Introduction
'apt' is a popular package program written by the Debian project. It is well known for its ability to solve dependencies so the user doesn't have to. Conectiva, a Linux distributor out of Latin America, ported apt for use with rpm instead of just Debian's dpkg. As of Yellow Dog Linux 2.2, the YDL ftp servers maintain apt repositories. This means that you can now keep your YDL system current via apt. For users of yup, apt should feel very natural. The advantages over yup is features like proxy support and better performance.
Installation (<= v2.3 only)
You can check to see if you already have apt installed by:
rpm -q apt [ENTER]If rpm outputs apt's version number, then it is installed. Otherwise, you can install it via the following command:
rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog/yellowdog-2.2/ppc/YellowDog/ppc/apt-0.3.19cnc55-1b.ppc.rpm
Are you pointing to the proper list?
The main config file you'll be interested in when using apt is '/etc/apt/sources.list'. This file contain lines that point to the apt repositories you will pull from. The following lines pull from 3 repositories which comprise the mainline Yellow Dog Linux release.
As root:
pico /etc/apt/sources.list [ENTER]
Then look for the following lines:
#Install CD rpm ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* main rpm-src ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* main #Tasty CD rpm ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* extra rpm-src ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* extra #Updates rpm ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* update rpm-src ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* update... and modify, if necessary the "x.x" to match the version you have installed. (if you have 2.3, but "2.2" is shown, change to "2.3".
Lines starting with 'rpm' respresent the binary repositories and lines starting with 'rpm-src' respresent the source repositories. The last item in each line is the repository name. 'main' represents the YDL Install CD, 'extra' represents the Tasty Morsels CD, and 'update' respresents official updates to the distribution.
You may change the URLs in the above lines to point to your favorite Yellow Dog Linux mirror (the path might be slightly different).
Terra Soft also makes available a 'contrib' and 'test' repository.
'contrib' contains user contributed RPMs that are *NOT* supported by Terra Soft. Current contrib items include newer versions of the Mozilla and Galeon web browsers and other programs such as Fluxbox, a lightweight window manager. Add the following lines to your 'sources.list' to access the contrib repository:
rpm ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* contrib rpm-src ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* contrib'test' contains RPMs created by Terra Soft that aren't yet officially part of the distribution. Currently, test provides the KDE 3.0 desktop. Add the following lines to your 'sources.list' to access the test repository:
rpm ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* test rpm-src ftp://ftp.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/ydl/pub/yellowdog apt/x.x* test* where x.x is the current version, such as 2.3.
Using apt
The first thing you should do after adding sources to your /etc/apt/sources.list or before installing an updated package is to update the available package database. Apt stores a database of the available packages on your local system. So naturally, before you run apt, you should make sure your local database is as current as possible. To do this, run:
apt-get update [ENTER]To upgrade your system to the current available packages, run:
apt-get upgrade [ENTER]To install a specific package (with apt fulfilling any dependencies), run:
apt-get install [package name] [ENTER]
More information
For more information on what you can do with apt, please see Jorge Godoy's Howto: bazar.conectiva.com.br/~godoy/apt-howto/
This HOWTO was written by Dan Burcaw, Terra Soft Solutions
