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aptitude is a front-end to APT. It displays a list of software packages and allows the user to interactively pick packages to install or remove. It has an especially powerful search system utilizing flexible search patterns. It was initially created for Debian, but has appeared in RPM-based distributions as well (such as Conectiva).

aptitude is based on the ncurses computer terminal library, with which it provides an interface that incorporates some elements commonly seen in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) (such as pull-down menus).

In addition to the ncurses interface, it emulates most apt-get command line options, allowing it to act as a drop-in replacement for some of the apt-get usages.

aptitude was created in 1999. At the time, two other terminal-based APT front-ends were available: the dselect program, which had been used to install Debian since before APT was created, and the console-apt program, a project that was considered to be the heir apparent to dselect. aptitude was created to experiment with a more object-oriented design than that used in console-apt, in the hope that this would result in a more flexible program with a broader set of features.

Screenshot of aptitude

The first public release of aptitude was version 0.0.1 on November 18, 1999. It was very limited: it had the ability to view the list of available packages, but could not actually download or install any packages. By version 0.0.4a, this capability had been added, along with many other improvements; this version was included in Debian 2.2 ("potato").

In late 2000, the entire user interface module was rewritten; a new architecture was created, based on the libsigc++ callback library and concepts from modern widget toolkits such as GTK+ and Qt. This enabled the interface to become much more similar to GUIs than it had been previously, with features such as pull-down menus and pop-up dialogs. One of aptitude's unusual features, a tiny implementation of Minesweeper, was added at this time. The first official aptitude release following this rewrite was 0.2.0. aptitude 0.2.11.1 was released with Debian 3.0 ("Woody"). By this time, the console-apt project (renamed to deity) had been effectively abandoned by its maintainers, and it was removed from Woody.

At the time of writing, aptitude is regarded as the primary terminal-based alternative to dselect, and may even replace it in the near future. Since Debian 3.1 ("Sarge"), aptitude can be used by the installer to select which packages to install. aptitude is a package with its priority set at important, while dselect is still a required one, due to backwards compatibility^{[citation needed]}.

Aptitude states that, unlike Advanced Packaging Tool, it "does not have Super Cow Powers". In apt-get "super cow powers" can be found by issuing the command apt-get moo. However, in aptitude issuing moo will give the user a prompt saying there are no easter eggs. However, by issuing aptitude -v moo, then aptitude -vv moo and so on the user will see a series of statements telling them to go away, some ending with a picture not unlike the original apt-get easter egg. Different versions of the program have different sequences. One progression is shown below.

$ aptitude moo
There are no Easter Eggs in this program.
$ aptitude -v moo
There really are no Easter Eggs in this program.
$ aptitude -vv moo
Didn't I already tell you that there are no Easter Eggs in this program?
$ aptitude -vvv moo
Stop it!
$ aptitude -vvvv moo
Okay, okay, if I give you an Easter Egg, will you go away?
$ aptitude -vvvvv moo
All right, you win.

                               /----\
                       -------/      \
                      /               \
                     /                |
   -----------------/                  --------\
   ----------------------------------------------

$ aptitude -vvvvvv moo
What is it?  It's an elephant being eaten by a snake, of course.

This is a reference to The Little Prince.

Free software Portal

• Package management

• http://packages.debian.org/aptitude
• http://people.debian.org/~dburrows/aptitude-doc

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