Fedora, apt-get & aptitude

Question

I am used to working on Ubuntu based systems. I have several DEBIAN repositories for distributing my software.

Now, I'd like to know if it is common for Fedora users to use "apt-get" and DEBIAN repositories?
What is the equivalent to Aptitude on Fedora based systems?

Updated: I understand the Fedora folks use yum. My question has more to do with "do folks bother with installing apt-get/aptitude to have access to stuff only available in DEB repositories? "

RedHat based distros use RPM, not DEB. And tools like YUM, up2date, yast — TiFFolk, Nov 14 '09 at 20:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '09 at 20:47

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Red Hat, Fedora and their relatives use RPM. They use yum for package management. OpenSuSE and SuSE use Zypper.

Alien converts packages between formats.

answered Nov 14 '09 at 20:47

Dennis Williamson

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don't forget pacman/pkgbuild for arch and emerge/ebuild for gentoo – xenoterracide Nov 14 '09 at 20:48
Yeah, I don't have first-hand experience with those systems, but I don't think emerge does binaries, does it? – Dennis Williamson Nov 14 '09 at 20:51
Alien doesn't seem to be available through Yum by default: it seems to add to the "friction" I am afraid of i.e. folks on Fedora won't bother with a DEB repository. – jldupont Nov 14 '09 at 20:58
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Well, I was thinking more in terms of distributing the converted package rather than expecting the end-user to do it. – Dennis Williamson Nov 15 '09 at 00:49
@Dennis: right, I read you now. – jldupont Nov 16 '09 at 12:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 06 '10 at 18:13

Late hit addition: apt4rpm does exist but I would not count on it being installed; asking a user to install it is another hurdle to installing your application.

Having this tool on your own servers may not be a bad thing if you're used to the apt-get syntax.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '09 at 04:04

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If you're just experimenting, using apt to get things in Debian repos is a nice, quick & dirty way to get things running. it may or may not work well.

On a production system, you'd be crazy to do so... you're going to run into all sorts of dependency hell, break things, and spending alot of time for not much benefit -- you're better off building your own RPM if you enjoy pain or just building apps in your env.

answered Nov 15 '09 at 04:04

duffbeer703

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although as a side note, using apt to grab sources for various debian packages might be worthwhile.... naturally you'd want to build your own RPMs for installation. – quack quixote Nov 15 '09 at 04:16

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 14 '09 at 20:46

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I believe (and I haven't used fedora full time) it's yum. so man yum. dpkg and apt-get are a debian thing. the main difference between distro's is usually their package manager, imo.

and no, using fedora you would/should never use apt-get. you'd basically end up converting fedora into debian if you got it working.

answered Nov 14 '09 at 20:46

xenoterracide

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that's not the point of my question really... – jldupont Nov 14 '09 at 21:03

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 15 '09 at 03:20

While you can use apt-get in RPM distros the backend server that this is connecting to is one that serves RPMs not debs (Unless it is a completely custom install which most likely functions poorly). Typically combining packages from multiple distros is a bad idea even with alien et al because the applications are compiled with very specific shared library versions that are specific to the distro that is providing the packages. The only time it makes sense to use other package formats is when you are downloading a statically linked program that (more than likely) a company is distributing. Even then they usually have tarballs of just the statically linked application.

If you absolutely need an application that isn't available for your distro chances are the source is and you can create your own rpm/deb package, compiling it on your distro instead of hoping someone else's has enough in common with your distro that it works. While this is a bit more work, the hardest part is figuring it out for the first time.

Fedora, apt-get & aptitude

5 Answers5