Working with Debian packages from the Command Line.

Here is a few command line entries that I use almost daily.

apt-cache search (packagename)will produce the following:

chicagonpg@Quadzilla ~ $ apt-cache search gftp
gftp-common - shared files for other gFTP packages
gftp-gtk - X/GTK+ FTP client
gftp - X/GTK+ FTP client
gftp-text - colored FTP client using GLib

Then to install just sudo apt-get install gftp-gtk (gtk is the gnome gui app)

Once installed you can check what version you have by doing:

gftp-gtk --version

chicagonpg@Quadzilla ~ $ gftp-gtk --version
gFTP 2.0.19

I have version 2.0.19

To check if you have a certain application installed on your system
use dpkg -s

chicagonpg@Quadzilla ~ $ dpkg -s vlc
Package: vlc
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: video
Installed-Size: 3912
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers
Architecture: amd64
Version: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2.1
Replaces: vlc-nox (<< 0.9.2-1) Provides: mp3-decoder Depends: vlc-nox (= 1.0.2-1ubuntu2.1), libaa1 (>= 1.4p5), libc6 (>= 2.8), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.0.2), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libfribidi0 (>= 0.10.9), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1), libgl1-mesa-glx | libgl1, libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.8.0), libnotify1 (>= 0.4.5), libnotify1-gtk2.10, libqtcore4 (>= 4.5.1), libqtgui4 (>= 4.5.1), libsdl-image1.2 (>= 1.2.5), libsdl1.2debian (>= 1.2.10-1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.2.1), libtar, libvlccore2 (>= 1.0.0~rc1), libx11-6, libx264-67 (>= 1:0.svn20090502), libxcb-keysyms1 (>= 0.3.6), libxcb1, libxext6, libxinerama1, libxv1, libxxf86vm1, zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg), ttf-dejavu-core
Recommends: vlc-plugin-pulse (= 1.0.2-1ubuntu2.1)
Suggests: mozilla-plugin-vlc, videolan-doc
Conflicts: vlc-nox (<< 0.9.2-1) Description: multimedia player and streamer VLC is the VideoLAN project's media player. It plays MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, MOV, WMV, QuickTime, mp3, Ogg/Vorbis files, DVDs, VCDs, and multimedia streams from various network sources. . VLC can also be used as a streaming server that duplicates the stream it reads and multicasts them through the network to other clients, or serves them through HTTP. . VLC has support for on-the-fly transcoding of audio and video formats, either for broadcasting purposes or for movie format transformations. Support for most output methods is provided by this package, but features can be added by installing additional audio plugins (vlc-plugin-pulse, vlc-plugin-sdl) or video plugins (vlc-plugin-sdl, vlc-plugin-ggi, vlc-plugin-svgalib). There is also a web browser plugin in the mozilla-plugin-vlc package. Homepage: http://www.videolan.org/vlc Original-Maintainer: Debian multimedia packages maintainers


As you can see the status is installed but it also gives you some good information on the package as well.