Why can't I install multiple Debian packages at a time using apt-get install?

Question

i'm face a problem when trying to install multiple packages

So for example when i try this :

apt-get install php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json etc..  

i get :

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json

But i have no trouble installing the packages on at a time.

Am i doing it wrong ?

Answer 1

You don't run apt-get with admin rights. In order to do that make sure you use sudo before you execute apt-get.

Here is the full command:

sudo apt-get install php5-gd php5-idn php-pear php5-imagick php5-imap php5-json

Answer 2

Your error message tells the story: When calling

apt-get install does not exist but bash does

The result should be:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package does
E: Unable to locate package not
E: Unable to locate package exist
E: Unable to locate package but
E: Unable to locate package does

You get only one line, which means that either your shell itself or any alias or function defined in the shell for apt-get does not send the individual package names to the real executable as individual arguments, but as one long argument containing spaces. I think this is what tripleee was pointing out.

To find out what happens:

1. If you did not type this directly into a "normal" shell but into a wrapper (a web-frontend to the shell counts as such): stop doing that or look up the documentation of the wrapper
2. If you really typed this in correctly, check if an alias or a function is defined:
   • enter: type apt-get
   • should return: apt-get is /usr/bin/apt-get
   • if it returns apt-get is a function or apt-get is aliased to ..., you have your answer