apt-cache & apt-get

List all available packages

apt-cache pkgnames

esseract-ocr-epo
pipenightdreams
mumudvb
tbb-examples
libsvm-java
libmrpt-hmtslam0.9
libboost-timer1.50-dev
kcm-touchpad
g++-4.5-multilib
...

Find out package name and description of software

apt-cache search vstfpd

vsftpd - lightweight, efficient FTP server written for security
ccze - A robust, modular log coloriser
ftpd - File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server
yasat - simple stupid audit tool

Check package information

apt-cache show netcat

Package: netcat
Priority: optional
Section: universe/net
Installed-Size: 30
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Ruben Molina <rmolina@udea.edu.co>
Architecture: all
Version: 1.10-40
Depends: netcat-traditional (>= 1.10-39)
Filename: pool/universe/n/netcat/netcat_1.10-40_all.deb
Size: 3340
MD5sum: 37c303f02b260481fa4fc9fb8b2c1004
SHA1: 0371a3950d6967480985aa014fbb6fb898bcea3a
SHA256: eeecb4c93f03f455d2c3f57b0a1e83b54dbeced0918ae563784e86a37bcc16c9
Description-en: TCP/IP swiss army knife -- transitional package
 This is a "dummy" package that depends on lenny's default version of
 netcat, to ease upgrades. It may be safely removed.
Description-md5: 1353f8c1d079348417c2180319bdde09
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu

Check dependencies for specific packages

apt-cache showpkg vsftpd

Package: vsftpd
Versions: 
2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (/var/lib/apt/lists/in.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_quantal_main_binary-i386_Packages)
 Description Language: 
                 File: /var/lib/apt/lists/in.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_quantal_main_binary-i386_Packages
                  MD5: 81386f72ac91a5ea48f8db0b023f3f9b
 Description Language: en
                 File: /var/lib/apt/lists/in.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_quantal_main_i18n_Translation-en
                  MD5: 81386f72ac91a5ea48f8db0b023f3f9b

Reverse Depends: 
  ubumirror,vsftpd
  harden-servers,vsftpd
Dependencies: 
2.3.5-3ubuntu1 - debconf (18 0.5) debconf-2.0 (0 (null)) upstart-job (0 (null)) libc6 (2 2.15) libcap2 (2 2.10) libpam0g (2 0.99.7.1) libssl1.0.0 (2 1.0.0) libwrap0 (2 7.6-4~) adduser (0 (null)) libpam-modules (0 (null)) netbase (0 (null)) logrotate (0 (null)) ftp-server (0 (null)) ftp-server (0 (null)) 
Provides: 
2.3.5-3ubuntu1 - ftp-server 
Reverse Provides:

Check statistics of cache

apt-cache stats

Total package names: 51868 (1,037 k)
Total package structures: 51868 (2,490 k)
  Normal packages: 39505
  Pure virtual packages: 602
  Single virtual packages: 3819
  Mixed virtual packages: 1052
  Missing: 6890
Total distinct versions: 43015 (2,753 k)
Total distinct descriptions: 81048 (1,945 k)
Total dependencies: 252299 (7,064 k)
Total ver/file relations: 45567 (729 k)
Total Desc/File relations: 81048 (1,297 k)
Total Provides mappings: 8228 (165 k)
Total globbed strings: 286 (3,518 )
Total dependency version space: 1,145 k
Total slack space: 62.6 k
Total space accounted for: 13.3 M

Update system package

sudo apt-get update

[sudo] password for tecmint: 
Ign https://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security InRelease                      
Get:1 https://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release.gpg [933 B]          
Get:2 https://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security Release [49.6 kB]            
Ign https://in.archive.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease                             
Ign https://in.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates InRelease                     
Get:3 https://repo.varnish-cache.org precise InRelease [13.7 kB]                
Ign https://in.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-backports InRelease                   
Hit https://in.archive.ubuntu.com quantal Release.gpg                           
Get:4 https://security.ubuntu.com quantal-security/main Sources [34.8 kB]       
Get:5 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com quantal-updates Release.gpg [933 B]         
...

