Apt

Debian's package manager.

Locations

/etc/apt/sources.list	package sources
/etc/apt/apt.conf	config

Usage

apt-cache search <package>
apt-get install <package>
apt-get update <package>

build-dep <package-tarfile> # try installing deps for pkg
DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get upgrade -yq  # update installed packages, skipping any interactive prompts

Package Sources

Backports

Debian has a very slow release schedule for packages.
Sometimes newer packages or fixes are backported to older versions.

It is safer to only install select packages as backports,
rather than upgrading your whole system.

# /etc/apt/sources.list

# configure backpourts source
deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main contrib non-free

# /etc/apt/apt.conf

# use 'stable' packages by default
APT::Default-Release "stable";

# override default of 'stable' packages, install from backports
apt-get -t squeeze-backports install libreoffice