Lesson 2

Date: 1/29/2014
Linux installation and upgrade
Linux for Engineering and IT Applications


Ubuntu packages

Ubuntu OS components and most of the GNU software are available in form of packages.
A package file contains:
  • Software
  • Info (control) file
  • Scripts (pre/post install/remove)
Naming convention:
(package-name)_(source version)-(package-version)_(architecture).deb
For example: 
g++-4.6_4.6.3-1ubuntu5_amd64.deb
Package name is g++-4.6. The source version is 4.6.3 of GNU C++ 4.6 series, package version (revision): 1 - debian and 5 -ubuntu, architecture: amd64.

The official Ubuntu distribution located in the Ubuntu archive, folder main and Restricted. In folder Restricted, there are packages with restricted vendor licensing, for example, nvidia-glx.

Universe Free software available from the network, but not officialy maintained by Ubuntu development team. For example, a2ps ("Anything to PS"), xemacs21. No guarantee of security fixes and support.

Multiverse Packages in the archive have some onerous license condition restricting use or redistribution of the software. For example, dvdstyler.

You can run synaptic package manager to see what package belongs to what folder: 
sudo -s
synaptic
Click on Origin to see the folders in the top left window and their packages in the top right one.



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