Introduction to Debian

Table of Contents

Debian Basics

We noticed that not only Debian-users like grml but also people coming from the BSD-section, Gentoo-Linux and so on. You don’t need any debian-knowledge to use grml, but if you would like to use the package management you should know some basics.

Essential commands

Command Action
apt-cache search foobar search for foobar
apt-cache show $package show package $package
apt-cache depends $package show dependencies of $package
apt-cache rdepends $package show reverse dependencies of $package
apt-cache policy $package show policy for $package
apt-get update update list of packages in /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get upgrade upgrade software
apt-get -s upgrade simulate upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade upgrade the distribution (including dependencies)
apt-get install $package install $package
apt-get install $package=version install a specific version of $package
apt-get -t release install $package install $package from specific release
apt-get remove $package remove $package
apt-get --purge remove $package remove $package and purge configuration files
apt-get --reinstall install $package reinstall $package
apt-get --download-only install $package download .deb files of $package
apt-get source $package download source of $package
dpkg -i $package.deb install debian package
dpkg -l show installed and removed packages
dpkg -l $package show status of $package
dpkg -S pattern show all packages that match ‘pattern’
dpkg -L $package list files in $package
dpkg-reconfigure $package re-run the configuration for $package

Another frontend and easy to handle system to the debian package management is the ncurses based ‘aptitude’. ‘aptitude’ can also be used in a console-oriented way (like apt-get). Just replace ‘apt-get’ in the above commands with ‘aptitude’. As of Debian Sarge this is even the prefered way to install and upgrade packages, as ‘aptitude’ is better in handling dependencies.

For handling /etc/apt/sources.list take a look at the apt-howto basics, for further information on package management read chapter 3 of apt-howto.

Using the grml-repository

See grml.org/files/ for instructions how to use the grml-repository. You can use the grml-repos even if you don’t use a grml-system but any other Debian system (preferably sid/unstable).

With introduction of apt-0.6 it’s possible to check integrity of the packages. The following warnings will disappear then:

W: GPG error: http://grml.org ./ Release: The following signatures couldn't be
verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY D8DF53FB37E272E8
WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!

For the grml-repository just run:

gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.eu.pgp.net --recv-keys D8DF53FB37E272E8
gpg --export D8DF53FB37E272E8 > /etc/apt/grml.key
apt-key add /etc/apt/grml.key

Links/Ressources

General

Getting help

Packages/Bugs

Developers