Checking the Available Package Manager on Linux

Context:
I needed to identify which package manager was available on an EC2 instance before installing tools like netcat, telnet, and dig.

Steps Used

1. Identify the Linux distribution

cat /etc/os-release

Example output:

ID=amzn
NAME="Amazon Linux"

2. Check which package manager is available

which apt
which yum
which dnf
which apk

If one of these returns a valid path (e.g. /usr/bin/yum), that package manager is installed on the system.

Quick Reference

Distribution     Package Manager
--------------   ----------------
Ubuntu/Debian    apt
Amazon Linux     yum / dnf
Alpine Linux     apk
CentOS           yum
Fedora           dnf

Usage Examples by Package Manager

Debian/Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install netcat

Amazon Linux / CentOS

sudo yum update
sudo yum install nc

Alpine

sudo apk update
sudo apk add netcat-openbsd

📌 This documentation was generated with help from AI (ChatGPT) and validated manually after testing on a real EC2 instance.