Apt-For-RPM-Howto

Version 1.5
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 10/17/2005

In this short tutorial I will show how to install and use Debian's package manager apt on various rpm-based distributions like Fedora, Mandrake (or Mandriva, they changed their name...), RedHat, SUSE, and Yellow Dog Linux. apt for rpm is also known as apt4rpm, or aptrpm.

Why do I want to use apt with rpm instead of just rpm? The answer is easy: rpm is able to signal package dependencies but it cannot resolve them, and that's where apt comes in the picture. By resolving all dependencies automatically it saves me a lot of trouble and time. It lets me install, remove or upgrade packages with just a single command, and I can even update my whole Linux distribution to a new release! To find out more about apt's capabilities, please have a loot at http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html.

Apt has originally been ported from Debian to the rpm-based distribution of Conectiva which uses it now as their package manager in their distribution. You can find more information about it on https://moin.conectiva.com.br/AptRpm. The project that made this port available to other rpm-based distributions is called apt4rpm.

This tutorial is split into two parts: in the first I will demonstrate how to install and use apt based on an example (apt on SUSE 9.2), and in the second part I will give you an overview of the packages to install and the package repositories for each distribution mentioned above.

1 Example: Install Apt On SUSE 9.2

Run

rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/9.2-i386/RPMS.suser-rbos/\
apt-libs-0.5.15cnc6-rb.suse092.6.i586.rpm
rpm -ivh ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/9.2-i386/RPMS.suser-rbos/\
apt-0.5.15cnc6-rb.suse092.6.i586.rpm

To check that the installtion was ok you can execute

rpm -qa | grep -E "^apt-"

It should show the two packages you have just installed.

Now apt is installed on your system. We have to tell apt where our package repositorie(s) is/are from which it will fetch new packages. This is done by editing/etc/apt/sources.list. It should contain the following line:

rpm ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/ SuSE/9.2-i386 base update security

Comment out all other lines in this file. This tells apt to use packages that belong to the base system as well as updates and security updates. Please note that these options differ from distribution to distribution (see the overview).

Run

apt-get update

apt will now fetch a list of all available packages from the repository server.

Now let's say we want to install SpamAssassin but don't know how the package is called. No problem, we can search for available packages:

apt-cache search spamassassin

This is the output:

amavisd-new - High-Performance E-Mail Virus Scanner
perl-spamassassin - the perl modules for using spamassassin within an own perl script
razor-agents - SPAM catalogue inquiry and update tool
spamassassin - SpamAssassin is an extensible email filter which is used to identify spam
sylpheed-claws - An Email client similar to Eudora on Windows

We guessed right, our package is called spamassassin, so let's install it:

apt-get install spamassassin

Let's see what happens:

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  perl-Digest-HMAC perl-Net-DNS perl-spamassassin
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  perl-Digest-HMAC perl-Net-DNS perl-spamassassin spamassassin
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 removed and 52 not upgraded.
Need to get 965kB of archives.
After unpacking 2835kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

apt discovered that spamassassin needs some extra packages (perl-Digest-HMAC perl-Net-DNS perl-spamassassin) and asks if you want to install them. Answer with Y. Now all needed packages will be installed:

Get:1 ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/9.2-i386/base perl-Digest-HMAC 1.01-494 [21.3kB]
Get:2 ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/9.2-i386/base perl-Net-DNS 0.48-2 [215kB]
Get:3 ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/9.2-i386/base perl-spamassassin 3.0.0-3 [623kB]
Get:4 ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/9.2-i386/base spamassassin 3.0.0-3 [105kB]
Fetched 965kB in 15s (60.7kB/s)
Checking GPG signatures...
Committing changes...
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:perl-Digest-HMAC       ########################################### [ 25%]
   2:perl-Net-DNS           ########################################### [ 50%]
   3:perl-spamassassin      ########################################### [ 75%]
   4:spamassassin           ########################################### [100%]
Updating etc/sysconfig/spamd...
Done.
apt executing: /sbin/SuSEconfig
Starting SuSEconfig, the SuSE Configuration Tool...
...

If you want to remove spamassassin simply run

apt-get remove spamassassin

To upgrade all installed packages on your server to the newest versions available in the repository, you have to execute

apt-get upgrade

(Do not mix this up with apt-get update (see above)! apt-get update is used for updating the list of available packages after /etc/apt/sources.list has been changed, and also for updating the list of available packages with the latest changes in the package repositories mentioned in /etc/apt/sources.list.)

2 Overview: Apt For Fedora, Mandrake/Mandriva, SUSE, RedHat And Yellow Dog Linux

Links

• Debian's APT-Howto: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/index.en.html
• Conectiva's APT page: https://moin.conectiva.com.br/AptRpm
• apt4rpm: http://apt4rpm.sourceforge.net/
• APT for SUSE: http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/
• APT for Fedora, RedHat and Yellow Dog Linux: http://freshrpms.net/apt/ and http://apt.freshrpms.net/
• List of Mandrake/Mandriva mirrors: http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/ftp.php3