[Nottingham] debian?

[Rob Andrews]

[23-Mar-2003 14:21.36 (GMT) / Simon Amor]
 > As far as I can see, it's version 3.0 "stable" but it was installed
 > mostly over the net from one of the minimal CD versions (190Mb of iso).
 > I've tried things like "apt-get dist-upgrade" and it simply says 0
 > packages upgraded almost straight away.

You mentioned 'testing'; Are you after the unstable ('current') branch?

apt is fairly simple. If you're happy with staying with 'woody', then:

apt-get install <package>

Is great for you.

If you want to go to the latest unstable distro, edit /etc/apt/sources.list
and replace instances of 'woody' with 'sid' (I recommend that if you want to
use 'sarge', you have 'sid' and 'sarge' sources in the file, not just the
latter). Then:

apt-get update

To update the package listing.

apt-get dist-upgrade

Will upgrade to the latest package versions.

apt-cache is also Your Friend.

Most people grimace at it, but I'm quite accustomed to using 'dselect'. Try
it: you might like it.

Start it.
Choose item 2 - Update. Press enter. Wait.
Choose item 3 - Select. Press space to exit help, and then you are presented
with the package listing. To the left of the package name, you have two
characters. "**" means "installed & okay". "-*" means "uninstalled, config
files left, but going to reinstall next time you let me". "_*" means "not
installed, but going to". "__" means "not installed". "--" means "config
files remaining, going to leave them there". Use '/' to search for something
(regex rules apply). Repeat last search with '\'. To install a package, tap
"+" on it. To uninstall it, tap "_" or "-" on it.

Press enter to confirm your selects. When you return to the menu, select
item 4 - Install, let it go, and quit.

It's quite simple. There are beginners docs on www.debian.org that help with
the basics of using debian's package management.

-- 
rob 'nine' andrews         <e> rob@impure.org.uk <pgp_key> 0x8bb5c71e
is nothing sacred?   <more> finger nine@impure.org.uk for more detail