Overview
OSMC is based on Debian. Debian uses a packaging system called APT (Advanced Packaging Tool) to retrieve and install packages. OSMC includes all upstream Debian packages, giving you access to over 40,000 packages to install quickly and easily. APT can be invoked via the command line.
Updating your sources
APT needs a way to keep track of the packages that are available for installation, as well as any packages on your device that can be upgraded. This is kept track of via a ‘sources’ file. If you are planning on installing a new package, you should always run the following command first:
sudo apt-get update
Installing packages
You can install a package by executing the following command:
sudo apt-get install PACKAGENAME
For example, to install the Apache2 web server, one would run
sudo apt-get install apache2
Removing packages
Any package that has been installed via APT can be removed by running the following command:
sudo apt-get remove PACKAGENAME
For example, to uninstall the Apache2 web server, you can run the following command:
sudo apt-get remove apache2
Removing old dependencies
When you installed a package, you may have noticed that several others were installed. This means that the package you installed needed other packages to run on your system. This is known as a dependency. When you uninstall a package, these old dependencies are left on your system. They can be cleaned up safely by running the following command after package removal:
sudo apt-get autoremove