudo apt-get install -f.
2. Using: sudo apt install ./name.deb. Or sudo apt install /path/to/package/name.deb. ...
3. First installing gdebi and then opening your . deb file using it (Right-click -> Open with).

What is in a Debian package?

A Debian "package", or a Debian archive file, contains the executable files, libraries, and documentation associated with a particular suite of program or set of related programs. Normally, a Debian archive file has a filename that ends in . deb .