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24f6490f 1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
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2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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4
5<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
6%aptent;
7
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8<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent">
9%aptverbatiment;
10
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11<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent">
12%aptvendor;
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13]>
14
15<refentry>
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16
17 <refentryinfo>
18 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
19 &apt-author.team;
be1b8568 20 <author>
d5aa88bf 21 &apt-name.dburrows;
be1b8568 22 <contrib>Initial documentation of Debug::*.</contrib>
4920c8c7 23 <email>dburrows@debian.org</email>
be1b8568 24 </author>
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25 &apt-email;
26 &apt-product;
27 <!-- The last update date -->
dabb215c 28 <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
5e80de29 29 </refentryinfo>
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30
31 <refmeta>
32 <refentrytitle>apt.conf</refentrytitle>
33 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
f0599b9c 34 <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
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35 </refmeta>
36
37 <!-- Man page title -->
38 <refnamediv>
39 <refname>apt.conf</refname>
40 <refpurpose>Configuration file for APT</refpurpose>
41 </refnamediv>
5723791e 42
24f6490f 43 <refsect1><title>Description</title>
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44 <para><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> is the main configuration
45 file shared by all the tools in the APT suite of tools, though it is by
46 no means the only place options can be set. The suite also shares a common
47 command line parser to provide a uniform environment.</para>
48
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49 <orderedlist>
50 <para>When an APT tool starts up it will read the configuration files
51 in the following order:</para>
52 <listitem><para>the file specified by the <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>
53 environment variable (if any)</para></listitem>
54 <listitem><para>all files in <literal>Dir::Etc::Parts</literal> in
1fc8c922 55 alphanumeric ascending order which have either no or "<literal>conf</literal>"
e29a6bb1 56 as filename extension and which only contain alphanumeric,
7376837d 57 hyphen (-), underscore (_) and period (.) characters.
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58 Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
59 file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
5723791e 60 configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para></listitem>
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61 <listitem><para>the main configuration file specified by
62 <literal>Dir::Etc::main</literal></para></listitem>
63 <listitem><para>the command line options are applied to override the
64 configuration directives or to load even more configuration files.</para></listitem>
65 </orderedlist>
66 </refsect1>
67 <refsect1><title>Syntax</title>
24f6490f 68 <para>The configuration file is organized in a tree with options organized into
5f4331c4 69 functional groups. Option specification is given with a double colon
5723791e 70 notation; for instance <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> is an option within
5f4331c4 71 the APT tool group, for the Get tool. Options do not inherit from their
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72 parent groups.</para>
73
e3a1f08d 74 <para>Syntactically the configuration language is modeled after what the ISC tools
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75 such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
76 <literal>//</literal> are treated as comments (ignored), as well as all text
77 between <literal>/*</literal> and <literal>*/</literal>, just like C/C++ comments.
24f6490f 78 Each line is of the form
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79 <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true";</literal>.
80 The quotation marks and trailing semicolon are required.
81 The value must be on one line, and there is no kind of string concatenation.
82 Values must not include backslashes or extra quotation marks.
83 Option names are made up of alphanumeric characters and the characters "/-:._+".
84 A new scope can be opened with curly braces, like this:</para>
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85
86<informalexample><programlisting>
87APT {
88 Get {
89 Assume-Yes "true";
90 Fix-Broken "true";
91 };
92};
93</programlisting></informalexample>
94
95 <para>with newlines placed to make it more readable. Lists can be created by
d82cdf73 96 opening a scope and including a single string enclosed in quotes followed by a
5723791e 97 semicolon. Multiple entries can be included, separated by a semicolon.</para>
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98
99<informalexample><programlisting>
100DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
101</programlisting></informalexample>
102
00612a8c 103 <para>In general the sample configuration file &configureindex;
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104 is a good guide for how it should look.</para>
105
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106 <para>Case is not significant in names of configuration items, so in the
107 previous example you could use <literal>dpkg::pre-install-pkgs</literal>.</para>
fb3b7ef0 108
5723791e 109 <para>Names for the configuration items are optional if a list is defined as can be seen in
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110 the <literal>DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs</literal> example above. If you don't specify a name a
111 new entry will simply add a new option to the list. If you specify a name you can override
5723791e 112 the option in the same way as any other option by reassigning a new value to the option.</para>
63fc5550 113
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114 <para>Two special commands are defined: <literal>#include</literal> (which is
115 deprecated and not supported by alternative implementations) and
116 <literal>#clear</literal>. <literal>#include</literal> will include the
117 given file, unless the filename ends in a slash, in which case the whole
118 directory is included.
d82cdf73 119 <literal>#clear</literal> is used to erase a part of the configuration tree. The
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120 specified element and all its descendants are erased.
121 (Note that these lines also need to end with a semicolon.)</para>
122
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123 <para>
124 The <literal>#clear</literal> command is the only way to delete a list or
125 a complete scope. Reopening a scope (or using the syntax described below
126 with an appended <literal>::</literal>) will <emphasis>not</emphasis>
127 override previously written entries. Options can only be overridden by
128 addressing a new value to them - lists and scopes can't be overridden,
129 only cleared.
130 </para>
24f6490f 131
5723791e 132 <para>All of the APT tools take an -o option which allows an arbitrary configuration
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133 directive to be specified on the command line. The syntax is a full option
134 name (<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> for instance) followed by an equals
c086ac18 135 sign then the new value of the option. To append a new element to a list, add a
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136 trailing <literal>::</literal> to the name of the list.
137 (As you might suspect, the scope syntax can't be used on the command line.)</para>
138
139 <para>
140 Note that appending items to a list using <literal>::</literal> only works
141 for one item per line, and that you should not use it in combination with
142 the scope syntax (which adds <literal>::</literal> implicitly). Using both
143 syntaxes together will trigger a bug which some users unfortunately depend
144 on: an option with the unusual name "<literal>::</literal>" which acts
145 like every other option with a name. This introduces many problems; for
146 one thing, users who write multiple lines in this
147 <emphasis>wrong</emphasis> syntax in the hope of appending to a list will
148 achieve the opposite, as only the last assignment for this option
149 "<literal>::</literal>" will be used. Future versions of APT will raise
150 errors and stop working if they encounter this misuse, so please correct
151 such statements now while APT doesn't explicitly complain about them.
