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Wajig

Use wajig instead of apt-get to get a better user interface.

to do a distupgrade with wajig :

$ wajig distupgrade

If you want to install a package

$ wajig install package-name

Think of wajig as the harmonizer of apt commands

While the debian apt/dpkg system is probably the best package system cira 2012, the command line interface can be confusing and lacks an Orthogonal or intuitive quality to the user interface. Thankfully, there is a package, called wajig, that cures that problem and more. Wajig is well worth any Debian command line users time to learn - if you don't you will spend even more time in man pages. You will also love the fact that it logs what you do so you have a trail of bread crumbs to back track with if you install something that breaks things.

The following table assumes that you have your /etc/apt/sources files and an /etc/apt/preference file that has your system pinned to the appropriate release. There are ways to override the release level (stable/testing/unstable), but that is not covered here. It is also assumed that you have wajig installed (apt-get install wajig). Once installed you won't want to run apt-get again!

One slick trick - suppose you want to install all the packages on one system to a new system? Do:

$ wajig listinstalled > <filename>

where <filename> is now a file that lists all the installed packages. You might want to use this line instead so it removes all the lib files:

$ wajig listinstalled | grep -vP ^lib* > <filename>

You might want to edit this file - remove things you don't think you want anymore etc.

Now move your file <filename> to the new machine and:

$ wajig install --fileinput <filename>

wajig

wajig has three listing of documentation for its commands:

• wajig help gives a very short list
• wajig list-commands Has a oneliner for each command
• wagig doc Provides some indepth information

Below is a table with the current one liner list - I would advise doing a "wajig doc >wajig_docs" and printing it out to read at night as you will want to become familiar with it I've marked the most important commands in red - somewhat important in bold and you will find a favorite in what is left over.

If you are looking for a package name and only can think of a string try wajig listall |grep string. (there will soon be a fix so you can add an argument to listall).

If you want to know the package some command in your path is from, replace command with the command you are looking for -- try:

wajig whichpkg `which command'

Run `wajig doc' for fuller documentation.