Ubuntu – Difference between RPM (yum) and apt-get

aptdebianrpmUbuntuyum

Functional difference between the two? Packages different style or what?

I'm dipping my toe in the server pool and playing with an Ubuntu install right now, which is apt-get. I'm also considering FreeBSD and Debian if I do decide to start running my own VPS.

So far things have been very easy, sudo apt-get install apache2 and the like with no issues at all. I'd like to know if there is a different learning curve to yum or variants.

Best Answer

They basically do the same, managing software packageges. One handles rpm packages which are the native form on Red Hat, Suse and Mandrake based systems (among others), the other handles deb files used by Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives.

My recommendation: Use the native format, except when you have very special needs. All the security updates etc. are best handled by the platforms native tool, and most users won't need to toy around with more than one tool.

Related Solutions

Mysql – sudo apt-get install thesql-server fails

In this case, here's what I would try:

Try to reinstall mysql-server-5.1:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server-5.1

Try to reinstall mysql-server:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server

Try to reconfigure mysql-server-5.1 and try reinstall again:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure mysql-server-5.1
sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server

Linux – How to install a desktop environment onto Ubuntu Server — but without internet access or a CDROM

The problem is that apt/dpkg can't look inside the image files for the .deb package files. You need to get the .deb files themselves to your USB source.

I would do this as follows:

Install Ubuntu server on another computer (or into an empty partition or into a virtual machine) that does have a network connection.
Run 'aptitude clean' to clear out the package directory at /var/cache/apt/archives
Run 'aptitude install xfce'
/var/cache/apt/archives will now have the .debs you need. Copy these over to your drive and run the install on the original computer.

There's also a program called apt-offline that that handles this kind of situation but probablly not worth learning for just one install.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Mysql – sudo apt-get install thesql-server fails

Linux – How to install a desktop environment onto Ubuntu Server — but without internet access or a CDROM

Related Topic