If you work with a Linux distro such as CentOS or Ubuntu, you will soon come across the term 'package'. Simply put, packages are ready-to-use installable software containers.

In addition to the files of the relevant software, a package also contains metadata. The metadata describes the files in the package and indicates which other software must be present (dependencies) in order to be able to install and use a package.

This system uses repositories (also known as repo), which can be regarded as an archive / index of available packages. Your OS periodically retrieves the index of the packages in the repository. If additional software is needed (a dependency) to install your software, it can easily be found and installed in the repository's index.

The repositories also contain the versions of the software included therein. This also makes it easier to update software, because then, your installed software versions can be compared to the versions in the repository.

Installing packages

Depending on which OS you use, there are different ways to install software. In the articles below, we explain how this works and how you can quickly find software if it is not included in your current repositories.

• Installing software in CentOS 7
• Installing software in Ubuntu 16.04
• Installing software in Ubuntu 18.04
• Installing software in Debian 9

This concludes this article on Linux packages. Should you have any questions left regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ‘ContactUs’ button at the bottom of this page.

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