Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of DebianPackagingOverview


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Timestamp:
01/23/13 14:59:48 (11 years ago)
Author:
jdreed
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  • DebianPackagingOverview

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     1= Debian Packaging Overview = 
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     3A package is used to distribute software and/or metadata to various workstations.  In some cases, the entire operating system is installed from a base set of packages -- in other cases, packages are only used to distribute add-on software.  Common packages you may have encountered on other operating systems: 
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     5* '''Windows''': a directory containing a `setup.exe` file, or a Microsoft Installer package (e.g. `kfw-4.0.1-i386-mit.msi`) 
     6* '''Mac OS X''': a `.pkg` file (or a `.mpkg` file, which in turn contains multiple `.pkg`s), such as `MIT Kerberos Extras.mpkg` 
     7* '''Red Hat or Fedora Linux''': a `.rpm` file, e.g. TIVsm-API.i386.rpm 
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     9For Debian-based distributions (including Ubuntu), the package format is a "Debian package", with a file extension of `.deb`.  These files can be installed with the `dpkg` command, e.g. `dpkg -i some-awesome-software-1.0_amd64.deb`. 
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     11== APT == 
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     13The `dpkg` command and `.deb` files might not be familiar to many Debian and Ubuntu users -- instead, you may be used to installing packages via the `apt-get` or `aptitude` commands, or with the Synaptic graphical interface.  The Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) is mostly commonly used to install packages from repositories.  These repositories contain the actual `.deb` files, but you rarely interact with them directly.  Instead you use a front-end tool like `apt-get` and request the name of the package, and the tool determines which repositories contain the package, what the current version is, which architecture to use, and download and install it for you.