]> git.saurik.com Git - apt.git/blame - doc/apt.conf.5.xml
allow explicit dis/enable of IndexTargets in sources options
[apt.git] / doc / apt.conf.5.xml
CommitLineData
24f6490f 1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
81cf16a2
DK
2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
5abbf5bb
DK
4<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
5<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
6<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
24f6490f
AL
7]>
8
9<refentry>
5e80de29
AL
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>
5e80de29
AL
19 &apt-email;
20 &apt-product;
21 <!-- The last update date -->
dabb215c 22 <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
5e80de29 23 </refentryinfo>
24f6490f
AL
24
25 <refmeta>
26 <refentrytitle>apt.conf</refentrytitle>
27 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
f0599b9c 28 <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
24f6490f
AL
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>
5723791e
JR
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
e29a6bb1
DK
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.
44477002
JR
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>
e29a6bb1
DK
55 <listitem><para>the main configuration file specified by
56 <literal>Dir::Etc::main</literal></para></listitem>
57 <listitem><para>the command line options are applied to override the
58 configuration directives or to load even more configuration files.</para></listitem>
59 </orderedlist>
60 </refsect1>
61 <refsect1><title>Syntax</title>
24f6490f 62 <para>The configuration file is organized in a tree with options organized into
5f4331c4 63 functional groups. Option specification is given with a double colon
5723791e 64 notation; for instance <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> is an option within
5f4331c4 65 the APT tool group, for the Get tool. Options do not inherit from their
24f6490f
AL
66 parent groups.</para>
67
e3a1f08d 68 <para>Syntactically the configuration language is modeled after what the ISC tools
7f1bc985
EL
69 such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
70 <literal>//</literal> are treated as comments (ignored), as well as all text
71 between <literal>/*</literal> and <literal>*/</literal>, just like C/C++ comments.
24f6490f 72 Each line is of the form
5723791e
JR
73 <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true";</literal>.
74 The quotation marks and trailing semicolon are required.
75 The value must be on one line, and there is no kind of string concatenation.
76 Values must not include backslashes or extra quotation marks.
77 Option names are made up of alphanumeric characters and the characters "/-:._+".
78 A new scope can be opened with curly braces, like this:</para>
24f6490f
AL
79
80<informalexample><programlisting>
81APT {
82 Get {
83 Assume-Yes "true";
84 Fix-Broken "true";
85 };
86};
87</programlisting></informalexample>
88
89 <para>with newlines placed to make it more readable. Lists can be created by
d82cdf73 90 opening a scope and including a single string enclosed in quotes followed by a
5723791e 91 semicolon. Multiple entries can be included, separated by a semicolon.</para>
24f6490f
AL
92
93<informalexample><programlisting>
94DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
95</programlisting></informalexample>
96
00612a8c 97 <para>In general the sample configuration file &configureindex;
24f6490f
AL
98 is a good guide for how it should look.</para>
99
5723791e
JR
100 <para>Case is not significant in names of configuration items, so in the
101 previous example you could use <literal>dpkg::pre-install-pkgs</literal>.</para>
fb3b7ef0 102
5723791e 103 <para>Names for the configuration items are optional if a list is defined as can be seen in
63fc5550
DK
104 the <literal>DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs</literal> example above. If you don't specify a name a
105 new entry will simply add a new option to the list. If you specify a name you can override
5723791e 106 the option in the same way as any other option by reassigning a new value to the option.</para>
63fc5550 107
5723791e
JR
108 <para>Two special commands are defined: <literal>#include</literal> (which is
109 deprecated and not supported by alternative implementations) and
110 <literal>#clear</literal>. <literal>#include</literal> will include the
111 given file, unless the filename ends in a slash, in which case the whole
112 directory is included.
d82cdf73 113 <literal>#clear</literal> is used to erase a part of the configuration tree. The
63fc5550
DK
114 specified element and all its descendants are erased.
115 (Note that these lines also need to end with a semicolon.)</para>
116
5723791e
JR
117 <para>
118 The <literal>#clear</literal> command is the only way to delete a list or
119 a complete scope. Reopening a scope (or using the syntax described below
120 with an appended <literal>::</literal>) will <emphasis>not</emphasis>
121 override previously written entries. Options can only be overridden by
122 addressing a new value to them - lists and scopes can't be overridden,
123 only cleared.
