4 ms·

I can't believe there are Debian/Ubuntu folks still not using "aptitude". Or that it's not installed by default.

Mavrik 15y ago
I've been using Ubuntu with apt-get for quite a few years now. What additional funcionality does aptitude offer over "plain" apt-get?
- nicktelford 15y ago
  The biggest advantage is when removing packages; its dependency resolution is (supposedly) much better so it's able to find and remove orphan packages more accurately without hosing your system. It's also got a much friendlier set of commands: $ apt-get upgrade vim # aptitude upgrade vim $ apt-get dist-upgrade # aptitude full-upgrade $ apt-cache search # aptitude search $ apt-get install --reinstall vim # aptitude reinstall vim $ apt-get remove --purge vim # aptitude purge vim The list goes on. It's also got an awesome ncurses based interactive interface if you just type: $ aptitude Great for sysadmins who miss synaptic or anyone who feels like a GUI is just too mainstream.
  - ernesth 15y ago
    apt-get also is able to remove orphaned libraries. Among other "advantages" of aptitude, it can be terribly slower than apt-get. And it has a "smart" dependency engine that often proposes convoluted solutions (involving uninstalling packages I don't want uninstalled) when apt-get will simply update the dependency and their dependents... But at least, if you don't agree with the first solutions, it has others (sometimes including the one apt-get chooses).
  - bostonvaulter2 15y ago
    What's the history of the aptitude and apt-* family of commands? Why do they both exist?
    - sciurus 15y ago
      It would be nice to see an overview from folks who've been involved. You can get some of the history from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dselect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dselect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Packaging_Tool#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Packaging_Tool#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude_(software)#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude_(software)#History http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-detailed.en.html http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-detaile....
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  Aptitude has an optional screen-oriented GUI, much better search and filtering capabilities, a listing of "new" packages each time you update, and an excellent dependency resolver.
- obtu 15y ago
  My favourite feature is the search capabilities, which are well integrated and extremely powerful. # installed packages with yaml in the name aptitude search '~i yaml' # installed packages requiring yaml # (~D means depends on) aptitude search '~i ~D yaml' # packages whose name starts with lib and # mentioning SQL in their descriptions aptitude search '^lib ~d sql' # installed packages from some non-standard repo # apt-cache policy describes package origins aptitude search '~i ?origin(apt.opscode.com)' # why is libvirt0 installed? aptitude why libvirt0 # which ubuntu metapackage is keeping libvirt0 installed? aptitude why '~i ubun' libvirt0 # don't keep any transitional package installed sudo aptitude markauto '~i ~d transitional' # purge ganeti packages sudo aptitude purge '~i ganeti'
  - nicktelford 15y ago
    I didn't know about this matching. Awesome. Now I'm even more annoyed that our servers are all CentOS :(
obtu 15y ago
On Debian, I definitely use aptitude. However it hasn't been updated for Ubuntu's recent work on multiarch, and thus actions requiring dependency resolution are not usable anymore on many Oneiric installs (those that are amd64 with a few i586 packages).
sciurus 15y ago
I think there's a perception that aptitude can be to smart for its own good. From the Debian Reference: "Although the aptitude command comes with rich features such as its enhanced package resolver, this complexity has caused (or may still causes) some regressions such as Bug #411123, Bug #514930, and Bug #570377. In case of doubt, please use the apt-get and apt-cache commands over the aptitude command." http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_basic_package_management_operations http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.h...
jff 15y ago
I ran "aptitude dist-upgrade" on my netbook once. It ate up the entire 1 GB of RAM and got OOM killed before it could finish computing dependencies. I shouldn't need a swap partition just to update packages. So now I use apt-get if I'm upgrading a lot of packages at once. aptitude for other tasks.

I've been using Ubuntu with apt-get for quite a few years now. What additional funcionality does aptitude offer over "plain" apt-get?

nicktelford 15y ago
The biggest advantage is when removing packages; its dependency resolution is (supposedly) much better so it's able to find and remove orphan packages more accurately without hosing your system. It's also got a much friendlier set of commands: $ apt-get upgrade vim # aptitude upgrade vim $ apt-get dist-upgrade # aptitude full-upgrade $ apt-cache search # aptitude search $ apt-get install --reinstall vim # aptitude reinstall vim $ apt-get remove --purge vim # aptitude purge vim The list goes on. It's also got an awesome ncurses based interactive interface if you just type: $ aptitude Great for sysadmins who miss synaptic or anyone who feels like a GUI is just too mainstream.
- ernesth 15y ago
  apt-get also is able to remove orphaned libraries. Among other "advantages" of aptitude, it can be terribly slower than apt-get. And it has a "smart" dependency engine that often proposes convoluted solutions (involving uninstalling packages I don't want uninstalled) when apt-get will simply update the dependency and their dependents... But at least, if you don't agree with the first solutions, it has others (sometimes including the one apt-get chooses).
- bostonvaulter2 15y ago
  What's the history of the aptitude and apt-* family of commands? Why do they both exist?
  - sciurus 15y ago
    It would be nice to see an overview from folks who've been involved. You can get some of the history from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dselect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dselect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Packaging_Tool#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Packaging_Tool#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude_(software)#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude_(software)#History http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-detailed.en.html http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/ch-detaile....
JoshTriplett 15y ago
Aptitude has an optional screen-oriented GUI, much better search and filtering capabilities, a listing of "new" packages each time you update, and an excellent dependency resolver.
obtu 15y ago
My favourite feature is the search capabilities, which are well integrated and extremely powerful. # installed packages with yaml in the name aptitude search '~i yaml' # installed packages requiring yaml # (~D means depends on) aptitude search '~i ~D yaml' # packages whose name starts with lib and # mentioning SQL in their descriptions aptitude search '^lib ~d sql' # installed packages from some non-standard repo # apt-cache policy describes package origins aptitude search '~i ?origin(apt.opscode.com)' # why is libvirt0 installed? aptitude why libvirt0 # which ubuntu metapackage is keeping libvirt0 installed? aptitude why '~i ubun' libvirt0 # don't keep any transitional package installed sudo aptitude markauto '~i ~d transitional' # purge ganeti packages sudo aptitude purge '~i ganeti'
- nicktelford 15y ago
  I didn't know about this matching. Awesome. Now I'm even more annoyed that our servers are all CentOS :(

obtu 15y ago

On Debian, I definitely use aptitude. However it hasn't been updated for Ubuntu's recent work on multiarch, and thus actions requiring dependency resolution are not usable anymore on many Oneiric installs (those that are amd64 with a few i586 packages).

sciurus 15y ago

I think there's a perception that aptitude can be to smart for its own good. From the Debian Reference: "Although the aptitude command comes with rich features such as its enhanced package resolver, this complexity has caused (or may still causes) some regressions such as Bug #411123, Bug #514930, and Bug #570377. In case of doubt, please use the apt-get and apt-cache commands over the aptitude command." http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_basic_package_management_operations http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.h...

jff 15y ago

I ran "aptitude dist-upgrade" on my netbook once. It ate up the entire 1 GB of RAM and got OOM killed before it could finish computing dependencies. I shouldn't need a swap partition just to update packages. So now I use apt-get if I'm upgrading a lot of packages at once. aptitude for other tasks.