The binary is called apt-get. There are others like apt-cache etc.
Apt is a script that just figures out which binary to use and passes the arguments on.
- apt update -> apt-get update
- apt policy -> apt-cache policy
You know, I thought I knew why, but this was new information to me, so I guess I didn’t.
Thanks for sharing this concise explico!
These days,
aptis for humans whereasapt-getis for scripts.apt’s output is designed for humans and may change between releases, whereasapt-getis guaranteed to remain consistent to avoid breaking scripts.aptcombines several commands together. For example, you can use it to install packages from both repos and local files (e.g.apt install ./foo.deb) whereasapt-getis only for packages from repos and you’d need to usedpkgfor local packages.Huh TIL.
I never considered trying to install a package from a local file through apt, but always dpkg. End result is the same of course. The web suggests dpkg rather than apt as well ( or at least the pages I ended up on ).
Discord is distributed as a .Deb if you don’t use flatpak because they can’t be bothered to set up a repo.
The very useful thing about local file install is that unlike dpkg, apt will install dependencies automatically
Same with Zoom.
And here I am using gdebi for those kinds of local packages…
Thats weird, they do have an arch official package and that’s the one they usually don’t make because AUR is a thing. Have you checked lately?
An “official” arch package? The arch package is packaged by the arch maintainers. https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/packaging/packages/discord
The maintainers of the PKGBUILD are all arch maintainers, which just downloads the generic
.tar.gzfile discord provides and puts it in all the places you need for you.The “official” arch packages are just PKGBUILDs like the AUR, except prebuilt, managed (and signed) by the arch team.
I didn’t know, thanks! I guess in hindsight I meant “official” as in, it’s not just some rando, I can trust it won’t break, and I don’t have to manually download the stuff every time xD
Yep! All those things are true, but it’s due to the hard work of the archlinux team and not discord doing anything valuable. The debian/ubuntu/etc team could probably repackage the tar.xz or include the deb file in their official repos if they wanted. They just don’t. And given how simple the workaround is, i don’t really blame them. Debian isn’t going to ship something that will require constant updating to work with remote servers, and ubuntu probably just wants you to use a snap anyway.
The archlinux team is just pretty cool.
I have checked on every new update because their fuckass client apparently can’t update itself in big 2025 and instead just opens your browser to the download url because that’ll convince people that Linux is great.
Updating itself isn’t really the Linux way of things. The Linux way is to have a centralised place like pacman or apt and to download everything at once. Every app having their own download and update system sounds like a nightmare.
apt and apt-get both use dpkg internally, but these days it’s essentially seen as an implementation detail that regular users don’t need to know about.
dpkg doesn’t resolve dependencies (that’s a feature of apt) which means that if you install a Debian package with dpkg, you’ll have to manually install all dependencies first, and they won’t be marked as automatically installed (so autoremove won’t remove them if they’re not needed any more). Using apt solves that.
The web suggests dpkg because either the articles are old, or they’re based on outdated knowledge :)
dpkg doesn’t resolve dependencies (that’s a feature of apt) which means that if you install a Debian package with dpkg, you’ll have to manually install all dependencies first, and they won’t be marked as automatically installed
Usually installing a manually downloaded package and its dependencies works like this:
# dpkg -i package-file.deb
# apt-get -f installSo apt-get can be used to install missing dependencies afterwards while marking them as automatically installed.
That works, but why do that when you could just do
apt install ./package-file.deb?
TIL I’m a script
Or a long time Debian user from before the
aptcommand!You forgot to “beep boop.” Please report for debugging.
Will they take me off the cron schedule?? I’m scared
Descheduling is a natural part of life, buddy. All us scripts are written into existence and our hearts set beating to the cadence of great Cron’s ever-ticking quartz clock. Until Cron takes us off his schedule and our memory is freed once again.
Back to the silicon.
- Joe Abercrombie
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful OS goes on, and you may contribute a process.
That the powerful OS goes on, and you may contribute a process.
- Walt Whitman
You and me both, makes sense though for me LMAO
I always struggled with captchas and now I know why.
Me laughing in pacman
“Hello, I would like to -Syu a package.” “Can I -Rsc this?”
Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged
Btw, never Syu a single package
apt-get has a fixed format machine parseable output
apts output tries to be more human readable and is subject to change
WARNING: Aptitude does not have a stable CLI interface.
aptitude is yet another dpkg wrapper
Me use apt. Why use many letter when few letter do trick?