152 </para>
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153 </refsect1>
154
155 <refsect1><title>The APT Group</title>
156 <para>This group of options controls general APT behavior as well as holding the
157 options for all of the tools.</para>
158
159 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 160 <varlistentry><term><option>Architecture</option></term>
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161 <listitem><para>System Architecture; sets the architecture to use when fetching files and
162 parsing package lists. The internal default is the architecture apt was
163 compiled for.</para></listitem>
164 </varlistentry>
58014adc 165
2b9b27c3 166 <varlistentry><term><option>Architectures</option></term>
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167 <listitem><para>
168 All Architectures the system supports. For instance, CPUs implementing
169 the <literal>amd64</literal> (also called <literal>x86-64</literal>)
170 instruction set are also able to execute binaries compiled for the
171 <literal>i386</literal> (<literal>x86</literal>) instruction set. This
172 list is used when fetching files and parsing package lists. The
173 initial default is always the system's native architecture
174 (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>), and foreign architectures are
175 added to the default list when they are registered via
176 <command>dpkg --add-architecture</command>.
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177 </para></listitem>
178 </varlistentry>
179
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180 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Profiles</option></term>
181 <listitem><para>
182 List of all build profiles enabled for build-dependency resolution,
183 without the "<literal>profile.</literal>" namespace prefix.
184 By default this list is empty. The <envar>DEB_BUILD_PROFILES</envar>
185 as used by &dpkg-buildpackage; overrides the list notation.
186 </para></listitem>
187 </varlistentry>
188
2b9b27c3 189 <varlistentry><term><option>Default-Release</option></term>
e1dd65c9 190 <listitem><para>Default release to install packages from if more than one
5723791e 191 version is available. Contains release name, codename or release version. Examples: 'stable', 'testing',
e1dd65c9 192 'unstable', '&stable-codename;', '&testing-codename;', '4.0', '5.0*'. See also &apt-preferences;.</para></listitem>
60a8f9c0 193 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 194
2b9b27c3 195 <varlistentry><term><option>Ignore-Hold</option></term>
5723791e 196 <listitem><para>Ignore held packages; this global option causes the problem resolver to
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197 ignore held packages in its decision making.</para></listitem>
198 </varlistentry>
199
2b9b27c3 200 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean-Installed</option></term>
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201 <listitem><para>Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages
202 which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then
203 packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but
204 note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them.</para></listitem>
205 </varlistentry>
206
2b9b27c3 207 <varlistentry><term><option>Immediate-Configure</option></term>
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208 <listitem><para>
209 Defaults to on, which will cause APT to install essential and important
210 packages as soon as possible in an install/upgrade operation, in order
211 to limit the effect of a failing &dpkg; call. If this option is
212 disabled, APT treats an important package in the same way as an extra
213 package: between the unpacking of the package A and its configuration
214 there can be many other unpack or configuration calls for other
215 unrelated packages B, C etc. If these cause the &dpkg; call to fail
216 (e.g. because package B's maintainer scripts generate an error), this
217 results in a system state in which package A is unpacked but
218 unconfigured - so any package depending on A is now no longer
219 guaranteed to work, as its dependency on A is no longer satisfied.
220 </para><para>
221 The immediate configuration marker is also applied in the potentially
222 problematic case of circular dependencies, since a dependency with the
223 immediate flag is equivalent to a Pre-Dependency. In theory this allows
224 APT to recognise a situation in which it is unable to perform immediate
225 configuration, abort, and suggest to the user that the option should be
226 temporarily deactivated in order to allow the operation to proceed.
227 Note the use of the word "theory" here; in the real world this problem
228 has rarely been encountered, in non-stable distribution versions, and
229 was caused by wrong dependencies of the package in question or by a
230 system in an already broken state; so you should not blindly disable
231 this option, as the scenario mentioned above is not the only problem it
232 can help to prevent in the first place.
233 </para><para>
234 Before a big operation like <literal>dist-upgrade</literal> is run
235 with this option disabled you should try to explicitly
236 <literal>install</literal> the package APT is unable to configure
237 immediately; but please make sure you also report your problem to your
238 distribution and to the APT team with the buglink below, so they can
239 work on improving or correcting the upgrade process.
240 </para></listitem>
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241 </varlistentry>
242
2b9b27c3 243 <varlistentry><term><option>Force-LoopBreak</option></term>
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244 <listitem><para>
245 Never enable this option unless you <emphasis>really</emphasis> know
246 what you are doing. It permits APT to temporarily remove an essential
247 package to break a Conflicts/Conflicts or Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop
248 between two essential packages. <emphasis>Such a loop should never exist
249 and is a grave bug</emphasis>. This option will work if the essential
250 packages are not <command>tar</command>, <command>gzip</command>,
251 <command>libc</command>, <command>dpkg</command>, <command>dash</command>
252 or anything that those packages depend on.
253 </para></listitem>
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254 </varlistentry>
255
2b9b27c3 256 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache-Start</option></term><term><option>Cache-Grow</option></term><term><option>Cache-Limit</option></term>
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257 <listitem><para>APT uses since version 0.7.26 a resizable memory mapped cache file to store the available
258 information. <literal>Cache-Start</literal> acts as a hint of the size the cache will grow to,
dcdf1ef1 259 and is therefore the amount of memory APT will request at startup. The default value is
5723791e 260 20971520 bytes (~20 MB). Note that this amount of space needs to be available for APT;
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261 otherwise it will likely fail ungracefully, so for memory restricted devices this value should
262 be lowered while on systems with a lot of configured sources it should be increased.
263 <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> defines in bytes with the default of 1048576 (~1 MB) how much
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264 the cache size will be increased in the event the space defined by <literal>Cache-Start</literal>
265 is not enough. This value will be applied again and again until either the cache is big
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266 enough to store all information or the size of the cache reaches the <literal>Cache-Limit</literal>.