124 </para>
24f6490f 125
5723791e 126 <para>All of the APT tools take an -o option which allows an arbitrary configuration
24f6490f
AL
127 directive to be specified on the command line. The syntax is a full option
128 name (<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> for instance) followed by an equals
c086ac18 129 sign then the new value of the option. To append a new element to a list, add a
5723791e
JR
130 trailing <literal>::</literal> to the name of the list.
131 (As you might suspect, the scope syntax can't be used on the command line.)</para>
132
133 <para>
134 Note that appending items to a list using <literal>::</literal> only works
135 for one item per line, and that you should not use it in combination with
136 the scope syntax (which adds <literal>::</literal> implicitly). Using both
137 syntaxes together will trigger a bug which some users unfortunately depend
138 on: an option with the unusual name "<literal>::</literal>" which acts
139 like every other option with a name. This introduces many problems; for
140 one thing, users who write multiple lines in this
141 <emphasis>wrong</emphasis> syntax in the hope of appending to a list will
142 achieve the opposite, as only the last assignment for this option
143 "<literal>::</literal>" will be used. Future versions of APT will raise
144 errors and stop working if they encounter this misuse, so please correct
145 such statements now while APT doesn't explicitly complain about them.
146 </para>
24f6490f
AL
147 </refsect1>
148
149 <refsect1><title>The APT Group</title>
150 <para>This group of options controls general APT behavior as well as holding the
151 options for all of the tools.</para>
152
153 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 154 <varlistentry><term><option>Architecture</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
155 <listitem><para>System Architecture; sets the architecture to use when fetching files and
156 parsing package lists. The internal default is the architecture apt was
157 compiled for.</para></listitem>
158 </varlistentry>
58014adc 159
2b9b27c3 160 <varlistentry><term><option>Architectures</option></term>
5723791e
JR
161 <listitem><para>
162 All Architectures the system supports. For instance, CPUs implementing
163 the <literal>amd64</literal> (also called <literal>x86-64</literal>)
164 instruction set are also able to execute binaries compiled for the
165 <literal>i386</literal> (<literal>x86</literal>) instruction set. This
166 list is used when fetching files and parsing package lists. The
167 initial default is always the system's native architecture
168 (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>), and foreign architectures are
169 added to the default list when they are registered via
170 <command>dpkg --add-architecture</command>.
58014adc
DK
171 </para></listitem>
172 </varlistentry>
173
ce7f128c
DK
174 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Profiles</option></term>
175 <listitem><para>
176 List of all build profiles enabled for build-dependency resolution,
177 without the "<literal>profile.</literal>" namespace prefix.
178 By default this list is empty. The <envar>DEB_BUILD_PROFILES</envar>
179 as used by &dpkg-buildpackage; overrides the list notation.
180 </para></listitem>
181 </varlistentry>
182
2b9b27c3 183 <varlistentry><term><option>Default-Release</option></term>
e1dd65c9 184 <listitem><para>Default release to install packages from if more than one
5723791e 185 version is available. Contains release name, codename or release version. Examples: 'stable', 'testing',
e1dd65c9 186 'unstable', '&stable-codename;', '&testing-codename;', '4.0', '5.0*'. See also &apt-preferences;.</para></listitem>
60a8f9c0 187 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 188
2b9b27c3 189 <varlistentry><term><option>Ignore-Hold</option></term>
5723791e 190 <listitem><para>Ignore held packages; this global option causes the problem resolver to
24f6490f
AL
191 ignore held packages in its decision making.</para></listitem>
192 </varlistentry>
193
2b9b27c3 194 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean-Installed</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
195 <listitem><para>Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages
196 which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then
197 packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but
198 note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them.</para></listitem>
199 </varlistentry>
200
2b9b27c3 201 <varlistentry><term><option>Immediate-Configure</option></term>
5723791e
JR
202 <listitem><para>
203 Defaults to on, which will cause APT to install essential and important
204 packages as soon as possible in an install/upgrade operation, in order
205 to limit the effect of a failing &dpkg; call. If this option is
206 disabled, APT treats an important package in the same way as an extra
207 package: between the unpacking of the package A and its configuration
208 there can be many other unpack or configuration calls for other
209 unrelated packages B, C etc. If these cause the &dpkg; call to fail
210 (e.g. because package B's maintainer scripts generate an error), this
211 results in a system state in which package A is unpacked but
212 unconfigured - so any package depending on A is now no longer
213 guaranteed to work, as its dependency on A is no longer satisfied.
