Package Management in Debian

[drokmed]

As long as Ubuntu uses apt-get it isn't going any where.

Damn good reason to obsolete apt right there!

(my dry humor again)

[anticapitalista]

apt-get due to habit.

[julian516]

apt-get seems to do what I need done, supplemented by synaptic perhaps 20% of the time. I'll confess I do not have a clear handle on aptitude. Perhaps when I do I'll see the advantage, assuming there is one.

[dotlj]

There are some differences, but the differences are small.

In searching for example, aptitude search something will return entries that match the name, but tell you if it's installed or not.
apt-cache search something returns a longer list of packages containing the name anywhere but doesn't tell you if any are installed or not.

probably some options for both of them will return the same results. I haven't had any problems with either but follow the recommendation and use aptitude.

[tdockery97]

Does anyone use debdelta in conjunction with apt-get?

[dilberts_left_nut]

Since moving to sid from stable I've started to think about the update bandwidth a bit more
Watching aptitude download the full .deb of a package that was only updated a couple of days ago was what started me looking.
I found out about debdelta but haven't had any time yet to investigate it properly.

I thought it's functionality seems like a no-brainer and may have (should?) been implemented by default.
It would save a lot of bandwidth for the mirrors.

[sir fer]

apt-get and occasionally dpkg...just because that's what I learned first...

Since moving to sid from stable I've started to think about the update bandwidth a bit more

You and me both, I have since gone back to testing from sid for this reason. Chromium browser became chronic, being updated every day or 2.

[edbarx]

debootstrap, err... no, apt-get. [ joking]

[llivv]

.

[stoffepojken]

I use Aptitude because Rickh told me so

[hkoster1]

I started out (in Debian) with 'dselect', which isn't one of the poll choices. Ah, 'dselect' needed to be run
repeatedly until all dependencies were resolved (sometimes four or five times). After that, 'apt-get' seemed
a bit like sissy stuff, the way true Debianites regard 'synaptic' these days. Switched to 'aptitude' a couple of
years ago, as it offered (and still offers) excellent conflict resolution choices, which is important when
running testing and/or Sid. That said, there is an occasional use for 'apt-get', such as when 'aptitude' wants
to remove a ton of dependencies and 'apt-get' lets you just remove a single package with surgical precision.

Edit: 'dselect' is a choice now, I notice...

[secipolla]

Regarding debdelta.
I think it's great and for a big package that has a relatively small change from the old version to the new one debdelta can make upgrading much faster.
In average, if the user has a fast Internet connection debdelta can be slower than a direct upgrade. debdelta's creator guessed that would apply for connections faster than 300 Kb/s.

debdelta is always an advantage for users that have to pay for bandwidth.

Recently, when running 'debdelta-upgrade' I kept getting "Debdelta is not present" messages for every package. So I wrote the developer and he explained that he had run out of space with his server (which stores the deltas from previous to latest package versions).
Nowadays I still get some of those errors but many are present and work.
debdelta works perfectly and is a great service for people that don't have a reasonably fast Internet connection but I suspect that this potential user base is somewhat voiceless and is located mainly in less richer countries so debdelta doesn't receive a proper appreciation (if it would have a stable server it would be enough).

[sjukfan]

Aptitude, since I'm a noob.

[jeffreyC]

Synaptic, I have been using Debian for about twenty days and don't have all 29000 packages memorized (guess I'm slacking)

[Absent Minded]

Synaptic, I have been using Debian for about twenty days and don't have all 29000 packages memorized (guess I'm slacking)

Aptitude has a UI if you just su to root and type aptitude and press enter (it even has package descriptions just like Synaptic and is divided in to categories including virtual packages.. go figure, something new everyday). If you get gutsy you can even try the search in aptitude.

[jeffreyC]

I think I read some where that synaptic is a front end for apt.
Also think it was recommended to stay with apt or aptitude, but I'm not sure if that dates to when some Debian developers or maintainers were hating one or the other ?
Anyway, when I don't use synaptic I use apt.