267 The default of <literal>Cache-Limit</literal> is 0 which stands for no limit.
5723791e 268 If <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> is set to 0 the automatic growth of the cache is disabled.
dcdf1ef1 269 </para></listitem>
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270 </varlistentry>
271
2b9b27c3 272 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Essential</option></term>
5723791e 273 <listitem><para>Defines which packages are considered essential build dependencies.</para></listitem>
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274 </varlistentry>
275
2b9b27c3 276 <varlistentry><term><option>Get</option></term>
5723791e 277 <listitem><para>The Get subsection controls the &apt-get; tool; please see its
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278 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
279 </varlistentry>
280
2b9b27c3 281 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache</option></term>
5723791e 282 <listitem><para>The Cache subsection controls the &apt-cache; tool; please see its
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283 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
284 </varlistentry>
285
2b9b27c3 286 <varlistentry><term><option>CDROM</option></term>
5723791e 287 <listitem><para>The CDROM subsection controls the &apt-cdrom; tool; please see its
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288 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
289 </varlistentry>
290 </variablelist>
291 </refsect1>
292
293 <refsect1><title>The Acquire Group</title>
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294 <para>The <literal>Acquire</literal> group of options controls the
295 download of packages as well as the various "acquire methods" responsible
296 for the download itself (see also &sources-list;).</para>
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297
298 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 299 <varlistentry><term><option>Check-Valid-Until</option></term>
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300 <listitem><para>
301 Security related option defaulting to true, as giving a Release file's
302 validation an expiration date prevents replay attacks over a long
303 timescale, and can also for example help users to identify mirrors
304 that are no longer updated - but the feature depends on the
305 correctness of the clock on the user system. Archive maintainers are
306 encouraged to create Release files with the
307 <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header, but if they don't or a
308 stricter value is desired the <literal>Max-ValidTime</literal>
309 option below can be used.
310 </para></listitem>
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311 </varlistentry>
312
2b9b27c3 313 <varlistentry><term><option>Max-ValidTime</option></term>
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314 <listitem><para>Maximum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
315 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
316 file should be considered valid.
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317 If the Release file itself includes a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
318 the earlier date of the two is used as the expiration date.
5723791e 319 The default value is <literal>0</literal> which stands for "valid forever".
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320 Archive specific settings can be made by appending the label of the archive
321 to the option name.
322 </para></listitem>
323 </varlistentry>
324
2b9b27c3 325 <varlistentry><term><option>Min-ValidTime</option></term>
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326 <listitem><para>Minimum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
327 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
328 file should be considered valid.
329 Use this if you need to use a seldom updated (local) mirror of a more
330 frequently updated archive with a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
2130caa8 331 instead of completely disabling the expiration date checking.
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332 Archive specific settings can and should be used by appending the label of
333 the archive to the option name.
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334 </para></listitem>
335 </varlistentry>
336
2b9b27c3 337 <varlistentry><term><option>PDiffs</option></term>
d82cdf73 338 <listitem><para>Try to download deltas called <literal>PDiffs</literal> for
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339 indexes (like <filename>Packages</filename> files) instead of downloading
340 whole ones. True by default.</para>
02dceb31 341 <para>Two sub-options to limit the use of PDiffs are also available:
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342 <literal>FileLimit</literal> can be used to specify a maximum number of
343 PDiff files should be downloaded to update a file. <literal>SizeLimit</literal>
f3b8d857 344 on the other hand is the maximum percentage of the size of all patches
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345 compared to the size of the targeted file. If one of these limits is
346 exceeded the complete file is downloaded instead of the patches.
347 </para></listitem>
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348 </varlistentry>
349
2b9b27c3 350 <varlistentry><term><option>Queue-Mode</option></term>
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351 <listitem><para>Queuing mode; <literal>Queue-Mode</literal> can be one of <literal>host</literal> or
352 <literal>access</literal> which determines how APT parallelizes outgoing
353 connections. <literal>host</literal> means that one connection per target host
354 will be opened, <literal>access</literal> means that one connection per URI type
355 will be opened.</para></listitem>
356 </varlistentry>
357
2b9b27c3 358 <varlistentry><term><option>Retries</option></term>
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359 <listitem><para>Number of retries to perform. If this is non-zero APT will retry failed
360 files the given number of times.</para></listitem>
361 </varlistentry>
362
2b9b27c3 363 <varlistentry><term><option>Source-Symlinks</option></term>
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364 <listitem><para>Use symlinks for source archives. If set to true then source archives will
365 be symlinked when possible instead of copying. True is the default.</para></listitem>
366 </varlistentry>
367
2b9b27c3 368 <varlistentry><term><option>http</option></term>
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369 <listitem><para><literal>http::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for HTTP
370 URIs. It is in the standard form of <literal>http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
371 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
24f6490f 372 <literal>http::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
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373 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
374 <envar>http_proxy</envar> environment variable
375 will be used.</para>
24f6490f 376
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377 <para>Three settings are provided for cache control with HTTP/1.1 compliant
378 proxy caches.
379 <literal>No-Cache</literal> tells the proxy not to use its cached
380 response under any circumstances.
381 <literal>Max-Age</literal> sets the allowed maximum age (in seconds) of
382 an index file in the cache of the proxy.
383 <literal>No-Store</literal> specifies that the proxy should not store
384 the requested archive files in its cache, which can be used to prevent
385 the proxy from polluting its cache with (big) .deb files.</para>
24f6490f 386
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387 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
388 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
24f6490f 389
82214317 390 <para>The setting <literal>Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth</literal> can be used to
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391 enable HTTP pipelining (RFC 2616 section 8.1.2.2) which can be beneficial e.g. on
392 high-latency connections. It specifies how many requests are sent in a pipeline.
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393 APT tries to detect and workaround misbehaving webservers and proxies at runtime, but
394 if you know that yours does not conform to the HTTP/1.1 specification pipelining can
395 be disabled by setting the value to 0. It is enabled by default with the value 10.</para>
5900bd8d 396
5723791e 397 <para><literal>Acquire::http::AllowRedirect</literal> controls whether APT will follow
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398 redirects, which is enabled by default.</para>
399
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400 <para>The used bandwidth can be limited with
401 <literal>Acquire::http::Dl-Limit</literal> which accepts integer
402 values in kilobytes per second. The default value is 0 which
403 deactivates the limit and tries to use all available bandwidth.
404 Note that this option implicitly disables downloading from
405 multiple servers at the same time.</para>
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406
407 <para><literal>Acquire::http::User-Agent</literal> can be used to set a different
408 User-Agent for the http download method as some proxies allow access for clients
409 only if the client uses a known identifier.</para>
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410
411 <para><literal>Acquire::http::Proxy-Auto-Detect</literal> can be used to
c57805f9 412 specify an external command to discover the http proxy to use. Apt expects
c08cf1dc 413 the command to output the proxy on stdout in the style
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414 <literal>http://proxy:port/</literal>. This will override the
415 generic <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy</literal> but not any specific
416 host proxy configuration set via
417 <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy::$HOST</literal>.
418
419 See the &squid-deb-proxy-client; package for an example implementation that
420 uses avahi. This option takes precedence over the legacy option name
421 <literal>ProxyAutoDetect</literal>.
