Linux Package Manager Cheatsheet

A package manager is the bread and butter of every Linux distribution. It serves as the link between the traditional UNIX system and external third-party programs. It also lets you customize your system for any function and purpose.

At its core, a package manager is a program that adds, removes, and keeps track of any third-party program in your system. Further, it also eases the load of managing programs through version downgrading and calculating dependencies.

Essential Package Manager Commands

By default, each major Linux distribution maintains its own custom package manager. Despite that, these utilities often share a number of common functions and commands.

This cheatsheet gives you these necessary commands for your own Linux package manager. This includes the various apt commands in Debian and Ubuntu and pacman in Arch Linux. Not only that, but this cheatsheet will also highlight some of their powerful and unique features.

Action	apt (Debian and Ubuntu)	snap (Ubuntu)	pacman (Arch)	dnf (Fedora and RHEL)	portage (Gentoo)
Package Management
Install a Package.	apt install package	snap install package	pacman -S package	dnf install package	emerge --ask package
Remove a Package.	apt remove package	snap remove package	pacman -R package	dnf erase package	emerge --deselect package
Update a Package.	apt install --only-upgrade package	snap refresh package	pacman -U package	dnf upgrade package	emerge --ask --update package
Change a Package’s upstream.	apt -t unstable package	snap refresh package --channel=beta
Disable a Package.		snap disable package
Enable a Package.		snap enable package
Mark a Package.	apt install package		pacman -S --asexplicit package	dnf mark install package	emerge --ask package
Purge a Package.	apt purge package	snap remove --purge package	pacman -Rs package		emerge --ask --depclean package
Restore a Package to an older state.		snap restore package
Save the current state of a Package.		snap save package
Reinstall a Package.	apt install --reinstall package		pacman -S package	dnf reinstall package	emerge --ask --fetchonly --emptytree package
Downgrade a Package.		snap revert package	pacman -Suu package	dnf downgrade package
Ignore a Package’s new version.	apt install --no-upgrade package
Fix a broken Package.	apt install -f package				revdep-rebuild -v package
Remove any unused dependencies.	apt install --autoremove		pacman -Ru	dnf autoremove	emerge --ask --depclean
Show all installed Packages.	apt list --installed	snap list	pacman -Qet	dnf list --installed	less /var/lib/portage/world
Simulate an installation.	apt install -s package			dnf install --setopt=tsflags=test	emerge --ask --pretend package
Package Group Management
Install a Package group.			pacman -S group	dnf group install group	emerge --ask @group
Uninstall a Package group.			pacman -R group	dnf group remove group	emerge --deselect @group
Display the available groups.				dnf group	ls /etc/portage/sets
Display a group’s details.			pacman -Sg	dnf group info group
Update a group in the system.				dnf group upgrade group
Mark a group for installation.				dnf group mark install group
Mark a group for removal.				dnf group mark remove group
Repository Management
Update a Package’s upstream.		snap switch --channel=beta program
Update the Package repository.	apt update			dnf check-update	emerge --sync
Reload the Package repository.			pacman -Syc		emerge-webrsync
Check the Package repository.			pacman -Dk	dnf check
Add a new repository source.	nano /etc/apt/sources.list		nano /etc/pacman.conf		eselect repository enable repository
Remove a repository source.	nano /etc/apt/sources.list		nano /etc/pacman.conf		eselect repository disable repository
Show the active repositories.	less /etc/apt/sources.list	snap info package	less /etc/pacman.conf	dnf repolist --enabled	eselect repository list
System Management
Check for Package updates.				dnf check-update package
Update all the Packages.	apt upgrade	snap refresh	pacman -Syu	dnf upgrade	emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse @world
Update the system Packages.	apt dist-upgrade			dnf upgrade-minimal
Simulate a full system update.	apt -s dist-upgrade			dnf upgrade --setopt-tsflags=test	emerge --ask --update --deep --newuse --pretend @world
Reconfigure a Package.	apt install -f		pacman -S package
Enter the Package Manager’s shell.		snap run --shell		dnf shell
Print the current update advisories.				dnf updateinfo --info	eselect news help
Dependency Management
Check a Package’s dependencies.	apt-cache depends package		pacman -T package	dnf repoquery --deplist package
Print the Package’s dependency tree.			pactree package	dnf repoquery --tree package	emerge --ask --deep --tree package
Skip dependency resolution.	apt install --no-install-recommends package		pacman -Sd package		emerge --ask --nodeps package
Skip GPG checking.				dnf install --nogpgcheck package
Searching
Basic Package search.	apt search package	snap find package	pacman -Qs package	dnf search package	emerge --search package
Regex Package search.	apt search ^package*		pacman -Qs ^package*		emerge --search ^package*
Filename search.			pacman -F filename	dnf provides filename	equery b filename
Display a Package’s info.	apt-cache showpkg package	snap info package	pacman -Qi package	dnf info package	equery m package
Print the contents of a package.		snap info --verbose package	pacman -Ql package		equery f package
Print the changelog of a package.	apt-get changelog package	snap info --verbose package	pacman -Qc package	dnf repoquery --changelogs	equery c package
Print all duplicate packages.				dnf repoquery --duplicates
Print all external packages.			pacman -Qm

_{Image credit: Unsplash. All alterations by Ramces Red.}