Package Management

Debian

apt Commands

apt-get install <package> 
apt-get remove <package> # Remove files installed by <package>
apt-get purge <package>  # Remove <package> and all the files it did create

apt-get upgrade    # Upgrade all packages
apt-get install <package> # Upgrade an install package

apt-get dist-upgrade  # Upgrade distribution

apt-cache search <package> # Check if there is such a package name in the repos
apt-cache policy <package> # Check which repos in which order provide the package
apt-cache clean    # Remove all downloaded .debs

apt-mark showauto   # List all automatically installed packages
apt-mark showmanual
apt-mark showhold

File to Package lookup

apt-get install apt-file
apt-file update
apt-file search <some file>

Install only Debian Security Updates

Tested with Squeeze, Wheezy, Jessie:

grep -h '^deb.*security' /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* >/tmp/b && \
apt-get dist-upgrade -o Dir::Etc::SourceList=/tmp/b -o Dir::Etc::sourceparts=/nonexistingdir && \
rm /tmp/b

100% Non-interactive

To achieve a useful 100% non-interactive “apt-get install” you need 4 things:

• Set Debian frontend “noninteractive”
• Pass “-y” to confirm everything
• Specify to keep old configs always
• Enforce config definitions

Ommitting any of those will cause interaction.

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" <package>

dpkg Commands

# Resolve file to package
dpkg -S /etc/fstab

# Print all files of a package
dpkg -L passwd # provided files
dpkg -c passwd # owned files

# Find packages by name
dpkg -l gnome*

# Package details
dpkg -p passwd

Reconfigure after installation:

dpkg-reconfigure -a

From which repos are those packages?

apt-cache madison <package>

For example to find out which packages are not from the debian repos:

for i in $(dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}'); do apt-cache madison $i; done |grep -v debian.org

File Diversion:

# Register diverted path and move away
dpkg-divert --add --rename --divert <renamed file path> &file path>

# Remove a diversion again (remove file first!)
dpkg-divert --rename --remove <file path>

Add another architecture

dpkg --add-architecture i386

Unattended Upgrades

apt-get install unattended-upgrades
dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades 
# and maybe set notification mail address in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades

Misc

• Manage Updates on multiple systems: apt-dater

• Debian Repo manager aptly.info

• APT Repo with reprepro

  cd <repo dir>
  reprepro -v includedeb wheezy <.deb file>
  reprepro remove wheezy <name>
  

Ubuntu

Like Debian with the addition of

# 1. Edit settings in  /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades
# e.g. set "Prompt=lts"

# 2. Run upgrade
do-release-upgrade -d   # For Ubuntu release upgrades

OpenSuSE

zypper install <package> 

zypper refresh    # Update repository infos

zypper list-updates
zypper repos    # List configured repositories

zypper dist-upgrade   # Upgrade distribution
zypper dup     # Upgrade distribution (alias)

zypper search <package>  # Search for <package>
zypper search --search-descriptions <package>

zypper clean      # Clean package cache

# For safe updates:
zypper mr –keep-packages –remote # Enable caching of packages
zypper dup -D      # Fetch packages using a dry run
zypper mr –all –no-refresh  # Set cache usage for following dup
zypper dup      # Upgrade!

Redhat

up2date

CentOS

yum update     # Upgrade distro
yum install <package>  # Install <package>