On Debian and Ubuntu (that’s because Ubuntu is based on the Debian distribution) you can use apt-get to install or update applications on your Linux machine. However, sometimes you’ll have to download a .deb file or you get one from a CD-rom or other media.

To install a .deb file you need to be the root user of the box and use the dpkg command.

dpkg -i filename.deb

Dpkg can also be used to:

  • dpkg –unpack: unpacks the file but doesn’t install it
  • dpkg –configure: shows the configuration options which are available for the package
  • dpkg –remove: removes (uninstall) a package from the system

To get more information from a package file (such as the version of the application) you can use the dpkg-deb command in the following way:

dpkg-deb –show filename.deb

Even more (less used) commands can be found in the manual pages of the dpkg command.