apt-get provides a simple way to install packages from the command
line. Unlike dpkg, apt-get does not understand .deb
files, it works with the packages proper name and can only install .deb
archives from a Source.
The first [1] thing that should be
done before using apt-get is to fetch the package lists from the
Sources so that it knows what packages are available. This is done
with apt-get update. For instance,
# apt-get update
Get http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/binary-i386/ Packages
Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/contrib Packages
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Once updated there are several useful commands that can be used,
Dselect or apt-get
install can be used to force these packages to install.
dselect. Once dist-upgrade has completed then
dselect can be used to install any packages that may have been
left out.
It is important to closely look at what dist-upgrade is going to do, its decisions may sometimes be quite surprising.
apt-get has several command line options that are detailed in it's
man page, apt-get(8). The most useful option is -d
which does not install the fetched files. If the system has to download a
large number of package it would be undesired to start installing them in case
something goes wrong. When -d is used the downloaded archives can
be installed by simply running the command that caused them to be downloaded
again without -d.
jgg@debian.org