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Say, I currently have grep version 2.2 on my system and I would like to upgrade to version >= 2.5.

Other than installing grep through source code, is there a method to update grep using Ubuntu (apt) package manager?

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    You already have a version greater than 2.5! Feb 23, 2016 at 1:48
  • 21 > 5 :} ... nothing to update.
    – tink
    Feb 23, 2016 at 2:11
  • Darn. That's a typo. Sorry about that. Will update it. In any case, my question is just basically "Is there a way to update grep through apt"
    – krisharav
    May 18, 2016 at 16:36

2 Answers 2

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Even the latest distribution of Ubuntu (16.04 LTS) runs grep version 2.24. If you want to run a 2.5 version, pull down the deb package and install locally, i.e.

cd /tmp
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/40224290/grep_2.5.4-4build1_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i ./grep_2.5.4-4build1_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

...now you have access to fun stuff like --exclude-dir ;)

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Your upstream distribution (in this case Ubuntu) provides and supports a particular set of packages. It would be much more advantageous to upgrade your whole distribution to get a newer version of grep (or really any other package.)

The way to do it, if you choose to go this route, is to create your own .deb package with the newer version. Place that package in your repo, enable your repo on the system. Then you can install that deb with apt.

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  • I am not sure your answer is clear to everyone. It seems like you discourage what OP thought of, encouraged the whole distribution and suggested a way which involves creating own .deb file. Especially "the way to do it" is kind of confusing. I would humbly suggest re-wording the answer to be more clear. May 18, 2016 at 17:28

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