How To Install antiword on Debian 11

One-liner install command

For those in a hurry, here's a one-line installation command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt -y install antiword

But if you are interested in the detailed steps with descriptions, the following information is for you.

What is antiword and what are the ways to install it?

Before beginning this tutorial, you will need access to a server or computer running Debian 11. This guide was written specifically with a server running Debian 11 in mind, although it should also work on older, supported versions of the operating system.

Also, make sure you are running a regular, non-root user with sudo privileges configured on your server. When you have an account available, log in as your non-root user to begin.

There are several ways to install antiword on Debian 11. You can use (links are clickable):

In the following sections, we will describe each method in detail. You can choose one of them or refer to the recommended one.

Install antiword using apt-get

First, update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt-get database, You can install antiword using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install antiword

Install antiword using apt

Because antiword is available in Debian 11’s default repositories, it is possible to install it from these repositories using the apt packaging system.

To begin, update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, You can install antiword using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install antiword

Install antiword using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian 11. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating aptitude database, You can install antiword by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install antiword

How to upgrade (update) a single package antiword using apt-get?

First, you will need to update packages index. Run update command as usual:

sudo apt-get update

Next, to upgrade only the antiword, e.g. single package, you should use the following format with the apt-get command/apt command:

sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install antiword

Note that this command will not install any new packages! If you wish to install the package if it doesn't exist you may leave out --only-upgrade part.

sudo apt-get install antiword

How To Uninstall antiword from Debian 11

To uninstall only the antiword package you can execute the following command:

sudo apt-get remove antiword

Uninstall antiword and all its dependencies

To uninstall antiword and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 11, you can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove antiword

Remove antiword with all configurations and data

To remove antiword configuration and data from your system you can run the following purge command:

sudo apt-get -y purge antiword

Remove antiword completely (configurations, data and all of its dependencies)

And lastly, you can run the next command to remove absolutely everything related to antiword package, e.g.: configurations, data and all of its dependencies. Just use this command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge antiword

Extra info and code examples

Antiword is a free MS Word reader. It converts the binary files from MS Word 2, 6, 7, 97, 2000 and 2003 to text, Postscript, PDF and XML. Note that it doesn't support the XML-based formats which newer MS Word versions produce by default (.docx).

Conclusion

You now have a full guide on how to install antiword using apt, apt-get and aptitude tools. Also, we showed how to update as a single package and different ways to uninstall the antiword from Debian 11.

See also: