doc/apt-cache.8

   1 .\"     Title: apt\-cache
   2 .\"    Author: Jason Gunthorpe
   3 .\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.71.0 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
   4 .\"      Date: 29 February 2004
   5 .\"    Manual:
   6 .\"    Source: Linux
   7 .\"
   8 .TH "APT\-CACHE" "8" "29 February 2004" "Linux" ""
   9 .\" disable hyphenation
  10 .nh
  11 .\" disable justification (adjust text to left margin only)
  12 .ad l
  13 .SH "NAME"
  14 apt\-cache \- APT package handling utility \-\- cache manipulator
  15 .SH "SYNOPSIS"
  16 .HP 10
  17 \fBapt\-cache\fR [\fB\-hvsn\fR] [\fB\-o=\fR\fB\fIconfig\ string\fR\fR] [\fB\-c=\fR\fB\fIfile\fR\fR] {[add\ \fIfile\fR...] | [gencaches] | [showpkg\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [showsrc\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [stats] | [dump] | [dumpavail] | [unmet] | [search\ \fIregex\fR] | [show\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [depends\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [rdepends\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [pkgnames\ \fIprefix\fR] | [dotty\ \fIpkg\fR...] | [policy\ \fIpkgs\fR...] | [madison\ \fIpkgs\fR...]}
  18 .SH "DESCRIPTION"
  19 .PP
  20 \fBapt\-cache\fR
  21 performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
  22 \fBapt\-cache\fR
  23 does not manipulate the state of the system but does provide operations to search and generate interesting output from the package metadata.
  24 .PP
  25 Unless the
  26 \fB\-h\fR, or
  27 \fB\-\-help\fR
  28 option is given, one of the commands below must be present.
  29 .PP
  30 add \fIfile(s)\fR
  31 .RS 3n
  32 add
  33 adds the named package index files to the package cache. This is for debugging only.
  34 .RE
  35 .PP
  36 gencaches
  37 .RS 3n
  38 gencaches
  39 performs the same operation as
  40 \fBapt\-get check\fR. It builds the source and package caches from the sources in
  41 \fBsources.list\fR(5)
  42 and from
  43 \fI/var/lib/dpkg/status\fR.
  44 .RE
  45 .PP
  46 showpkg \fIpkg(s)\fR
  47 .RS 3n
  48 showpkg
  49 displays information about the packages listed on the command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available versions and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as well as forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal) dependencies are those packages upon which the package in question depends; reverse dependencies are those packages that depend upon the package in question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a package, but reverse dependencies need not be. For instance,
  50 \fBapt\-cache showpkg libreadline2\fR
  51 would produce output similar to the following:
  52 .sp
  53 .RS 3n
  54 .nf
  55 Package: libreadline2
  56 Versions: 2.1\-12(/var/state/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
  57 Reverse Depends:
  58   libreadlineg2,libreadline2
  59   libreadline2\-altdev,libreadline2
  60 Dependencies:
  61 2.1\-12 \- libc5 (2 5.4.0\-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
  62 Provides:
  63 2.1\-12 \-
  64 Reverse Provides:
  65 .fi
  66 .RE
  67 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1\-12, depends on libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2 to work. In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2\-altdev depend on libreadline2. If libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and ncurses3.0 (and ldso) must also be installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2\-altdev do not have to be installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it is best to consult the apt source code.
  68 .RE
  69 .PP
  70 stats
  71 .RS 3n
  72 stats
  73 displays some statistics about the cache. No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
  74 .RS 3n
  75 .TP 3n
  76 \(bu
  77 Total package names
  78 is the number of package names found in the cache.
  79 .TP 3n
  80 \(bu
  81 Normal packages
  82 is the number of regular, ordinary package names; these are packages that bear a one\-to\-one correspondence between their names and the names used by other packages for them in dependencies. The majority of packages fall into this category.
  83 .TP 3n
  84 \(bu
  85 Pure virtual packages
  86 is the number of packages that exist only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the virtual package name, and no package actually uses the name. For instance, "mail\-transport\-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual package; several packages provide "mail\-transport\-agent", but there is no package named "mail\-transport\-agent".
  87 .TP 3n
  88 \(bu
  89 Single virtual packages
  90 is the number of packages with only one package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11\-text\-viewer" is a virtual package, but only one package, xless, provides "X11\-text\-viewer".
  91 .TP 3n
  92 \(bu
  93 Mixed virtual packages
  94 is the number of packages that either provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name as the package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, "debconf" is both an actual package, and provided by the debconf\-tiny package.
  95 .TP 3n
  96 \(bu
  97 Missing
  98 is the number of package names that were referenced in a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may be in evidence if a full distribution is not accessed, or if a package (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution. Usually they are referenced from Conflicts statements.
