Software packaging in linux

Ubuntu Documentation

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Software packaging formats in Linux

This document summarizes major Linux software packaging formats.

Introduction

This guide is written for Ubuntu users that would like to learn more about common Linux packaging formats. This guide is not all-inclusive, it merely covers common formats likely to be encountered by average users. For information on installing software see the additional resources at the end of the article.

Formats

Linux uses some common formats to distribute software. The most common formats for the average Ubuntu user are:

1. Debian Packages (.deb)
2. Tarballs
3. Red Hat packages (.RPM)

Debian packages (.deb)

Debian Packages are the most common format you will encounter when installing software in Ubuntu. This is the standard software packaging format used by Debian and Debian derivatives. All of the software in the Ubuntu repositories is packaged in this format. Synaptic Package Manager, Add/Remove Applications, Aptitude, and apt-get handle the transaction with the repository behind the scenes.

Tarballs

Tarballs are a large collection of files assembled into a single archive file. The «tar» command is used to combine many files into a single file for archiving or easy distribution. The «gzip» command is used to compress the size of a file so that it takes up less space. A tarball is very similar to a .zip file on Windows, or a .hqx, .sit, or .dmg file on Macs.

Tarballs have extensions like «.tar.gz», «.tar.bz2» or «TGZ». Most of the time, a tarball contains source files and/or binary files. In the open source community, they are used to distribute source code. If you find any software with a .tar.gz appendix, you will need to uncompress it by double clicking on it before installing the software it contains. To do the same thing from a terminal window, you can also use the tar command like this: tar -xzf name_of_file

Source files

Source files are nothing but raw code which requires compilation to work, while binary files are like .exe files which are ready to install.

Binary files

The Red hat Package Manager or .RPM format is specifically designed for easy installation and management of software packages. The format allows you to automatically install, upgrade and remove software packages. It tracks dependencies — situations where one package requires another package in order to work correctly — and will not install software if it depends on another package which is not installed.

To convert RPM packages to Debian’s package format you can use the alien command. A warning for novice users: don’t use the alien method; if there are .deb packages available you should use them, since using a package designed for another distribution might inadvertently damage or destabilize your system.

Additional resources

SoftwarePackagingFormats (последним исправлял пользователь jengelh 2011-05-10 21:16:17)

The material on this wiki is available under a free license, see Copyright / License for details
You can contribute to this wiki, see Wiki Guide for details

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5 Best Linux Package Managers for Linux Newbies

One thing a new Linux user will get to know as he/she progresses in using it is the existence of several Linux distributions and the different ways they manage packages.

Package management is very important in Linux, and knowing how to use multiple package managers can proof life saving for a power user, since downloading or installing software from repositories, plus updating, handling dependencies and uninstalling software is very vital and a critical section in Linux system Administration.

Best Linux Package Managers

Therefore to become a Linux power user, it is significant to understand how the major Linux distributions actually handle packages and in this article, we shall take a look at some of the best package managers you can find in Linux.

Here, our main focus is on relevant information about some of the best package managers, but not how to use them, that is left to you to discover more. But I will provide meaningful links that point out usage guides and many more.

1. DPKG – Debian Package Management System

Dpkg is a base package management system for the Debian Linux family, it is used to install, remove, store and provide information about .deb packages.

It is a low-level tool and there are front-end tools that help users to obtain packages from remote repositories and/or handle complex package relations and these include:

APT (Advanced Packaging Tool)

It is a very popular, free, powerful and more so, useful command line package management system that is a front end for dpkg package management system.

Users of Debian or its derivatives such as Ubuntu and Linux Mint should be familiar with this package management tool.

To understand how it actually works, you can go over these how to guides:

Aptitude Package Manager

This is also a popular command line front-end package management tool for Debian Linux family, it works similar to APT and there have been a lot of comparisons between the two, but above all, testing out both can make you understand which one actually works better.

It was initially built for Debian and its derivatives but now its functionality stretches to RHEL family as well. You can refer to this guide for more understanding of APT and Aptitude:

Synaptic Package Manager

Synaptic is a GUI package management tool for APT based on GTK+ and it works fine for users who may not want to get their hands dirty on a command line. It implements the same features as apt-get command line tool.

2. RPM (Red Hat Package Manager)

This is the Linux Standard Base packing format and a base package management system created by RedHat. Being the underlying system, there several front-end package management tools that you can use with it and but we shall only look at the best and that is:

YUM (Yellowdog Updater, Modified)

It is an open source and popular command line package manager that works as a interface for users to RPM. You can compare it to APT under Debian Linux systems, it incorporates the common functionalities that APT has. You can get a clear understanding of YUM with examples from this how to guide:

DNF – Dandified Yum

It is also a package manager for the RPM-based distributions, introduced in Fedora 18 and it is the next generation of version of YUM.

If you have been using Fedora 22 onwards, you must have realized that it is the default package manager. Here are some links that will provide you more information about DNF and how to use it:

3. Pacman Package Manager – Arch Linux

It is a popular and powerful yet simple package manager for Arch Linux and some little known Linux distributions, it provides some of the fundamental functionalities that other common package managers provide including installing, automatic dependency resolution, upgrading, uninstalling and also downgrading software.

But most effectively, it is built to be simple for easy package management by Arch users. You can read this Pacman overview which explains into details some of its functions mentioned above.

4. Zypper Package Manager – openSUSE

It is a command line package manager on OpenSUSE Linux and makes use of the libzypp library, its common functionalities include repository access, package installation, resolution of dependencies issues and many more.

