Using Fedora Legacy's apt for Red Hat Linux 8.0

apt is an automated package management program developed for Debian Linux which may be used to install, remove and update packages on an RPM based system. It will help you to keep your system up to date easily.

NOTE: The Fedora Legacy apt program has not yet finished QA testing. The instructions for installing it below will not work (or be completed) until it has passed the QA testing.

Step 1: Preliminaries

Linux prevents ordinary users from installing, removing, or modifying system software, libraries, and important configuration information. So you must have root access to proceed. You may either login as the root user, or use the su (or sudo) commands to become the root user on the machine.

Note: Be careful when running as root! Be sure to logout of the root account as soon as you are done. Running as root is dangerous, and should only be used when needed. Typos or mistakes can destroy your system or your data, so it is important that you be careful when running as root.

When you are running as root, your prompt will be changed to the # character. In the command examples below, we include this prompt, however you should not type the # character when entering a command!

Besides rpm itself, apt depends on other packages including an updated version of rpm utilities. You must first upgrade these (if you have not already) via the following command:

# rpm -Fvh http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/popt-1.7.1-1.8x.i386.rpm \ http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/rpm-4.1.1-1.8x.i386.rpm \ http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/rpm-build-4.1.1-1.8x.i386.rpm \ http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/rpm-devel-4.1.1-1.8x.i386.rpm \ http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/rpm-python-4.1.1-1.8x.i386.rpm

Step 2: Install apt

To install apt, use the following command as the root user on your machine:

# rpm -ivh http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/8.0/legacy-utils/i386/apt-???.legacy.noarch.rpm

Step 2.1: Configure apt

The first time you execute the Fedora Legacy version of apt, it will prompt you to select the Fedora Legacy channels you want to use apt with and one or more mirror sites for them. You should try to select sites which are close to you, provide high bandwidth connections, or meet your site security policy. The official download.fedoralegacy.org site is also an option if you don't know which site to pick. You can find a list of current Fedora Legacy mirrors at http://www.fedoralegacy.org/download/mirrors.php.

To execute apt and configure it, you may use the command:

# apt-get -h

The above command will invoke apt and run the confiration process, then print out the help text for the program for you to read.

Step 3: Update your system

Once you have installed the apt package, you should run the following commands as the root user on your system to update your system.

Step 3.1: Resynchronize the package index files from their sources

# apt-get update

Step 3.2: Have apt update your packages

# apt-get upgrade

Step 3.3: Optionally have apt clean up downloaded files

# apt-get clean

Step 4: Subscribe to fedora-legacy-announce

You may subscribe to the fedora-legacy-announce mailing list to be informed by e-mail when new updates become available. This step is optional, but highly recommended.

Step 5: Please help us with our service!

The Fedora Legacy project is always in the need of helping hands. Please check the Participate section of our website to see what you can do to help us. As we're a community project, our success will heavily depend on helping hands – possibly you!

If you find a problem with an update published by The Fedora Legacy Project, or in The Fedora Legacy Project documentation, please let us know!

Step 6: Optionally learn additional features of apt

Below is a summary of some of the more advanced features of apt for those who wish to know more. You do not need to know these commands to keep your system updated; they are simply provided for those who want to learn more about using apt to its fullest.

apt-get update: Synchronize your local apt configuration and database with the current information available on download.fedoralegacy.org and/or the mirror(s) you selected. Always execute this before starting any other work with apt to make sure your apt database is current.
apt-get upgrade: Upgrade all currently installed RPMs to the latest version available of the same package, if possible. This will not remove any already installed packages or add any addition (not already installed) packages, which may mean that it fails to upgrade packages if their dependencies have changed.

Unlike the dist-upgrade option below, this will not install new packages which obsolete packages installed on your machine or install new dependency packages.
apt-get dist-upgrade: Have apt try to upgrade all packages on your system, including replacing obsolete packages with their replacement packages, and installing any needed dependencies for packages added, upgraded, or replaced.
apt-get install <packagename>: Install the package named packagename, including all unmet dependencies. You will be prompted to confirm the installtion.
apt-get remove <packagename>: Remove (uninstall) the package named packagename from your system.
apt-cache search <word>: Search all entries in the locally cached apt repositories for a package whose name or contents match <word>.
apt-cache show <packagename>: Show basic information about the package named packagename.
apt-get clean: Have apt clean up downloaded RPM files to free up disk space.