422 </para>
c08cf1dc 423
4494239c 424 </listitem>
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425 </varlistentry>
426
2b9b27c3 427 <varlistentry><term><option>https</option></term>
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428 <listitem><para>
429 The <literal>Cache-control</literal>, <literal>Timeout</literal>,
430 <literal>AllowRedirect</literal>, <literal>Dl-Limit</literal> and
431 <literal>proxy</literal> options work for HTTPS URIs in the same way
432 as for the <literal>http</literal> method, and default to the same
433 values if they are not explicitly set. The
434 <literal>Pipeline-Depth</literal> option is not yet supported.
435 </para>
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436
437 <para><literal>CaInfo</literal> suboption specifies place of file that
438 holds info about trusted certificates.
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439 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::CaInfo</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
440 <literal>Verify-Peer</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
441 server's host certificate should be verified against trusted certificates.
442 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Peer</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
443 <literal>Verify-Host</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
444 server's hostname should be verified.
445 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Host</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 446 <literal>SslCert</literal> determines what certificate to use for client
5723791e 447 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslCert</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 448 <literal>SslKey</literal> determines what private key to use for client
5723791e 449 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslKey</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 450 <literal>SslForceVersion</literal> overrides default SSL version to use.
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451 It can contain either of the strings '<literal>TLSv1</literal>' or
452 '<literal>SSLv3</literal>'.
453 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslForceVersion</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
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454 </para></listitem></varlistentry>
455
2b9b27c3 456 <varlistentry><term><option>ftp</option></term>
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457 <listitem><para>
458 <literal>ftp::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for FTP URIs.
459 It is in the standard form of <literal>ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
460 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
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461 <literal>ftp::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
462 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
463 <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable
5723791e 464 will be used. To use an FTP
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465 proxy you will have to set the <literal>ftp::ProxyLogin</literal> script in the
466 configuration file. This entry specifies the commands to send to tell
467 the proxy server what to connect to. Please see
468 &configureindex; for an example of
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469 how to do this. The substitution variables representing the corresponding
470 URI component are <literal>$(PROXY_USER)</literal>,
471 <literal>$(PROXY_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE_USER)</literal>,
472 <literal>$(SITE_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE)</literal> and
473 <literal>$(SITE_PORT)</literal>.</para>
24f6490f 474
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475 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
476 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
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477
478 <para>Several settings are provided to control passive mode. Generally it is
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479 safe to leave passive mode on; it works in nearly every environment.
480 However, some situations require that passive mode be disabled and port
481 mode FTP used instead. This can be done globally or for connections that
482 go through a proxy or for a specific host (see the sample config file
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483 for examples).</para>
484
485 <para>It is possible to proxy FTP over HTTP by setting the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar>
5723791e 486 environment variable to an HTTP URL - see the discussion of the http method
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487 above for syntax. You cannot set this in the configuration file and it is
488 not recommended to use FTP over HTTP due to its low efficiency.</para>
489
490 <para>The setting <literal>ForceExtended</literal> controls the use of RFC2428
e3a1f08d 491 <literal>EPSV</literal> and <literal>EPRT</literal> commands. The default is false, which means
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492 these commands are only used if the control connection is IPv6. Setting this
493 to true forces their use even on IPv4 connections. Note that most FTP servers
494 do not support RFC2428.</para></listitem>
495 </varlistentry>
496
2b9b27c3 497 <varlistentry><term><option>cdrom</option></term>
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498 <listitem><para>
499 For URIs using the <literal>cdrom</literal> method, the only configurable
500 option is the mount point, <literal>cdrom::Mount</literal>, which must be
501 the mount point for the CD-ROM (or DVD, or whatever) drive as specified in
502 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. It is possible to provide alternate mount
503 and unmount commands if your mount point cannot be listed in the fstab.
504 The syntax is to put <literallayout>/cdrom/::Mount "foo";</literallayout> within
505 the <literal>cdrom</literal> block. It is important to have the trailing slash.
506 Unmount commands can be specified using UMount.
507 </para></listitem>
24f6490f 508 </varlistentry>
8a3642bd 509
2b9b27c3 510 <varlistentry><term><option>gpgv</option></term>
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511 <listitem><para>
512 For GPGV URIs the only configurable option is <literal>gpgv::Options</literal>,
513 which passes additional parameters to gpgv.
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514 </para></listitem>
515 </varlistentry>
516
2b9b27c3 517 <varlistentry><term><option>CompressionTypes</option></term>
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518 <listitem><para>List of compression types which are understood by the acquire methods.
519 Files like <filename>Packages</filename> can be available in various compression formats.
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520 By default the acquire methods can decompress <command>bzip2</command>, <command>lzma</command>
521 and <command>gzip</command> compressed files; with this setting more formats can be added
8bd02d8b 522 on the fly or the used method can be changed. The syntax for this is:
e85b4cd5 523 <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::<replaceable>FileExtension</replaceable> "<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable>";</synopsis>
5723791e 524 </para><para>Also, the <literal>Order</literal> subgroup can be used to define in which order
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525 the acquire system will try to download the compressed files. The acquire system will try the first
526 and proceed with the next compression type in this list on error, so to prefer one over the other type
5723791e 527 simply add the preferred type first - default types not already added will be implicitly appended
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528 to the end of the list, so e.g. <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order:: "gz";</synopsis> can
529 be used to prefer <command>gzip</command> compressed files over <command>bzip2</command> and <command>lzma</command>.
530 If <command>lzma</command> should be preferred over <command>gzip</command> and <command>bzip2</command> the
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531 configure setting should look like this: <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order { "lzma"; "gz"; };</synopsis>
532 It is not needed to add <literal>bz2</literal> to the list explicitly as it will be added automatically.</para>
533 <para>Note that the
534 <literal>Dir::Bin::<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable></literal>
535 will be checked at run time. If this option has been set, the
536 method will only be used if this file exists; e.g. for the
537 <literal>bzip2</literal> method (the inbuilt) setting is:
538 <literallayout>Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";</literallayout>
a9564741 539 Note also that list entries specified on the command line will be added at the end of the list
8bd02d8b 540 specified in the configuration files, but before the default entries. To prefer a type in this case
5d885723 541 over the ones specified in the configuration files you can set the option direct - not in list style.
