You've installed a basic system, now it's time to install additional software. Or, if you've selected some tasks during installation, you want to see what's installed and maybe remove some you won't use. Maybe your boss has asked for a report on what's installed. Or what about security updates?
All of these, and more, are the province of the Debian package management system. In this chapter, we'll cover package managers, software selection and maintenance, how to update your system, and how to set up automatic updating.
A note for beginners
TItis section assumes that you are familiar with using the root account. Information on accessing root account functions is available at https://wiki. debian.org/Root, and in the Debianreference manual at http://www .debian. org/doc/manuals/debianreference/. Quick help for commands mentioned in this chapter (as well as most Linux commands) can be obtained by executing man <conunand name> or info < command name> from the command line, or using the help button available in most graphical applications. The Debian reference manual also contains more detailed information on using the package manager commands in this chapter.
