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Differences and Use Cases of apt and apt-get

/en/blog/apt-vs-apt-get/ map[email:ktdevx@gmail.com name:Kaito Takemura]
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Both apt and apt-get are package management tools used in Debian-based Linux distributions.

This article explains the differences between these two commands and when to use each.

# What is apt-get?

apt-get is one of the older package management tools. It allows you to fetch packages from repositories, install, upgrade, and remove them.

It automatically handles dependency resolution, deals with conflicting packages, and manages the cache. Additionally, it can perform system-wide upgrades.

# What is apt?

apt was developed as a successor to apt-get. Like apt-get, it allows you to fetch packages from online repositories, install, upgrade, and remove them.

It offers a more intuitive and simpler interface, operates faster, and helps save disk space. It also automatically handles dependencies, conflicting packages, and cache management.

# Differences Between apt and apt-get

apt-get has been criticized for its older design, which can struggle with dependency resolution and has unclear progress indicators and error messages. In response, apt was developed to address these issues, providing a simpler and more intuitive command structure, clear progress indicators, detailed error messages, and automatic database updates, among other improvements.

While apt-get has a well-defined interface with guaranteed backward compatibility, the interface of apt may change in the future to accommodate further improvements.

# When to Use Each

In most cases, it is recommended to use apt. It offers a more straightforward and intuitive interface, making package management faster and more efficient.

However, because the interface of apt may change in the future, if you are using it in scripts or external tools, it is recommended to use apt-get to ensure stable compatibility.