Aptitude is amazing!

[Sparky]

Try aptitude of you are tired of apt.
sudo apt install aptitude tasksel (last command just beautifies the menu)
then enter aptitude, it is so much more intuitive than apt.

Here is a video link to help you start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xca3Ywf54N0

[Adrian]

Cool, didn't know about adding - and _ to the aptitude install packagename. I like that aptitude has all the useful command, don't need to muck with apt-cache for example to search for packages. Never use the GUI though.

[Buck Fankers]

Nice, thanks for sharing...

Cheatsheet:

Code: Select all

============
  aptitude  
============
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/aptitude/ch02s04s05.en.html#tableSearchTermQuickGuide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xca3Ywf54N0
https://www.christitus.com/2019/03/12/aptitude-explained/

sudo apt install aptitude tasksel

	# aptitude install
sudo aptitude install gedit		<- install one or more packages:
sudo aptitude install gedit–		<- remove a package
sudo aptitude install gedit_		<- purge a package
sudo aptitude install gedit=		<- hold a package at its current version
sudo aptitude install gedit&BD		<- build dependencies for a package

	# aptitude hold, unhold, keep
hold 					<– is the same as the install, but again I like to use this long hand version when utilizing wildcards.
unhold 					<– is a great way to release held packages
keep 					<– I DO NOT USE because it merely cancelled scheduled tasks for that package… only it will continue to be upgraded later. 

	# aptitude update, safe-upgrade, full-upgrade
update 					<– updates the cache
safe-upgrade 				<– upgrades all packages but will not remove unused packages
full-upgrade 				<– upgrades all packages but WILL remove unused packages

	# aptitude search
search <package> 			<– searches for the package, these search results can use wildcards, be sorted, and culled as needed using various options
    # examples:
aptitude search ‘?narrow(?installed, !?archive(stable))’	<- Search for packaged installed from outside stable repo
aptitude search ‘?narrow(?installed, ?archive(testing) !?archive(stable))’	<- Search for packages installed by the testing repo but not stable
aptitude search ~i		<- List installed packages
aptitude search ~Dgedit		<- List reverse dependencies for gedit
aptitude search ~b		<- show broken packages
aptitude search ~ahold		<- display packages on hold
aptitude search ~ntightvnc	<- Find and install all packages with the name tightvnc in it
aptitude install “php=5.6”	<- nstall a specific version of a package

	# aptitude show
aptitude show <package>		<- displays information about the package
	# aptitude why, why-not
aptitude why <package> 		<- explains why a package can’t be installs because of a missing dependency
aptitude why-not <package> 	<- show conflicts in which the package dependency can not be installed

	# aptitude clean and autoclean
aptitude clean 				<- removes all previously downloaded packages from the cache directory
aptitude autoclean			<- removes cached packages which no longer exist in your repositories

[Sparky]

Hey that is a great reference you put there! I'm going to print it out, thanks!