This article talks about the basics about the APT Download Tool, and its commonly used commands.
For more on this subject, please refer to the SOC Table of Contents.
Because downloading and installing applications and software is such a difficult task in Linux, we can make use of the APT tool to assist us in the process, as it can automatically download, setup, and install binary or source codes. Because APT is a client/server application, we would need to know the address of the server. We can achieve this by opening System Settings and opening the Software and Updates tab in the bottom row.
In the Download from selections, you may choose the one that’s the best for you.
Updating the Local Database
If you want to see which local software needs to be updated, you can use the command
sudo apt-get update
Which will access the original address, provide a list of the software updates, and store it on your machine. As can be shown below.
Checking Dependencies
Some installed software may be dependent on other installed software. In order to check these relations, we can use the following command. If any dependencies are found, APT will provide a solution to try to resolve the problem.
sudo apt-get check
Installing Software
When installing new software, the formatting is as follows:
sudo apt-get install [package-name]
Where [package-name] is the name of the package that you wish to install.
apt-get deals with the download of the software and install deals with the installation.
We will now use the command to install Minicom.
We will execute the command
sudo apt-get install minicom
To automatically download and install the minicom software.
After the successful installation of minicom, we can execute the following command in the terminal to open up minicom.
minicom -s
Software Updates
Sometimes we may need to update our software, so we can use the following command to do so:
sudo apt-get upgrade [package-name]
Where [package-name] is the name of the software or package that you wish to update.
We can test this out on the minicom software that we just installed.
From which we can see that minicom is already the newest version and does not require an update.
With software that do have updates, however, you may find that you will receive a prompt asking you if you would like to update them. You may choose to update or not.
Uninstalling Software
If you want to uninstall certain software, you may choose to use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove [package-name]
Where [package-name] is the name of the software that you would like to have uninstalled.
As an example, we will uninstall the minicom software that we just installed.
Thus, we now know how to install, update, and uninstall software using APT.
