I prefer
Submitted by root
| aptitude |
   17% | 281 votes |
| apt-get |
59% | 937 votes |
| dpkg |
0% | 12 votes |
| gnome-apt |
0% | 5 votes |
| synaptic |
14% | 228 votes |
| wajig |
0% | 12 votes |
| kpackage |
0% | 8 votes |
| dselect |
4% | 69 votes |
| Total 1572 votes |
Strange kpackage is not shown
Felipe Sateler
Felipe Sateler
[ Parent ]
Posted by Steve (82.41.xx.xx) on Mon 18 Jul 2005 at 15:28
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Added it now, I'd not previously heard of it.
Steve
-- Steve.org.uk
[ Parent ]
While Aptitude and Synaptic look nice and do work quite well, there is nothing simpler than a quick "sudo apt-get".
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (201.252.xx.xx) on Mon 18 Jul 2005 at 19:53
I used to be a diehard fan of apt-get because of that same reason. But then I saw that aptitude can be controlled with similar if no the same commands as apt-get e.g. aptitude install blblblb or aptitude purge this and that.
It is a bit slower because of some extra checkings, but it is also a more powerfull dependency problem solver than apt-get (If that is even possible ;)).
It is a bit slower because of some extra checkings, but it is also a more powerfull dependency problem solver than apt-get (If that is even possible ;)).
[ Parent ]
Aptitude is much more than "look nice"; the text GUI is entirely optional. This list posting by Joey Hess gives a good explanation of the advantages of aptitude over both apt-get and dselect: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/04/msg11344.html but it seems to be broken at the moment :-( The nine reasons (with good explanations in the aforementioned list posting) are: * aptitude can look just like apt-get * aptitude tracks automatically installed packages * aptitude sanely handles recommends * use aptitude as a normal user and avoid hosing your system * aptitude has a powerful UI and searching capabilities * aptitude makes it easy to keep track of obsolete software * aptitude has an interface to the Debian task system * aptitude supports multiple sources * aptitude logs its actions
[ Parent ]
i would use synaptic more if it allowed non-root use for simply viewing package descriptions.
apt-get (by way of "--print-uris") & apt-cache allow non-root usage.
but as i'm tracking testing, unstable, & experimental (and prioritised in that order by way of pinnings), "apt-cache show blah" can scroll a 25-line xterm a few times displaying 3 different package descriptions for 3 different versions of the package. i would like to run synaptic in this situation (and for the filtering capability), but i'm not going to run it as root just for that. and the fact that i can't install packages using apt-get while browsing packages using synaptic, because synaptic locks the apt data directory. synaptic should only lock when necessary.
so i refuse to use synaptic until it gets rid of its god-complex (insisting on being ran as root, and locking apt's data directory).
apt-get (by way of "--print-uris") & apt-cache allow non-root usage.
but as i'm tracking testing, unstable, & experimental (and prioritised in that order by way of pinnings), "apt-cache show blah" can scroll a 25-line xterm a few times displaying 3 different package descriptions for 3 different versions of the package. i would like to run synaptic in this situation (and for the filtering capability), but i'm not going to run it as root just for that. and the fact that i can't install packages using apt-get while browsing packages using synaptic, because synaptic locks the apt data directory. synaptic should only lock when necessary.
so i refuse to use synaptic until it gets rid of its god-complex (insisting on being ran as root, and locking apt's data directory).
[ Parent ]
I agree
[ Parent ]
I use|prefer apt-get, synaptic, wajig depending on what I have at my disposal and what I have to do etc.,
For example if it is a fast machine and has X, I go for synaptic. If it is a cron job I am thinking of, I go for apt-get etc.,
But in the poll, there is no way to choose more than one option. Would it be possible to add such a facility?
For example if it is a fast machine and has X, I go for synaptic. If it is a cron job I am thinking of, I go for apt-get etc.,
But in the poll, there is no way to choose more than one option. Would it be possible to add such a facility?
[ Parent ]
Posted by Steve (82.41.xx.xx) on Tue 19 Jul 2005 at 08:19
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I think polls, by their nature, should only really support one choice.
I accept that some polls will leave some users wishing to make more than one choice - but that's kinda what the comments are for.
Steve
-- Steve.org.uk
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (212.39.xx.xx) on Tue 19 Jul 2005 at 05:50
where is a dselect? dpkg or what ???
