I never use dselect any more.  Typical usage of apt:

apt-get update          # Update the local package index
apt-cache search game   # Search the local package index for
                        # the word "game"
apt-cache show freeciv  # Display details about the "freeciv" package
apt-get install freeciv # Download and install the "freeciv" package
                        # and any packages upon which "freeciv" depends
apt-get dist-upgrade    # Download and upgrade every currently installed
                        # package to the latest version
apt-get remove freeciv  # Uninstall the "freeciv" package


I do some things with "dpkg":

dpkg --list               # List all installed packages
dpkg --listfiles freeciv  # List all of the files that belong to the
                          # "freeciv" package
dpkg --search /bin/ls     # Display the package that owns /bin/ls
dpkg --install foo.deb    # Install a .deb that you stumbled across


Once you're comfortable with "potato", you can live on
the edge.  Back up your system, alter /etc/apt/sources.list
to use "woody" instead of "potato" and simply do

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

and your system will now have the latest that woody
has to offer.  I've been running woody (and doing
update/dist-upgrade about once a week) for some time
now, and haven't had any problems. 


D

* On Wed, Sep 27, 2000 at 11:12:21PM -0700, john w wrote:
>  I installed Debian 2.2 potato the other day and aside from the 
> seemingly endless number of includeed packages have not any problems. I 
> would like to ask about any information related to using apt and dselect 
> as the man pages are not quite explicit enough. I am not a programmer by 
> no means so some of the tags just seem greek to me. I also have talked 
> to a few people and read some reviews and seems the most commonnly 
> suggested Linux guides are Running Linux and Linux in a Nutshell 
> (O'reilley) followeed by Linux Problem Solver by Brian ward. I would 
> appreciate any input on the subjects. I am really trying not to abuse 
> the priviledge of posting here as I really don't have a lot to offer in 
> the way of problem solving just trying to get away from windows...Fast!!
> Thanks again,
> John
> 
> 
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