What is the difference between dpkg and aptitude/apt-get?

[akhran]

When installing a software via 'dpkg -i packageA.deb', will the dependencies required by packageA be downloaded and installed automatically (aka aptitude/apt-get ) or are all the required dependencies already built into packageA.deb package?

Thanks !

[Daan]

No, dpkg -i will just install the package without looking at dependencies. apt-get install looks at dependencies and invokes dpkg -i for the package and the packages it depends upon.

[bidi]

Daan, that not true, dpkg does check for dependencies, that's the whole point behind Debian's package management.

A very good, and thorough, explanation can be found here (you don't have the read the whole thing, most of it is explained in the beginning):
http://www.aboutdebian.com/packages.htm

[Vergil83]

to put what Daan and bidi said together, dpkg will check for dependencies, but will not download or install them

[machiner]

I don't know what my comment will add to the empiricism of this thread, but...

right that dpkg checks for deps and doesn't download them. What I have found, through accident, luck and ignorance is that if I use dpkg (I actually use a little script) to install a deb package and I notice in the terminal that there were dependancy problems, a quick trip to synaptic will remedy the problem. Synaptic will either download the required deps or remove the broken program because the deps are not available in the repos your machine is using.

Again -- I didn't really add much to the discovery of this thread but I have found that it's the little tid-bits of knowlege that many people seek that are not often said, or written.

--machiner