Package management
In Linux, it is less common these days to install a program by compiling code from a tarball (a compressed tar file). While GUI based installers are handy, using commands and package managers in the command line interface (CLI) can be more convenient, especially if the GUI package manager is misbehaving. Different distros use different package managers for installing programs, with some more common ones being as follows.
- Apt for Debian-based distros (including Ubuntu and Mint)
- DPKG, an older package manager in Debian (useful also for fixing some installation problems if you have trouble with apt)
- DNF in Fedora and related distros
- RPM (Redhat Package Manager), a standard installation file format and program installation utility in Redhat and others in the RHEL/Fedora family
- Pacman for core packages in Arch and Arch-based distros (like Manjaro)
- Pamac in Arch and Arch-based distros, for installing packages from the AUR (Arch User Repository), a secondary repository, e.g., for packages that were not originally developed natively for Arch but have been adapted for Arch
- Flatpak, for various distros (these are packaged in a way that they can run on many multiple distros without compatability or dependency problems)
- Yay, an older manager for AUR packages in Arch
- Yum, an older manager for packages in Fedora
Here, then, is a summary of basic commands for these various package managers, broken down by the major families of Linux distros.
Contents
1 Installing from source code
The traditional ways of installing programs includes uncompressing tarballs, compiling the code, and then running the installation files.
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| tar zxvf sourcecode.tar.gz cd sourcecode_folder ./configure make make install |
Compile and install a package from source code (by entering each command at a time in sequence) |
2 RHEL
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes Red Hat (for servers), Fedora, CentOS / CentOS Stream, and others. RPM is the main installation file type in RHEL, and which can be managed manually with rpm commands. In Fedora, dnf is the main package manager, while other package managers like yum have been used for other repositories.
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| dnf install packagename | Install a package |
| dnf install pkg.rpm | Using the DNF package manager to install an RPM package in Fedora |
| dnf list installed | List installed packages |
| dnf remove packagename | Remove an installed package |
| dnf search packagename | Search the repositories for a package |
| dnf autoremove | Remove packages that are installed as dependencies that are no longer required by currently installed programs |
| dnf check-update | Check for updates, but without downloading or installing the packages |
| dnf clean | Clean temporary files; arguments: clean packages, clean metadata, clean all |
| dnf downgrade | Revert to the previous version of a package |
| dnf info | Look up basic information about a package, including name, version, release, and description |
| dnf list | Prints a list of installed packages |
| dnf provides | Find a package that provides a given specification |
| dnf reinstall | Reinstall a currently installed package |
| dnf remove | Remove a package. |
| dnf repoquery | Find information on packages in DNF repositories. |
| dnf upgrade | Checks the repositories for newer packages and update them |
| dnf upgrade --exclude=packagename | Exclude a particular package from an upgrade |
| dnf install dnf-plugins-core-PLUGIN_NAME or dnf install dnf-plugins-extras-PLUGIN_NAME |
Install dnf extensions and plugins to extend dnf functionality |
| dnf install 'dnf-command(versionlock)' | Install the dnf version lock plugin |
| dnf repoquery whatprovides component-name | Find a dnf package that provides a dependency, file or program; e.g., dnf repoquery whatprovides *gimp*dev* to find the package with Gimp developer libraries. |
| dnf versionlock add package | Lock the currently installed version of a package |
| dnf versionlock delete package | Remove the version lock from a package |
| dnf -l | Show a list of files in a package. |
| rpm -e pkg.rpm | Remove or uninstall an RPM package |
| rpm -i –force | Forcibly install an RPM package |
| rpm -i –nodeps | Install using the ‘no dependencies’ flag |
| rpm -i pkg.rpm | Install package from a local file |
| rpm -i pkg.rpm | Download an RPM package |
| rpm -q gpg-pubkey --qf '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\t%{SUMMARY}\n' | Find installed public keys for software repos (e.g., in order to find the desired key to remove) |
| rpm -qa | Query and print all installed packages |
| rpm -qa | List installed RPM packages |
| grep file | Query and search for a particular installed package |
| rpm -qi | Provide information on an RPM package |
| rpm -U | Upgrade an RPM package |
| rpm –rebuild file | Rebuild a package if corrupted by another installation process |
| yum info pkg | Display a description and summary information about a package in RHEL distributions |
| yum install pkg | Install package . |
| yum install pkg.rpm | Install a package in Yum |
| yum list --available | List all available packages on RPM-based distributions |
| yum list --installed | List all installed packages on RPM-based distributions |
| yum list installed | List installed packages |
| yum remove pkg | Uninstall or remove a package from your system. |
| yum remove pkg | Remove a package on RPM-based distributions |
| yum search keyword | Trace a package installation based on specific keywords. |
| yum update | Update all system packages to the latest version (RPM-based distributions) |
2.1 Install KDE
Many users will want to install KDE, which can be done in dnf.
$ sudo dnf update $ sudo dnf install @kde-desktop
In some distributions, yum may be used.
# yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
2.2 Group package installation
It is possible to install a group of packages all at once. To see a list of possible package group, type
dnf group list
. Some packages are hidden, so a --hidden flag can be used to see some hidden groups. The --installed flag can show which groups are already installed.
$ sudo dnf group list $ dnf group list --hidden
$ dnf group list --installed
Groups can be installed with a dnf command with the group, or with an @ ampersand.
$ sudo dnf install @virtualization $ sudo dnf group install virtualization $ sudo dnf group install "System Tools"
It is possible to upgrade a package group rather than all packages, or to remove a group.