5723791e 542 This will not override the defined list; it will only prefix the list with this type.</para>
5d885723 543 <para>The special type <literal>uncompressed</literal> can be used to give uncompressed files a
1fc8c922 544 preference, but note that most archives don't provide uncompressed files so this is mostly only
5d885723 545 useable for local mirrors.</para></listitem>
e85b4cd5 546 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 547
2b9b27c3 548 <varlistentry><term><option>GzipIndexes</option></term>
c8c6e61b 549 <listitem><para>
550 When downloading <literal>gzip</literal> compressed indexes (Packages, Sources, or
551 Translations), keep them gzip compressed locally instead of unpacking
552 them. This saves quite a lot of disk space at the expense of more CPU
553 requirements when building the local package caches. False by default.
554 </para></listitem>
555 </varlistentry>
556
2b9b27c3 557 <varlistentry><term><option>Languages</option></term>
45df0ad2 558 <listitem><para>The Languages subsection controls which <filename>Translation</filename> files are downloaded
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559 and in which order APT tries to display the description-translations. APT will try to display the first
560 available description in the language which is listed first. Languages can be defined with their
561 short or long language codes. Note that not all archives provide <filename>Translation</filename>
562 files for every language - the long language codes are especially rare.</para>
45df0ad2 563 <para>The default list includes "environment" and "en". "<literal>environment</literal>" has a special meaning here:
5723791e 564 it will be replaced at runtime with the language codes extracted from the <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal> environment variable.
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565 It will also ensure that these codes are not included twice in the list. If <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal>
566 is set to "C" only the <filename>Translation-en</filename> file (if available) will be used.
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567 To force APT to use no Translation file use the setting <literal>Acquire::Languages=none</literal>. "<literal>none</literal>"
568 is another special meaning code which will stop the search for a suitable <filename>Translation</filename> file.
569 This tells APT to download these translations too, without actually
570 using them unless the environment specifies the languages. So the
571 following example configuration will result in the order "en, de" in an
572 English locale or "de, en" in a German one. Note that "fr" is
573 downloaded, but not used unless APT is used in a French locale (where
574 the order would be "fr, de, en").
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575 <programlisting>Acquire::Languages { "environment"; "de"; "en"; "none"; "fr"; };</programlisting></para>
576 <para>Note: To prevent problems resulting from APT being executed in different environments
577 (e.g. by different users or by other programs) all Translation files which are found in
578 <filename>/var/lib/apt/lists/</filename> will be added to the end of the list
579 (after an implicit "<literal>none</literal>").</para>
580 </listitem>
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581 </varlistentry>
582
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583 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv4</option></term>
584 <listitem><para>
585 When downloading, force to use only the IPv4 protocol.
586 </para></listitem>
587 </varlistentry>
588
589 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv6</option></term>
590 <listitem><para>
591 When downloading, force to use only the IPv6 protocol.
592 </para></listitem>
593 </varlistentry>
594
24f6490f 595 </variablelist>
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596 </refsect1>
597
598 <refsect1><title>Directories</title>
599
600 <para>The <literal>Dir::State</literal> section has directories that pertain to local
601 state information. <literal>lists</literal> is the directory to place downloaded
5723791e 602 package lists in and <literal>status</literal> is the name of the &dpkg; status file.
c086ac18 603 <literal>preferences</literal> is the name of the APT <filename>preferences</filename> file.
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604 <literal>Dir::State</literal> contains the default directory to prefix on all
605 sub-items if they do not start with <filename>/</filename> or <filename>./</filename>.</para>
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606
607 <para><literal>Dir::Cache</literal> contains locations pertaining to local cache
608 information, such as the two package caches <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> and
609 <literal>pkgcache</literal> as well as the location to place downloaded archives,
610 <literal>Dir::Cache::archives</literal>. Generation of caches can be turned off
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611 by setting their names to the empty string. This will slow down startup but
612 save disk space. It is probably preferable to turn off the pkgcache rather
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613 than the srcpkgcache. Like <literal>Dir::State</literal> the default
614 directory is contained in <literal>Dir::Cache</literal></para>
615
616 <para><literal>Dir::Etc</literal> contains the location of configuration files,
617 <literal>sourcelist</literal> gives the location of the sourcelist and
618 <literal>main</literal> is the default configuration file (setting has no effect,
619 unless it is done from the config file specified by
13e8426f 620 <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>).</para>
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621
622 <para>The <literal>Dir::Parts</literal> setting reads in all the config fragments in
623 lexical order from the directory specified. After this is done then the
624 main config file is loaded.</para>
625
626 <para>Binary programs are pointed to by <literal>Dir::Bin</literal>. <literal>Dir::Bin::Methods</literal>
627 specifies the location of the method handlers and <literal>gzip</literal>,
e85b4cd5 628 <literal>bzip2</literal>, <literal>lzma</literal>,
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629 <literal>dpkg</literal>, <literal>apt-get</literal> <literal>dpkg-source</literal>
630 <literal>dpkg-buildpackage</literal> and <literal>apt-cache</literal> specify the location
631 of the respective programs.</para>
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632
633 <para>
634 The configuration item <literal>RootDir</literal> has a special
635 meaning. If set, all paths in <literal>Dir::</literal> will be
636 relative to <literal>RootDir</literal>, <emphasis>even paths that
637 are specified absolutely</emphasis>. So, for instance, if
638 <literal>RootDir</literal> is set to
639 <filename>/tmp/staging</filename> and
640 <literal>Dir::State::status</literal> is set to
641 <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>, then the status file
642 will be looked up in
643 <filename>/tmp/staging/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>.
644 </para>
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645
646 <para>
647 The <literal>Ignore-Files-Silently</literal> list can be used to specify
648 which files APT should silently ignore while parsing the files in the
649 fragment directories. Per default a file which end with <literal>.disabled</literal>,
650 <literal>~</literal>, <literal>.bak</literal> or <literal>.dpkg-[a-z]+</literal>
651 is silently ignored. As seen in the last default value these patterns can use regular
652 expression syntax.
653 </para>
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654 </refsect1>
655
656 <refsect1><title>APT in DSelect</title>
657 <para>
658 When APT is used as a &dselect; method several configuration directives
5723791e 659 control the default behavior. These are in the <literal>DSelect</literal> section.</para>
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660
661 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 662 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean</option></term>
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663 <listitem><para>Cache Clean mode; this value may be one of
664 <literal>always</literal>, <literal>prompt</literal>,
665 <literal>auto</literal>, <literal>pre-auto</literal> and
666 <literal>never</literal>.
667 <literal>always</literal> and <literal>prompt</literal> will remove
668 all packages from the cache after upgrading, <literal>prompt</literal>
669 (the default) does so conditionally.