214 </para><para>
215 The immediate configuration marker is also applied in the potentially
216 problematic case of circular dependencies, since a dependency with the
217 immediate flag is equivalent to a Pre-Dependency. In theory this allows
218 APT to recognise a situation in which it is unable to perform immediate
219 configuration, abort, and suggest to the user that the option should be
220 temporarily deactivated in order to allow the operation to proceed.
221 Note the use of the word "theory" here; in the real world this problem
222 has rarely been encountered, in non-stable distribution versions, and
223 was caused by wrong dependencies of the package in question or by a
224 system in an already broken state; so you should not blindly disable
225 this option, as the scenario mentioned above is not the only problem it
226 can help to prevent in the first place.
227 </para><para>
228 Before a big operation like <literal>dist-upgrade</literal> is run
229 with this option disabled you should try to explicitly
230 <literal>install</literal> the package APT is unable to configure
231 immediately; but please make sure you also report your problem to your
232 distribution and to the APT team with the buglink below, so they can
233 work on improving or correcting the upgrade process.
234 </para></listitem>
24f6490f
AL
235 </varlistentry>
236
2b9b27c3 237 <varlistentry><term><option>Force-LoopBreak</option></term>
5723791e
JR
238 <listitem><para>
239 Never enable this option unless you <emphasis>really</emphasis> know
240 what you are doing. It permits APT to temporarily remove an essential
241 package to break a Conflicts/Conflicts or Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop
242 between two essential packages. <emphasis>Such a loop should never exist
243 and is a grave bug</emphasis>. This option will work if the essential
244 packages are not <command>tar</command>, <command>gzip</command>,
245 <command>libc</command>, <command>dpkg</command>, <command>dash</command>
246 or anything that those packages depend on.
247 </para></listitem>
24f6490f
AL
248 </varlistentry>
249
2b9b27c3 250 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache-Start</option></term><term><option>Cache-Grow</option></term><term><option>Cache-Limit</option></term>
5723791e
JR
251 <listitem><para>APT uses since version 0.7.26 a resizable memory mapped cache file to store the available
252 information. <literal>Cache-Start</literal> acts as a hint of the size the cache will grow to,
dcdf1ef1 253 and is therefore the amount of memory APT will request at startup. The default value is
5723791e 254 20971520 bytes (~20 MB). Note that this amount of space needs to be available for APT;
c086ac18
DK
255 otherwise it will likely fail ungracefully, so for memory restricted devices this value should
256 be lowered while on systems with a lot of configured sources it should be increased.
257 <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> defines in bytes with the default of 1048576 (~1 MB) how much
5723791e
JR
258 the cache size will be increased in the event the space defined by <literal>Cache-Start</literal>
259 is not enough. This value will be applied again and again until either the cache is big
dcdf1ef1
DK
260 enough to store all information or the size of the cache reaches the <literal>Cache-Limit</literal>.
261 The default of <literal>Cache-Limit</literal> is 0 which stands for no limit.
5723791e 262 If <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> is set to 0 the automatic growth of the cache is disabled.
dcdf1ef1 263 </para></listitem>
24f6490f
AL
264 </varlistentry>
265
2b9b27c3 266 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Essential</option></term>
5723791e 267 <listitem><para>Defines which packages are considered essential build dependencies.</para></listitem>
24f6490f
AL
268 </varlistentry>
269
2b9b27c3 270 <varlistentry><term><option>Get</option></term>
5723791e 271 <listitem><para>The Get subsection controls the &apt-get; tool; please see its
24f6490f
AL
272 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
273 </varlistentry>
274
2b9b27c3 275 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache</option></term>
5723791e 276 <listitem><para>The Cache subsection controls the &apt-cache; tool; please see its
24f6490f
AL
277 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
278 </varlistentry>
279
2b9b27c3 280 <varlistentry><term><option>CDROM</option></term>
5723791e 281 <listitem><para>The CDROM subsection controls the &apt-cdrom; tool; please see its
24f6490f
AL
282 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
283 </varlistentry>
284 </variablelist>
285 </refsect1>
286
287 <refsect1><title>The Acquire Group</title>
5723791e
JR
288 <para>The <literal>Acquire</literal> group of options controls the
289 download of packages as well as the various "acquire methods" responsible
290 for the download itself (see also &sources-list;).</para>
24f6490f
AL
291
292 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 293 <varlistentry><term><option>Check-Valid-Until</option></term>
5723791e
JR
294 <listitem><para>
295 Security related option defaulting to true, as giving a Release file's
296 validation an expiration date prevents replay attacks over a long
297 timescale, and can also for example help users to identify mirrors
298 that are no longer updated - but the feature depends on the
299 correctness of the clock on the user system. Archive maintainers are
300 encouraged to create Release files with the
301 <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header, but if they don't or a
302 stricter value is desired the <literal>Max-ValidTime</literal>
303 option below can be used.