Upgrade software packages

sudo apt-get upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic wine1.5 wine1.5-i386
The following packages will be upgraded:
  activity-log-manager-common activity-log-manager-control-center adium-theme-ubuntu alacarte
  alsa-base app-install-data-partner appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 apport apport-gtk apt
  apt-transport-https apt-utils aptdaemon aptdaemon-data at-spi2-core bamfdaemon base-files bind9-host
   ...

Install or upgrade sepcific packages

sudo apt-get install netcat

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  netcat-traditional
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  netcat netcat-traditional
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.
Need to get 67.1 kB of archives.
After this operation, 186 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe netcat-traditional i386 1.10-40 [63.8 kB]
Get:2 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe netcat all 1.10-40 [3,340 B]
Fetched 67.1 kB in 1s (37.5 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package netcat-traditional.
(Reading database ... 216118 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking netcat-traditional (from .../netcat-traditional_1.10-40_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package netcat.
Unpacking netcat (from .../netcat_1.10-40_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up netcat-traditional (1.10-40) ...
Setting up netcat (1.10-40) ...

Install multiple packages

sudo apt-get install nethogs goaccess

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
goaccess is already the newest version.
nethogs is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.

Install several packages using wildcard

sudo apt-get install '*name*'

Install packages without upgrading

sudo apt-get install packageName --no-upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Skipping vsftpd, it is already installed and upgrade is not set.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.

Upgrade only specific packages

sudo apt-get install packgeName --only-upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
vsftpd is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.

Install specific package version

sudo apt-get install vsftpd=2.3.5-3ubuntu1

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
vsftpd is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.

Remove packages without configuration

sudo apt-get remove vsftpd

[sudo] password for tecmint: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  vsftpd
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 328 not upgraded.
After this operation, 364 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 216156 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vsftpd ...
vsftpd stop/waiting
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

Completely remove packages

sudo apt-get purge vsftpd

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  vsftpd*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 328 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 216107 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing vsftpd ...
Purging configuration files for vsftpd ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...

Clean up disk space

sudo apt-get clean

Download only source code of package

sudo apt-get --download-only source vsftpd

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Need to get 220 kB of source archives.
Get:1 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (dsc) [1,883 B]
Get:2 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (tar) [188 kB]
Get:3 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (diff) [30.5 kB]
Fetched 220 kB in 4s (49.1 kB/s)
Download complete and in download only mode

Download and unpack a package

sudo apt-get source vsftpd

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Need to get 220 kB of source archives.
Get:1 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (dsc) [1,883 B]
Get:2 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (tar) [188 kB]
Get:3 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main vsftpd 2.3.5-3ubuntu1 (diff) [30.5 kB]
Fetched 220 kB in 1s (112 kB/s)  
gpgv: Signature made Thursday 24 May 2012 02:35:09 AM IST using RSA key ID 2C48EE4E
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./vsftpd_2.3.5-3ubuntu1.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting vsftpd in vsftpd-2.3.5
dpkg-source: info: unpacking vsftpd_2.3.5.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking vsftpd_2.3.5-3ubuntu1.debian.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: applying 01-builddefs.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 02-config.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 03-db-doc.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 04-link-local.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 05-whitespaces.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 06-greedy.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 07-utf8.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 08-manpage.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 09-s390.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 10-remote-dos.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 11-alpha.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 09-disable-anonymous.patch
dpkg-source: info: applying 12-ubuntu-use-snakeoil-ssl.patch

