"apt" to eventaully replace "rpm"?

Jeff Krebs jkrebs at tconl.com
Sun Nov 25 15:18:24 UTC 2007


* Aaron Konstam (akonstam at sbcglobal.net) wrote:
> I know this may be a sily question but what does a file that apt
> installs look like. I mean what is its tag that identifies it as a file
> that can be installed?

Not a silly question.  It will have a ".rpm" extension, just like the 
files that yum installs.

I think folks get a little confused on this matter: both yum AND apt use 
rpm packages under Fedora/RedHat.  Period.

Both apt and yum are rpm package managers that allow you to connect to 
repositories and install and update packages from those repositories.  
Both do the exact same thing and have the same end result.

I've used both.  I LOVED apt.  It was FAST.  I mean real fast.  I 
actually preferred it to yum.  It had a sweet GUI interface, and 
searches were quick.  I could use it for for bringing-in packages as 
stated, but it worked well as a local package manager too.  It was an 
all-in-one solution.

Yum became the Fedora/RedHat standard, as I recall, due to apt not being 
able to differenciate between architectures; i.e., if I wanted to 
install the current *.i686.rpm kernel, apt couldn't distinguish between 
that and a *.i386.rpm kernel.  Perhaps I'm wrong, but it was a major 
issue that prevented apt from working under Fedora correctly.

Maybe apt is fixed under Fedora now.  Don't know.  I'd love to use it 
again.  I had to quit using it at FC3.


Jeff Krebs




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