Advanced Packaging Tool

Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a package management system created by the Debian project. APT greatly simplifies the process of installing and removing software on Unix systems.

There is no apt program per se; APT is a C++ library of functions that are used by several command line programs for dealing with packages, notably apt-get and apt-cache.

There are also programs that provide a front end to APT, usually based on apt-get, like aptitude with a ncurses text interface or synaptic with a GTK+ graphical interface.

There is a central repository of over 13000 apt packages used by apt-get and derived programs to download and install applications directly from the Internet, often hailed as one of Debian's best features.

APT was originally designed to work with .deb packages on Debian systems, but it has since been modified to work with RPM packages via apt4rpm, and to run on other operating systems such as Mac OS X.

The idea in APT is that once package repository has been specified during the system installation, packages can be installed without specifying location. APT also handles dependencies automatically.

For example, suppose a user wants to install a Galeon WWW browser:

APT automatically detects the required missing packages, and will install those automatically. It also shows recommended and suggested packages, summarising which new packages will be installed and how much they will take space after install.

Apt-get moo

Apt-get also says something interesting if "apt-get moo" is done:

See also

• dpkg, which APT uses to actually install and remove Debian packages
• Fink, a project to port Unix software to Mac OS X which uses APT
• List of Unix programs
• Frontends:
  • Synaptic
  • Aptitude