1

I was looking to install a .deb file and found an answer here: How to install a deb file, by dpkg -i or by apt?

I just want to know the difference between using:

sudo apt install ./name.deb

and

sudo apt install /path/to/package/name.deb

Why isn't the second option:

sudo apt install ./path/to/package/name.deb

?

Jeff Schaller
  • 67,283
  • 35
  • 116
  • 255
xxCDxx
  • 13

1 Answers1

3

The two variants look for the package in different locations (unless the current directory is the root directory).

sudo apt install ./path/to/package/name.deb

looks for a package file named name.deb, in the subdirectories path, to, package, starting from the current directory (.). This only works if the current directory contains a directory named path, which itself contains a directory named to, which itself contains a directory named package, which contains the file name.deb.

sudo apt install /path/to/package/name.deb

looks for a package in the directory /path/to/package, i.e. the same sequence as above, but starting from the root directory, not the current directory.

Put another way, ./ isn’t part of the apt syntax, it’s part of the file’s path, and interpreted as usual for paths.

Stephen Kitt
  • 434,908