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (217.244.xx.xx) on Tue 19 Jul 2005 at 10:50
...dselect. It's missing!
[ Parent ]
Posted by Steve (82.41.xx.xx) on Tue 19 Jul 2005 at 13:30
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Thus proving that I should never be allowed to create my own polls.
dselect should have been included. I'll add it now, but it's probably lost a bit of voting choice.
Steve
-- Steve.org.uk
[ Parent ]
THNX for dselect :)
[ Parent ]
Posted by todsah (80.113.xx.xx) on Thu 21 Jul 2005 at 11:16
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The reason I prefer apt-get over aptitude (when using aptitude in 'apt-get mode', e.g. aptitude install):
I don't want it to remove anything (especially something that I do use) and I don't want to know what's being kept back each time I'm installing an application. Compare apt-get:
after which it proceedes with the downloading and installation of iptraf.
I can't find any options for aptitude to turn off the uninstalling of packages when I do an 'aptitude install' nor can I find an option to turn off the displaying of everything that's being kept back. It's annoying.
I like aptitude's ncurses graphical front-end though. It's somewhat better than dselect's, but probably still too cryptic for newbies. It takes a while to get used to and, when I recently installed Debian on my new laptop, I still had to fall back to dselect for package selection because I wasn't used to the way aptitude displays conflicts. Turns out that was probably due to the C++ ABI change Debian was going through at the time.
For now, I'm simply going to be using a combination of dpkg (installation of third-party packages), apt-get (mostly for the 'install' option), dselect (for handling complicated dependency conflicts) and aptitude (installation of large ammounts of unrelated packages and browsing the repositories for cool software). Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
PS: The poll option 'deselect' should probably be 'dselect'.
PPS: The Preview option when posting is somewhat borked. It inserts many BR tags into the editing textarea.
PPPS: Excellent site!
[root@jib]/home/todsah# aptitude install iptraf
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states... Done
Reading task descriptions... Done
The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED:
debhelper gettext html2text intltool-debian po-debconf
The following packages have been kept back:
adduser asclock asclock-themes bluez-utils console-common dgen discover1
[-- snip --]
xterm xutils xvfb zlib1g zlib1g-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
iptraf
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 5 to remove and 122 not upgraded.
I don't want it to remove anything (especially something that I do use) and I don't want to know what's being kept back each time I'm installing an application. Compare apt-get:
[root@jib]/home/todsah# apt-get install iptraf
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
iptraf
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 123 not upgraded.
after which it proceedes with the downloading and installation of iptraf.
I can't find any options for aptitude to turn off the uninstalling of packages when I do an 'aptitude install' nor can I find an option to turn off the displaying of everything that's being kept back. It's annoying.
I like aptitude's ncurses graphical front-end though. It's somewhat better than dselect's, but probably still too cryptic for newbies. It takes a while to get used to and, when I recently installed Debian on my new laptop, I still had to fall back to dselect for package selection because I wasn't used to the way aptitude displays conflicts. Turns out that was probably due to the C++ ABI change Debian was going through at the time.
For now, I'm simply going to be using a combination of dpkg (installation of third-party packages), apt-get (mostly for the 'install' option), dselect (for handling complicated dependency conflicts) and aptitude (installation of large ammounts of unrelated packages and browsing the repositories for cool software). Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
PS: The poll option 'deselect' should probably be 'dselect'.
PPS: The Preview option when posting is somewhat borked. It inserts many BR tags into the editing textarea.
PPPS: Excellent site!
[ Parent ]
# aptitude install debhelpershould solve your removal problems with aptitude.
(not sure about this, but is consistent with aptitude's behavior on my system :)
aptitude actually records the packages you have explicitly installed against the ones that came on your system through a dependency. As you installed debhelper using apt-get, it's not recorded as an "explicitly requested package". As no "explicitly requested package" depends on it, in aptitude's view, it should be removed.
[ Parent ]
Posted by todsah (80.113.xx.xx) on Fri 22 Jul 2005 at 12:57
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Thanks, that fixed the problem. Aptitude's dependency remover is a nice feature, but it does cause some confusion when using aptitude alongside apt-get/dselect. I kinda assumed it would only remove orphaned packages in the libs/docs/etc sections.