  99 .TP 3n
 100 \(bu
 101 Total distinct
 102 versions is the number of package versions found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the number of total package names. If more than one distribution (both "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being accessed, this value can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.
 103 .TP 3n
 104 \(bu
 105 Total dependencies
 106 is the number of dependency relationships claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
 107 .RE
 108 .IP "" 3n
 109 .RE
 110 .PP
 111 showsrc \fIpkg(s)\fR
 112 .RS 3n
 113 showsrc
 114 displays all the source package records that match the given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all records that declare the name to be a Binary.
 115 .RE
 116 .PP
 117 dump
 118 .RS 3n
 119 dump
 120 shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is primarily for debugging.
 121 .RE
 122 .PP
 123 dumpavail
 124 .RS 3n
 125 dumpavail
 126 prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable for use with
 127 \fBdpkg\fR(8)
 128 and is used by the
 129 \fBdselect\fR(8)
 130 method.
 131 .RE
 132 .PP
 133 unmet
 134 .RS 3n
 135 unmet
 136 displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package cache.
 137 .RE
 138 .PP
 139 show \fIpkg(s)\fR
 140 .RS 3n
 141 show
 142 performs a function similar to
 143 \fBdpkg \-\-print\-avail\fR; it displays the package records for the named packages.
 144 .RE
 145 .PP
 146 search \fIregex [ regex ... ]\fR
 147 .RS 3n
 148 search
 149 performs a full text search on all available package lists for the regex pattern given. It searches the package names and the descriptions for an occurrence of the regular expression and prints out the package name and the short description. If
 150 \fB\-\-full\fR
 151 is given then output identical to
 152 show
 153 is produced for each matched package, and if
 154 \fB\-\-names\-only\fR
 155 is given then the long description is not searched, only the package name is.
 156 .sp
 157 Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search patterns that are and'ed together.
 158 .RE
 159 .PP
 160 depends \fIpkg(s)\fR
 161 .RS 3n
 162 depends
 163 shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.
 164 .RE
 165 .PP
 166 rdepends \fIpkg(s)\fR
 167 .RS 3n
 168 rdepends
 169 shows a listing of each reverse dependency a package has.
 170 .RE
 171 .PP
 172 pkgnames \fI[ prefix ]\fR
 173 .RS 3n
 174 This command prints the name of each package in the system. The optional argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output is suitable for use in a shell tab complete function and the output is generated extremely quickly. This command is best used with the
 175 \fB\-\-generate\fR
 176 option.
 177 .RE
 178 .PP
 179 dotty \fIpkg(s)\fR
 180 .RS 3n
 181 dotty
 182 takes a list of packages on the command line and generates output suitable for use by dotty from the
 183 [1]\&\fIGraphViz\fR
 184 package. The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the relationships between the packages. By default the given packages will trace out all dependent packages; this can produce a very large graph. To limit the output to only the packages listed on the command line, set the
 185 APT::Cache::GivenOnly
 186 option.
 187 .sp
 188 The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are boxes, pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds, missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped [leaf packages], blue lines are pre\-depends, green lines are conflicts.
 189 .sp
 190 Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
 191 .RE
 192 .PP
 193 policy \fI[ pkg(s) ]\fR
 194 .RS 3n
 195 policy
 196 is meant to help debug issues relating to the preferences file. With no arguments it will print out the priorities of each source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information about the priority selection of the named package.
 197 .RE
 198 .PP
 199 madison \fI/[ pkg(s) ]\fR
 200 .RS 3n
 201 apt\-cache's
 202 madison
 203 command attempts to mimic the output format and a subset of the functionality of the Debian archive management tool,
 204 madison. It displays available versions of a package in a tabular format. Unlike the original
 205 madison, it can only display information for the architecture for which APT has retrieved package lists (APT::Architecture).
 206 .RE
 207 .SH "OPTIONS"
 208 .PP
 209 All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean options you can override the config file by using something like
 210 \fB\-f\-\fR,\fB\-\-no\-f\fR,
 211 \fB\-f=no\fR
 212 or several other variations.
 213 .PP
 214 \fB\-p\fR, \fB\-\-pkg\-cache\fR
 215 .RS 3n
 216 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the primary cache used by all operations. Configuration Item:
 217 Dir::Cache::pkgcache.
 218 .RE
 219 .PP
 220 \fB\-s\fR, \fB\-\-src\-cache\fR
 221 .RS 3n
 222 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
 223 gencaches
 224 and it stores a parsed version of the package information from remote sources. When building the package cache the source cache is used to avoid reparsing all of the package files. Configuration Item:
 225 Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache.
