I am trying to understand how APT works, and here is where I got stuck – who determines what packages are installed, on day-one?
It seems that one of the rules is, based on the current snapshot of the system, apt upgrade
will install up to the Recommended
dependencies of the installed packages. So, from a minimum set of 'core' packages and some 'higher-level' packages, apt upgrade/dist-upgrade
should be able to grow and fill the blanks.
Questions are:
- Is there a standard list of default packages? (Debian FAQ says a default installation includes packages with priority equal or higher than
Standard
. Does that define the standard list?) - Is this configurable or hard coded into apt?
- Is there a way to go back to this standard list? meaning a single command to reverse all manual installs/uninstalls and their dependencies?
- Does this standard package list depend on my local hardware setup, aside from architecture? (e.g., what video card I have.)
- Which config file tells apt to install
Recommended
packages? - Suppose sometime after my fresh install, a package with
Standard
priority is added to a repository included in my sources.list file. Will that package be installed on my box next time I runapt update && apt upgrade
?
Best Answer
See Is there any "base" Debian metapackage?
It’s embedded in the Debian installer and the tools it uses (
tasksel
in particular). The installer installs the essential packages and their dependencies, andtasksel
installs the standard-priority packages if the corresponding task is selected.See Is there a command that outputs ONLY the packages explicitly installed by the user? (ubuntu/debian)
No.
It’s the default, and can be configured in the APT configuration files under
/etc/apt
.No, you’d have to run
tasksel
again.