[ Parent ]
here's the problem with aptitude's dependency checker: it's based on whether you explicitly installed a package or not. but i install many packages only to give them a test drive, and many packages that get implicitly installed i become dependent on and never want uninstalled.
see how broken that is. i rather a package tool not include a feature, than include a broken one.
even worse, my main system was installed two years ago when deselect was used during installation (yuck!), and when aptitude was to some degree buggy, so i used apt-get. how would aptitude handle all those packages that were installed outside of itself, where it doesn't know if the package was installed explicitly or implicitly?
to solve my specific problem of unwanted/unused packages i use deborphan (and elaborate upon its output with a python script). a cron job runs deborphan once a day, i compare its output to a previous day's output to see what has recently been orphaned, and if it's something i don't want, i uninstall it. my cron job considers recommendations and suggestions the same as dependencies, but if i want to see those i just run deborphan again (discounting recommendations & suggestions) and compare/diff the output to that day's output.
i do this exercise every so often when i want to free up space on my /usr partition to find out what packages are candidates for uninstallation. yeah, it's a manual process (apart from the cron job), but it's always correct. ;-)
see how broken that is. i rather a package tool not include a feature, than include a broken one.
even worse, my main system was installed two years ago when deselect was used during installation (yuck!), and when aptitude was to some degree buggy, so i used apt-get. how would aptitude handle all those packages that were installed outside of itself, where it doesn't know if the package was installed explicitly or implicitly?
to solve my specific problem of unwanted/unused packages i use deborphan (and elaborate upon its output with a python script). a cron job runs deborphan once a day, i compare its output to a previous day's output to see what has recently been orphaned, and if it's something i don't want, i uninstall it. my cron job considers recommendations and suggestions the same as dependencies, but if i want to see those i just run deborphan again (discounting recommendations & suggestions) and compare/diff the output to that day's output.
i do this exercise every so often when i want to free up space on my /usr partition to find out what packages are candidates for uninstallation. yeah, it's a manual process (apart from the cron job), but it's always correct. ;-)
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (192.102.xx.xx) on Mon 25 Jul 2005 at 16:11
I'm sorry I'm not in front of (any of) my Debian box at the moment but if memory serves...
I seem to remember that you can toggle packages as Automatic using the 'a' (maybe it's 'A') key.
IIRC if a package is marked as automatic then it will be removed if nothing else is dependant on it. Although I do belive there is an option under one of the menus to disable this behaviour.
Perhaps this might help?
Laurence
(I'll try to remember to check my facts when I get home)
I seem to remember that you can toggle packages as Automatic using the 'a' (maybe it's 'A') key.
IIRC if a package is marked as automatic then it will be removed if nothing else is dependant on it. Although I do belive there is an option under one of the menus to disable this behaviour.
Perhaps this might help?
Laurence
(I'll try to remember to check my facts when I get home)
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (213.184.xx.xx) on Mon 25 Jul 2005 at 19:41
and what about debfoster?
[ Parent ]
Posted by Anonymous (64.142.xx.xx) on Tue 26 Jul 2005 at 14:11
Absolutely superior to all these choices is feta, the Front-End to Apt.
The name is a bit of a misnomer, it's actually a front end to dpkg-and-friends, apt-get, apt-cache, apt-file, debfoster, deborphan, dselect etc. It presents debian package management — which is embarassingly and illogically spread out across a host of interface-inconsistent tools — as a single user experience. Morover, it includes integrated help, and optionally (on by default) will show you how it is accomplishing all the tasks you ask of it, so you can learn all the Debian arcana if that sort of thing interests you.
Adding feta to my system made debian package management go from featureful but annoying to basically painless.
-- Joshua Rodman
The name is a bit of a misnomer, it's actually a front end to dpkg-and-friends, apt-get, apt-cache, apt-file, debfoster, deborphan, dselect etc. It presents debian package management — which is embarassingly and illogically spread out across a host of interface-inconsistent tools — as a single user experience. Morover, it includes integrated help, and optionally (on by default) will show you how it is accomplishing all the tasks you ask of it, so you can learn all the Debian arcana if that sort of thing interests you.
Adding feta to my system made debian package management go from featureful but annoying to basically painless.
-- Joshua Rodman
[ Parent ]
I just love dselect, sorry ^^
[ Parent ]