the problem or use a new version (potentially corrected) from a repository providing backports
(backports are newer versions especially recompiled to work in an older environment).
8.2.7. Frontends:
aptitude
and
synaptic
APT is a C++ program whose code mainly resides in the
libapt-pkg
shared library. Thanks to this
shared library, it opened the door for the creation of user interfaces (front-ends), since the shared
library code can easily be reused. Historically,
apt-get
was only designed as a test front-end for
libapt-pkg
but its success tends to obscure this fact.
Over time, despite the popularity of command line interfaces like
apt
and
apt-get
, various graph-
ical interfaces were developed. We will take a look at two of those interfaces in this section:
aptitude
and
synaptic
.
Aptitude
Aptitude, shown in Figure
8.1
, “
The
aptitude
package manager
” [page 196], is an interactive pro-
gram that can be used in semi-graphical mode on the console. You can browse the list of installed
and available packages, look up all the information, and select packages to install or remove. The
program is designed specifically to be used by administrators so its default behavior is much more
intelligent than APT’s, and its interface much easier to understand.