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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<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
5<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
6<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
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7]>
8
9<refentry>
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10
11 <refentryinfo>
12 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
13 &apt-author.team;
be1b8568 14 <author>
d5aa88bf 15 &apt-name.dburrows;
be1b8568 16 <contrib>Initial documentation of Debug::*.</contrib>
4920c8c7 17 <email>dburrows@debian.org</email>
be1b8568 18 </author>
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19 &apt-email;
20 &apt-product;
21 <!-- The last update date -->
3ac050d1 22 <date>2015-12-14T00:00:00Z</date>
5e80de29 23 </refentryinfo>
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24
25 <refmeta>
26 <refentrytitle>apt.conf</refentrytitle>
27 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
f0599b9c 28 <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
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29 </refmeta>
30
31 <!-- Man page title -->
32 <refnamediv>
33 <refname>apt.conf</refname>
34 <refpurpose>Configuration file for APT</refpurpose>
35 </refnamediv>
5723791e 36
24f6490f 37 <refsect1><title>Description</title>
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38 <para><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> is the main configuration
39 file shared by all the tools in the APT suite of tools, though it is by
40 no means the only place options can be set. The suite also shares a common
41 command line parser to provide a uniform environment.</para>
42
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43 <orderedlist>
44 <para>When an APT tool starts up it will read the configuration files
45 in the following order:</para>
46 <listitem><para>the file specified by the <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>
47 environment variable (if any)</para></listitem>
48 <listitem><para>all files in <literal>Dir::Etc::Parts</literal> in
1fc8c922 49 alphanumeric ascending order which have either no or "<literal>conf</literal>"
e29a6bb1 50 as filename extension and which only contain alphanumeric,
7376837d 51 hyphen (-), underscore (_) and period (.) characters.
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52 Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
53 file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
5723791e 54 configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para></listitem>
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55 <listitem><para>the main configuration file specified by
56 <literal>Dir::Etc::main</literal></para></listitem>
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57 <listitem><para>all options set in the binary specific configuration
58 subtree are moved into the root of the tree.</para></listitem>
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59 <listitem><para>the command line options are applied to override the
60 configuration directives or to load even more configuration files.</para></listitem>
61 </orderedlist>
62 </refsect1>
63 <refsect1><title>Syntax</title>
24f6490f 64 <para>The configuration file is organized in a tree with options organized into
5f4331c4 65 functional groups. Option specification is given with a double colon
5723791e 66 notation; for instance <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> is an option within
5f4331c4 67 the APT tool group, for the Get tool. Options do not inherit from their
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68 parent groups.</para>
69
e3a1f08d 70 <para>Syntactically the configuration language is modeled after what the ISC tools
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71 such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
72 <literal>//</literal> are treated as comments (ignored), as well as all text
73 between <literal>/*</literal> and <literal>*/</literal>, just like C/C++ comments.
24f6490f 74 Each line is of the form
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75 <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true";</literal>.
76 The quotation marks and trailing semicolon are required.
77 The value must be on one line, and there is no kind of string concatenation.
78 Values must not include backslashes or extra quotation marks.
79 Option names are made up of alphanumeric characters and the characters "/-:._+".
80 A new scope can be opened with curly braces, like this:</para>
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81
82<informalexample><programlisting>
83APT {
84 Get {
85 Assume-Yes "true";
86 Fix-Broken "true";
87 };
88};
89</programlisting></informalexample>
90
91 <para>with newlines placed to make it more readable. Lists can be created by
d82cdf73 92 opening a scope and including a single string enclosed in quotes followed by a
5723791e 93 semicolon. Multiple entries can be included, separated by a semicolon.</para>
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94
95<informalexample><programlisting>
96DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
97</programlisting></informalexample>
98
00612a8c 99 <para>In general the sample configuration file &configureindex;
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100 is a good guide for how it should look.</para>
101
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102 <para>Case is not significant in names of configuration items, so in the
103 previous example you could use <literal>dpkg::pre-install-pkgs</literal>.</para>
fb3b7ef0 104
5723791e 105 <para>Names for the configuration items are optional if a list is defined as can be seen in
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106 the <literal>DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs</literal> example above. If you don't specify a name a
107 new entry will simply add a new option to the list. If you specify a name you can override
5723791e 108 the option in the same way as any other option by reassigning a new value to the option.</para>
63fc5550 109
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110 <para>Two special commands are defined: <literal>#include</literal> (which is
111 deprecated and not supported by alternative implementations) and
112 <literal>#clear</literal>. <literal>#include</literal> will include the
113 given file, unless the filename ends in a slash, in which case the whole
114 directory is included.
d82cdf73 115 <literal>#clear</literal> is used to erase a part of the configuration tree. The
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116 specified element and all its descendants are erased.
117 (Note that these lines also need to end with a semicolon.)</para>
118
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119 <para>
120 The <literal>#clear</literal> command is the only way to delete a list or
121 a complete scope. Reopening a scope (or using the syntax described below
122 with an appended <literal>::</literal>) will <emphasis>not</emphasis>
123 override previously written entries. Options can only be overridden by
124 addressing a new value to them - lists and scopes can't be overridden,
125 only cleared.
126 </para>
24f6490f 127
5723791e 128 <para>All of the APT tools take an -o option which allows an arbitrary configuration
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129 directive to be specified on the command line. The syntax is a full option
130 name (<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> for instance) followed by an equals
c086ac18 131 sign then the new value of the option. To append a new element to a list, add a
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132 trailing <literal>::</literal> to the name of the list.
133 (As you might suspect, the scope syntax can't be used on the command line.)</para>
134
135 <para>
136 Note that appending items to a list using <literal>::</literal> only works
137 for one item per line, and that you should not use it in combination with
138 the scope syntax (which adds <literal>::</literal> implicitly). Using both
139 syntaxes together will trigger a bug which some users unfortunately depend
140 on: an option with the unusual name "<literal>::</literal>" which acts
141 like every other option with a name. This introduces many problems; for
142 one thing, users who write multiple lines in this
143 <emphasis>wrong</emphasis> syntax in the hope of appending to a list will
144 achieve the opposite, as only the last assignment for this option
145 "<literal>::</literal>" will be used. Future versions of APT will raise
146 errors and stop working if they encounter this misuse, so please correct
147 such statements now while APT doesn't explicitly complain about them.
148 </para>
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149 </refsect1>
150
151 <refsect1><title>The APT Group</title>
152 <para>This group of options controls general APT behavior as well as holding the
153 options for all of the tools.</para>
154
155 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 156 <varlistentry><term><option>Architecture</option></term>
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157 <listitem><para>System Architecture; sets the architecture to use when fetching files and
158 parsing package lists. The internal default is the architecture apt was
159 compiled for.</para></listitem>
160 </varlistentry>
58014adc 161
2b9b27c3 162 <varlistentry><term><option>Architectures</option></term>
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163 <listitem><para>
164 All Architectures the system supports. For instance, CPUs implementing
165 the <literal>amd64</literal> (also called <literal>x86-64</literal>)
166 instruction set are also able to execute binaries compiled for the
167 <literal>i386</literal> (<literal>x86</literal>) instruction set. This
168 list is used when fetching files and parsing package lists. The
169 initial default is always the system's native architecture
170 (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>), and foreign architectures are
171 added to the default list when they are registered via
172 <command>dpkg --add-architecture</command>.
