terminal-based package manager (terminal interface only)

 aptitude is a package manager with a number of useful features,
 including: a mutt-like syntax for matching packages in a flexible
 manner, dselect-like persistence of user actions, the ability to
 retrieve and display the Debian changelog of most packages, and a
 command-line mode similar to that of apt-get.
 .
 aptitude is also Y2K-compliant, non-fattening, naturally cleansing,
 and housebroken.
 .
 This package contains a version of aptitude compiled with only the
 classic terminal-based interface (using curses). For an experimental
 graphical interface, see the package aptitude-gtk.