 226 .RE
 227 .PP
 228 \fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR
 229 .RS 3n
 230 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators. More q's will produce more quietness up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 231 \fB\-q=#\fR
 232 to set the quietness level, overriding the configuration file. Configuration Item:
 233 quiet.
 234 .RE
 235 .PP
 236 \fB\-i\fR, \fB\-\-important\fR
 237 .RS 3n
 238 Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet. Causes only Depends and Pre\-Depends relations to be printed. Configuration Item:
 239 APT::Cache::Important.
 240 .RE
 241 .PP
 242 \fB\-f\fR, \fB\-\-full\fR
 243 .RS 3n
 244 Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item:
 245 APT::Cache::ShowFull.
 246 .RE
 247 .PP
 248 \fB\-a\fR, \fB\-\-all\-versions\fR
 249 .RS 3n
 250 Print full records for all available versions. This is the default; to turn it off, use
 251 \fB\-\-no\-all\-versions\fR. If
 252 \fB\-\-no\-all\-versions\fR
 253 is specified, only the candidate version will displayed (the one which would be selected for installation). This option is only applicable to the
 254 show
 255 command. Configuration Item:
 256 APT::Cache::AllVersions.
 257 .RE
 258 .PP
 259 \fB\-g\fR, \fB\-\-generate\fR
 260 .RS 3n
 261 Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use the cache as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use
 262 \fB\-\-no\-generate\fR. Configuration Item:
 263 APT::Cache::Generate.
 264 .RE
 265 .PP
 266 \fB\-\-names\-only\fR, \fB\-n\fR
 267 .RS 3n
 268 Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions. Configuration Item:
 269 APT::Cache::NamesOnly.
 270 .RE
 271 .PP
 272 \fB\-\-all\-names\fR
 273 .RS 3n
 274 Make
 275 pkgnames
 276 print all names, including virtual packages and missing dependencies. Configuration Item:
 277 APT::Cache::AllNames.
 278 .RE
 279 .PP
 280 \fB\-\-recurse\fR
 281 .RS 3n
 282 Make
 283 depends
 284 and
 285 rdepends
 286 recursive so that all packages mentioned are printed once. Configuration Item:
 287 APT::Cache::RecurseDepends.
 288 .RE
 289 .PP
 290 \fB\-\-installed\fR
 291 .RS 3n
 292 Limit the output of
 293 depends
 294 and
 295 rdepends
 296 to packages which are currently installed. Configuration Item:
 297 APT::Cache::Installed.
 298 .RE
 299 .PP
 300 \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR
 301 .RS 3n
 302 Show a short usage summary.
 303 .RE
 304 .PP
 305 \fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR
 306 .RS 3n
 307 Show the program version.
 308 .RE
 309 .PP
 310 \fB\-c\fR, \fB\-\-config\-file\fR
 311 .RS 3n
 312 Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. The program will read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. See
 313 \fBapt.conf\fR(5)
 314 for syntax information.
 315 .RE
 316 .PP
 317 \fB\-o\fR, \fB\-\-option\fR
 318 .RS 3n
 319 Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option. The syntax is
 320 \fB\-o Foo::Bar=bar\fR.
 321 .RE
 322 .SH "FILES"
 323 .PP
 324 \fI/etc/apt/sources.list\fR
 325 .RS 3n
 326 Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item:
 327 Dir::Etc::SourceList.
 328 .RE
 329 .PP
 330 \fI/var/lib/apt/lists/\fR
 331 .RS 3n
 332 Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 333 \fBsources.list\fR(5)
 334 Configuration Item:
 335 Dir::State::Lists.
 336 .RE
 337 .PP
 338 \fI/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/\fR
 339 .RS 3n
 340 Storage area for state information in transit. Configuration Item:
 341 Dir::State::Lists
 342 (implicit partial).
 343 .RE
 344 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 345 .PP
 346 \fBapt.conf\fR(5),
 347 \fBsources.list\fR(5),
 348 \fBapt\-get\fR(8)
 349 .SH "DIAGNOSTICS"
 350 .PP
 351 \fBapt\-cache\fR
 352 returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 353 .SH "BUGS"
 354 .PP
 355 [2]\&\fIAPT bug page\fR. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
 356 \fI/usr/share/doc/debian/bug\-reporting.txt\fR
 357 or the
 358 \fBreportbug\fR(1)
 359 command.
 360 .SH "AUTHORS"
 361 .PP
 362 \fBJason Gunthorpe\fR
 363 .sp -1n
 364 .IP "" 3n
 365 Author.
 366 .PP
 367 \fBAPT team\fR
 368 .sp -1n
 369 .IP "" 3n
 370 Author.
 371 .SH "REFERENCES"
 372 .TP 3
 373 1.\ GraphViz
 374 \%http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/
 375 .TP 3
 376 2.\ APT bug page
 377 \%http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt