Aptitude Debian

Introduction

Aptitude is an Ncurses based FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager. Since it is text based, it is run from a terminal or a CLI (command line interface). Aptitude has a number of useful features, including:

a mutt-like syntax for matching packages in a flexible manner

mark packages as "automatically installed" or "manually installed" so that packages can be auto-removed when no longer required

colorful preview of actions about to be taken

dselect-like persistence of user actions

the ability to retrieve and display the Debian changelog of most packages

AptCLI-like (= apt-get + apt-cache) command line mode ("aptitude install foo")

Score-based and (usually) smarter dependency resolver than apt-get

aptitude is also non-fattening, naturally cleansing, and housebroken. It does not, however, have Super Cow Powers, meaning that it does not implement the moo operation, verbosely or otherwise.

The package is aptitude.

The manual of aptitude is really a gold mine. I don't want to duplicate this useful informations so please take a look there for further help.

Interactive Use

To run interactively, enter the following from a terminal:

aptitude

After running it, use:

F10 to access the menu and use aptitude. This is the main key.

? for help

The 'up', 'down', 'left', 'right' keys to navigate.

The 'Enter' key to select

The '+' or '-' key to install/update or remove a package

The 'g' key to preview/confirm actions

'q' to quit – this also closes the currently open window (‘g’ goes forward, ‘q’ goes back)

The common use of aptitude in TUI (text user interface) is; run aptitude; press 'u' (update the lists of available packages); press 'U' (Mark all upgradable packages to be upgraded); (search/select some stuff to install, is optional); press 'g' (to see the pending actions and modify if needed); press 'g' (again, to start the download).

Some time when you need to resolve conflicts, you discover that you made a mistake; you can easily use 'Cancel pending actions' in the 'Actions' menu so that you can re-select.

When reviewing pending actions:

'a' explicitly accepts an action (use again to unaccept)

'r' rejects an action

'g' again goes ahead with pending actions

See Accessing package information for understanding the letters in the package synopsis line (e.g., 'i' means "will be installed", 'p' means "not installed", etc.)

Manual Use as root

You