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173 </para></listitem>
174 </varlistentry>
175
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176 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Profiles</option></term>
177 <listitem><para>
178 List of all build profiles enabled for build-dependency resolution,
179 without the "<literal>profile.</literal>" namespace prefix.
180 By default this list is empty. The <envar>DEB_BUILD_PROFILES</envar>
181 as used by &dpkg-buildpackage; overrides the list notation.
182 </para></listitem>
183 </varlistentry>
184
2b9b27c3 185 <varlistentry><term><option>Default-Release</option></term>
e1dd65c9 186 <listitem><para>Default release to install packages from if more than one
5723791e 187 version is available. Contains release name, codename or release version. Examples: 'stable', 'testing',
e1dd65c9 188 'unstable', '&stable-codename;', '&testing-codename;', '4.0', '5.0*'. See also &apt-preferences;.</para></listitem>
60a8f9c0 189 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 190
2b9b27c3 191 <varlistentry><term><option>Ignore-Hold</option></term>
5723791e 192 <listitem><para>Ignore held packages; this global option causes the problem resolver to
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193 ignore held packages in its decision making.</para></listitem>
194 </varlistentry>
195
2b9b27c3 196 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean-Installed</option></term>
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197 <listitem><para>Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages
198 which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then
199 packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but
200 note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them.</para></listitem>
201 </varlistentry>
202
2b9b27c3 203 <varlistentry><term><option>Immediate-Configure</option></term>
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204 <listitem><para>
205 Defaults to on, which will cause APT to install essential and important
206 packages as soon as possible in an install/upgrade operation, in order
207 to limit the effect of a failing &dpkg; call. If this option is
208 disabled, APT treats an important package in the same way as an extra
209 package: between the unpacking of the package A and its configuration
210 there can be many other unpack or configuration calls for other
211 unrelated packages B, C etc. If these cause the &dpkg; call to fail
212 (e.g. because package B's maintainer scripts generate an error), this
213 results in a system state in which package A is unpacked but
214 unconfigured - so any package depending on A is now no longer
215 guaranteed to work, as its dependency on A is no longer satisfied.
216 </para><para>
217 The immediate configuration marker is also applied in the potentially
218 problematic case of circular dependencies, since a dependency with the
219 immediate flag is equivalent to a Pre-Dependency. In theory this allows
220 APT to recognise a situation in which it is unable to perform immediate
221 configuration, abort, and suggest to the user that the option should be
222 temporarily deactivated in order to allow the operation to proceed.
223 Note the use of the word "theory" here; in the real world this problem
224 has rarely been encountered, in non-stable distribution versions, and
225 was caused by wrong dependencies of the package in question or by a
226 system in an already broken state; so you should not blindly disable
227 this option, as the scenario mentioned above is not the only problem it
228 can help to prevent in the first place.
229 </para><para>
230 Before a big operation like <literal>dist-upgrade</literal> is run
231 with this option disabled you should try to explicitly
232 <literal>install</literal> the package APT is unable to configure
233 immediately; but please make sure you also report your problem to your
234 distribution and to the APT team with the buglink below, so they can
235 work on improving or correcting the upgrade process.
236 </para></listitem>
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237 </varlistentry>
238
2b9b27c3 239 <varlistentry><term><option>Force-LoopBreak</option></term>
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240 <listitem><para>
241 Never enable this option unless you <emphasis>really</emphasis> know
242 what you are doing. It permits APT to temporarily remove an essential
243 package to break a Conflicts/Conflicts or Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop
244 between two essential packages. <emphasis>Such a loop should never exist
245 and is a grave bug</emphasis>. This option will work if the essential
246 packages are not <command>tar</command>, <command>gzip</command>,
247 <command>libc</command>, <command>dpkg</command>, <command>dash</command>
248 or anything that those packages depend on.
249 </para></listitem>
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250 </varlistentry>
251
2b9b27c3 252 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache-Start</option></term><term><option>Cache-Grow</option></term><term><option>Cache-Limit</option></term>
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253 <listitem><para>APT uses since version 0.7.26 a resizable memory mapped cache file to store the available
254 information. <literal>Cache-Start</literal> acts as a hint of the size the cache will grow to,
dcdf1ef1 255 and is therefore the amount of memory APT will request at startup. The default value is
5723791e 256 20971520 bytes (~20 MB). Note that this amount of space needs to be available for APT;
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257 otherwise it will likely fail ungracefully, so for memory restricted devices this value should
258 be lowered while on systems with a lot of configured sources it should be increased.
259 <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> defines in bytes with the default of 1048576 (~1 MB) how much
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260 the cache size will be increased in the event the space defined by <literal>Cache-Start</literal>
261 is not enough. This value will be applied again and again until either the cache is big
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262 enough to store all information or the size of the cache reaches the <literal>Cache-Limit</literal>.
263 The default of <literal>Cache-Limit</literal> is 0 which stands for no limit.
5723791e 264 If <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> is set to 0 the automatic growth of the cache is disabled.
dcdf1ef1 265 </para></listitem>
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266 </varlistentry>
267
2b9b27c3 268 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Essential</option></term>
5723791e 269 <listitem><para>Defines which packages are considered essential build dependencies.</para></listitem>
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270 </varlistentry>
271
2b9b27c3 272 <varlistentry><term><option>Get</option></term>
5723791e 273 <listitem><para>The Get subsection controls the &apt-get; tool; please see its
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274 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
275 </varlistentry>
276
2b9b27c3 277 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache</option></term>
5723791e 278 <listitem><para>The Cache subsection controls the &apt-cache; tool; please see its
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279 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
280 </varlistentry>
281
2b9b27c3 282 <varlistentry><term><option>CDROM</option></term>
5723791e 283 <listitem><para>The CDROM subsection controls the &apt-cdrom; tool; please see its
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284 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
285 </varlistentry>
286 </variablelist>
287 </refsect1>
288
289 <refsect1><title>The Acquire Group</title>
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290 <para>The <literal>Acquire</literal> group of options controls the
291 download of packages as well as the various "acquire methods" responsible
292 for the download itself (see also &sources-list;).</para>
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293
294 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 295 <varlistentry><term><option>Check-Valid-Until</option></term>
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296 <listitem><para>
297 Security related option defaulting to true, as giving a Release file's
298 validation an expiration date prevents replay attacks over a long
299 timescale, and can also for example help users to identify mirrors
300 that are no longer updated - but the feature depends on the
301 correctness of the clock on the user system. Archive maintainers are
302 encouraged to create Release files with the
303 <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header, but if they don't or a
304 stricter value is desired the <literal>Max-ValidTime</literal>
305 option below can be used.
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306 The <option>Check-Valid-Until</option> option of &sources-list; entries should be
307 preferred to disable the check selectively instead of using this global override.
5723791e 308 </para></listitem>
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309 </varlistentry>
310
2b9b27c3 311 <varlistentry><term><option>Max-ValidTime</option></term>
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312 <listitem><para>Maximum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
313 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
314 file should be considered valid.
