Packages
A package is a file that can contains software application, metadata, descriptions, libraries, and files. With packages it is simple to install and maintenance an operating system, like Trisquel GNU/Linux.
Main features of packages
The Main features of packages are:
- Easy and secure installation, removing and upgrading
- Dependency resolution
- Compatibility of installed packages
- Completeness of software
- Version Control
- Standardization
Managing packages
The packages, that come with Trisquel can be managed with a package manager. Trisquel is using apt as its package manager. See the Documentation about installing, updating and removing Software (Packages) about how to manage the packages on your Trisquel installation.
Package dependencies
It is common that certain packages are depending on other packages. If the desired package you wish to install has such dependencies, it is necessary to install them, too. A package manager, in our case apt will try to resolve these dependencies for you!
Package naming convention
A package how Trisquel handles it, follows a convention following this format:
packagename_version-release.osdetails.architecture.deb
See the example below:
trisquel-base_11.0-16_amd64.deb
- trisquel-base is a package name
- 11.0 is a version
- 16 is a release
- (no optional OS details described here)
- amd64 is a architecture
- deb is file extension mainly used on Debian-based Linux distributions
Repositories
Packages are stored in a package archive on a server which is called a repository.
The official Trisquel GNU/Linux package archive is located here: https://archive.trisquel.info/
See section Archive mirrors on https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/mirrors for mirrors of Trisquel repositories.
Further Reading
Note: Don't blindly trust packages outside Trisquel's repository. Whoever built it may have included malware!
Trisquel Packages Search
The Trisquel Packages Search provides you with informations about all the packages available in the Trisquel Package archive. Visit https://packages.trisquel.org/ where you can:
- Browse through the lists of packages
- Search packages in their directories
- Search the contents of packages
- Read the descriptions of packages
within your web browser!