The advance packet manager or the apt command is used to handle different functionalities that your Debian-based Linux (OS) has to offer. Some of them are installing any new package or upgrading the already installed packages in your OS.
Linux (OS) comes with different repositories such as main, universe, restricted, and multiverse. The role of the apt command is to fetch the required information from them that you are looking for. The content that describes the usages of the apt command is as follows:
- Update Core Libraries | apt update
- Upgrade Packages | apt upgrade
- List the Packages | apt list
- Show Package Details | apt show
- Install Packages | apt install
- Remove Packages | apt remove
- Remove Unused Packages | apt autoremove
- Clear Cache | apt clean
Let’s start from the first one.
Update Core Libraries | apt update
The apt update command is used to fetch the information of all the packages installed in your Linux (OS), and then it will provide you with a number that you can upgrade. Simultaneously, it updates the core libraries of your Debian system (packages list) by typing:
$ sudo apt update
As you can see in the above image, there is a total of 120 packages that you can upgrade, so it is always recommended to run this command frequently.
Upgrade Packages | apt upgrade
The upgrade command will automatically upgrade all the packages that can be upgraded to their latest version by typing:
$ sudo apt upgrade
If you want to upgrade the whole system, then you can do that as well by typing the below command:
$ sudo apt full-upgrade
If you want to see the list of all those packages that can be upgraded then you need to run the following command:
$ sudo apt list --upgradeable
List the Packages | apt list
You can see the list of all available packages that are available for your system by typing the below command:
$ sudo apt list
If you want to see the list of all those packages that are already installed in your system, then you can do that by typing the command:
$ sudo apt list --installed
Show Package Details | apt show
This command will show you additional information regarding any application by typing:
$ sudo apt show vim
Install Packages | apt install
You can install any package that is available in the apt repository by following the syntax:
$ sudo apt install [Package Name]
Let’s suppose you want to install the ‘vim’ so you can do that by following the below command:
$ sudo apt install vim
Sometimes while installing any package, you need to provide the authentication password so to avoid that
Remove Packages | apt remove
Similarly, if you want to remove any package from your system using the apt command, then the following syntax is used:
$ sudo apt remove [Package Name]
For instance, to remove vim, use the below-stated command:
$ sudo apt remove vim
The below-mentioned command will remove not only the applications but also the packages associated with them:
$ sudo apt purge vim
Remove Unused Packages | apt autoremove
Sometimes a package that you are planning to install depends on other packages and won’t function properly without them. So, you need to install those as well, but once you delete any package, the dependencies still reside in your OS. So, to delete such leftover packages, you can run the following command:
$ sudo apt autoremove
Clear Cache | apt clean
The clean command is responsible for clearing the cache memory of the apt manager so that you can utilize that memory somewhere else by typing:
$ sudo apt clean
That’s all from this post.
Conclusion
Advanced packet manager (apt) is a powerful command-line tool that installs and upgrades software packages. The apt command is associated with the Debian-based distributions on Linux. This post has briefly explained the purpose and all the possible usages of the apt command in Linux.