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315 If the Release file itself includes a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
316 the earlier date of the two is used as the expiration date.
5723791e 317 The default value is <literal>0</literal> which stands for "valid forever".
89500a25 318 Archive specific settings can be made by appending the label of the archive
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319 to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
320 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Max</option> option there.
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321 </para></listitem>
322 </varlistentry>
323
2b9b27c3 324 <varlistentry><term><option>Min-ValidTime</option></term>
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325 <listitem><para>Minimum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
326 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
327 file should be considered valid.
328 Use this if you need to use a seldom updated (local) mirror of a more
329 frequently updated archive with a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
2130caa8 330 instead of completely disabling the expiration date checking.
89500a25 331 Archive specific settings can and should be used by appending the label of
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332 the archive to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
333 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Min</option> option there.
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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
340 downloading whole ones. True by default. Preferably, this can be set
341 for specific &sources-list; entries or index files by using the
342 <option>PDiffs</option> option there.</para>
02dceb31 343 <para>Two sub-options to limit the use of PDiffs are also available:
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344 <literal>FileLimit</literal> can be used to specify a maximum number of
345 PDiff files should be downloaded to update a file. <literal>SizeLimit</literal>
f3b8d857 346 on the other hand is the maximum percentage of the size of all patches
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347 compared to the size of the targeted file. If one of these limits is
348 exceeded the complete file is downloaded instead of the patches.
349 </para></listitem>
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350 </varlistentry>
351
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352 <varlistentry><term><option>By-Hash</option></term>
353 <listitem><para>Try to download indexes via an URI constructed from a
354 hashsum of the expected file rather than downloaded via a well-known
355 stable filename. True by default, but automatically disabled if the
356 source indicates no support for it. Usage can be forced with the special
357 value "force". Preferably, this can be set for specific &sources-list; entries
358 or index files by using the <option>By-Hash</option> option there.
359 </para></listitem>
360 </varlistentry>
361
2b9b27c3 362 <varlistentry><term><option>Queue-Mode</option></term>
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363 <listitem><para>Queuing mode; <literal>Queue-Mode</literal> can be one of <literal>host</literal> or
364 <literal>access</literal> which determines how APT parallelizes outgoing
365 connections. <literal>host</literal> means that one connection per target host
366 will be opened, <literal>access</literal> means that one connection per URI type
367 will be opened.</para></listitem>
368 </varlistentry>
369
2b9b27c3 370 <varlistentry><term><option>Retries</option></term>
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371 <listitem><para>Number of retries to perform. If this is non-zero APT will retry failed
372 files the given number of times.</para></listitem>
373 </varlistentry>
374
2b9b27c3 375 <varlistentry><term><option>Source-Symlinks</option></term>
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376 <listitem><para>Use symlinks for source archives. If set to true then source archives will
377 be symlinked when possible instead of copying. True is the default.</para></listitem>
378 </varlistentry>
379
2b9b27c3 380 <varlistentry><term><option>http</option></term>
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381 <listitem><para><literal>http::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for HTTP
382 URIs. It is in the standard form of <literal>http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
383 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
24f6490f 384 <literal>http::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
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385 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
386 <envar>http_proxy</envar> environment variable
387 will be used.</para>
24f6490f 388
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389 <para>Three settings are provided for cache control with HTTP/1.1 compliant
390 proxy caches.
391 <literal>No-Cache</literal> tells the proxy not to use its cached
392 response under any circumstances.
393 <literal>Max-Age</literal> sets the allowed maximum age (in seconds) of
394 an index file in the cache of the proxy.
395 <literal>No-Store</literal> specifies that the proxy should not store
396 the requested archive files in its cache, which can be used to prevent
397 the proxy from polluting its cache with (big) .deb files.</para>
24f6490f 398
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399 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
400 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
24f6490f 401
82214317 402 <para>The setting <literal>Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth</literal> can be used to
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403 enable HTTP pipelining (RFC 2616 section 8.1.2.2) which can be beneficial e.g. on
404 high-latency connections. It specifies how many requests are sent in a pipeline.
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405 APT tries to detect and workaround misbehaving webservers and proxies at runtime, but
406 if you know that yours does not conform to the HTTP/1.1 specification pipelining can
407 be disabled by setting the value to 0. It is enabled by default with the value 10.</para>
5900bd8d 408
5723791e 409 <para><literal>Acquire::http::AllowRedirect</literal> controls whether APT will follow
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410 redirects, which is enabled by default.</para>
411
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412 <para>The used bandwidth can be limited with
413 <literal>Acquire::http::Dl-Limit</literal> which accepts integer
414 values in kilobytes per second. The default value is 0 which
415 deactivates the limit and tries to use all available bandwidth.
416 Note that this option implicitly disables downloading from
417 multiple servers at the same time.</para>
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418
419 <para><literal>Acquire::http::User-Agent</literal> can be used to set a different
420 User-Agent for the http download method as some proxies allow access for clients
421 only if the client uses a known identifier.</para>
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422
423 <para><literal>Acquire::http::Proxy-Auto-Detect</literal> can be used to
c57805f9 424 specify an external command to discover the http proxy to use. Apt expects
c08cf1dc 425 the command to output the proxy on stdout in the style
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426 <literal>http://proxy:port/</literal>. This will override the
427 generic <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy</literal> but not any specific
428 host proxy configuration set via
429 <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy::$HOST</literal>.
430
431 See the &squid-deb-proxy-client; package for an example implementation that
432 uses avahi. This option takes precedence over the legacy option name
433 <literal>ProxyAutoDetect</literal>.
434 </para>
c08cf1dc 435
4494239c 436 </listitem>
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437 </varlistentry>
438
2b9b27c3 439 <varlistentry><term><option>https</option></term>
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440 <listitem><para>
441 The <literal>Cache-control</literal>, <literal>Timeout</literal>,
442 <literal>AllowRedirect</literal>, <literal>Dl-Limit</literal> and
443 <literal>proxy</literal> options work for HTTPS URIs in the same way
444 as for the <literal>http</literal> method, and default to the same
445 values if they are not explicitly set. The
446 <literal>Pipeline-Depth</literal> option is not yet supported.
447 </para>
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448
449 <para><literal>CaInfo</literal> suboption specifies place of file that
450 holds info about trusted certificates.
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451 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::CaInfo</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
452 <literal>Verify-Peer</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
453 server's host certificate should be verified against trusted certificates.
454 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Peer</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
455 <literal>Verify-Host</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
456 server's hostname should be verified.
457 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Host</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 458 <literal>SslCert</literal> determines what certificate to use for client
5723791e 459 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslCert</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 460 <literal>SslKey</literal> determines what private key to use for client
5723791e 461 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslKey</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 462 <literal>SslForceVersion</literal> overrides default SSL version to use.
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463 It can contain either of the strings '<literal>TLSv1</literal>' or
464 '<literal>SSLv3</literal>'.
465 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslForceVersion</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
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466 </para></listitem></varlistentry>
467
2b9b27c3 468 <varlistentry><term><option>ftp</option></term>
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469 <listitem><para>
470 <literal>ftp::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for FTP URIs.
471 It is in the standard form of <literal>ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
472 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
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473 <literal>ftp::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
474 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
475 <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable
5723791e 476 will be used. To use an FTP
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477 proxy you will have to set the <literal>ftp::ProxyLogin</literal> script in the
478 configuration file. This entry specifies the commands to send to tell
479 the proxy server what to connect to. Please see
480 &configureindex; for an example of
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481 how to do this. The substitution variables representing the corresponding
482 URI component are <literal>$(PROXY_USER)</literal>,
483 <literal>$(PROXY_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE_USER)</literal>,
484 <literal>$(SITE_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE)</literal> and
485 <literal>$(SITE_PORT)</literal>.</para>
24f6490f 486
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487 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
488 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
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489
490 <para>Several settings are provided to control passive mode. Generally it is
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491 safe to leave passive mode on; it works in nearly every environment.
492 However, some situations require that passive mode be disabled and port
493 mode FTP used instead. This can be done globally or for connections that
494 go through a proxy or for a specific host (see the sample config file
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495 for examples).</para>
496
497 <para>It is possible to proxy FTP over HTTP by setting the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar>
5723791e 498 environment variable to an HTTP URL - see the discussion of the http method
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499 above for syntax. You cannot set this in the configuration file and it is
500 not recommended to use FTP over HTTP due to its low efficiency.</para>
501
502 <para>The setting <literal>ForceExtended</literal> controls the use of RFC2428
e3a1f08d 503 <literal>EPSV</literal> and <literal>EPRT</literal> commands. The default is false, which means
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504 these commands are only used if the control connection is IPv6. Setting this
505 to true forces their use even on IPv4 connections. Note that most FTP servers
506 do not support RFC2428.</para></listitem>
507 </varlistentry>
508
2b9b27c3 509 <varlistentry><term><option>cdrom</option></term>
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510 <listitem><para>
511 For URIs using the <literal>cdrom</literal> method, the only configurable
512 option is the mount point, <literal>cdrom::Mount</literal>, which must be
513 the mount point for the CD-ROM (or DVD, or whatever) drive as specified in
514 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. It is possible to provide alternate mount
515 and unmount commands if your mount point cannot be listed in the fstab.
516 The syntax is to put <literallayout>/cdrom/::Mount "foo";</literallayout> within
517 the <literal>cdrom</literal> block. It is important to have the trailing slash.
518 Unmount commands can be specified using UMount.
519 </para></listitem>
24f6490f 520 </varlistentry>
8a3642bd 521
2b9b27c3 522 <varlistentry><term><option>gpgv</option></term>
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523 <listitem><para>
524 For GPGV URIs the only configurable option is <literal>gpgv::Options</literal>,
525 which passes additional parameters to gpgv.
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526 </para></listitem>
527 </varlistentry>
528
2b9b27c3 529 <varlistentry><term><option>CompressionTypes</option></term>
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530 <listitem><para>List of compression types which are understood by the acquire methods.
531 Files like <filename>Packages</filename> can be available in various compression formats.
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532 By default the acquire methods can decompress <command>bzip2</command>, <command>lzma</command>
533 and <command>gzip</command> compressed files; with this setting more formats can be added
8bd02d8b 534 on the fly or the used method can be changed. The syntax for this is:
e85b4cd5 535 <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::<replaceable>FileExtension</replaceable> "<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable>";</synopsis>
5723791e 536 </para><para>Also, the <literal>Order</literal> subgroup can be used to define in which order
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537 the acquire system will try to download the compressed files. The acquire system will try the first
538 and proceed with the next compression type in this list on error, so to prefer one over the other type
5723791e 539 simply add the preferred type first - default types not already added will be implicitly appended
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540 to the end of the list, so e.g. <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order:: "gz";</synopsis> can
541 be used to prefer <command>gzip</command> compressed files over <command>bzip2</command> and <command>lzma</command>.
542 If <command>lzma</command> should be preferred over <command>gzip</command> and <command>bzip2</command> the
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543 configure setting should look like this: <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order { "lzma"; "gz"; };</synopsis>
544 It is not needed to add <literal>bz2</literal> to the list explicitly as it will be added automatically.</para>
545 <para>Note that the
546 <literal>Dir::Bin::<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable></literal>
547 will be checked at run time. If this option has been set, the
548 method will only be used if this file exists; e.g. for the
549 <literal>bzip2</literal> method (the inbuilt) setting is:
550 <literallayout>Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";</literallayout>
a9564741 551 Note also that list entries specified on the command line will be added at the end of the list
8bd02d8b 552 specified in the configuration files, but before the default entries. To prefer a type in this case
5d885723 553 over the ones specified in the configuration files you can set the option direct - not in list style.
5723791e 554 This will not override the defined list; it will only prefix the list with this type.</para>
5d885723 555 <para>The special type <literal>uncompressed</literal> can be used to give uncompressed files a
1fc8c922 556 preference, but note that most archives don't provide uncompressed files so this is mostly only
5d885723 557 useable for local mirrors.</para></listitem>
e85b4cd5 558 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 559
2b9b27c3 560 <varlistentry><term><option>GzipIndexes</option></term>
c8c6e61b 561 <listitem><para>
562 When downloading <literal>gzip</literal> compressed indexes (Packages, Sources, or
563 Translations), keep them gzip compressed locally instead of unpacking
564 them. This saves quite a lot of disk space at the expense of more CPU
565 requirements when building the local package caches. False by default.
566 </para></listitem>
567 </varlistentry>
568
2b9b27c3 569 <varlistentry><term><option>Languages</option></term>
45df0ad2 570 <listitem><para>The Languages subsection controls which <filename>Translation</filename> files are downloaded
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571 and in which order APT tries to display the description-translations. APT will try to display the first
572 available description in the language which is listed first. Languages can be defined with their
573 short or long language codes. Note that not all archives provide <filename>Translation</filename>
574 files for every language - the long language codes are especially rare.</para>
45df0ad2 575 <para>The default list includes "environment" and "en". "<literal>environment</literal>" has a special meaning here:
5723791e 576 it will be replaced at runtime with the language codes extracted from the <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal> environment variable.
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577 It will also ensure that these codes are not included twice in the list. If <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal>
578 is set to "C" only the <filename>Translation-en</filename> file (if available) will be used.
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579 To force APT to use no Translation file use the setting <literal>Acquire::Languages=none</literal>. "<literal>none</literal>"
580 is another special meaning code which will stop the search for a suitable <filename>Translation</filename> file.
581 This tells APT to download these translations too, without actually
582 using them unless the environment specifies the languages. So the
583 following example configuration will result in the order "en, de" in an
584 English locale or "de, en" in a German one. Note that "fr" is
585 downloaded, but not used unless APT is used in a French locale (where
586 the order would be "fr, de, en").