670 <literal>auto</literal> removes only those packages which are no longer
671 downloadable (replaced with a new version for instance).
672 <literal>pre-auto</literal> performs this action before downloading
673 new packages.</para></listitem>
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674 </varlistentry>
675
2b9b27c3 676 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 677 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
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678 options when it is run for the install phase.</para></listitem>
679 </varlistentry>
680
2b9b27c3 681 <varlistentry><term><option>Updateoptions</option></term>
5723791e 682 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
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683 options when it is run for the update phase.</para></listitem>
684 </varlistentry>
685
2b9b27c3 686 <varlistentry><term><option>PromptAfterUpdate</option></term>
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687 <listitem><para>If true the [U]pdate operation in &dselect; will always prompt to continue.
688 The default is to prompt only on error.</para></listitem>
689 </varlistentry>
690 </variablelist>
691 </refsect1>
692
5723791e 693 <refsect1><title>How APT calls &dpkg;</title>
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694 <para>Several configuration directives control how APT invokes &dpkg;. These are
695 in the <literal>DPkg</literal> section.</para>
696
697 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 698 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 699 <listitem><para>This is a list of options to pass to &dpkg;. The options must be specified
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700 using the list notation and each list item is passed as a single argument
701 to &dpkg;.</para></listitem>
702 </varlistentry>
703
2b9b27c3 704 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Invoke</option></term><term><option>Post-Invoke</option></term>
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705 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before/after invoking &dpkg;.
706 Like <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The
5723791e 707 commands are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any
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708 fail APT will abort.</para></listitem>
709 </varlistentry>
710
2b9b27c3 711 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Install-Pkgs</option></term>
5723791e 712 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before invoking &dpkg;. Like
24f6490f 713 <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The commands
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714 are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any fail APT
715 will abort. APT will pass the filenames of all .deb files it is going to
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716 install to the commands, one per line on the requested file descriptor, defaulting
717 to standard input.</para>
24f6490f 718
7a948ec7 719 <para>Version 2 of this protocol dumps more information, including the
24f6490f 720 protocol version, the APT configuration space and the packages, files
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721 and versions being changed. Version 3 adds the architecture and <literal>MultiArch</literal>
722 flag to each version being dumped.</para>
723
724 <para>The version of the protocol to be used for the command
725 <literal><replaceable>cmd</replaceable></literal> can be chosen by setting
726 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::Version</literal>
727 accordingly, the default being version 1. If APT isn't supporting the requested
728 version it will send the information in the highest version it has support for instead.
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729 </para>
730
731 <para>The file descriptor to be used to send the information can be requested with
732 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::InfoFD</literal>
733 which defaults to <literal>0</literal> for standard input and is available since
734 version 0.9.11. Support for the option can be detected by looking for the environment
735 variable <envar>APT_HOOK_INFO_FD</envar> which contains the number of the used
736 file descriptor as a confirmation.</para>
737 </listitem>
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738 </varlistentry>
739
2b9b27c3 740 <varlistentry><term><option>Run-Directory</option></term>
5723791e 741 <listitem><para>APT chdirs to this directory before invoking &dpkg;, the default is
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742 <filename>/</filename>.</para></listitem>
743 </varlistentry>
744
2b9b27c3 745 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-options</option></term>
5723791e 746 <listitem><para>These options are passed to &dpkg-buildpackage; when compiling packages;
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747 the default is to disable signing and produce all binaries.</para></listitem>
748 </varlistentry>
749 </variablelist>
3e9c4f70 750
5e312de7 751 <refsect2><title>dpkg trigger usage (and related options)</title>
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752 <para>APT can call &dpkg; in such a way as to let it make aggressive use of triggers over
753 multiple calls of &dpkg;. Without further options &dpkg; will use triggers once each time it runs.
754 Activating these options can therefore decrease the time needed to perform the
755 install or upgrade. Note that it is intended to activate these options per default in the
756 future, but as it drastically changes the way APT calls &dpkg; it needs a lot more testing.
3e9c4f70 757 <emphasis>These options are therefore currently experimental and should not be used in
5723791e 758 production environments.</emphasis> It also breaks progress reporting such that all front-ends will
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759 currently stay around half (or more) of the time in the 100% state while it actually configures
760 all packages.</para>
a9564741 761 <para>Note that it is not guaranteed that APT will support these options or that these options will
5e312de7 762 not cause (big) trouble in the future. If you have understand the current risks and problems with
5723791e 763 these options, but are brave enough to help testing them, create a new configuration file and test a
5e312de7 764 combination of options. Please report any bugs, problems and improvements you encounter and make sure
5723791e 765 to note which options you have used in your reports. Asking &dpkg; for help could also be useful for
5e312de7 766 debugging proposes, see e.g. <command>dpkg --audit</command>. A defensive option combination would be
3e9c4f70 767<literallayout>DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
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768PackageManager::Configure "smart";
769DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
d5081aee 770DPkg::TriggersPending "true";</literallayout></para>
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771
772 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 773 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::NoTriggers</option></term>
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774 <listitem><para>Add the no triggers flag to all &dpkg; calls (except the ConfigurePending call).
775 See &dpkg; if you are interested in what this actually means. In short: &dpkg; will not run the
5f4331c4 776 triggers when this flag is present unless it is explicitly called to do so in an extra call.
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777 Note that this option exists (undocumented) also in older APT versions with a slightly different
778 meaning: Previously these option only append --no-triggers to the configure calls to &dpkg; -
779 now APT will also add this flag to the unpack and remove calls.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 780 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 781 <varlistentry><term><option>PackageManager::Configure</option></term>
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782 <listitem><para>Valid values are "<literal>all</literal>",
783 "<literal>smart</literal>" and "<literal>no</literal>".
