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Questions tagged [debian]

Note: Questions MUST be programming related. Use this tag only if your question relates to development on Debian using operating system API's or Debian-specific features, or to creating packages in the deb format.

The Debian Project

The Debian Project is a project aimed at providing a complete, all-purpose operating system with free open source software. The term 'Debian' is used for the Linux distribution rather then the project. In its most common form the operating system uses a Linux kernel and is packed with GNU tools (officially naming it "Debian GNU/Linux"). The name Debian comes from the names Debra and Ian Murdock (founder and his wife) (1).

Debian is known for its strict adherence to free software (2), its dependency resolving package manager (DPKG, APT), its stability (there are however releases available with more bleeding-edge software) and ability to run on lots of types of hardware. It has many derivatives (2) including the the very popular Ubuntu ().

What should and should not be asked here

Since Debian generally uses the Linux kernel and software also available for other Linux distributions there is a lot of common ground between these topics.

The debian-tag should be used for questions about

  • Creating packages in the deb format
  • Development on Debian using operating system API's or Debian specific features

For other questions there are more relevant tags, either more general or more specific:

  • Developing on a Debian PC (use a tag for the programming languages or tools you're using instead)
  • Using the command line (use or, preferably, the actual used shell like or )
  • Configuration and administration questions should be asked on Serverfault
  • Questions about using Debian or some of its tools fit better on Superuser or Unix & Linux

Learn more

Index of releases

  • The next release of Debian is codenamed buster — no release date has been set
  • Debian 9 (stretch) — current stable release
  • Debian 8 (jessie) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian 7 (wheezy) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian 6.0 (squeeze) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (lenny) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (etch) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (sarge) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (woody) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (potato) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 (slink) — obsolete stable release
  • Debian GNU/Linux 2.0 (hamm) — obsolete stable release
10202 questions
546
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7 answers

ps command doesn't work in docker container

I want to do a ps command in a docker container derived from Debian official Docker hub repository: $ docker run -ti debian:wheezy /bin/bash root@51afd6b09af8:/# ps bash: ps: command not found
Yves Nicolas
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18 answers

Version of Apache installed on a Debian machine

How can I check which version of Apache is installed on a Debian machine? Is there a command for doing this?
pindiwala
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15 answers

How to search contents of multiple pdf files?

How could I search the contents of PDF files in a directory/subdirectory? I am looking for some command line tools. It seems that grep can't search PDF files.
Jestin Joy
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11 answers

Test a weekly cron job

I have a #!/bin/bash file in cron.week directory. Is there a way to test if it works? Can't wait 1 week I am on Debian 6 with root
dynamic
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11 answers

How can I check the version before installing a package using 'apt-get'?

I'm thinking to install hylafax+ version 5.5.4 which was released last month on my Debian PC. I checked dpkg -l | grep "hylafax" and found out that the current version is 5.5.3. Then I checked apt-cache search hylafax and saw the packages are…
Yasiru G
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235
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3 answers

What is difference between arm64 and armhf?

Raspberry Pi Type 3 has 64-bit CPU, but its architecture is not arm64 but armhf. What is the difference between arm64 and armhf?
furushchev
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226
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27 answers

No module named _sqlite3

I am trying to run a Django app on my VPS running Debian 5. When I run a demo app, it comes back with this error: File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module __import__(name) File…
Alexander van Dijk
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221
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9 answers

How to kill zombie process

I launched my program in the foreground (a daemon program), and then I killed it with kill -9, but I get a zombie remaining and I m not able to kill it with kill -9. How to kill a zombie process? If the zombie is a dead process (already killed), how…
MOHAMED
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205
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13 answers

Setting Django up to use MySQL

I want to move away from PHP a little and learn Python. In order to do web development with Python I'll need a framework to help with templating and other things. I have a non-production server that I use to test all of web development stuff on. It…
gregor
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18 answers

How to set the locale inside a Debian/Ubuntu Docker container?

I'm running a Ubuntu Docker container. I have a Norwegian keyboard and need to use Norwegian characters (øæå). My Terminal character encoding is set to UTF-8 and I'm connected to my container using SSH. However, I'm unable to type Norwegian…
mtmacdonald
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178
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25 answers

python-dev installation error: ImportError: No module named apt_pkg

I am Debian user, and I want to install python-dev, but when I run the code in the shell as a root: # aptitude install python-dev I get the following error: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges", line 28, in…
Belphegor
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153
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6 answers

Switching users inside Docker image to a non-root user

I'm trying to switch user to the tomcat7 user in order to setup SSH certificates. When I do su tomcat7, nothing happens. whoami still ruturns root after doing su tomcat7 Doing a more /etc/passwd, I get the following result which clearly shows that a…
Jan Vladimir Mostert
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148
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2 answers

Where are sudo incidents reported?

Attempting something devious on my machine leads to ryan@debian:~$ sudo EAT_ALL_THE_COOKIES_BEFORE_DINNER [sudo] password for ryan: ryan is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported. Where is this incident reported, and how do I get…
user1717828
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146
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21 answers

CUDA incompatible with my gcc version

I have troubles compiling some of the examples shipped with CUDA SDK. I have installed the developers driver (version 270.41.19) and the CUDA toolkit, then finally the SDK (both the 4.0.17 version). Initially it didn't compile at all giving: error…
fbielejec
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143
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8 answers

Call Python script from bash with argument

I know that I can run a python script from my bash script using the following: python python_script.py But what about if I wanted to pass a variable / argument to my python script from my bash script. How can I do that? Basically bash will work out…
Jimmy
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