Yuwen Dai <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: YD> I'm new to Debian but not new to Linux. I find there're many packages YD> in Debian. I'm confused. In what situation should I choose one?
dpkg: to install a .deb file you've already downloaded; to examine information about packages already installed on the system (e.g. 'dpkg -L packagename' to list files, 'dpkg -S /usr/bin/less' to find where a particular file comes from). APT: to install packages you haven't hand-downloaded; to examine information about packages not installed on the system (e.g. 'apt-get install xemacs21' to download and install the XEmacs text editor and all of its dependencies, 'apt-cache show xemacs21' to get more information about the package). Calls dpkg to install packages once it's downloaded them. dselect/aptitude/...: "User-friendly" front-ends to the whole shebang. They generally let you scroll through a list of packages and pick some to install or remove, and then do the work for you. Generally built on top of APT and dpkg. -- David Maze [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/ "Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal." -- Abra Mitchell