Some tips for aptitude :
Updating package lists and upgrading
aptitude update
aptitude safe-upgrade
upgrades as many packages as possible but doesn’t uninstall anything
aptitude full-upgrade
upgrades as many packages as possible
To install / remove / reinstall packages
aptitude install/remove/reinstall <package name>
This also automatically resolves dependencie.
Purging Packages
remove doesn’t remove configuration files in a package.
aptiture purge <package name>
removes (if installed) and deletes any configuration files of the package.
aptiture purge ~c
purges all removed packages
to hold/unhold packages
holding a package means it will not be upgraded until it is unholded
aptitude hold/unhold <package name>
to search for packages
aptitude search <pattern>
in particular
aptitude search ~ahold lists all packages that are currently on hold
for details see SearchTermQuickGuide
