Learn Technical Writing from Unix Man in 10 Days

[Kiuhnm]

On 4/28/2012 23:55, Xah Lee wrote:
> Learn Technical Writing from Unix Man in 10 Days
>
> Quote from man apt-get:
>
>      remove
>          remove is identical to install except that packages are
> removed
>          instead of installed.
>
> Translation:
>
>      kicking
>          kicking is identical to kissing except that receiver is kicked
>          instead of kissed.

Superficial as always.

Here's the part you misquoted:

--->
install
    install is followed by one or more packages desired for
    installation or upgrading. Each package is a package name, not a
    fully qualified filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux
    system, libc6 would be the argument provided, not
    libc6_1.9.6-2.deb). All packages required by the package(s)
    specified for installation will also be retrieved and installed.
    The /etc/apt/sources.list file is used to locate the desired
    packages. If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with no
    intervening space), the identified package will be removed if it is
    installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a package
    to install. These latter features may be used to override decisions
    made by apt-get's conflict resolution system.

    A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
    following the package name with an equals and the version of the
    package to select. This will cause that version to be located and
    selected for install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be
    selected by following the package name with a slash and the version
    of the distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing,
    unstable).

    Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and
    must be used with care.

    This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or more
    already-installed packages without upgrading every package you have
    on your system. Unlike the "upgrade" target, which installs the
    newest version of all currently installed packages, "install" will
    install the newest version of only the package(s) specified. Simply
    provide the name of the package(s) you wish to upgrade, and if a
    newer version is available, it (and its dependencies, as described
    above) will be downloaded and installed.

    Finally, the apt_preferences(5) mechanism allows you to create an
    alternative installation policy for individual packages.

    If no package matches the given expression and the expression
    contains one of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX
    regular expression, and it is applied to all package names in the
    database. Any matches are then installed (or removed). Note that
    matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo' and
    'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression with
    a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular
    expression.

remove
    remove is identical to install except that packages are removed
    instead of installed. Note the removing a package leaves its
    configuration files in system. If a plus sign is appended to the
    package name (with no intervening space), the identified package
    will be installed instead of removed.
<---

Kiuhnm