Take the 2-minute tour ×  I'm seeing various instructions that
request that you install something like:  apt-get install lamp-
server^  With the oddball caret in the command. It doesn't seem
to be mentioned in apt-get manual. What's the deal ?
share|improve this question  2 Answers 2  The ^ character is not
a typo. If you remove it, apt-get will complain that the package
cannot be found.  This article and its comments describe what
the caret does:  Well, the answer is that the caret symbol is a
short form for performing a task that otherwise the program
“tasksel” would have done with the given package name. tasksel
is a program to ease the installation of commonly used things
that go together for a particular use.  share|improve this
answer Learn something new every day. –  coteyr Nov 5 '12 at
0:13  Lekensteyn's answer is correct,  The ^ symbol is used to
replace tasksel (a tool that was/is used to install common sets
of packages).  By doing  apt-get install lamp-server^  You are
actually running installing a