Download, unpack and compile a package

sudo apt-get --complie source goaccess

[sudo] password for tecmint: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Need to get 130 kB of source archives.
Get:1 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe goaccess 1:0.5-1 (dsc) [1,120 B]
Get:2 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe goaccess 1:0.5-1 (tar) [127 kB]
Get:3 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/universe goaccess 1:0.5-1 (diff) [2,075 B]
Fetched 130 kB in 1s (68.0 kB/s)
gpgv: Signature made Tuesday 26 June 2012 09:38:24 AM IST using DSA key ID A9FD4821
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
dpkg-source: warning: failed to verify signature on ./goaccess_0.5-1.dsc
dpkg-source: info: extracting goaccess in goaccess-0.5
dpkg-source: info: unpacking goaccess_0.5.orig.tar.gz
dpkg-source: info: unpacking goaccess_0.5-1.debian.tar.gz
dpkg-buildpackage: source package goaccess
dpkg-buildpackage: source version 1:0.5-1
dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by Chris Taylor <ctaylor@debian.org>
dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture i386
 dpkg-source --before-build goaccess-0.5
dpkg-checkbuilddeps: Unmet build dependencies: debhelper (>= 9) autotools-dev libncurses5-dev libglib2.0-dev libgeoip-dev autoconf
dpkg-buildpackage: warning: build dependencies/conflicts unsatisfied; aborting
dpkg-buildpackage: warning: (Use -d flag to override.)
...

Download a package without installing

sudo apt-get download nethogs

Get:1 Downloading nethogs 0.8.0-1 [27.1 kB]
Fetched 27.1 kB in 3s (7,506 B/s)

Check change log of a package

sudo apt-get changelog csftpd

vsftpd (2.3.5-3ubuntu1) quantal; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian testing (LP: #1003644).  Remaining changes:
    + debian/vsftpd.upstart: migrate vsftpd to upstart.
    + Add apport hook (LP: #513978):
      - debian/vsftpd.apport: Added.
      - debian/control: Build-depends on dh-apport.
      - debian/rules: Add --with apport.
    + Add debian/watch file.
    + debian/patches/09-disable-anonymous.patch: Disable anonymous login
      by default. (LP: #528860)
  * debian/patches/12-ubuntu-us-snakeoil-ssl.patch: Use snakeoil SSL
    certificates and key.

 -- Andres Rodriguez <andreserl@ubuntu.com>  Wed, 23 May 2012 16:59:36 -0400
...
``

## Check broken dependencies

```bash
sudo apt-get check

[sudo] password for tecmint: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done

Search and build dependencies

sudo apt-get build-dep netcat

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  debhelper dh-apparmor html2text po-debconf quilt
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.
Need to get 1,219 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,592 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main html2text i386 1.3.2a-15build1 [91.4 kB]
Get:2 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main po-debconf all 1.0.16+nmu2ubuntu1 [210 kB]
Get:3 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main dh-apparmor all 2.8.0-0ubuntu5 [9,846 B]
Get:4 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main debhelper all 9.20120608ubuntu1 [623 kB]
Get:5 https://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main quilt all 0.60-2 [285 kB]
Fetched 1,219 kB in 4s (285 kB/s)
...

Auto clean apt-get cache

sudo apt-get autoclean

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done

Auto remove installed packages

sudo apt-get autoremove vsftpd

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package 'vsftpd' is not installed, so not removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 328 not upgraded.

References

https://www.tecmint.com/useful-basic-commands-of-apt-get-and-apt-cache-for-package-management/

Tags

apt-cache & apt-get

List all available packages

Find out package name and description of software

Check package information

Check dependencies for specific packages

Check statistics of cache

Update system package

Upgrade software packages

Install or upgrade sepcific packages

Install multiple packages

Install several packages using wildcard

Install packages without upgrading

Upgrade only specific packages

Install specific package version

Remove packages without configuration

Completely remove packages

Clean up disk space

Download only source code of package

Download and unpack a package

Download, unpack and compile a package

Download a package without installing

Check change log of a package

Search and build dependencies

Auto clean apt-get cache

Auto remove installed packages

References