Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a package management system used by Debian and its derivatives. APT was originally designed to work with .deb packages on Debian systems, but it has since been modified to work with RPM packages via apt4rpm, and to run on other operating systems such as Mac OS X (see fink). On systems with package management based on .deb, such as Debian, APT is a front-end for dpkg. Package management system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Debian, organized by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... deb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. ... The RPM Logo RPM Package Manager (or RPM, originally called Red Hat Package Manager) is a package management system primarily intended for Linux. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... Mac OS X (pronounced Mac OS Ten) is the latest version of the Macintosh operating system, and is designed and developed by Apple Computer to run on their Macintosh line of personal computers. ... A Fink is a slang term originating in the 1920s for an informer, often used to describe a spy or some one who turns in their friends or partners. ... dpkg is the base of the Debian package management system. ...

APT simplifies the process of installing and removing software on Unix systems, by automating the retrieval, (from the Internet, local network, or CD) the configuration, the compiling (sometimes) and the installation of software from APT sources. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Unix-like. ...

There is no apt program per se; APT is a C++ library of functions that are used by several command line programs for dealing with packages, most notably apt-get and apt-cache. C++ (pronounced see plus plus, IPA: /siː plÉ™s plÉ™s/) is a general-purpose computer programming language. ... A command line interface or CLI is a method of interacting with a computer by giving it lines of textual commands (that is, a sequence of characters) either from keyboard input or from a script. ...

APT front-ends can upgrade the system or specific packages. Packages can be installed or removed. When installing one or several packages, APT front-ends can list the dependencies of these packages, ask the administrator if packages recommended or suggested by newly installed packages should be installed too, automatically install dependencies and perform other operations on the system's packages to allow the installation of the packages. Similarly, to update one or several packages, front-ends can install, remove or update other packages.

APT is often hailed as one of Debian's best features, giving it the reputation of being a "pain to install, but a joy to maintain", although with Debian 3.1 and its debian-installer, Debian's installation might be too easy nowadays to keep this true. Another distribution, Ubuntu Linux, also uses apt. This article is about the Linux distribution. ...

Sources

The Debian project keeps a central repository of over 13,000 software packages ready for download and installation. For extra packages, any number of additional repositories can be added to /etc/apt/sources.list and then be queried by APT. Problems may appear when several sources offer the same package(s). Systems that have such possibly conflicting sources can use APT pinning to control which sources should be preferred.

Package repositories do not have to reside on Internet sites. CDs and other mediums can be used too. The Debian CDs available for download contain Debian repositories. This opens up a way to upgrade non-networked machines. There are also programs that provide a front end to APT, such as Synaptic with a GTK+ graphical user interface and dselect and aptitude with an ncurses text interface. CD redirects here; see Cd for other meanings of CD. Image of a compact disc (pencil included for scale) A compact disc (or CD) is an optical disc used to store digital data, originally developed for storing digital audio. ... A screenshot of Synaptic. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... A graphical user interface (or GUI, sometimes pronounced gooey) is a method of interacting with a computer through a metaphor of direct manipulation of graphical images and widgets in addition to text. ... The computer program aptitude is a front-end to APT. It displays a list of software packages and allows the user to interactively pick packages to install or remove. ... Ncurses is a programming library providing an API, allowing the programmer to write text user interfaces in a terminal-independent manner. ...

Once a package repository has been specified (like during the system installation), packages in that repository can be installed without specifying a source.

APT pinning

APT pinning is a way for administrators to make Debian GNU/Linux's version of APT to grab particular packages from different distributions, using it with more than two of the Debian release sources: stable, testing, and unstable. In order to do this, the pins in the /etc/apt/preferences file must be modified. [1] Debian, created by the Debian Project, is a widely used distribution of free software developed through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ...

apt-get

apt-get is a program part of the apt package used as a simple command line tool to libapt. Nevertheless, partly due to the quick way it provides to manage packages, it is probably still the most used APT front-end.

For example, the following output might be obtained when installing the Mozilla Application Suite suite (packaged in the mozilla meta package): The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and code named SeaMonkey) is a free, cross-platform internet suite, whose components include a web browser, an email and news client, an HTML editor, and an IRC client. ...

 # apt-get install mozilla Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following extra packages will be installed: libnss3 mozilla-mailnews mozilla-psm Suggested packages: mozilla-chatzilla Recommended packages: myspell-en-us myspell-dictionary The following NEW packages will be installed: libnss3 mozilla mozilla-mailnews mozilla-psm 0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 2658kB of archives. After unpacking 7991kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

APT searches its cached list of packages and lists dependent packages (dependencies) it needs to install or upgrade. After confirmation:

 Get:1 http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca testing/main libnss3 2:1.7.8-1 [654kB] Get:2 http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca testing/main[ mozilla-mailnews 2:1.7.8-1 [1811kB] Get:3 http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca testing/main mozilla-psm 2:1.7.8-1 [192kB] Get:4 http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca testing/main mozilla 2:1.7.8-1 [1022B] Fetched 2658kB in 14s (177kB/s) Reading package fields... Done Reading package status... Done Selecting previously deselected package libnss3. (Reading database ... 62277 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking libnss3 (from .../libnss3_2%3a1.7.8-1_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package mozilla-mailnews. Unpacking mozilla-mailnews (from .../mozilla-mailnews_2%3a1.7.8-1_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package mozilla-psm. Unpacking mozilla-psm (from .../mozilla-psm_2%3a1.7.8-1_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package mozilla. Unpacking mozilla (from .../mozilla_2%3a1.7.8-1_i386.deb) ... Setting up libnss3 (1.7.8-1) ... Setting up mozilla-mailnews (1.7.8-1) ... Updating mozilla chrome registry...done. Setting up mozilla-psm (1.7.8-1) ... Updating mozilla chrome registry...done. Setting up mozilla (1.7.8-1) ... 

APT automatically fetches, configures and installs the dependencies. The other most used apt-get commands are "apt-get update", "apt-get upgrade" and "apt-get dist-upgrade" (the two last ones having a similar use).

See also

• APT front-ends:
  • Aptitude
  • dselect
  • GNOME App Install
  • KPackage
  • Synaptic
• dpkg, which APT uses to actually install and remove Debian packages
• Fink, a project to port Unix software to Mac OS X which uses APT
• Wajig
• APT HOWTO, a Debian manual to understand Debian's APT