apt package manager : options & tricks

APT package manager in Debian systems can be used to download and install packages from online repositories. The APT commands (apt-get, apt-cache, and so on) can be used to install packages locally. However, it’s normally used for working with online software.

sudo apt-get update
Consults /etc/apt/sources.list and updates the database of available packages. Be sure to run this command whenever sources.list is changed.

apt-cache search <keyword>
Case-insensitive search of the package database for the keyword given. The package names and descriptions are returned where that keyword is found.

sudo apt-get install <package>

Download and install the given package name as found in the package database.

sudo apt-get -d install <package>
Download the package only, placing it in /var/cache/apt/archives.

apt-cache show <package>

Display information about the software from the named package.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Check updates for all installed packages and then prompt to download and install them.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Updates the entire system to a new release, even if it means removing packages. (Are you on nuts to do this?)

sudo apt-get autoclean

Can be run anytime to delete partially downloaded packages, or packages no longer installed.

sudo apt-get clean

Removes all cached packages from /var/cache/apt/archives to free up disk space.

sudo apt-get --purge remove <package>

Remove the named package and all its configuration files. Remove the --purge keyword to keep config files.

sudo apt-get -f install

Do a sanity check for broken packages. This tries to fix any “unmet dependency” messages.

apt-config -V

Print version information of installed APT utilities.

sudo apt-key list

List gpg keys that APT knows about. 

apt-cache stats 

Print statistics on all packages installed.

apt-cache depends

Print dependencies for a package (whether it’s installed or not). 

apt-cache pkgnames 

List all packages installed on the system.

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dpkg package manager options

The dpkg utility works at a layer lower than the APT utilities do. APT uses dpkg behind the scenes to manage software on your Ubuntu system. APT and dpkg work similar to the way yum and rpm do on Red Hat–based Linux distributions. Usually, APT will have enough functionality to get you through just about anything, but there are times when dpkg will be needed, such as finding out which package is associated with a given file on your system. Following are some of the common dpkg command options and parameters.


dpkg -c <.deb file> 

Lists files which are installed by the .deb file given (.deb file must be path/filename).

dpkg –I <.deb file> 

Lists information about the .deb given file.

dpkg –p <package> 

Lists information about the package.

dkpg –S <filename> 

Lists the packages where the given file name is found. This can be a path, or just the name of a file.

dpkg –l 

Lists installed packages. This will also take options for more specific info.

dpkg -L <package> 

Lists all the files which have been installed from package (package must have been previously installed).

dpkg –s <package> 

Lists the status of the given package. 

sudo dpkg –i <.deb file>  

Installs the given .deb file.

sudo dpkg –r <package> 

Removes the given package from the system, but leaves files behind.

sudo dpkg –P <package> 

Removes package and config files of given package.

sudo dpkg -x <.deb file> <directory>  

Extracts the files contained in the .deb file to a destination directory. This will reset permissions on the target directory.

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how to install gnome-do application launcher in Ubuntu

GNOME Do is a free application launcher for Linux originally created by David Siegel, and currently maintained by Alex Launi. It is better than other application launchers because it not only allows searching for applications and files but it also allows specifying actions to perform on search results by providing instantaneous, action-oriented search results that preferred by the users. 


It is equipped with different appearence or styles, the important of them are docky style and glass style







installation. . .

 Take the terminal and type as follows

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-do gnome-do-plugins

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