First draft

[apt.git] / doc / apt-cache.8

.\" This manpage is copyright (C) 1998 Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>.\r
.\" \r
.\" This is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify\r
.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as\r
.\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2,\r
.\" or (at your option) any later version.\r
.\"\r
.\" This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but\r
.\" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of\r
.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the\r
.\" GNU General Public License for more details.\r
.\"\r
.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public\r
.\" License along with APT; if not, write to the Free Software\r
.\" Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA \r
.\" 02111-1307 USA\r
.TH apt-cache 8 "16 June 1998" "Debian GNU/Linux"\r
.SH NAME\r
apt-cache \- APT package handling utility \(em cache manipulator\r
.SH SYNOPSIS\r
.B apt-cache\r
.I command cache\r
.RI [ argument \r
.IR ... ]\r
.SH DESCRIPTION\r
.B apt-cache\r
performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.\r
.I apt-cache\r
is seldom called directly; instead it is usually invoked internally by\r
.BR apt-get (8)\r
or\r
.BR apt (8).\r
.PP\r
.I command\r
is one of\r
.RS\r
.PD 0\r
.B add\r
.PP\r
.B dump\r
.PP\r
.B dumpavail\r
.PP\r
.B showpkg\r
.PP\r
.B stats\r
.RE\r
.PD 1\r
.PP\r
.I cache\r
must be a package cache file (for instance,\r
.IR /var/cache/apt/pkgcache.bin ).\r
Some\r
.IR command s\r
require additional arguments.\r
.SS add\r
.B add\r
adds a new set of package records to\r
.IR cache .\r
Remaining arguments are of the form\r
.IR file : dist : ver ,\r
where\r
.I file\r
is the full path to file in question.\r
.I dist\r
and\r
.I ver\r
can be any string and are not yet implemented.\r
.SS dump\r
.B dump\r
displays information about all the packages in the cache. See\r
.B showpkg\r
below for an explanation of what data is output for each package.\r
.SS dumpavail\r
.B dumpavail\r
generates an\r
.I available\r
file suitable for use with\r
.BR dpkg (8)\r
based on the information in the cache.\r
.SS showpkg\r
.B showpkg\r
displays information about the packages listed on the command line.     \r
Remaining arguments are package names. The available versions and       \r
reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as well as      \r
forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal) dependencies   \r
are those packages upon which the package in question depends; reverse  \r
dependencies are those packages that depend upon the package in         \r
question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a package,  \r
but reverse dependencies need not be.                                   \r
For instance,\r
.B apt-cache showpkg\r
.I cache\r
.B libreadline2\r
would produce output similar to the following:\r
.PP\r
.RS\r
.PD 0\r
Package: libreadline2\r
.PP\r
Versions: 2.1-8,2.1-7,\r
.PP\r
Reverse Depends:\r
.RS\r
.PP\r
libreadlineg2,libreadline2\r
.PP\r
libreadlineg2,libreadline2\r
.PP\r
libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2\r
.RE\r
.PP\r
Dependencies:\r
.PP\r
2.1-8 - libc5 ncurses3.0 ldso\r
.PP\r
2.1-7 - ldso libc5 ncurses3.0\r
.RE\r
.PD 1\r
.PP\r
Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-8, depends on libc5,\r
ncurses3.0, and ldso, which must be installed for libreadline2 to work. In\r
turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If\r
libreadline2 is installed, libc5, ncurses3.0, and ldso must also be\r
installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be\r
installed.\r
.SS stats\r
.B stats\r
displays some statistics about\r
.IR cache .\r
No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:\r
.RS\r
.TP\r
.I Total package names\r
is the number of package names found in the cache.\r
.TP\r
.I Normal packages\r
is the number of regular, ordinary package names; these\r
are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between their names and\r
the names used by other packages for them in dependencies. The majority of\r
packages fall into this category.\r
.TP\r
.I Pure virtual packages\r
is the number of packages that exist only as a virtual package name; that\r
is, packages only "provide" the virtual package name, and no package\r
actually uses the name. For instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian\r
GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual package; several packages provide\r
"mail-transport-agent", but there is no package named "mail-transport-agent".\r
.TP\r
.I Single virtual packages\r
is the number of packages with only one package providing a particular  \r
virtual package. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system,         \r
"X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but only one package, xless,    \r
provides "X11-text-viewer".\r
.TP\r
.I Mixed virtual packages\r
is the number of packages that either provide a particular virtual package\r
or have the virtual package name as the package name. For instance, in the\r
Debian GNU/Linux system, e2fsprogs is both an actual package, and\r
provided by the e2compr package.\r
.TP\r
.I Missing\r
is the number of package names that were referenced in a dependency but\r
were not provided by any package. Missing packages may be in evidence\r
if a full distribution is not accesssed, or if a package (real or virtual)\r
has been dropped from the distribution.\r
.TP\r
.I Total distinct versions\r
is the number of package versions found in the cache; this value is\r
therefore at least equal to the number of total package names. If more than\r
one distribution (both "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being\r
accessed, this value can be considerably larger than the number of total\r
package names.\r
.TP\r
.I Total dependencies\r
is the number of dependency relationships claimed by all of the packages in\r
the cache.\r
.RE\r
.SH OPTIONS\r
None.\r
.SH FILES\r
None.\r
.SH SEE ALSO\r
.BR apt (8),\r
.BR apt-get (8),\r
.I /usr/doc/apt/cache*\r
.SH DIAGNOSTICS\r
apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.\r
.SH BUGS\r
See <http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/pa/lapt.html>.  If you wish to report a\r
bug in\r
.BR apt-cache ,\r
please see\r
.I /usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt\r
or the\r
.BR bug (1)\r
command.\r
.SH AUTHOR\r
apt-cache was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.\r