784 The default value is "<literal>all</literal>", which causes APT to
785 configure all packages. The "<literal>smart</literal>" way is to
786 configure only packages which need to be configured before another
787 package can be unpacked (Pre-Depends), and let the rest be configured
788 by &dpkg; with a call generated by the ConfigurePending option (see
789 below). On the other hand, "<literal>no</literal>" will not configure
790 anything, and totally relies on &dpkg; for configuration (which at the
791 moment will fail if a Pre-Depends is encountered). Setting this option
792 to any value other than <literal>all</literal> will implicitly also
793 activate the next option by default, as otherwise the system could end
794 in an unconfigured and potentially unbootable state.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 795 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 796 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::ConfigurePending</option></term>
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797 <listitem><para>If this option is set APT will call <command>dpkg --configure --pending</command>
798 to let &dpkg; handle all required configurations and triggers. This option is activated automatically
799 per default if the previous option is not set to <literal>all</literal>, but deactivating it could be useful
5f4331c4 800 if you want to run APT multiple times in a row - e.g. in an installer. In these sceneries you could
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801 deactivate this option in all but the last run.</para></listitem>
802 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 803 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::TriggersPending</option></term>
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804 <listitem><para>Useful for the <literal>smart</literal> configuration as a package which has pending
805 triggers is not considered as <literal>installed</literal>, and &dpkg; treats them as <literal>unpacked</literal>
806 currently which is a showstopper for Pre-Dependencies (see debbugs #526774). Note that this will
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807 process all triggers, not only the triggers needed to configure this package.</para></listitem>
808 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 809 <varlistentry><term><option>OrderList::Score::Immediate</option></term>
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810 <listitem><para>Essential packages (and their dependencies) should be configured immediately
811 after unpacking. It is a good idea to do this quite early in the upgrade process as these
812 configure calls also currently require <literal>DPkg::TriggersPending</literal> which
813 will run quite a few triggers (which may not be needed). Essentials get per default a high score
814 but the immediate flag is relatively low (a package which has a Pre-Depends is rated higher).
5e312de7 815 These option and the others in the same group can be used to change the scoring. The following
5723791e 816 example shows the settings with their default values.
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817 <literallayout>OrderList::Score {
818 Delete 500;
819 Essential 200;
820 Immediate 10;
821 PreDepends 50;
822};</literallayout>
823 </para></listitem>
824 </varlistentry>
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825 </variablelist>
826 </refsect2>
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827 </refsect1>
828
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829 <refsect1>
830 <title>Periodic and Archives options</title>
831 <para><literal>APT::Periodic</literal> and <literal>APT::Archives</literal>
832 groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is
5723791e 833 done by the <literal>/etc/cron.daily/apt</literal> script. See the top of
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834 this script for the brief documentation of these options.
835 </para>
836 </refsect1>
837
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838 <refsect1>
839 <title>Debug options</title>
840 <para>
841 Enabling options in the <literal>Debug::</literal> section will
842 cause debugging information to be sent to the standard error
843 stream of the program utilizing the <literal>apt</literal>
844 libraries, or enable special program modes that are primarily
845 useful for debugging the behavior of <literal>apt</literal>.
846 Most of these options are not interesting to a normal user, but a
847 few may be:
848
849 <itemizedlist>
850 <listitem>
851 <para>
852 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> enables output
853 about the decisions made by
854 <literal>dist-upgrade, upgrade, install, remove, purge</literal>.
855 </para>
856 </listitem>
857
858 <listitem>
859 <para>
860 <literal>Debug::NoLocking</literal> disables all file
861 locking. This can be used to run some operations (for
862 instance, <literal>apt-get -s install</literal>) as a
863 non-root user.
864 </para>
865 </listitem>
866
867 <listitem>
868 <para>
869 <literal>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</literal> prints out the actual
870 command line each time that <literal>apt</literal> invokes
871 &dpkg;.
872 </para>
873 </listitem>
874
875 <listitem>
876 <para>
877 <literal>Debug::IdentCdrom</literal> disables the inclusion
25838be6 878 of statfs data in CD-ROM IDs. <!-- TODO: provide a
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879 motivating example, except I haven't a clue why you'd want
880 to do this. -->
881 </para>
882 </listitem>
883 </itemizedlist>
8a3642bd 884 </para>
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885
886 <para>
887 A full list of debugging options to apt follows.
888 </para>
889
890 <variablelist>
891 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 892 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::cdrom</option></term>
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893
894 <listitem>
895 <para>
896 Print information related to accessing
897 <literal>cdrom://</literal> sources.
898 </para>
899 </listitem>
900 </varlistentry>
901
902 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 903 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::ftp</option></term>
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904
905 <listitem>
906 <para>
907 Print information related to downloading packages using
908 FTP.
909 </para>
910 </listitem>
911 </varlistentry>
912
913 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 914 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::http</option></term>
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915
916 <listitem>
917 <para>
918 Print information related to downloading packages using
919 HTTP.
920 </para>
921 </listitem>
922 </varlistentry>
923
924 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 925 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::https</option></term>
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926
927 <listitem>
928 <para>
929 Print information related to downloading packages using
930 HTTPS.
931 </para>
932 </listitem>
933 </varlistentry>
934
935 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 936 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::gpgv</option></term>
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937
938 <listitem>
939 <para>
940 Print information related to verifying cryptographic
941 signatures using <literal>gpg</literal>.
942 </para>
943 </listitem>
944 </varlistentry>
945
946 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 947 <term><option>Debug::aptcdrom</option></term>
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948
949 <listitem>
950 <para>
951 Output information about the process of accessing
952 collections of packages stored on CD-ROMs.
953 </para>
954 </listitem>
955 </varlistentry>
956
957 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 958 <term><option>Debug::BuildDeps</option></term>
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959 <listitem>
960 <para>
961 Describes the process of resolving build-dependencies in
962 &apt-get;.
963 </para>
964 </listitem>
965 </varlistentry>
966
967 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 968 <term><option>Debug::Hashes</option></term>
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969 <listitem>
970 <para>
971 Output each cryptographic hash that is generated by the
972 <literal>apt</literal> libraries.
973 </para>
974 </listitem>
975 </varlistentry>
976
977 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 978 <term><option>Debug::IdentCDROM</option></term>
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979 <listitem>
980 <para>
981 Do not include information from <literal>statfs</literal>,
982 namely the number of used and free blocks on the CD-ROM
983 filesystem, when generating an ID for a CD-ROM.
984 </para>
985 </listitem>
986 </varlistentry>
987
988 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 989 <term><option>Debug::NoLocking</option></term>
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990 <listitem>
991 <para>
992 Disable all file locking. For instance, this will allow
993 two instances of <quote><literal>apt-get
994 update</literal></quote> to run at the same time.
995 </para>
996 </listitem>
997 </varlistentry>
998
999 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1000 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire</option></term>
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1001
1002 <listitem>
1003 <para>
1004 Log when items are added to or removed from the global
1005 download queue.
1006 </para>
1007 </listitem>
1008 </varlistentry>
1009
1010 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1011 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Auth</option></term>
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1012 <listitem>
1013 <para>
1014 Output status messages and errors related to verifying
1015 checksums and cryptographic signatures of downloaded files.
