APT vs. Aptitude in the real life
Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 3:13 pm
ok, apparently it's easy, we have the man pages, tones of info in the Debian site, but when it comes to questions like:
what's the difference between apt and aptitude or how do they handle updates
Good guide-lines, but let's see in the real life the differences, the similarities, the advantages (?)
This sid install is not updated for about a week (maybe more), so it's the perfect place for the test:
apt upgrade
my conclusions
what's the difference between apt and aptitude or how do they handle updates
Good guide-lines, but let's see in the real life the differences, the similarities, the advantages (?)
This sid install is not updated for about a week (maybe more), so it's the perfect place for the test:
apt upgrade
apt dist-upgrade265 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 62 not upgraded.
Need to get 392 MB of archives.
After this operation, 6,724 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.
aptitude safe-upgrade326 upgraded, 10 newly installed, 8 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 437 MB of archives.
After this operation, 57.0 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.
aptitude upgrade280 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 6 to remove and 45 not upgraded.
Need to get 409 MB of archives. After unpacking 4,868 kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
Abort.
aptitude full-upgrade280 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 6 to remove and 45 not upgraded.
Need to get 409 MB of archives. After unpacking 4,868 kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
Abort.
325 packages upgraded, 10 newly installed, 6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 437 MB of archives. After unpacking 21.3 MB will be used.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libpurple0: Depends: perlapi-5.10.1 which is a virtual package.
gnome-icon-theme-extras: Depends: gnome-icon-theme (>= 3.0) but 2.30.3-2 is installed.
libperl5.10: Depends: perl-base (= 5.10.1-20) but 5.12.3-6 is to be installed.
pidgin: Depends: perlapi-5.10.1 which is a virtual package.
libgstreamer-perl: Depends: perlapi-5.10.1 which is a virtual package.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
Remove the following packages:
1) gnome-icon-theme-extras
2) libgstreamer-perl
3) libperl5.10
4) libpurple-bin
5) libpurple0
6) pidgin
7) pidgin-plugin-pack
8 ) pidgin-themes
9) xchat
Leave the following dependencies unresolved:
10) xchat-common recommends xchat
11) gmusicbrowser recommends libgstreamer-perl
12) mercurial-common recommends mercurial (= 1.8.1-3)
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
my conclusions
- apt and aptitude handle updates and package management in a total different way, so a golden rule here is if you start with one, stick with it
- the most radical is dist-upgrade: it offers you a scenario, and either you accept it or not, with the risk of breaking your system
- full-upgrade gives you several scenarios to solve the issue, you are required to know more about linux to go though it
- aptitude upgrade and safe-upgrade showed the same output, maybe was just this case-scenario, i don't know
- for me, i stick with apt and dist-upgrade, it's easier to read, if you see something fishy, just hit n and wait for another day;