6.2.6 aptitude, apt-get and apt-cache commands

While tracking testing as described in the above example you can manage the system by using the following commands:

• aptitude upgrade (or apt-get upgrade or aptitude dist-upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade)

  These track the testing distribution — they upgrade each package on the system, after installing versions of packages upon which it Depends, from the testing distribution. [35]

• apt-get dselect-upgrade

  This tracks the testing distribution — it upgrades each package on the system according to the selections of dselect.

• aptitude install package/unstable

  This installs package from the unstable distribution while installing its dependencies from the testing distribution.

• aptitude install -t unstable package

  This installs package from the unstable distribution while installing its dependencies also from the unstable distribution by setting the Pin-Priority of unstable to 990.

• apt-cache policy foo bar ...

  This checks the status of packages foo bar ....

• aptitude show foo bar ... | less (or apt-cache show foo bar ... | less)

  This checks the information for packages foo bar ....

• aptitude install foo=2.2.4-1

  This installs the particular version 2.2.4-1 of the foo package.

• aptitude install foo bar-

  This installs the foo package and removes the bar package

• aptitude remove bar

  This removes the bar package but not its configuration files.

• aptitude purge bar

  This removes the bar package together with all its configuration files.

In the above examples, giving apt-get the -u option causes it to print a list of all packages that are to be upgraded and to prompt the user before taking action. The following makes apt-get always do this:

     $ cat >> /etc/apt/apt.conf << .
     // Always show packages to be upgraded (-u)
     APT::Get::Show-Upgraded "true";
     .

Use the --no-act option to simulate actions without actually installing, removing, etc., any packages.