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587 <programlisting>Acquire::Languages { "environment"; "de"; "en"; "none"; "fr"; };</programlisting></para>
588 <para>Note: To prevent problems resulting from APT being executed in different environments
589 (e.g. by different users or by other programs) all Translation files which are found in
590 <filename>/var/lib/apt/lists/</filename> will be added to the end of the list
591 (after an implicit "<literal>none</literal>").</para>
592 </listitem>
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593 </varlistentry>
594
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595 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv4</option></term>
596 <listitem><para>
597 When downloading, force to use only the IPv4 protocol.
598 </para></listitem>
599 </varlistentry>
600
601 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv6</option></term>
602 <listitem><para>
603 When downloading, force to use only the IPv6 protocol.
604 </para></listitem>
605 </varlistentry>
606
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607 <varlistentry><term><option>MaxReleaseFileSize</option></term>
608 <listitem><para>
609 The maximum file size of Release/Release.gpg/InRelease files.
610 The default is 10MB.
611 </para></listitem>
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612 </varlistentry>
613
c8ec5ab7 614 <varlistentry><term><option>EnableSrvRecords</option></term>
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615 <listitem><para>
616 This option controls if apt will use the DNS SRV server record
617 as specified in RFC 2782 to select an alternative server to
618 connect to.
619 The default is "true".
620 </para></listitem>
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621 </varlistentry>
622
623 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowInsecureRepositories</option></term>
624 <listitem><para>
625 Allow the update operation to load data files from
626 a repository without a trusted signature. If enabled this
627 option no data files will be loaded and the update
628 operation fails with a error for this source. The default
629 is false for backward compatibility. This will be changed
630 in the future.
631 </para></listitem>
632 </varlistentry>
633
634 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowDowngradeToInsecureRepositories</option></term>
635 <listitem><para>
636 Allow that a repository that was previously gpg signed to become
637 unsigned durign a update operation. When there is no valid signature
638 of a perviously trusted repository apt will refuse the update. This
639 option can be used to override this protection. You almost certainly
640 never want to enable this. The default is false.
641
642 Note that apt will still consider packages from this source
643 untrusted and warn about them if you try to install
644 them.
645 </para></listitem>
646 </varlistentry>
647
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648 <varlistentry><term><option>Changelogs::URI</option> scope</term>
649 <listitem><para>
650 Acquiring changelogs can only be done if an URI is known from where to get them.
651 Preferable the Release file indicates this in a 'Changelogs' field. If this isn't
652 available the Label/Origin field of the Release file is used to check if a
653 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal> or
654 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal> option
655 exists and if so this value is taken. The value in the Release file can be overridden
656 with <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal>
657 or <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal>.
658
2ffd3535 659 The value should be a normal URI to a text file, except that package specific data is
430481e7 660 replaced with the placeholder <literal>@CHANGEPATH@</literal>. The
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661 value for it is: 1. if the package is from a component (e.g. <literal>main</literal>)
662 this is the first part otherwise it is omitted, 2. the first letter of source package name,
2ffd3535 663 except if the source package name starts with '<literal>lib</literal>' in which case it will
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664 be the first four letters. 3. The complete source package name. 4. the complete name again and
665 5. the source version.
666 The first (if present), second, third and fourth part are separated by a slash ('<literal>/</literal>')
667 and between the fourth and fifth part is an underscore ('<literal>_</literal>').
668
669 The special value '<literal>no</literal>' is available for this option indicating that
670 this source can't be used to acquire changelog files from. Another source will be tried
671 if available in this case.
672 </para></listitem>
673 </varlistentry>
674
24f6490f 675 </variablelist>
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676 </refsect1>
677
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678 <refsect1><title>Binary specific configuration</title>
679 <para>Especially with the introduction of the <command>apt</command> binary
680 it can be useful to set certain options only for a specific binary as
681 even options which look like they would effect only a certain binary like
682 <option>APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> effect
683 <command>apt-get</command> as well as <command>apt</command>.
684 </para>
685 <para>Setting an option for a specific binary only can be achieved by
686 setting the option inside the
687 <option>Binary::<replaceable>specific-binary</replaceable></option>
688 scope. Setting the option <option>APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> for
689 the <command>apt</command> only can e.g. by done by setting
690 <option>Binary::apt::APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> instead.</para>
691 <para>Note that as seen in the DESCRIPTION section further above you can't
692 set binary-specific options on the commandline itself nor in
693 configuration files loaded via the commandline.</para>
694 </refsect1>
695
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696 <refsect1><title>Directories</title>
697
698 <para>The <literal>Dir::State</literal> section has directories that pertain to local
699 state information. <literal>lists</literal> is the directory to place downloaded
5723791e 700 package lists in and <literal>status</literal> is the name of the &dpkg; status file.
c086ac18 701 <literal>preferences</literal> is the name of the APT <filename>preferences</filename> file.
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702 <literal>Dir::State</literal> contains the default directory to prefix on all
703 sub-items if they do not start with <filename>/</filename> or <filename>./</filename>.</para>
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704
705 <para><literal>Dir::Cache</literal> contains locations pertaining to local cache
706 information, such as the two package caches <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> and
707 <literal>pkgcache</literal> as well as the location to place downloaded archives,
708 <literal>Dir::Cache::archives</literal>. Generation of caches can be turned off
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709 by setting <literal>pkgcache</literal> or <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> to
710 <literal>""</literal>. This will slow down startup but save disk space. It
711 is probably preferable to turn off the pkgcache rather than the srcpkgcache.
712 Like <literal>Dir::State</literal> the default directory is contained in
713 <literal>Dir::Cache</literal></para>
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714
715 <para><literal>Dir::Etc</literal> contains the location of configuration files,
716 <literal>sourcelist</literal> gives the location of the sourcelist and
717 <literal>main</literal> is the default configuration file (setting has no effect,
718 unless it is done from the config file specified by
13e8426f 719 <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>).</para>
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720
721 <para>The <literal>Dir::Parts</literal> setting reads in all the config fragments in
722 lexical order from the directory specified. After this is done then the
723 main config file is loaded.</para>
724
725 <para>Binary programs are pointed to by <literal>Dir::Bin</literal>. <literal>Dir::Bin::Methods</literal>
726 specifies the location of the method handlers and <literal>gzip</literal>,
e85b4cd5 727 <literal>bzip2</literal>, <literal>lzma</literal>,
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728 <literal>dpkg</literal>, <literal>apt-get</literal> <literal>dpkg-source</literal>
729 <literal>dpkg-buildpackage</literal> and <literal>apt-cache</literal> specify the location
730 of the respective programs.</para>
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731
732 <para>
733 The configuration item <literal>RootDir</literal> has a special
35bf76cf 734 meaning. If set, all paths will be
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735 relative to <literal>RootDir</literal>, <emphasis>even paths that
736 are specified absolutely</emphasis>. So, for instance, if
737 <literal>RootDir</literal> is set to
738 <filename>/tmp/staging</filename> and
739 <literal>Dir::State::status</literal> is set to
740 <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>, then the status file
741 will be looked up in
742 <filename>/tmp/staging/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>.
35bf76cf 743 If you want to prefix only relative paths, set <literal>Dir</literal> instead.
db2cca11 744 </para>
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745
746 <para>
747 The <literal>Ignore-Files-Silently</literal> list can be used to specify
748 which files APT should silently ignore while parsing the files in the
749 fragment directories. Per default a file which end with <literal>.disabled</literal>,
750 <literal>~</literal>, <literal>.bak</literal> or <literal>.dpkg-[a-z]+</literal>
751 is silently ignored. As seen in the last default value these patterns can use regular
752 expression syntax.