0741daeb
DK
304 The <option>Check-Valid-Until</option> option of &sources-list; entries should be
305 preferred to disable the check selectively instead of using this global override.
5723791e 306 </para></listitem>
b02fffa6
DK
307 </varlistentry>
308
2b9b27c3 309 <varlistentry><term><option>Max-ValidTime</option></term>
5723791e
JR
310 <listitem><para>Maximum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
311 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
312 file should be considered valid.
89500a25
DK
313 If the Release file itself includes a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
314 the earlier date of the two is used as the expiration date.
5723791e 315 The default value is <literal>0</literal> which stands for "valid forever".
89500a25 316 Archive specific settings can be made by appending the label of the archive
0741daeb
DK
317 to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
318 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Max</option> option there.
89500a25
DK
319 </para></listitem>
320 </varlistentry>
321
2b9b27c3 322 <varlistentry><term><option>Min-ValidTime</option></term>
5723791e
JR
323 <listitem><para>Minimum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
324 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
325 file should be considered valid.
326 Use this if you need to use a seldom updated (local) mirror of a more
327 frequently updated archive with a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
2130caa8 328 instead of completely disabling the expiration date checking.
89500a25 329 Archive specific settings can and should be used by appending the label of
0741daeb
DK
330 the archive to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
331 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Min</option> option there.
b02fffa6
DK
332 </para></listitem>
333 </varlistentry>
334
2b9b27c3 335 <varlistentry><term><option>PDiffs</option></term>
d82cdf73 336 <listitem><para>Try to download deltas called <literal>PDiffs</literal> for
5723791e
JR
337 indexes (like <filename>Packages</filename> files) instead of downloading
338 whole ones. True by default.</para>
02dceb31 339 <para>Two sub-options to limit the use of PDiffs are also available:
5723791e
JR
340 <literal>FileLimit</literal> can be used to specify a maximum number of
341 PDiff files should be downloaded to update a file. <literal>SizeLimit</literal>
f3b8d857 342 on the other hand is the maximum percentage of the size of all patches
02dceb31
DK
343 compared to the size of the targeted file. If one of these limits is
344 exceeded the complete file is downloaded instead of the patches.
345 </para></listitem>
0d70b055
EL
346 </varlistentry>
347
2b9b27c3 348 <varlistentry><term><option>Queue-Mode</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
349 <listitem><para>Queuing mode; <literal>Queue-Mode</literal> can be one of <literal>host</literal> or
350 <literal>access</literal> which determines how APT parallelizes outgoing
351 connections. <literal>host</literal> means that one connection per target host
352 will be opened, <literal>access</literal> means that one connection per URI type
353 will be opened.</para></listitem>
354 </varlistentry>
355
2b9b27c3 356 <varlistentry><term><option>Retries</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
357 <listitem><para>Number of retries to perform. If this is non-zero APT will retry failed
358 files the given number of times.</para></listitem>
359 </varlistentry>
360
2b9b27c3 361 <varlistentry><term><option>Source-Symlinks</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
362 <listitem><para>Use symlinks for source archives. If set to true then source archives will
363 be symlinked when possible instead of copying. True is the default.</para></listitem>
364 </varlistentry>
365
2b9b27c3 366 <varlistentry><term><option>http</option></term>
5723791e
JR
367 <listitem><para><literal>http::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for HTTP
368 URIs. It is in the standard form of <literal>http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
369 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
24f6490f 370 <literal>http::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
788a8f42
EL
371 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
372 <envar>http_proxy</envar> environment variable
373 will be used.</para>
24f6490f 374
5723791e
JR
375 <para>Three settings are provided for cache control with HTTP/1.1 compliant
376 proxy caches.
377 <literal>No-Cache</literal> tells the proxy not to use its cached
378 response under any circumstances.
379 <literal>Max-Age</literal> sets the allowed maximum age (in seconds) of
380 an index file in the cache of the proxy.