$ sudo dnf group upgrade virtualization $ sudo dnf group remove virtualization
3 Debian & Ubuntu
The Debian family includes Ubuntu and distros built off of Ubuntu, such as Mint and Pop!OS. Older Debian systems relied on dpkg, while apt-install or apt are the default for newer Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distros.
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| add-apt-repository ppa:PPA_NAME; apt update | Add repository (Debian) |
| apt | Debian package manager |
| apt --fix-broken install | Fix broken packages |
| grep -v automatic | List user-installed packages |
| apt autoremove | Remove installation packages that are no longer needed |
| apt install pkg | Install a package with apt in Debian based systems |
| apt list --installed | List user-installed packages |
| apt remove | Remove a package |
| apt search | Search for a package in the database |
| apt show | Show detailed information about a package |
| apt-get --fix-broken install | Check and fix broken packages |
| apt-get -f install | Fix broken dependencies |
| apt-get autoremove | Remove all unwanted packages |
| apt-get check && apt-get purge program-name | Check and fix broken packages |
| apt-get clean / autoclean / autoremove | Clean up package installation files |
| apt-get install pkg | Install a package (older Debian command) |
| apt-get remove pkg | Remove a package o |
| apt-get update | Update the repository |
| apt-get upgrade pkg | Upgrade a specific package |
| dpkg --configure -a ; apt-get update | Fix uninstalled packages and update |
| dpkg --install pkg_file | Install package in Debian |
| dpkg --list | List packages |
| dpkg --remove -force --force-remove-reinstreq pkg-name | Check and fix broken packages |
| dpkg --search file_name | Find installed packages |
| dpkg --status package_name | Package status |
| dpkg -i pkg.deb | Install .deb package |
| dpkg -l | List installed packages |
| grep -i installed | Get a list of all packages (in a Debian based distribution) |
| dpkg –get-selection | List user-installed packages |
| dpkg-query -l | List installed packages |
3.1 Group package installation
In Ubuntu based distros, the program tasksel can be used to install groups. This can be used to install KDE and other package groups. Package groups can be installed from the command line, or one can invoke tasksel from the command line, which brings up a text user interface (TUI), where one can select package groups to install.
$ sudo apt install tasksel $ sudo tasksel install kde-desktop $ sudo tasksel
4 Arch
Arch includes Manjaro and a number of similar Arch based distros.
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| pacman -S pkg-name | Install a new package |
| pacman -S extra/pkg-name | Install a package from the extras repository |
| pacman -S pkg-gr, e.g., pacman -S gnome |
Install the gnome package group |
| pacman -S plasma-{desktop,mediacenter,nm} | To install a number of packages sharing similar name patterns |
| pacman -Qq | List user-installed packages |
| pacman -R pkg-name | Remove a package with pacman |
| pacman -Rcns pkg-name | Remove a package and all its dependencies |
| pacman -Rddpkg-nam | Remove a package without breaking dependencies |
| pacman -Sc | Clean up all old package files (unused packages) |
| pacman -Scc | Remove all cached packages |
| pactree pkg-name | View a list of dependencies associated with a package, displayed as a tree diagram (Arch based distros) |
| pactree -d 1 pkg-name | View a list of direct dependencies associated with a package, displayed as a tree diagram (Arch based distros) |
| pamac update | Update Arch (AUR) packages |
| ls /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ | wc -l | Check how many cached packages are in the cache folder |
| du -sh /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ | check the total disk space used by the cache folder |
| paccache -r | Clean up old package files in pacman (Arch) (keeps 3 recent versions of packages by default) |
| paccache -rk 1 | Clean up all old package files except for the last x number of versions, e.g., -rk 1 to keep only the last version |
| paccache -ruk0 | Remove all cached versions of uninstalled packages |
To automatically clean the package cache in Arch, one can create a script for automatic cleanup after running pacman. This task can be automated with pacman hooks to automatically clean the package cache after every pacman transaction.[1] First, create a file called /etc/pacman.d/hooks/clean_package_cache.hook:
sudo mkdir /etc/pacman.d/hooks sudo nano /etc/pacman.d/hooks/clean_package_cache.hook
Then add the following lines to the above file.
[Trigger] Operation = Upgrade Operation = Install Operation = Remove Type = Package Target = * [Action] Description = Cleaning pacman cache... When = PostTransaction Exec = /usr/bin/paccache -r
Then save and close the file, and thereafter, the package cache will be cleaned automatically after every pacman transactions (like upgrade, install, remove).
5 Containerized packages
These are intended for cross-platform installation, as they run on package managers that provide for sandboxed dependencies so the files can be installed on most distros, regardless of the package management architecture and dependencies.
| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| flatpak install packagename | Install a flatpak package |
| flatpak list --app | List installed flatpack packages |
| flatpak update | Update flatpak packages |
| flatpak uninstall <application ID> | Uninstall flatpak packages |
| flatpak uninstall --all | Uninstall all flatpak packages |
| flatpak uninstall --unused | Cleanup unused flatpak package files |
| snap list | List installed snap packages |
AppImages is a newer format, which may work better in terms of graphical integration and functionality, and some prefer them because they are not sponsored by a major company (Snap, for example, is sponsored by Canonical, the company that makes Ubuntu). AppImages should be downloaded and placed inside this directory:
/home/USER/Applications/
From there they can be installed using the AppImage installer. AppImage applications can be found at from the websites or companies for individual applications, when available, and many can be found indexed at the official repository, http://www.appimagehub.com.
