The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds a progress bar (2014)

Re:The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds... by adricnet on Saturday March 05, 2016 @11:39AM (#11229944)

Only one of them requires readwrite system administrator privileges (eg sudo). apt-cache can be run by any user as it doesn't expose any secret data and can't be used to make changes. apt-get can install and uninstall software as well as download packages and thus needs root privileges in the classic UNIX model.

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Re:The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds... by CydeWeys on Saturday March 05, 2016 @11:53AM (#11229999)

apt-get doesn't fail when run as non-root, it only fails when you run it as non-root when you try to some of the commands that require root privileges (such as installing system level packages). It has lots of commands that don't need root privileges. I don't see much reason why "list all the packages available for installation", as well as the other commands in apt-cache, aren't included in that list.

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Re:The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds... by pherq on Saturday March 05, 2016 @11:48AM (#11229980)

apt-get source works fine without super-user privileges, so it isn't just that some have to be run as root.

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Re:The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds... by krylon on Sunday March 06, 2016 @04:16AM (#11233037)

On CentOS, I can do "yum search something" as a regular user, while "yum install something" or "yum upgrade" require root privileges.

I think it's similar with the pkg command on FreeBSD.

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Re:The apt command: Combining apt-get and apt-cache and adds... by konfou on Sunday March 06, 2016 @06:22AM (#11233334)

and same with pacman on Arch (and derivatives)

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