Aptitude (software)
The computer program aptitude is a frontend for the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT ). It displays a list of software packages and allows the user to interactively manage packages. It was originally created for the Debian GNU / Linux distribution but also appears in RPM - based distributions, such as Conectiva, on.
Aptitude uses the ncurses library, with which it presents a character-based user interface available. It has a command line interface, which is largely compatible with the apt-get.
Just as the command line tool apt-get aptitude has an additional layer are stored in the Package states (package states ). There, registered the software which packages will be installed due to dependencies, and is thus in a position no longer needed ( orphaned ) packages to uninstall automatically. Furthermore aptitude maintains a full log of the entire installation history and dependencies.
History
The development of aptitude was started in 1999. At this time, two other command-line -based APT front-ends were available: The dselect program, which was used for installing Debian before APT existed, as well as the console-based console- apt, a project that has been classified as the direct successor of dselect. Originally, the aptitude project was started to experiment with one, compared to console- apt, more object- oriented design. The aim was to enable a more flexible program with greater functionality.
The first public version 0.0.1, released on 18 November 1999, was still severely limited in its functionality: it was a list of available packages are displayed, but neither the download nor the install was possible. With the version that is included in Debian 2.2 (codename potato) were 0.0.4a, among other things these skills added.
Towards the end of 2000, the entire interface module has been rewritten; the new architecture based on the callback library libsigc and concepts of modern component libraries such as GTK and Qt. This made it possible to design the interface with features such as drop-down menus and pop-up dialogs GUI -like than before. The first official aptitude- release was 0.2.0. aptitude 0.2.11.1 was released with Debian 3.0 (code name Woody ). At this time, console- apt was abandoned by its developers and removed from the repository.
From Debian 3.1 (codename sarge) aptitude is the preferred console-based installation method and is intended to replace in the future the time for backward compatibility still maintained dselect.