Linux offers several package managers for software installation, updates, and maintenance. In Linux, every distribution comes with a package manager by default. The Debian distribution comes with APT(Advanced Package Tool), Red Hat, and its derivatives such as CentOS and Fedora use YUM package management.

However, there may be cases when you need to use different package managers. In this article, we’ll cover the installation and setup of three prominent package managers which are:

• DPKG: DPKG is a base package management system used in the Debian Linux family, it is used to install, remove, store, and provide information about ‘.deb’ packages. ‘dpkg’ is a low-level package manager and is used in combination with higher level package managers like ‘apt’ or ‘apt-get’, which provide more user-friendly interfaces for package management.
• APT: APT is a powerful tool used in Debian-based distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and many others. APT makes the process of installing, updating, and removing software packages simple. APT manages dependencies by itself and ensures all the packages are installed when you install a new package.
• DNF: DNF stands for ‘Dandified YUM’ and is the default package manager of Red Hat-based Linux distributions. It is the evolution of the YUM(Yellowdog Updater, Modified) package manager which improves performance, dependency resolution, and usability.

Installation of a New Package Manager on Linux

Installation of different packages differs in steps at different linux distributions. Let’s look at the installation of three different package managers one by one:

Installing DPKG in Debian

Package managers are core components of linux systems, and are pre-installed. To check the version of ‘dpkg’ or if it is preinstalled go to Step 4 directly. However, if you need to reinstall follow the steps given below:

Step 1: Open the terminal using the keys CTRL+ALT+T or by searching the terminal in the start menu.

Terminal

Step 2: To install ‘dpkg’ in Debian, we are using ‘apt-get’ which is another package manager. In the first step, we will update the apt-get to ensure that our local package database gets synchronized with the latest updates.

sudo apt-get update

After entering the above command you need to enter the administrator password to provide root user privileges.

‘sudo’Debian: This command allows users with permission to execute commands with superuser(root) privileges.

‘apt-get’: It is a command line package management tool in Debian-based systems. It is used for installing, removing, or updating various packages.

apt-get update

Step 3: To reinstall the ‘dpkg’ package in Debian, we need to enter the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt --reinstall install dpkg

The above command tells ‘apt-get’ to reinstall the ‘dpkg’ package.

Reinstallation of dpkg

Step 3: To check if the package is installed, and the version of the package. Enter the following command:

dpkg --version

Version Info of dpkg package

Installing APT in Ubuntu

APT is installed in Ubuntu as the default package manager. To check the version of ‘apt’ or if it is preinstalled go to Step 4 directly. However, if you need to reinstall the package use the following steps :

Step 1: Open the terminal using the keys CTRL+ALT+T or by searching the terminal in the start menu.

Terminal

Step 2: To install ‘apt’ in Ubuntu. Enter the following command in the terminal to download the ‘apt’ package:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get update

Step 3: Install the downloaded ‘apt’ package using ‘dpkg’:

sudo apt-get -y install apt-file

Install the downloaded ‘apt’ package

Step 4: To verify if it is installed and the version of ‘apt’. Enter the following command:

apt --version

apt Version

Installing DNF in RHEL(Red Hat Enterprise Linux):

DNF is installed in RHEL distributions as the default package manager. To check the version of ‘dnf’ or if it is preinstalled go to Step 3 directly. However, if you need to reinstall the package use the following steps :

Step 1: Open the terminal using the keys CTRL+ALT+T or by searching the terminal in the start menu.

Step 2: We can use the ‘yum’ package manager to install ‘dnf’:

sudo yum install dnf

You need to enter your password to grant sudo permission.

Step 3: To verify if it is installed and the version of ‘dnf’. Enter the following command:

dnf --version

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the installation of package managers in different linux distributions. We learned about the installation of the three most prominent packages for the most widely used linux distributions. Hope this article resolves your problems. To find solutions for more linux problems, refer to More Geeks for Geeks articles that are published on a variety of topics. Happy learning!