Importantly, it can also handle repository extensions such as patterns, patches, and products. New OpenSUSE user can refer to this following guide to master it.

5. Portage Package Manager – Gentoo

It is a package manager for Gentoo, a less popular Linux distribution as of now, but this won’t limit it as one of the best package managers in Linux.

The main aim of the Portage project is to make a simple and trouble free package management system to include functionalities such as backwards compatibility, automation plus many more.

For better understanding, try reading Portage project page.

Concluding Remarks

As I already hinted at the beginning, the main purpose of this guide was to provide Linux users a list of the best package managers but knowing how to use them can be done by following the necessary links provided and trying to test them out.

Users of the different Linux distributions will have to learn more on their own to better understand the different package managers mentioned above.

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5 thoughts on “5 Best Linux Package Managers for Linux Newbies”

1. 

I agree with @dragonmouth Newbies are very scary about terminal and command line (including myself at the beginning). Imagine users used to a perfect graphical interface and switch to one window and just one line that says [[email protected]]

$: that is scary right? that means newbies want a gui! want a graphical interface, not a command-line tool.

I wish Linux writers write that way “Linux is easy to learn even for those who not like it, and not like terminal! ” In this way, I am sure newbies won’t switch back to their previous OS…

sorry for the bad English. It’s not my native language.

Thank you so much for the great topic.

“5 Best Linux Package Managers for Linux NEWBIES” (emphases mine)

The article is an epic, total FAIL.

Linux newbies need (require) applications that they can understand and are intuitive, which means GUI. Of the Package Managers mentioned only Synaptic fits that description. All the other PMs are command-line applications. They use esoteric, byzantine, absolutely non-intuitive commands.

Don’t get me wrong. I am NOT putting down the command line or command-line applications. There are very powerful and useful but not to NEWBIES. To NEWBIES, they are scary, confusing, overwhelming, and off-putting. Declaring that these are the “best” package managers for NEWBIES is the same as declaring that a jumbo jet is the “best” plane to use to learn how to fly. It can be done but how many people will quit along the way discouraged?

Maybe if tech writers emphasized the ease of use of Linux GUI applications for those switching from other O/Ss instead of emphasizing and glorifying the command line, more people would switch to Linux. Even though Windows and OS/X both have a command line, none of the ads for those O/Ss ever mentions that. There are relatively few articles about Windows Power Shell and even fewer about the OS/X command line. At the same time, a majority of Linux articles are on how to use the command line. It is ironic that those that know Linux best and could/should spread its use are the very ones that are driving users from trying it.

Worse than that, why do you compare low-level and high-level managers altogether? This is just unacceptable.

Why are they the best, how do you score them? Wouldn’t that be less confusing to new Linux admins to understand what is important?

For example, a pretty important aspect is conflict management, since this is a common cause of system breakage.

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Альманах пакетных менеджеров Linux

Иногда может возникнуть вопрос: чьих этот файл, откуда вообще взялась эта библиотека? Удобный менеджер пакетов решает очень многие проблемы ОС. Можно с уверенностью сказать, что если вы подружитесь с МП, то подружитесь и с дистрибутивом как таковым. Причем важно освоить именно набор основных команд, и знать где найти дополнительную информацию.

Далее следует джентльменский набор необходимых для повседневной рутины команд основных Linux дистрибутивов: установить, обновить и удалить пакет, накатить обновления, проверить зависимости, установить принадлежность файла пакету и пр.

Debian и родственные

Популярность и образ дружественного к пользователю Linux дистрибутива сыграли с Ubuntu злую шутку. Некоторым новичкам кажется, что можно на нем делать все, что угодно без помощи командной строки. Это заблуждение и лучше от него поскорее избавиться.

То, что в примерах aptitude не значит, что он правильнее, чем apt-get . Для меня это всего лишь дело привычки.

Некоторые функции доступны с дополнительным МП dpkg .

Есть еще такое чудо — wajig. Несмотря на странное звучание, вполне годный МП с человеко-читабельным выводом информации на экран.

Настройка репозиториев производится правкой файла /etc/apt/sources.list

В целом ПМ Debian один из лучших, с которыми мне доводилось иметь дело.

Redhat и другие RPM дистрибутивы

RPM нельзя назвать образцовым пакетным менеджером, скорее это был кактус, который мыши употребляли в пищу со слезами на глазах. Затем появились более или менее вменяемые МП: yum , dnf , zypper и другие. Только что на сервере RHEL 7.4 yum за раз обновил более 700 пакетов и ничего при этом не сломал, неплохой результат я считаю.

Команды rpm на те случаи, когда использовать yum не с руки.

Чтобы настроить репозитории Yum , откройте файл /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo , или используйте команду yum-config-manager .

Zypper

На SuSE Linux используется Zypper / YaST для управления пакетами, движок ZYpp крутится поверх RPM.

Можно использовать операторы и регулярные выражения.

Управление репозиториями производится командой zypper mr .

Pacman

Этот МП используется в Арче и Manjaro.

Движок поиска в базе данных поддерживает регулярные выражения.

Настройка репозиториев и зеркал производится из файла /etc/pacman.conf

Gentoo emerge

Конечно же это скорее умозрительный сценарий, чем реальный, так как сложно предположить, что красноглазый пользователь Gentoo Linux не знает необходимых опций emerge . Тем не менее, без этого альманах был бы неполным.

С дополнительными утилитами можно получить больше информации о файлах, ненужных пакетах и т. д.

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