753 </para>
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754 </refsect1>
755
756 <refsect1><title>APT in DSelect</title>
757 <para>
758 When APT is used as a &dselect; method several configuration directives
5723791e 759 control the default behavior. These are in the <literal>DSelect</literal> section.</para>
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760
761 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 762 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean</option></term>
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763 <listitem><para>Cache Clean mode; this value may be one of
764 <literal>always</literal>, <literal>prompt</literal>,
765 <literal>auto</literal>, <literal>pre-auto</literal> and
766 <literal>never</literal>.
767 <literal>always</literal> and <literal>prompt</literal> will remove
768 all packages from the cache after upgrading, <literal>prompt</literal>
769 (the default) does so conditionally.
770 <literal>auto</literal> removes only those packages which are no longer
771 downloadable (replaced with a new version for instance).
772 <literal>pre-auto</literal> performs this action before downloading
773 new packages.</para></listitem>
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774 </varlistentry>
775
2b9b27c3 776 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 777 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
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778 options when it is run for the install phase.</para></listitem>
779 </varlistentry>
780
2b9b27c3 781 <varlistentry><term><option>Updateoptions</option></term>
5723791e 782 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
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783 options when it is run for the update phase.</para></listitem>
784 </varlistentry>
785
2b9b27c3 786 <varlistentry><term><option>PromptAfterUpdate</option></term>
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787 <listitem><para>If true the [U]pdate operation in &dselect; will always prompt to continue.
788 The default is to prompt only on error.</para></listitem>
789 </varlistentry>
790 </variablelist>
791 </refsect1>
792
5723791e 793 <refsect1><title>How APT calls &dpkg;</title>
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794 <para>Several configuration directives control how APT invokes &dpkg;. These are
795 in the <literal>DPkg</literal> section.</para>
796
797 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 798 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 799 <listitem><para>This is a list of options to pass to &dpkg;. The options must be specified
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800 using the list notation and each list item is passed as a single argument
801 to &dpkg;.</para></listitem>
802 </varlistentry>
803
2b9b27c3 804 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Invoke</option></term><term><option>Post-Invoke</option></term>
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805 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before/after invoking &dpkg;.
806 Like <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The
5723791e 807 commands are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any
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808 fail APT will abort.</para></listitem>
809 </varlistentry>
810
2b9b27c3 811 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Install-Pkgs</option></term>
5723791e 812 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before invoking &dpkg;. Like
24f6490f 813 <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The commands
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814 are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any fail APT
815 will abort. APT will pass the filenames of all .deb files it is going to
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816 install to the commands, one per line on the requested file descriptor, defaulting
817 to standard input.</para>
24f6490f 818
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819 <para>Version 2 of this protocol sends more information through the requested
820 file descriptor: a line with the text <literal>VERSION 2</literal>,
821 the APT configuration space, and a list of package actions with filename
822 and version information.</para>
823
824 <para>Each configuration directive line has the form
825 <literal>key=value</literal>. Special characters (equal signs, newlines,
826 nonprintable characters, quotation marks, and percent signs in
827 <literal>key</literal> and newlines, nonprintable characters, and percent
828 signs in <literal>value</literal>) are %-encoded. Lists are represented
829 by multiple <literal>key::=value</literal> lines with the same key. The
830 configuration section ends with a blank line.</para>
831
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832 <para>Package action lines consist of five fields in Version 2: package
833 name (without architecture qualification even if foreign), old version,
834 direction of version change (&lt; for upgrades, &gt; for downgrades, = for
835 no change), new version, action. The version fields are "-" for no version
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836 at all (for example when installing a package for the first time; no
837 version is treated as earlier than any real version, so that is an
838 upgrade, indicated as <literal>- &lt; 1.23.4</literal>). The action field
839 is "**CONFIGURE**" if the package is being configured, "**REMOVE**" if it
840 is being removed, or the filename of a .deb file if it is being
841 unpacked.</para>
842
843 <para>In Version 3 after each version field follows the architecture
844 of this version, which is "-" if there is no version, and a field showing
2ffd3535 845 the MultiArch type "same", "foreign", "allowed" or "none". Note that "none"
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846 is an incorrect typename which is just kept to remain compatible, it
847 should be read as "no" and users are encouraged to support both.</para>
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848
849 <para>The version of the protocol to be used for the command
850 <literal><replaceable>cmd</replaceable></literal> can be chosen by setting
851 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::Version</literal>
852 accordingly, the default being version 1. If APT isn't supporting the requested
853 version it will send the information in the highest version it has support for instead.
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854 </para>
855
856 <para>The file descriptor to be used to send the information can be requested with
857 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::InfoFD</literal>
858 which defaults to <literal>0</literal> for standard input and is available since
859 version 0.9.11. Support for the option can be detected by looking for the environment
860 variable <envar>APT_HOOK_INFO_FD</envar> which contains the number of the used
861 file descriptor as a confirmation.</para>
862 </listitem>
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863 </varlistentry>
864
2b9b27c3 865 <varlistentry><term><option>Run-Directory</option></term>
5723791e 866 <listitem><para>APT chdirs to this directory before invoking &dpkg;, the default is
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867 <filename>/</filename>.</para></listitem>
868 </varlistentry>
869
2b9b27c3 870 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-options</option></term>
5723791e 871 <listitem><para>These options are passed to &dpkg-buildpackage; when compiling packages;
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872 the default is to disable signing and produce all binaries.</para></listitem>
873 </varlistentry>
874 </variablelist>
3e9c4f70 875
5e312de7 876 <refsect2><title>dpkg trigger usage (and related options)</title>
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877 <para>APT can call &dpkg; in such a way as to let it make aggressive use of triggers over
878 multiple calls of &dpkg;. Without further options &dpkg; will use triggers once each time it runs.
879 Activating these options can therefore decrease the time needed to perform the
880 install or upgrade. Note that it is intended to activate these options per default in the
881 future, but as it drastically changes the way APT calls &dpkg; it needs a lot more testing.
3e9c4f70 882 <emphasis>These options are therefore currently experimental and should not be used in
5723791e 883 production environments.</emphasis> It also breaks progress reporting such that all front-ends will
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884 currently stay around half (or more) of the time in the 100% state while it actually configures
885 all packages.</para>
a9564741 886 <para>Note that it is not guaranteed that APT will support these options or that these options will
5e312de7 887 not cause (big) trouble in the future. If you have understand the current risks and problems with
5723791e 888 these options, but are brave enough to help testing them, create a new configuration file and test a
5e312de7 889 combination of options. Please report any bugs, problems and improvements you encounter and make sure
5723791e 890 to note which options you have used in your reports. Asking &dpkg; for help could also be useful for
5e312de7 891 debugging proposes, see e.g. <command>dpkg --audit</command>. A defensive option combination would be
3e9c4f70 892<literallayout>DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
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893PackageManager::Configure "smart";
894DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
d5081aee 895DPkg::TriggersPending "true";</literallayout></para>
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896
897 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 898 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::NoTriggers</option></term>
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899 <listitem><para>Add the no triggers flag to all &dpkg; calls (except the ConfigurePending call).
