Installing Debian Software with the Advanced Package Tool

Will Trillich

This is an introduction to Debian powerful Advanced Package Tool to install new packages.

SGML source for this document is available on the Newbiedoc Project's site.


Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found at the

Revision History
Revision v0.0123 July 2001Revised by: rml
SGML formatting

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. About APT
1.2. Using APT with the shell
2. Using APT to install packages
2.1. Assumptions
2.2. Setup -- apt-setup
2.3. Following a distribution
2.4. Updating your system -- apt-get upgrade
2.5. Installing packages -- apt-get install
3. Getting information about packages
3.1. Finding packages -- apt-cache search
3.2. Describing packages -- apt-cache show
3.3. Listing packages -- dpkg -l
3.4. Combine dpkg with grep for some powerful searches
3.5. Package contents -- dpkg -L
3.6. Finding which package contains... -- dpkg -S
4. Learn more