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Published On:
Jan 16, 2018
Last Updated:
May 30, 2021

The Linux program apt (Advanced Package Tool) is a collection of tools for managing Debian packages.

apt is a combination of the most widely used commands from apt-get and apt-cache. It is the recommended over apt-get when used by humans, as it is easier to use and looks better.

apt delegates the actual installation and removal of packages to dpkg.

Aborted Package Lists

You may encounter the error “aborted package lists” when trying to run pretty much any apt command.

Terminal window
$ sudo apt update
...
Aborted package lists... 93%

I have been able to fix this by deleting all of the package lists in /var/lib/apt/lists with the following command:

Terminal window
$ sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf

Then test if apt is working properly by running sudo apt update again.