The recommended way to manage software packages on Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions is to 1
use apt which stands for Advanced Package Tool. 2
This is an advanced interface to the Debian packaging system which provides the apt-get and apt-cache 3
programs. 4
Note that on the newest versions of Ubuntu and other such distributions the apt-get and apt-cache tools 5
were merged into a single command simply called apt. 6
However apt-get is still available. In this lecture, we’ll discuss the new tool apt which has a 7
fancier colored 8
output and it's more pleasant. 9
Unlike dpkg, apt does not understand .deb files, 10
it works with packages that are downloaded from repositories and calls dpkg directly after downloading 11
the .deb archives from the configured sources. 12
An APT repository is a web server which contains a collection of packages with metadata that is readable 13
by the apt tool. 14
So to use apt for the package management an Internet connection is required. 15
Having an APT repository allows you to perform package install, removal, upgrade, and other operations 16
on individual packages or groups of packages. They are essential for storing, managing, and 17
delivering software on Debian and Ubuntu systemsA special kind of repository hosted on servers like 18
Launchpad are PPAs. 19
PPA stands for Personal Package Archives. Such a repository is maintained by people who are not official 20
Ubuntu developers.