On Thu, Sep 27, 2001 at 07:12:17AM +0000, Yuwen Dai wrote: > Hi, All > > I'm new to Debian but not new to Linux. I find there're many packages in > Debian. I'm confused. In what situation should I choose one?
Dpkg is the program that actually installs/removes packages; the other programs just use dpkg for you. You would want to use dpkg directly if you already have a package downloaded to your hard drive (or created by you), and you know it either has no dependencies or that its dependencies are already installed. Then you just type "dpkg -i filename" to install it. Dpkg also provides many ways to get information on packages; look at the man page. Apt and dselect are two separate tools which use dpkg for you and automatically handle dependencies. If you try to install a package, they will automatically also install anything the package depends on. Ironically, most people find the command-line program--apt--more user-friendly and easier to deal with than the (console-based) GUI prog, dselect. Dselect is harder to get used to, but IMO learning it is worthwhile. -- Thomas J. Hamman "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -Aristotle