Chapter 8. Keeping your Debian system up to date

46

  Using a libc5 based

apt

.

APT stands for Advanced Package Tool, and it might

replace dselect some day.

Currently, it works just as a command line inter 

face, or as a dselect access method.

You will find a libc5 version in the

dists/slink/main/upgrade older i386

directory at the Debian archives.

  Using just dselect, without upgrading any package by hand first. It is highly recom 

mended that you do NOT use this method if you can avoid it, because dselect alone

currently does not install packages in the optimal order. APT works much better and it

is safer.

8.2 How can I keep my Debian system current?

One could simply execute an anonymous ftp call to a Debian archive, then peruse the direc 

tories until he finds the desired file, and then fetch it, and finally install it using

dpkg

. Note

that

dpkg

will install upgrade files in place, even on a running system. Sometimes, a revised

package will require the installation of a newly revised version of another package, in which

case the installation will fail until/unless the other package is installed.

Many people find this approach much too time consuming, since Debian evolves so quickly

  typically, a dozen or more new packages are uploaded every week. This number is larger

just before a new major release. To deal with this avalanche, many people prefer to use a more

automated method. Several different packages are available for this purpose:

8.2.1 APT

APT is an advanced interface to the Debian packaging system. apt get is the command line

tool for handling packages, and APT dselect method is an interface to APT through

dselect

.

Both of these provide a simpler, safer way to install and upgrade packages.

APT

features

complete

installation

ordering,

multiple

source

capa 

bility

and

several

other

unique

features,

see

the

User's

Guide

in

/usr/share/doc/apt doc/guide.html/index.html

(you will have to install the

apt doc

package).

Install the

apt

package, and edit the

/etc/apt/sources.list

file to set it up. If you wish

to upgrade to the latest stable version of Debian, you'll probably want to use a source like this

one:

http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non free

You can replace http.us.debian.org with the name of a faster Debian mirror near you. See the

mirror list at

http://www.debian.org/misc/README.mirrors

for more information.

Details

on

this

can

be

found

in

apt get(8)

and

sources.list(8)

manual

pages,

as

well

as

in

the

aforementioned

APT

User's

Guide,

in

/usr/share/doc/apt doc/guide.html/index.html

.