GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
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Wajig: Packages and Administration

20200726 Wajig is an all-inclusive single comannd line tool to support the Debian and Ubuntu GNU/Linux administrators. Wajig commands are entered as the first argument to wajig. For example: "wajig install gnome".

The word jig has a couple of meanings, as WordNet and Webster's 1913 Dictionary will confirm. It is a small machine or handy tool used to guide other tools. It is also a quick dance, generally an old rustic dance involving kicking and leaping, as well as a light, humorous piece of writing, especially in rhyme, a farce in verse, or a ballad. "A jig shall be clapped at, and every rhyme praised and applauded!" Adding to that, `wa' is Japanese, indicating `harmony' and `team spirit and unity.'

Written in Python, wajig uses traditional Debian administration and user tools including apt, apt-get, dpkg, apt-cache, wget, dselect, deity, deity-gtk, aptitude, gnome-apt. Learning this variety of tools and remembering each on is challenging and not necessarily productive. Wajig unifies and simplifies many common administrative tasks.

And so, wajig is simply a front end to these various other commands. The goal of this chapter is to not only introduce wajig but to also explore the underlying commands that are being used to effect the wajig command. You can then use these underlying commands directly if you prefer, or if you want to do more than what is packaged for wajig.

Wajig has evolved over very many years and there's been a supportive band of users, contributing ideas. It started as a shell script but soon pushed beyond the boundaries of sensibilities for shell programming. It was rewritten in Python soon after the emergence of Python as a newly released programming language. It is available under the GPLv3 license, allowing anyone to take it and do as they wish with the code, so long as you share your code if you share what you have done. Let's help each other.

If you are interested in creating your own packages for Debian and Ubuntu, see Chapter 63.