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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Chapter 5. Software available in the Debian system</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="debian.css" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /><link rel="home" href="index.en.html" title="The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ" /><link rel="up" href="index.en.html" title="The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ" /><link rel="prev" href="compatibility.en.html" title="Chapter 4. Compatibility issues" /><link rel="next" href="ftparchives.en.html" title="Chapter 6. The Debian FTP archives" /><meta xmlns="" name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><style xmlns="" type="text/css">
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    </style></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 5. Software available in the Debian system</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="compatibility.en.html"><img src="images/prev.png" alt="Prev" /></a> </td><th width="60%" align="center"> </th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ftparchives.en.html"><img src="images/next.png" alt="Next" /></a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="chapter"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h1 class="title"><a id="software"></a>Chapter 5. Software available in the Debian system</h1></div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#apps">5.1. What types of applications and development software are available for Debian GNU/Linux?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#softwareauthors">5.2. Who wrote all that software?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#pkglist">5.3. How can I get a current list of programs that have been packaged for Debian?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#buildenv">5.4. How can I install a developer's environment to build packages?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#missing">5.5. What is missing from Debian GNU/Linux?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#no-devs">5.6. Why do I get "ld: cannot find -lfoo" messages when compiling programs? Why aren't there any libfoo.so files in Debian library packages?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#java">5.7. (How) Does Debian support Java?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#isitdebian">5.8. How can I check that I am using a Debian system, and what version it is?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#nonenglish">5.9. How does Debian support non-English languages?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#qmail">5.10. Where is ezmlm/djbdns/qmail?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#flash">5.11. Where is a player for Flash (SWF)?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#googleearth">5.12. Where is Google Earth?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#voip">5.13. Where is VoIP software?</a></span></dt><dt><span class="section"><a href="software.en.html#nonfreewireless">5.14. I have a wireless network card which doesn't work with Linux. What should I do?</a></span></dt></dl></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="apps"></a>5.1. What types of applications and development software are available for Debian GNU/Linux?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Like most Linux distributions, Debian GNU/Linux provides:
</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>
the major GNU applications for software development, file manipulation, and
text processing, including gcc, g++, make, texinfo, Emacs, the Bash shell and
numerous upgraded Unix utilities,
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk and various related programs, modules and libraries for
each of them,
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
TeX (LaTeX) and Lyx, dvips, Ghostscript,
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
the Xorg windowing system, which provides a networked graphical user interface
for Linux, and countless X applications including the GNOME, KDE and Xfce
desktop environments,
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
a full suite of networking applications, including servers for Internet
protocols such as HTTP (WWW), FTP, NNTP (news), SMTP and POP (mail) and DNS
(name servers); relational databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL; also provided are
web browsers including the various Mozilla products,
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
a complete set of office applications, including the LibreOffice productivity
suite, Gnumeric and other spreadsheets, WYSIWYG editors, calendars.
</p></li></ul></div><p>
More than 57200 packages, ranging from news servers and readers to sound
support, FAX programs, database and spreadsheet programs, image processing
programs, communications, net, and mail utilities, Web servers, and even
ham-radio programs are included in the distribution.  Other 930 software suites
are available as Debian packages, but are not formally part of Debian due to
license restrictions.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="softwareauthors"></a>5.2. Who wrote all that software?</h2></div></div></div><p>
For each package the <span class="emphasis"><em>authors</em></span> of the program(s) are
credited in the file <code class="literal">/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/copyright</code>, where
PACKAGE is to be substituted with the package's name.
</p><p>
<span class="emphasis"><em>Maintainers</em></span> who package this software for the Debian GNU/Linux
system are listed in the Debian control file (see <a class="xref" href="pkg-basics.en.html#controlfile" title="7.4. What is a Debian control file?">Section 7.4, “What is a Debian control file?”</a>) that comes with each package.  The Debian changelog,
in <code class="literal">/usr/share/doc/PACKAGE/changelog.Debian.gz</code>, mentions the
people who've worked on the Debian packaging too.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="pkglist"></a>5.3. How can I get a current list of programs that have been packaged for Debian?</h2></div></div></div><p>
A complete list is available from any of the <a class="ulink" href="https://www.debian.org/distrib/ftplist" target="_top">Debian mirrors</a>, in the file
<code class="literal">indices/Maintainers</code>.  That file includes the package names
and the names and e-mails of their respective maintainers.
</p><p>
The <a class="ulink" href="https://packages.debian.org/" target="_top">WWW interface to the Debian
packages</a> conveniently summarizes the packages in each of about thirty
"sections" of the Debian archive.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="buildenv"></a>5.4. How can I install a developer's environment to build packages?</h2></div></div></div><p>
If you want to build packages in your Debian system you will need to have a
basic development environment, including a C/C++ compiler and some other
essential packages.  In order to install this environment you just need to
install the <code class="systemitem">build-essential</code><a id="idm561" class="indexterm"></a> package.
This is a meta-package or place-holder package which depends on the standard
development tools one needs to build a Debian package.
</p><p>
Some software can, however, need additional software to be rebuilt, including
library headers or additional tools such as <span class="command"><strong>autoconf</strong></span> or
<span class="command"><strong>gettext</strong></span>.  Debian provides many of the tools needed to build
other software as Debian packages.
</p><p>
Finding which software is precisely required can be tricky, however, unless you
are planning on rebuilding Debian packages.  This last task is rather easy to
do, as official packages have to include a list of the additional software
(besides the packages in <code class="systemitem">build-essential</code><a id="idm569" class="indexterm"></a>) needed to build the package, this
is known as <code class="literal">Build-Dependencies</code>.  To install all the packages
needed to build a given source package and then build said source package you
can just run:
</p><pre class="screen">
# apt-get build-dep <em class="replaceable"><code>foo</code></em>
# apt-get source --build <em class="replaceable"><code>foo</code></em>
</pre><p>
Notice that if you want to build the Linux kernels distributed by Debian you
will want to install also the <code class="systemitem">kernel-package</code><a id="idm578" class="indexterm"></a> package.  For more information see
<a class="xref" href="kernel.en.html#customkernel" title="10.2. What tools does Debian provide to build custom kernels?">Section 10.2, “What tools does Debian provide to build custom kernels?”</a>.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="missing"></a>5.5. What is missing from Debian GNU/Linux?</h2></div></div></div><p>
There is a list of packages which still need to be packaged for Debian, the
<a class="ulink" href="https://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/" target="_top">Work-Needing and Prospective
Packages list</a>.
</p><p>
For more details about adding missing things, see <a class="xref" href="contributing.en.html" title="Chapter 13. Contributing to the Debian Project">Chapter 13, <em>Contributing to the Debian Project</em></a>.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="no-devs"></a>5.6. Why do I get "ld: cannot find -lfoo" messages when compiling programs? Why aren't there any libfoo.so files in Debian library packages?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Debian Policy requires that such symbolic links (to libfoo.so.x.y.z or similar)
are placed in separate, development packages.  Those packages are usually named
libfoo-dev or libfooX-dev (presuming the library package is named libfooX, and
X is a whole number).
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="java"></a>5.7. (How) Does Debian support Java?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Several <span class="emphasis"><em>free</em></span> implementations of Java technology are
available as Debian packages, providing both Java Development Kits as well as
Runtime Environments.  You can write, debug and run Java programs using Debian.
</p><p>
Running a Java applet requires a web browser with the capability to recognize
and execute it.  Several web browsers available in Debian, such as Mozilla or
Konqueror, support Java plug-ins that enable running Java applets within them.
</p><p>
Please refer to the <a class="ulink" href="https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-java-faq/" target="_top">Debian Java
FAQ</a> for more information.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="isitdebian"></a>5.8. How can I check that I am using a Debian system, and what version it is?</h2></div></div></div><p>
In order to make sure that your system has been installed from the real Debian
base disks, use the
</p><pre class="screen">
lsb_release -a
</pre><p>
command.  It will display the name of the distribution (in Distributor ID
field) and the version of the system (in Release and Codename fields).  The
following is an example run in a Debian system:
</p><pre class="screen">
$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description:    Debian GNU/Linux 7.4 (wheezy)
Release:    7.4
Codename:   wheezy
</pre><p>
You can also check for the existence of <code class="literal">/etc/debian_version</code>
file, which contains a single one-line entry giving the version number of the
release, as defined by the package <code class="literal">base-files</code>.
</p><p>
Users should be aware, however, that the Debian system consists of many parts,
each of which can be updated (almost) independently.  Each Debian "release"
contains well defined and unchanging contents.  Updates are separately
available.  For a one-line description of the installation status of package
<code class="literal">foo</code>, use the command <code class="literal">dpkg --list foo</code>.
For a more verbose description, use:
</p><pre class="screen">
dpkg --status foo
</pre><p>
To view versions of all installed packages, run:
</p><pre class="screen">
dpkg -l
</pre><p>
Note that the existence of the program <code class="literal">dpkg</code> shows that you
should be able to install Debian packages on your system.  However, since the
program has been ported to many other operating systems and architectures, this
is no longer a reliable method of determining if a system is Debian GNU/Linux.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="nonenglish"></a>5.9. How does Debian support non-English languages?</h2></div></div></div><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" type="disc"><li class="listitem"><p>
Debian GNU/Linux is distributed with keymaps for nearly two dozen keyboards,
and with utilities (in the <code class="literal">kbd</code> package) to install, view,
and modify the tables.
</p><p>
The installation prompts the user to specify the keyboard he will use.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
Nearly all of the software in Debian supports UTF-8 as character set.  Legacy
character sets, such as ISO-8859-1 or ISO-8859-2, should be considered
obsolete.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
Currently, support for German-, Spanish-, French-, Hungarian-, Italian-,
Japanese-, Korean-, Dutch-, Polish-, Portuguese-, Russian-, Turkish-, and
Chinese-language manual pages is provided through the
<code class="literal">manpages-LANG</code> packages (where LANG is the two-letter ISO
country code).  To access an NLS manual page, the user must set the shell
LC_MESSAGES variable to the appropriate string.
</p><p>
For example, in the case of the Italian-language manual pages, LC_MESSAGES
needs to be set to 'italian'.  The <span class="command"><strong>man</strong></span> program will then
search for Italian manual pages under <code class="literal">/usr/share/man/it/</code>.
</p></li></ul></div></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="qmail"></a>5.10. Where is ezmlm/djbdns/qmail?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Dan J. Bernstein used to distribute <a class="ulink" href="https://cr.yp.to/software.html" target="_top">all software he has written</a> with a
restrictive license which does not allow modified binaries to be distributed.
In november 2007 however, Bernstein said "[...] i have decided to put all of my
future and [...] past software into the public domain".  See <a class="ulink" href="https://cr.yp.to/distributors.html" target="_top">FAQ from distributors</a> for his
distribution terms.
</p><p>
As of this writing (2016-03), <code class="systemitem">ezmlm-idx</code><a id="idm637" class="indexterm"></a>
is available in experimental only (<code class="systemitem">mlmmj</code><a id="idm641" class="indexterm"></a> is similar, and shipped with Debian jessie);
<code class="systemitem">djbdns</code><a id="idm645" class="indexterm"></a> is available in sid (unstable)
only, see <a class="ulink" href="https://bugs.debian.org/516394" target="_top">Bug #516394</a> and
<a class="ulink" href="https://bugs.debian.org/796118" target="_top">Bug #796118</a> for details and
see <code class="systemitem">dbndns</code><a id="idm651" class="indexterm"></a> for a similar alternative;
the <code class="literal">publicfile</code> software is still not free software, a
<code class="systemitem">publicfile-installer</code><a id="idm656" class="indexterm"></a> package is
available from Debian's contrib section.
</p><p>
Other software of Dan J. Bernstein (<code class="systemitem">qmail</code><a id="idm661" class="indexterm"></a>, <code class="systemitem">daemontools</code><a id="idm665" class="indexterm"></a>, <code class="systemitem">ucspi-tcp</code><a id="idm669" class="indexterm"></a>) is shipped with Debian.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="flash"></a>5.11. Where is a player for Flash (SWF)?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Debian ships both <code class="systemitem">gnash</code><a id="idm676" class="indexterm"></a> and <code class="systemitem">swfdec</code><a id="idm680" class="indexterm"></a>: two free SWF movie players.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="googleearth"></a>5.12. Where is Google Earth?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Google Earth is available for GNU/Linux from Google's web site, but not only it
is not Free Software, but is completely undistributable by a third party.
However, <code class="systemitem">googleearth-package</code><a id="idm687" class="indexterm"></a> (in the
contrib-section) might be helpful in using this software.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="voip"></a>5.13. Where is VoIP software?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Two main open protocols are used for Voice Over IP: SIP and H.323.  Both are
implemented by a wide variety of software in Debian main.  <code class="systemitem">ekiga</code><a id="idm694" class="indexterm"></a> is one of the popular clients.
</p></div><div class="section"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="nonfreewireless"></a>5.14. I have a wireless network card which doesn't work with Linux. What should I do?</h2></div></div></div><p>
Buy one which does :)
</p><p>
Alternatively, use <code class="systemitem">ndiswrapper</code><a id="idm702" class="indexterm"></a> to use a
driver for Windows (if you have one) on your Linux system.  See the <a class="ulink" href="https://wiki.debian.org/NdisWrapper" target="_top">Debian Wiki ndiswrapper page</a>
for more information.
</p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="compatibility.en.html"><img src="images/prev.png" alt="Prev" /></a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"> </td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="ftparchives.en.html"><img src="images/next.png" alt="Next" /></a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 4. Compatibility issues </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.en.html"><img src="images/home.png" alt="Home" /></a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 6. The Debian FTP archives</td></tr></table></div></body></html>

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