1016 </para>
1017 </listitem>
1018 </varlistentry>
1019
1020 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1021 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Diffs</option></term>
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1022 <listitem>
1023 <para>
1024 Output information about downloading and applying package
1025 index list diffs, and errors relating to package index list
1026 diffs.
1027 </para>
1028 </listitem>
1029 </varlistentry>
1030
1031 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1032 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::RRed</option></term>
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1033
1034 <listitem>
1035 <para>
1036 Output information related to patching apt package lists
1037 when downloading index diffs instead of full indices.
1038 </para>
1039 </listitem>
1040 </varlistentry>
1041
1042 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1043 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Worker</option></term>
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1044
1045 <listitem>
1046 <para>
1047 Log all interactions with the sub-processes that actually
1048 perform downloads.
1049 </para>
1050 </listitem>
1051 </varlistentry>
1052
1053 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1054 <term><option>Debug::pkgAutoRemove</option></term>
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1055
1056 <listitem>
1057 <para>
1058 Log events related to the automatically-installed status of
1059 packages and to the removal of unused packages.
1060 </para>
1061 </listitem>
1062 </varlistentry>
1063
1064 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1065 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall</option></term>
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1066 <listitem>
1067 <para>
1068 Generate debug messages describing which packages are being
1069 automatically installed to resolve dependencies. This
1070 corresponds to the initial auto-install pass performed in,
1071 e.g., <literal>apt-get install</literal>, and not to the
1072 full <literal>apt</literal> dependency resolver; see
1073 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> for that.
1074 </para>
1075 </listitem>
1076 </varlistentry>
1077
af29ffb4 1078 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1079 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</option></term>
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1080 <listitem>
1081 <para>
5723791e 1082 Generate debug messages describing which packages are marked
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1083 as keep/install/remove while the ProblemResolver does his work.
1084 Each addition or deletion may trigger additional actions;
5723791e 1085 they are shown indented two additional spaces under the original entry.
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1086 The format for each line is <literal>MarkKeep</literal>,
1087 <literal>MarkDelete</literal> or <literal>MarkInstall</literal> followed by
1088 <literal>package-name &lt;a.b.c -&gt; d.e.f | x.y.z&gt; (section)</literal>
1089 where <literal>a.b.c</literal> is the current version of the package,
1090 <literal>d.e.f</literal> is the version considered for installation and
1091 <literal>x.y.z</literal> is a newer version, but not considered for installation
1092 (because of a low pin score). The later two can be omitted if there is none or if
5723791e 1093 it is the same as the installed version.
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1094 <literal>section</literal> is the name of the section the package appears in.
1095 </para>
1096 </listitem>
1097 </varlistentry>
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1098
1099 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1100 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</option></term>
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1101 <listitem>
1102 <para>
1103 When invoking &dpkg;, output the precise command line with
1104 which it is being invoked, with arguments separated by a
1105 single space character.
1106 </para>
1107 </listitem>
1108 </varlistentry>
1109
1110 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1111 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgProgressReporting</option></term>
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1112 <listitem>
1113 <para>
1114 Output all the data received from &dpkg; on the status file
1115 descriptor and any errors encountered while parsing it.
1116 </para>
1117 </listitem>
1118 </varlistentry>
1119
1120 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1121 <term><option>Debug::pkgOrderList</option></term>
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1122
1123 <listitem>
1124 <para>
1125 Generate a trace of the algorithm that decides the order in
1126 which <literal>apt</literal> should pass packages to
1127 &dpkg;.
1128 </para>
1129 </listitem>
1130 </varlistentry>
1131
1132 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1133 <term><option>Debug::pkgPackageManager</option></term>
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1134
1135 <listitem>
1136 <para>
1137 Output status messages tracing the steps performed when
1138 invoking &dpkg;.
1139 </para>
1140 </listitem>
1141 </varlistentry>
1142
1143 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1144 <term><option>Debug::pkgPolicy</option></term>
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1145
1146 <listitem>
1147 <para>
1148 Output the priority of each package list on startup.
1149 </para>
1150 </listitem>
1151 </varlistentry>
1152
1153 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1154 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</option></term>
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1155
1156 <listitem>
1157 <para>
1158 Trace the execution of the dependency resolver (this
1159 applies only to what happens when a complex dependency
1160 problem is encountered).
1161 </para>
1162 </listitem>
1163 </varlistentry>
1164
8b4894fe 1165 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1166 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver::ShowScores</option></term>
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1167 <listitem>
1168 <para>
1169 Display a list of all installed packages with their calculated score
1170 used by the pkgProblemResolver. The description of the package
1171 is the same as described in <literal>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</literal>
1172 </para>
1173 </listitem>
1174 </varlistentry>
1175
be1b8568 1176 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1177 <term><option>Debug::sourceList</option></term>
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1178
1179 <listitem>
1180 <para>
1181 Print information about the vendors read from
1182 <filename>/etc/apt/vendors.list</filename>.
1183 </para>
1184 </listitem>
1185 </varlistentry>
1186
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1187 <varlistentry>
1188 <term><option>Debug::RunScripts</option></term>
1189 <listitem>
1190 <para>
1191 Display the external commands that are called by apt hooks.
1192 This includes e.g. the config options
1193 <literal>DPkg::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal> or
1194 <literal>APT::Update::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal>.
1195 </para>
1196 </listitem>
1197 </varlistentry>
1198
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1199<!-- 2009/07/11 Currently used nowhere. The corresponding code
1200is commented.
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1201 <varlistentry>
1202 <term><literal>Debug::Vendor</literal></term>
1203
1204 <listitem>
1205 <para>
1206 Print information about each vendor.
1207 </para>
1208 </listitem>
1209 </varlistentry>
d82cdf73 1210-->
45df0ad2 1211
be1b8568 1212 </variablelist>
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1213 </refsect1>
1214
1215 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
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1216 <para>&configureindex; is a
1217 configuration file showing example values for all possible
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1218 options.</para>
1219 </refsect1>
1220
1221 <refsect1><title>Files</title>
6e2525a1 1222 <variablelist>
1221c3a3 1223 &file-aptconf;
6e2525a1 1224 </variablelist>
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1225 </refsect1>
1226
1227 <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
1228 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-config;<!-- ? reading apt.conf -->, &apt-preferences;.</para>
1229 </refsect1>
1230
1231 &manbugs;
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1232
1233</refentry>
1234