381 <literal>No-Store</literal> specifies that the proxy should not store
382 the requested archive files in its cache, which can be used to prevent
383 the proxy from polluting its cache with (big) .deb files.</para>
24f6490f 384
5723791e
JR
385 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
386 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
24f6490f 387
82214317 388 <para>The setting <literal>Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth</literal> can be used to
5723791e
JR
389 enable HTTP pipelining (RFC 2616 section 8.1.2.2) which can be beneficial e.g. on
390 high-latency connections. It specifies how many requests are sent in a pipeline.
895417ef
DK
391 APT tries to detect and workaround misbehaving webservers and proxies at runtime, but
392 if you know that yours does not conform to the HTTP/1.1 specification pipelining can
393 be disabled by setting the value to 0. It is enabled by default with the value 10.</para>
5900bd8d 394
5723791e 395 <para><literal>Acquire::http::AllowRedirect</literal> controls whether APT will follow
c086ac18
DK
396 redirects, which is enabled by default.</para>
397
0e279e35
MV
398 <para>The used bandwidth can be limited with
399 <literal>Acquire::http::Dl-Limit</literal> which accepts integer
400 values in kilobytes per second. The default value is 0 which
401 deactivates the limit and tries to use all available bandwidth.
402 Note that this option implicitly disables downloading from
403 multiple servers at the same time.</para>
4494239c
DK
404
405 <para><literal>Acquire::http::User-Agent</literal> can be used to set a different
406 User-Agent for the http download method as some proxies allow access for clients
407 only if the client uses a known identifier.</para>
c08cf1dc
MV
408
409 <para><literal>Acquire::http::Proxy-Auto-Detect</literal> can be used to
c57805f9 410 specify an external command to discover the http proxy to use. Apt expects
c08cf1dc 411 the command to output the proxy on stdout in the style
c57805f9
MV
412 <literal>http://proxy:port/</literal>. This will override the
413 generic <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy</literal> but not any specific
414 host proxy configuration set via
415 <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy::$HOST</literal>.
416
417 See the &squid-deb-proxy-client; package for an example implementation that
418 uses avahi. This option takes precedence over the legacy option name
419 <literal>ProxyAutoDetect</literal>.
420 </para>
c08cf1dc 421
4494239c 422 </listitem>
24f6490f
AL
423 </varlistentry>
424
2b9b27c3 425 <varlistentry><term><option>https</option></term>
5723791e
JR
426 <listitem><para>
427 The <literal>Cache-control</literal>, <literal>Timeout</literal>,
428 <literal>AllowRedirect</literal>, <literal>Dl-Limit</literal> and
429 <literal>proxy</literal> options work for HTTPS URIs in the same way
430 as for the <literal>http</literal> method, and default to the same
431 values if they are not explicitly set. The
432 <literal>Pipeline-Depth</literal> option is not yet supported.
433 </para>
370ad5e1
EL
434
435 <para><literal>CaInfo</literal> suboption specifies place of file that
436 holds info about trusted certificates.
5723791e
JR
437 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::CaInfo</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
438 <literal>Verify-Peer</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
439 server's host certificate should be verified against trusted certificates.
440 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Peer</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
441 <literal>Verify-Host</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
442 server's hostname should be verified.
443 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Host</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 444 <literal>SslCert</literal> determines what certificate to use for client
5723791e 445 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslCert</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 446 <literal>SslKey</literal> determines what private key to use for client
5723791e 447 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslKey</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1 448 <literal>SslForceVersion</literal> overrides default SSL version to use.
5723791e
JR
449 It can contain either of the strings '<literal>TLSv1</literal>' or
450 '<literal>SSLv3</literal>'.
451 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslForceVersion</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
370ad5e1
EL
452 </para></listitem></varlistentry>
453
2b9b27c3 454 <varlistentry><term><option>ftp</option></term>
5723791e
JR
455 <listitem><para>
456 <literal>ftp::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for FTP URIs.
457 It is in the standard form of <literal>ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
458 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
788a8f42
EL
459 <literal>ftp::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
460 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
461 <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable
5723791e 462 will be used. To use an FTP
24f6490f
AL
463 proxy you will have to set the <literal>ftp::ProxyLogin</literal> script in the
464 configuration file. This entry specifies the commands to send to tell
465 the proxy server what to connect to. Please see
466 &configureindex; for an example of
5723791e
JR
467 how to do this. The substitution variables representing the corresponding
468 URI component are <literal>$(PROXY_USER)</literal>,
469 <literal>$(PROXY_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE_USER)</literal>,
470 <literal>$(SITE_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE)</literal> and
471 <literal>$(SITE_PORT)</literal>.</para>
24f6490f 472
5723791e
JR
473 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
474 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
24f6490f
AL
475
476 <para>Several settings are provided to control passive mode. Generally it is
5723791e
JR
477 safe to leave passive mode on; it works in nearly every environment.