900 See &dpkg; if you are interested in what this actually means. In short: &dpkg; will not run the
5f4331c4 901 triggers when this flag is present unless it is explicitly called to do so in an extra call.
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902 Note that this option exists (undocumented) also in older APT versions with a slightly different
903 meaning: Previously these option only append --no-triggers to the configure calls to &dpkg; -
904 now APT will also add this flag to the unpack and remove calls.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 905 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 906 <varlistentry><term><option>PackageManager::Configure</option></term>
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907 <listitem><para>Valid values are "<literal>all</literal>",
908 "<literal>smart</literal>" and "<literal>no</literal>".
909 The default value is "<literal>all</literal>", which causes APT to
910 configure all packages. The "<literal>smart</literal>" way is to
911 configure only packages which need to be configured before another
912 package can be unpacked (Pre-Depends), and let the rest be configured
913 by &dpkg; with a call generated by the ConfigurePending option (see
914 below). On the other hand, "<literal>no</literal>" will not configure
915 anything, and totally relies on &dpkg; for configuration (which at the
916 moment will fail if a Pre-Depends is encountered). Setting this option
917 to any value other than <literal>all</literal> will implicitly also
918 activate the next option by default, as otherwise the system could end
919 in an unconfigured and potentially unbootable state.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 920 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 921 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::ConfigurePending</option></term>
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922 <listitem><para>If this option is set APT will call <command>dpkg --configure --pending</command>
923 to let &dpkg; handle all required configurations and triggers. This option is activated automatically
924 per default if the previous option is not set to <literal>all</literal>, but deactivating it could be useful
5f4331c4 925 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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926 deactivate this option in all but the last run.</para></listitem>
927 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 928 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::TriggersPending</option></term>
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929 <listitem><para>Useful for the <literal>smart</literal> configuration as a package which has pending
930 triggers is not considered as <literal>installed</literal>, and &dpkg; treats them as <literal>unpacked</literal>
931 currently which is a showstopper for Pre-Dependencies (see debbugs #526774). Note that this will
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932 process all triggers, not only the triggers needed to configure this package.</para></listitem>
933 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 934 <varlistentry><term><option>OrderList::Score::Immediate</option></term>
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935 <listitem><para>Essential packages (and their dependencies) should be configured immediately
936 after unpacking. It is a good idea to do this quite early in the upgrade process as these
937 configure calls also currently require <literal>DPkg::TriggersPending</literal> which
938 will run quite a few triggers (which may not be needed). Essentials get per default a high score
939 but the immediate flag is relatively low (a package which has a Pre-Depends is rated higher).
5e312de7 940 These option and the others in the same group can be used to change the scoring. The following
5723791e 941 example shows the settings with their default values.
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942 <literallayout>OrderList::Score {
943 Delete 500;
944 Essential 200;
945 Immediate 10;
946 PreDepends 50;
947};</literallayout>
948 </para></listitem>
949 </varlistentry>
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950 </variablelist>
951 </refsect2>
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952 </refsect1>
953
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954 <refsect1>
955 <title>Periodic and Archives options</title>
956 <para><literal>APT::Periodic</literal> and <literal>APT::Archives</literal>
957 groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is
5723791e 958 done by the <literal>/etc/cron.daily/apt</literal> script. See the top of
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959 this script for the brief documentation of these options.
960 </para>
961 </refsect1>
962
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963 <refsect1>
964 <title>Debug options</title>
965 <para>
966 Enabling options in the <literal>Debug::</literal> section will
967 cause debugging information to be sent to the standard error
968 stream of the program utilizing the <literal>apt</literal>
969 libraries, or enable special program modes that are primarily
970 useful for debugging the behavior of <literal>apt</literal>.
971 Most of these options are not interesting to a normal user, but a
972 few may be:
973
974 <itemizedlist>
975 <listitem>
976 <para>
977 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> enables output
978 about the decisions made by
979 <literal>dist-upgrade, upgrade, install, remove, purge</literal>.
980 </para>
981 </listitem>
982
983 <listitem>
984 <para>
985 <literal>Debug::NoLocking</literal> disables all file
986 locking. This can be used to run some operations (for
987 instance, <literal>apt-get -s install</literal>) as a
988 non-root user.
989 </para>
990 </listitem>
991
992 <listitem>
993 <para>
994 <literal>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</literal> prints out the actual
995 command line each time that <literal>apt</literal> invokes
996 &dpkg;.
997 </para>
998 </listitem>
999
1000 <listitem>
1001 <para>
1002 <literal>Debug::IdentCdrom</literal> disables the inclusion
25838be6 1003 of statfs data in CD-ROM IDs. <!-- TODO: provide a
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1004 motivating example, except I haven't a clue why you'd want
1005 to do this. -->
1006 </para>
1007 </listitem>
1008 </itemizedlist>
8a3642bd 1009 </para>
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1010
1011 <para>
1012 A full list of debugging options to apt follows.
1013 </para>
1014
1015 <variablelist>
1016 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1017 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::cdrom</option></term>
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1018
1019 <listitem>
1020 <para>
1021 Print information related to accessing
1022 <literal>cdrom://</literal> sources.
1023 </para>
1024 </listitem>
1025 </varlistentry>
1026
1027 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1028 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::ftp</option></term>
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1029
1030 <listitem>
1031 <para>
1032 Print information related to downloading packages using
1033 FTP.
1034 </para>
1035 </listitem>
1036 </varlistentry>
1037
1038 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1039 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::http</option></term>
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1040
1041 <listitem>
1042 <para>
1043 Print information related to downloading packages using
1044 HTTP.
1045 </para>
1046 </listitem>
1047 </varlistentry>
1048
1049 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1050 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::https</option></term>
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1051
1052 <listitem>
1053 <para>
1054 Print information related to downloading packages using
1055 HTTPS.
1056 </para>
1057 </listitem>
1058 </varlistentry>
1059
1060 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1061 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::gpgv</option></term>
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1062
1063 <listitem>
1064 <para>
1065 Print information related to verifying cryptographic
1066 signatures using <literal>gpg</literal>.
1067 </para>
1068 </listitem>
1069 </varlistentry>
1070
1071 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1072 <term><option>Debug::aptcdrom</option></term>
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1073
1074 <listitem>
1075 <para>
1076 Output information about the process of accessing
1077 collections of packages stored on CD-ROMs.
1078 </para>
1079 </listitem>
1080 </varlistentry>
1081
1082 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1083 <term><option>Debug::BuildDeps</option></term>
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1084 <listitem>
1085 <para>
1086 Describes the process of resolving build-dependencies in
1087 &apt-get;.
1088 </para>
1089 </listitem>
1090 </varlistentry>
1091
1092 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1093 <term><option>Debug::Hashes</option></term>
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1094 <listitem>
1095 <para>
1096 Output each cryptographic hash that is generated by the
1097 <literal>apt</literal> libraries.
1098 </para>
1099 </listitem>
1100 </varlistentry>
1101
1102 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1103 <term><option>Debug::IdentCDROM</option></term>
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1104 <listitem>
1105 <para>
1106 Do not include information from <literal>statfs</literal>,
1107 namely the number of used and free blocks on the CD-ROM
1108 filesystem, when generating an ID for a CD-ROM.
