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I'm seeing various instructions that request that you install something like:

apt-get install lamp-server^

With the oddball caret in the command. It doesn't seem to be mentioned in apt-get manual. What's the deal ?

Braiam
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mlissner
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  • Related: https://askubuntu.com/questions/252056/should-i-use-tasksel-tasks-in-apt-or-install-regular-metapackages – Aritz Apr 24 '18 at 12:18

2 Answers2

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The ^ character is not a typo. If you remove it, apt-get will complain that the package cannot be found.

This article and its comments describe what the caret does:

Well, the answer is that the caret symbol is a short form for performing a task that otherwise the program “tasksel” would have done with the given package name. tasksel is a program to ease the installation of commonly used things that go together for a particular use.

Lekensteyn
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The ^ symbol let you install "Tasks", a set of packages. This can replace tasksel, dedicated tool to work with tasks.

By doing

apt-get install lamp-server^

You are actually running installing a set of packages that would have been installed via the command (even is not exactly the same):

tasksel lamp-server

In other words: Tasks are very similar to meta-packages and live independently of tasksel. You can install tasks without installing tasksel package.

Pablo Bianchi
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coteyr
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  • This is not correct. The apt-get command would error out on unrecognized names. – Lekensteyn Nov 04 '12 at 21:52
  • I stand corrected, it does appear that it has been used in apt-get to replace tasksel as you mentioned. I will update my answer. – coteyr Nov 05 '12 at 00:05
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    Yes, but this works even without tasksel command being installed. And I don't have the /usr/share/tasksel/ directory, so I can't see what other cool "tasks" are available. It's only lamp-server^ everywhere. So where does apt-get take it from? – Tomasz Gandor Oct 01 '14 at 07:03