478 However, some situations require that passive mode be disabled and port
479 mode FTP used instead. This can be done globally or for connections that
480 go through a proxy or for a specific host (see the sample config file
24f6490f
AL
481 for examples).</para>
482
483 <para>It is possible to proxy FTP over HTTP by setting the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar>
5723791e 484 environment variable to an HTTP URL - see the discussion of the http method
24f6490f
AL
485 above for syntax. You cannot set this in the configuration file and it is
486 not recommended to use FTP over HTTP due to its low efficiency.</para>
487
488 <para>The setting <literal>ForceExtended</literal> controls the use of RFC2428
e3a1f08d 489 <literal>EPSV</literal> and <literal>EPRT</literal> commands. The default is false, which means
24f6490f
AL
490 these commands are only used if the control connection is IPv6. Setting this
491 to true forces their use even on IPv4 connections. Note that most FTP servers
492 do not support RFC2428.</para></listitem>
493 </varlistentry>
494
2b9b27c3 495 <varlistentry><term><option>cdrom</option></term>
5723791e
JR
496 <listitem><para>
497 For URIs using the <literal>cdrom</literal> method, the only configurable
498 option is the mount point, <literal>cdrom::Mount</literal>, which must be
499 the mount point for the CD-ROM (or DVD, or whatever) drive as specified in
500 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. It is possible to provide alternate mount
501 and unmount commands if your mount point cannot be listed in the fstab.
502 The syntax is to put <literallayout>/cdrom/::Mount "foo";</literallayout> within
503 the <literal>cdrom</literal> block. It is important to have the trailing slash.
504 Unmount commands can be specified using UMount.
505 </para></listitem>
24f6490f 506 </varlistentry>
8a3642bd 507
2b9b27c3 508 <varlistentry><term><option>gpgv</option></term>
5723791e
JR
509 <listitem><para>
510 For GPGV URIs the only configurable option is <literal>gpgv::Options</literal>,
511 which passes additional parameters to gpgv.
8a3642bd
MV
512 </para></listitem>
513 </varlistentry>
514
2b9b27c3 515 <varlistentry><term><option>CompressionTypes</option></term>
e85b4cd5
DK
516 <listitem><para>List of compression types which are understood by the acquire methods.
517 Files like <filename>Packages</filename> can be available in various compression formats.
5723791e
JR
518 By default the acquire methods can decompress <command>bzip2</command>, <command>lzma</command>
519 and <command>gzip</command> compressed files; with this setting more formats can be added
8bd02d8b 520 on the fly or the used method can be changed. The syntax for this is:
e85b4cd5 521 <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::<replaceable>FileExtension</replaceable> "<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable>";</synopsis>
5723791e 522 </para><para>Also, the <literal>Order</literal> subgroup can be used to define in which order
8bd02d8b
DK
523 the acquire system will try to download the compressed files. The acquire system will try the first
524 and proceed with the next compression type in this list on error, so to prefer one over the other type
5723791e 525 simply add the preferred type first - default types not already added will be implicitly appended
8bd02d8b
DK
526 to the end of the list, so e.g. <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order:: "gz";</synopsis> can
527 be used to prefer <command>gzip</command> compressed files over <command>bzip2</command> and <command>lzma</command>.
528 If <command>lzma</command> should be preferred over <command>gzip</command> and <command>bzip2</command> the
5723791e
JR
529 configure setting should look like this: <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order { "lzma"; "gz"; };</synopsis>
530 It is not needed to add <literal>bz2</literal> to the list explicitly as it will be added automatically.</para>
531 <para>Note that the
532 <literal>Dir::Bin::<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable></literal>
533 will be checked at run time. If this option has been set, the
534 method will only be used if this file exists; e.g. for the
535 <literal>bzip2</literal> method (the inbuilt) setting is:
536 <literallayout>Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";</literallayout>
a9564741 537 Note also that list entries specified on the command line will be added at the end of the list
8bd02d8b 538 specified in the configuration files, but before the default entries. To prefer a type in this case
5d885723 539 over the ones specified in the configuration files you can set the option direct - not in list style.