1109 </para>
1110 </listitem>
1111 </varlistentry>
1112
1113 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1114 <term><option>Debug::NoLocking</option></term>
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1115 <listitem>
1116 <para>
1117 Disable all file locking. For instance, this will allow
1118 two instances of <quote><literal>apt-get
1119 update</literal></quote> to run at the same time.
1120 </para>
1121 </listitem>
1122 </varlistentry>
1123
1124 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1125 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire</option></term>
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1126
1127 <listitem>
1128 <para>
1129 Log when items are added to or removed from the global
1130 download queue.
1131 </para>
1132 </listitem>
1133 </varlistentry>
1134
1135 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1136 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Auth</option></term>
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1137 <listitem>
1138 <para>
1139 Output status messages and errors related to verifying
1140 checksums and cryptographic signatures of downloaded files.
1141 </para>
1142 </listitem>
1143 </varlistentry>
1144
1145 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1146 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Diffs</option></term>
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1147 <listitem>
1148 <para>
1149 Output information about downloading and applying package
1150 index list diffs, and errors relating to package index list
1151 diffs.
1152 </para>
1153 </listitem>
1154 </varlistentry>
1155
1156 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1157 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::RRed</option></term>
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1158
1159 <listitem>
1160 <para>
1161 Output information related to patching apt package lists
1162 when downloading index diffs instead of full indices.
1163 </para>
1164 </listitem>
1165 </varlistentry>
1166
1167 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1168 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Worker</option></term>
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1169
1170 <listitem>
1171 <para>
1172 Log all interactions with the sub-processes that actually
1173 perform downloads.
1174 </para>
1175 </listitem>
1176 </varlistentry>
1177
1178 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1179 <term><option>Debug::pkgAutoRemove</option></term>
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1180
1181 <listitem>
1182 <para>
1183 Log events related to the automatically-installed status of
1184 packages and to the removal of unused packages.
1185 </para>
1186 </listitem>
1187 </varlistentry>
1188
1189 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1190 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall</option></term>
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1191 <listitem>
1192 <para>
1193 Generate debug messages describing which packages are being
1194 automatically installed to resolve dependencies. This
1195 corresponds to the initial auto-install pass performed in,
1196 e.g., <literal>apt-get install</literal>, and not to the
1197 full <literal>apt</literal> dependency resolver; see
1198 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> for that.
1199 </para>
1200 </listitem>
1201 </varlistentry>
1202
af29ffb4 1203 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1204 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</option></term>
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1205 <listitem>
1206 <para>
5723791e 1207 Generate debug messages describing which packages are marked
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1208 as keep/install/remove while the ProblemResolver does his work.
1209 Each addition or deletion may trigger additional actions;
5723791e 1210 they are shown indented two additional spaces under the original entry.
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1211 The format for each line is <literal>MarkKeep</literal>,
1212 <literal>MarkDelete</literal> or <literal>MarkInstall</literal> followed by
1213 <literal>package-name &lt;a.b.c -&gt; d.e.f | x.y.z&gt; (section)</literal>
1214 where <literal>a.b.c</literal> is the current version of the package,
1215 <literal>d.e.f</literal> is the version considered for installation and
1216 <literal>x.y.z</literal> is a newer version, but not considered for installation
1217 (because of a low pin score). The later two can be omitted if there is none or if
5723791e 1218 it is the same as the installed version.
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1219 <literal>section</literal> is the name of the section the package appears in.
1220 </para>
1221 </listitem>
1222 </varlistentry>
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1223
1224 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1225 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</option></term>
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1226 <listitem>
1227 <para>
1228 When invoking &dpkg;, output the precise command line with
1229 which it is being invoked, with arguments separated by a
1230 single space character.
1231 </para>
1232 </listitem>
1233 </varlistentry>
1234
1235 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1236 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgProgressReporting</option></term>
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1237 <listitem>
1238 <para>
1239 Output all the data received from &dpkg; on the status file
1240 descriptor and any errors encountered while parsing it.
1241 </para>
1242 </listitem>
1243 </varlistentry>
1244
1245 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1246 <term><option>Debug::pkgOrderList</option></term>
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1247
1248 <listitem>
1249 <para>
1250 Generate a trace of the algorithm that decides the order in
1251 which <literal>apt</literal> should pass packages to
1252 &dpkg;.
1253 </para>
1254 </listitem>
1255 </varlistentry>
1256
1257 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1258 <term><option>Debug::pkgPackageManager</option></term>
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1259
1260 <listitem>
1261 <para>
1262 Output status messages tracing the steps performed when
1263 invoking &dpkg;.
1264 </para>
1265 </listitem>
1266 </varlistentry>
1267
1268 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1269 <term><option>Debug::pkgPolicy</option></term>
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1270
1271 <listitem>
1272 <para>
1273 Output the priority of each package list on startup.
1274 </para>
1275 </listitem>
1276 </varlistentry>
1277
1278 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1279 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</option></term>
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1280
1281 <listitem>
1282 <para>
1283 Trace the execution of the dependency resolver (this
1284 applies only to what happens when a complex dependency
1285 problem is encountered).
1286 </para>
1287 </listitem>
1288 </varlistentry>
1289
8b4894fe 1290 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1291 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver::ShowScores</option></term>
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1292 <listitem>
1293 <para>
1294 Display a list of all installed packages with their calculated score
1295 used by the pkgProblemResolver. The description of the package
1296 is the same as described in <literal>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</literal>
1297 </para>
1298 </listitem>
1299 </varlistentry>
1300
be1b8568 1301 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1302 <term><option>Debug::sourceList</option></term>
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1303
1304 <listitem>
1305 <para>
1306 Print information about the vendors read from
1307 <filename>/etc/apt/vendors.list</filename>.
1308 </para>
1309 </listitem>
1310 </varlistentry>
1311
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1312 <varlistentry>
1313 <term><option>Debug::RunScripts</option></term>
1314 <listitem>
1315 <para>
1316 Display the external commands that are called by apt hooks.
1317 This includes e.g. the config options
1318 <literal>DPkg::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal> or
1319 <literal>APT::Update::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal>.
1320 </para>
1321 </listitem>
1322 </varlistentry>
1323
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1324<!-- 2009/07/11 Currently used nowhere. The corresponding code
1325is commented.
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1326 <varlistentry>
1327 <term><literal>Debug::Vendor</literal></term>
1328
1329 <listitem>
1330 <para>
1331 Print information about each vendor.
1332 </para>
1333 </listitem>
1334 </varlistentry>
d82cdf73 1335-->
45df0ad2 1336
be1b8568 1337 </variablelist>
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1338 </refsect1>
1339
1340 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
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1341 <para>&configureindex; is a
1342 configuration file showing example values for all possible
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1343 options.</para>
1344 </refsect1>
1345
1346 <refsect1><title>Files</title>
6e2525a1 1347 <variablelist>
1221c3a3 1348 &file-aptconf;
6e2525a1 1349 </variablelist>
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1350 </refsect1>
1351
1352 <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
1353 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-config;<!-- ? reading apt.conf -->, &apt-preferences;.</para>
1354 </refsect1>
1355
1356 &manbugs;
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1357
1358</refentry>
1359