Package Management

This site is a reference for common package managers.

Last updated on 14 June, 2021 at 09:50:16 Optimized for

Packages are software applications that resides in archives. A package manager is a tool that automates the process of installing, updating, upgrading and removing packages.

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Common Package Management Operations

Commands for Common Package Management across Distributions

Intended Action RPM (Redhat, SUSE, Mandriva) Aptitude (Debian and derivatives) Pacman (Arch) Emerge (Gentoo)
Installing a package rpm -i <package file> aptitude install <package> pacman -S <package> emerge <package>
Uninstalling a package rpm -e <package> aptitude remove <package> pacman -R <package> emerge --depclean <package>
Searching for a package N/A aptitude search <string> pacman -S -s <string> emerge -s <string>
Listing installed packages rpm -qa dpkg -l -a pacman -Q -s '.*' equery list \*
Listing files in package rpm -ql <package> dpkg -L <package> pacman -Q -l <package> equery files <package>
Finding package containing file rpm -qf <file> dpkg -S <file> pacman -Q -o <file> equery belongs <file>
Showing package description rpm -qi <package> aptitude show <package> pacman -S -i <package> emerge -s <package>

Yum

Yum Package Manager

The Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) package manager is a package manager for Linux operating systems.

Command Description
yum list updates

Display list of updated software and security fixes

Pacman

Flags are case-sensitive with pacman: -S is not the same as -s
Command Description
pacman -Syu pkg

Install pkg and update the package list

Apt

Advanced Package Tool

Command Description
apt-get install pkg

Install pkg

Aptitude

Command Description
aptitude install pkg

Install pkg

RPM

Redhat Package Manager

Not only used for Red Hat Linux

Command Description
rpm -i pkg

Installs pkg

DNF

Dandified YUM

Command Description
dnf install pkg

Install pkg

Zypper

Command Description
zypper install pkg

Install pkg

NPM

Node Package Manager

Command Description
npm install pkg

Install pkg

pip

Command Description
pip install pkg

Install pkg

Common Package Management Operations: See original work here.