5723791e 540 This will not override the defined list; it will only prefix the list with this type.</para>
5d885723 541 <para>The special type <literal>uncompressed</literal> can be used to give uncompressed files a
1fc8c922 542 preference, but note that most archives don't provide uncompressed files so this is mostly only
5d885723 543 useable for local mirrors.</para></listitem>
e85b4cd5 544 </varlistentry>
45df0ad2 545
2b9b27c3 546 <varlistentry><term><option>GzipIndexes</option></term>
c8c6e61b 547 <listitem><para>
548 When downloading <literal>gzip</literal> compressed indexes (Packages, Sources, or
549 Translations), keep them gzip compressed locally instead of unpacking
550 them. This saves quite a lot of disk space at the expense of more CPU
551 requirements when building the local package caches. False by default.
552 </para></listitem>
553 </varlistentry>
554
2b9b27c3 555 <varlistentry><term><option>Languages</option></term>
45df0ad2 556 <listitem><para>The Languages subsection controls which <filename>Translation</filename> files are downloaded
5723791e
JR
557 and in which order APT tries to display the description-translations. APT will try to display the first
558 available description in the language which is listed first. Languages can be defined with their
559 short or long language codes. Note that not all archives provide <filename>Translation</filename>
560 files for every language - the long language codes are especially rare.</para>
45df0ad2 561 <para>The default list includes "environment" and "en". "<literal>environment</literal>" has a special meaning here:
5723791e 562 it will be replaced at runtime with the language codes extracted from the <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal> environment variable.
45df0ad2
DK
563 It will also ensure that these codes are not included twice in the list. If <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal>
564 is set to "C" only the <filename>Translation-en</filename> file (if available) will be used.
5723791e
JR
565 To force APT to use no Translation file use the setting <literal>Acquire::Languages=none</literal>. "<literal>none</literal>"
566 is another special meaning code which will stop the search for a suitable <filename>Translation</filename> file.
567 This tells APT to download these translations too, without actually
568 using them unless the environment specifies the languages. So the
569 following example configuration will result in the order "en, de" in an
570 English locale or "de, en" in a German one. Note that "fr" is
571 downloaded, but not used unless APT is used in a French locale (where
572 the order would be "fr, de, en").
c086ac18
DK
573 <programlisting>Acquire::Languages { "environment"; "de"; "en"; "none"; "fr"; };</programlisting></para>
574 <para>Note: To prevent problems resulting from APT being executed in different environments
575 (e.g. by different users or by other programs) all Translation files which are found in
576 <filename>/var/lib/apt/lists/</filename> will be added to the end of the list
577 (after an implicit "<literal>none</literal>").</para>
578 </listitem>
45df0ad2
DK
579 </varlistentry>
580
6db4e5c6
MV
581 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv4</option></term>
582 <listitem><para>
583 When downloading, force to use only the IPv4 protocol.
584 </para></listitem>
585 </varlistentry>
586
587 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv6</option></term>
588 <listitem><para>
589 When downloading, force to use only the IPv6 protocol.
590 </para></listitem>
591 </varlistentry>
592
954d30df
MV
593 <varlistentry><term><option>MaxReleaseFileSize</option></term>
594 <listitem><para>
595 The maximum file size of Release/Release.gpg/InRelease files.
596 The default is 10MB.
597 </para></listitem>
a27c4e88
MV
598 </varlistentry>
599
c8ec5ab7 600 <varlistentry><term><option>EnableSrvRecords</option></term>
a27c4e88
MV
601 <listitem><para>
602 This option controls if apt will use the DNS SRV server record
603 as specified in RFC 2782 to select an alternative server to
604 connect to.
605 The default is "true".
606 </para></listitem>
954d30df
MV
607 </varlistentry>
608
609 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowInsecureRepositories</option></term>
610 <listitem><para>
611 Allow the update operation to load data files from
612 a repository without a trusted signature. If enabled this
613 option no data files will be loaded and the update
614 operation fails with a error for this source. The default
615 is false for backward compatibility. This will be changed
616 in the future.
617 </para></listitem>
618 </varlistentry>
619
620 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowDowngradeToInsecureRepositories</option></term>
621 <listitem><para>
622 Allow that a repository that was previously gpg signed to become
623 unsigned durign a update operation. When there is no valid signature
624 of a perviously trusted repository apt will refuse the update. This
625 option can be used to override this protection. You almost certainly
626 never want to enable this. The default is false.
