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APT HOWTO
Chapter 1 - Introduction


In the beginning there was the .tar.gz. Users had to compile each program that they wanted to use on their GNU/Linux systems. When Debian was created, it was deemed necessary that the system include a method of managing the packages installed on the machine. The name dpkg was given to this system. Thus the famous `package' first came into being on GNU/Linux, a while before Red Hat decided to create their own `rpm' system.

A new dilemma quickly took hold of the minds of the makers of GNU/Linux. They needed a rapid, practical, and efficient way to install packages that would manage dependencies automatically and take care of their configuration files while upgrading. Here again, Debian led the way and gave birth to APT, the Advanced Packaging Tool, which has since been ported by Conectiva for use with rpm and has been adopted by some other distributions.

This manual makes no attempt to address apt-rpm, as the Conectiva port of APT is known, but "patches" to this document which do so would be welcome.

This manual is based on the next Debian release, Etch, as of 31th of August, 2005.


1.1 Basic terminology and concepts

Here you can find some basic terminology and concepts used on this manual:

APT source: an APT source is a location (often on the internet, or possibly on a CDROM or other location) which functions as a repository of Debian packages, see The /etc/apt/sources.list file, Section 3.1.

APT source line: an APT source line is a line you add to a configuration file to tell APT about the "Apt sources" you want to use, see The /etc/apt/sources.list file, Section 3.1.

binary package: a binary package is a .deb file prepared to be installed by the package manager (dpkg), it may include binary files but may also carry just architecture-independent data -- it's called binary package either way.

debian-native: package created specifically for Debian, this kind of package usually has the debian control files inside the original source and every new version of the package is also a new version of the original program or data.

debianize: verb usually used to mean "prepare for use with Debian" or, more simply put, packaged in .deb format.

source package: a source package is really an abstract definition to a set of two or three files which are part of the deb source format: a .dsc file, which contains information about the package, also called source control file; a .orig.tar.gz file, which contains the original upstream source for that package -- you may also find this being called .tar.gz, simply, with no .orig, meaning this is a debian-native package; a .diff.gz file, which carries the modifications made to the original source to "debianize" the package -- you will not find this kind of file on a debian-native package.

upstream: this word usually means something that comes from the original developer of the software or data, or the developer himself.

virtual packages: virtual packages are packages that do not really exist, but that are generic services "provided" by some specific packages -- the most common example is the mail-transport-agent package, to which packages that need an MTA[1] can specify a dependency while keeping the user choice as to which MTA to use.


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APT HOWTO

2.0.2 - October 2006

Gustavo Noronha Silva kov@debian.org