Ubuntu – How to ask apt-get to skip any interactive post-install configuration steps

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I have a server build script which uses apt-get to install packages. It then puts pre-written configuration files directly in place, so the interactive post-install configuration dialog in packages such as postfix is not needed. How do I skip this stage of the installation? It creates a piece of manual intervention that I would rather avoid.

I am aware of the -qq option, but the manpage warns against using it without specifying a no-action modifier. I do want to perform an action, I just want to suppress a specific part of it.

Best Answer

You can do a couple of things for avoiding this. Setting the DEBIAN_FRONTEND variable to noninteractive and using -y flag. For example:

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
apt-get -yq install [packagename]

If you need to install it via sudo, use:

sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get -yq install [packagename]

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Linux – ny way to get APT to install packages to the home directory

Dpkg do not have the --relocate feature that RPM has. It's worth considering how many RPM packages support that feature though. Basically, it can't be done.

What you could do is use a chroot if you want to test something before installing it globally on the system. To do this, you need to be able to get access to root. The first thing to do is to create a basic chroot:

# debootstrap lenny lenny-chroot

This creates a Lenny chroot inside the lenny-chroot directory.

Now we can enter the chroot:

# chroot lenny-chroot

Now we can do what ever we want and install anything without it messing up the rest of the system. When we're done, just type exit or press ctrl-D

Ubuntu – How to remove the “installed manually” flag and revert to “automatically installed” with apt-get

Aptitude can help you when you initially install the package:

aptitude install "zlib1g-dev&M"

Or, after your have installed the package:

aptitude markauto "zlib1g"

Edit: If you do not have aptitude, you can use

apt-mark auto zlib1g-dev

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to remove the “installed manually” flag and revert to “automatically installed” with apt-get

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