Both apt-get and aptitude are front-ends for dpkg
debian.org (DebianPackageManagement) (last edited 2013-04-14 21:17:54 by Lasall)
lists aptitude as both a Full-Screen Frontend and a Command-line Frontend
Under the new "The Debian Administrator's Handbook" (
http://debian-handbook.info/) which can by looked at by pdf/browser or
apt-get install debian-handbookwhich was written by two debian developers — Raphaël Hertzog and Roland Mas
Under chapter
6.4. Frontends: aptitude, synapticAPT is a C++ program whose code mainly resides in the libapt-pkg shared library. Using a shared library facilitates the creation of user interfaces (front-ends), since the code contained in the library can easily be reused. Historically, apt-get was only designed as a test front-end for libapt-pkg but its success tends to obscure this fact.
Under your link (manual for aptitude)
"aptitude provides such an interface by building on the apt package management"
key word is "building on the apt"
"apt is a common base on which to build these programs: in addition to aptitude, programs such as synaptic and apt-watch make use of apt."
" When working with a package manager based on apt, such as aptitude, you will typically perform three basic tasks: you will update the list of packages that are available by downloading new lists from the Debian servers, you will select which packages should be installed, upgraded, or removed, and finally, you will commit your selections by actually performing the installations, removals, etc."
http://www.debian.org/doc/manualsChapter 8
8.1
It is important to understand that the higher level package management tools such as aptitude or dselect rely on apt which, itself, relies on dpkg to manage the packages in the system.
All the available tools rely on the lower level tools to properly work and are presented here in decreasing complexity level.
8.1.3
aptitude is a package manager for Debian GNU/Linux systems that provides a frontend to the apt package management infrastructure
Everything I have searched and every documentation I have read says that aptitude is indeed nothing more than a frontend to apt which is a frontend to dpkg
also wikipedia aptitude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptitude_%28software%29First sentence
aptitude is a front-end to the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT).