Debian
Debian¶
Debian is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of Debian (0.01) was released on September 15, 1993, and its first stable version (1.1) was released on June 17, 1996. The Debian Stable branch is the most popular edition for personal computers and servers, and is the basis for many other distributions. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kernel. The project is coordinated over the Internet by a team of volunteers guided by the Debian Project Leader and three foundational documents: the Debian Social Contract, the Debian Constitution, and the Debian Free Software Guidelines. New distributions are updated continually, and the next candidate is released after a time-based freeze.
What versions of Debian are available?¶
| Current Version | Supported Until |
|---|---|
| Debian 8 | June 30, 2025 |
| Debian 9 | June 30, 2027 |
| Debian 10 | June 30, 2029 |
| Debian 11 | TBD |
| Debian 12 | TBD |
Using Debian¶
Debian uses the apt package manager to install software and updates. You can install software using the apt install command. For example, to install the Apache web server, you would run the following command:
apt install apache2
Note
You must run the apt command as root or with sudo. Debian does not include sudo by default and must be installed.
You can also install multiple packages at once by separating them with a space. For example, to install Apache and PHP, you would run the following command:
apt install apache2 php
To update your system, you can use the apt update command followed by the apt upgrade command. For example, to update all packages on your system, you would run the following command:
apt update
apt upgrade
Managing Services¶
Debian uses the systemctl command to manage services. To start a service, you would run the following command:
systemctl start apache2
To stop a service, you would run the following command:
systemctl stop apache2
To restart a service, you would run the following command:
systemctl restart apache2
To enable a service to start on boot, you would run the following command:
systemctl enable apache2
To disable a service from starting on boot, you would run the following command:
systemctl disable apache2
Managing Users¶
Debian uses the adduser command to manage users. To add a user, you would run the following command:
adduser username
To delete a user, you would run the following command:
deluser username
To add a user to a group, you would run the following command:
adduser username groupname
To remove a user from a group, you would run the following command:
deluser username groupname
Managing Firewall¶
Note
Debian does not include a firewall by default and must be installed.
Debian uses the ufw command to manage the firewall. To enable the firewall, you would run the following command:
ufw enable
To disable the firewall, you would run the following command:
ufw disable
To allow a port, you would run the following command:
ufw allow port
To deny a port, you would run the following command:
ufw deny port