4. How to use apt-get

apt-get's commands are very easy and intuitive.

Its commands follow this structure:

    # apt-get [options] command
    
    # apt-get [options] install package [package ...]

The command line may be a variation of the following basic types:

apt-get update

Updates apt-get's local database with server's pkglist's files.

apt-get check

verifies system's integrity using apt

apt-get install some-package

installs some new package, automatically resolving and downloading dependent packages

apt-get upgrade

checks for outdated packages in the system and automatically upgrades them

apt-get dist-upgrade

same as apt-get upgrade, but installs all base packages and tries to upgrade everything, installing new packages if needed

apt-get remove some-package

removes the some-package package and all other packages that depends on it

apt-get clean

removes the downloaded packages from the cache directory (/var/cache/apt/archives/), freeing some disk space at your system ;-)