apt-get update

Am 19. Sep, 2003 schw=E4tzte Deepak Saxena so:

> 'apt-get update' goes out to the servers listed in /etc/apt/sources.list
> and downloads an updated list of all the packages available at those
> sites.

Yup. The packages files have a bunch of pieces of info, e.g. dependencies,
recommended packages, package descriptions, ...

> Let's say a new version of openssh is released with a bug fix. You read

Thanks for reminding me that I hadn't updated OpenSSH in the last 15
minutes... :)

> the advisory up and you do an 'apt-get install ssh'. You'll get a
> message back saying that you have the latest version already installed
> b/c your package list has not been updated. You first have to do
> an 'apt-get update' to update the list, and then 'apt-get install' to

Yup.

> download the package. I'm pretty new to Debian, but I believe a reason
> for this is so that apt-get doesn't have to scour the net for packages
> everytime you install something. Most people have their systems setup
> with a cron to 'apt-get update' every night so that they have the latest
> package list. That way when they need to install something, apt-get knows
> exactly where to go.

Package: cron-apt
Description: Automatic update of packages using apt
This package contains a tool that is run by a cron job
at regular intervals. By default it just updates the package list and
download new packages without installing. You can instruct it to run
anything that you can do with apt-get.
.
It also sends mail (configurable) to the system administrator on
errors.
.
Observe that this tool is a security risk, so you should not set it
to do more than necessary (automatic upgrade of all packages is NOT
recommended).

> /me waits for der.hans to correct his mistakes :)

No mistakes.

ciao,

der.hans
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