apt-get vs aptitude

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 09:09:15AM -0300, Marcelo Cavalcante wrote:
> Some months ago I wrote a litle article about this difference: aptitude vs
> apt-get.
> 
> Unfortunately it's in Portuguese, but if you want to read its you can use
> google translate.
> 
> A short summary:
> 
> What many people do not know is that using the command "apt-get install
> package_name" some packages will be installed as dependencies that won't be
> automatically remove later. I mean, you'll have and accumulation of garbage
> in your system. How?
> 
> Let's suppose I want to install an instant messenger application such as
> aMSN. This tool has dependencies required fot its operation like TCL and TK.
> 
> The following command will install the amsn with its dependencies:
> 
> # apt-get install amsn
> 
> Great! Now I have my messenger properly installed, without any difficult and
> running smoothly. BUt now I decided to remove this tool.
> 
> # apt-get remove amsn
> 
> Perfect! My amsn is uninstalled without difficulty.
> 
> But, what about those two packages? TCL and TK?
> 
> They are still installed, making a certain accumulation of garbage in your
> system. The same will happens with all the packages that are installed in
> your system and eventually removed with apt-get.
> 
> What about aptitude?
> 
> In installation, aptitude would be very similar, for example:
> 
> # aptitude install amsn
> 
> Like apt-get, aptitude will automatically install the dependencies of aMSN,
> like TCL and TK.
> 
> Yeah, I wanna remove it now.
> 
> # aptitude remove amsn
> 
> Surprise! TCL and TK were removed too.
> 
> It's not magic guys! :D
> 
> Aptitude will check if TCL and TK are necessary to other packages in the
> system. If not, it will remove then.

apt-get autoremove will however clean up for you, but yes aptitude makes
it simpler.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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