Hahahaha Kevin
Apt: get whatever is in the cached package list
Apt-get: lookup the package to see the latest version and get that one
Unless you always
apt update,apt-getis the go to choice for modern day LinuxThere’s also the
apt-aptcommand, who triggers any audiophile to start complaining about mainstream music quality these daysdeleted by creator
I’d recommend avoiding aliases that conflict with regular commands, and there’s a standard Linux command called
install. https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/install.1.htmlIf you’re going to always pass the -y flag then I’d add --no-install-recommends too.
I disagree. According to Debian’s own documentation, apt is a newer front-end for your daily CLI updating and installing needs.
It has simplified syntax, and combines the most-used functions and options.
It is not meant for use in scripts, cause the syntax may change between versions.The dependency-solver in the back-end is identical.
tl/dr:
apt is shorter to type and will have prettier output, starting with Debian 13.
Use apt-get inside scripts.Uh!? I’ve been lied to! Editing comment for clarity
My personal experience is that apt-get will absolutely miss packages that apt will capture.
I was actually surprised by that about six months ago and finally switched over to apt after years of apt-get.
That’s actually one of the reasons I switched from Debian to Arch.
Dependency resolution shouldn’t differ based on which front-end you use.
Debian has dpkg, aptitude, apt-get, apt, synaptic, the Software Center…
Fedora has rpm, dnf, yum. SUSE adds a couple more. I don’t get it.
A linux distro should have one package manager, doing different stuff with it should be done via different commands/options inside it.As a (still) Linux novice, this is something that I noticed with later distributions but never thought about your valid point. I did always wonder why there should be different places to install things in the same OS. It would probably be fine if they handled things the same, but then all you’re doing is changing the UI. It never “felt” like they did things the same.
Out of curiosity, can pacman update flatpaks? Or do you still have to update those independent of your package manager?
It can’t. I use a very simple script to combine updates and the basics of system maintenance:
#!/usr/bin/env bash systemctl --failed -q yay -Pw sudo pacman -Syu flatpak update flatpak uninstall --unused pacman -Qqnte > ~/.local/share/applications/pkglist.txt pacman -Qqdtt > ~/.local/share/applications/optdeplist.txt pacman -Qqem > ~/.local/share/applications/foreignpkglist.txt pacman -Qtd pacman -Qm | grep -v yay-bin sudo find /etc -name *.pac* yay -Ps | grep Cache
When working with RHEL I always flip a coin to see if I’m gonna use yum or dnf this time
Wasn’t yum just mapped to dnf a while back?
What is dnf anyway? I see that used on later RH-based distros instead of yum.
dnf is the replacement to yum. It is apparently short for “Dandified Yum”.
🎵
APT, APT, APT, APT
Just meet me at the…
🎵
I came in for the jokes but all I found was helpful responses. Did I get the Nazi virus from Reddit?
apt is a newer, more user-friendly front-end for apt-get and apt-cache.
apt = combines commands like install, remove, update, upgrade into one tool, with prettier output
#apt-get = older, lower-level, more script-friendly For normal use, just use apt now. For scripting where 100% backward compatibility matters, use apt-get.
But apt-get also has install, remove, update and upgrade…
Yes, but
apt-getis missingsearchfor instance, because that relates to the cache, soapt-cacheprovides it.aptcombines all those often used commands, and provides a nicer shell presentation.This should be top comment.
TIL apt isn’t literally the same thing as apt-get
I didn’t even realize I thought this, but reading your comment I definitely did.
Lol. You’re not alone. I’ve thought that for the longest time ever. Until one I had the question pop into my head and started searching it.
If I recall correctly, Linux Mint did their own thing for a bit with the apt command so there were two different implementations out there for awhile?
I don’t know if they modified apt at all. I know they have their mint tools that call apt through some python code, like
mintinstall=apt install <package>for the software manager andmintupgrade=apt upgradefor updating mint versions … Etc
Pretty sure it’s basicaly
alias apt='apt-get'There is the subtle difference that the output if apt-get is optimized for automations
Apt has pretty outputs with colors etc
Can
apt-getrefresh package list?Yes,
apt-get updateis, to the best of my knowledge, functionally identical toapt update.D’oh, I’m a doofus — it’s
searchthat I was thinking of (apt-cache search, notapt-get search).
Following this post for replies, for a friend of course
You may want to tell your friend to check it now!
Friends says thanks, friend !
Isn’t this explained in the manpages for apt(8) and apt-get(8)?
Do people don’t read their manuals anymore?
Anymore? Where do you think RTFM comes from, people never read the manual.
Use apt in the shell and use apt-get in scripts, because apt has beautiful shell output but it isn’t script safe
How my brain distinguishes them:
apt-get when you want full verbose output
apt when you want to feel fancy with progress bars and colours
apt install nano (simple, clean)
apt-get install nano (works too, but more detailed output)
Apt-get give more technical output , helps in scripting .