627
628 Note that apt will still consider packages from this source
629 untrusted and warn about them if you try to install
630 them.
631 </para></listitem>
632 </varlistentry>
633
d56e2917
DK
634 <varlistentry><term><option>Changelogs::URI</option> scope</term>
635 <listitem><para>
636 Acquiring changelogs can only be done if an URI is known from where to get them.
637 Preferable the Release file indicates this in a 'Changelogs' field. If this isn't
638 available the Label/Origin field of the Release file is used to check if a
639 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal> or
640 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal> option
641 exists and if so this value is taken. The value in the Release file can be overridden
642 with <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal>
643 or <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal>.
644
645 The value should be a normal URI to a text file, expect that package specific data is
646 replaced with the placeholder <literal>CHANGEPATH</literal>. The
647 value for it is: 1. if the package is from a component (e.g. <literal>main</literal>)
648 this is the first part otherwise it is omitted, 2. the first letter of source package name,
649 expect if the source package name starts with '<literal>lib</literal>' in which case it will
650 be the first four letters. 3. The complete source package name. 4. the complete name again and
651 5. the source version.
652 The first (if present), second, third and fourth part are separated by a slash ('<literal>/</literal>')
653 and between the fourth and fifth part is an underscore ('<literal>_</literal>').
654
655 The special value '<literal>no</literal>' is available for this option indicating that
656 this source can't be used to acquire changelog files from. Another source will be tried
657 if available in this case.
658 </para></listitem>
659 </varlistentry>
660
24f6490f 661 </variablelist>
24f6490f
AL
662 </refsect1>
663
664 <refsect1><title>Directories</title>
665
666 <para>The <literal>Dir::State</literal> section has directories that pertain to local
667 state information. <literal>lists</literal> is the directory to place downloaded
5723791e 668 package lists in and <literal>status</literal> is the name of the &dpkg; status file.
c086ac18 669 <literal>preferences</literal> is the name of the APT <filename>preferences</filename> file.
5723791e
JR
670 <literal>Dir::State</literal> contains the default directory to prefix on all
671 sub-items if they do not start with <filename>/</filename> or <filename>./</filename>.</para>
24f6490f
AL
672
673 <para><literal>Dir::Cache</literal> contains locations pertaining to local cache
674 information, such as the two package caches <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> and
675 <literal>pkgcache</literal> as well as the location to place downloaded archives,
676 <literal>Dir::Cache::archives</literal>. Generation of caches can be turned off
4b73368d
CB
677 by setting <literal>pkgcache</literal> or <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> to
678 <literal>""</literal>. This will slow down startup but save disk space. It
679 is probably preferable to turn off the pkgcache rather than the srcpkgcache.
680 Like <literal>Dir::State</literal> the default directory is contained in
681 <literal>Dir::Cache</literal></para>
24f6490f
AL
682
683 <para><literal>Dir::Etc</literal> contains the location of configuration files,
684 <literal>sourcelist</literal> gives the location of the sourcelist and
685 <literal>main</literal> is the default configuration file (setting has no effect,
686 unless it is done from the config file specified by
13e8426f 687 <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>).</para>
24f6490f
AL
688
689 <para>The <literal>Dir::Parts</literal> setting reads in all the config fragments in
690 lexical order from the directory specified. After this is done then the
691 main config file is loaded.</para>
692
693 <para>Binary programs are pointed to by <literal>Dir::Bin</literal>. <literal>Dir::Bin::Methods</literal>
694 specifies the location of the method handlers and <literal>gzip</literal>,
e85b4cd5 695 <literal>bzip2</literal>, <literal>lzma</literal>,
24f6490f
AL
696 <literal>dpkg</literal>, <literal>apt-get</literal> <literal>dpkg-source</literal>
697 <literal>dpkg-buildpackage</literal> and <literal>apt-cache</literal> specify the location
698 of the respective programs.</para>
db2cca11
OS
699
700 <para>
701 The configuration item <literal>RootDir</literal> has a special
35bf76cf 702 meaning. If set, all paths will be
db2cca11
OS
703 relative to <literal>RootDir</literal>, <emphasis>even paths that
704 are specified absolutely</emphasis>. So, for instance, if
705 <literal>RootDir</literal> is set to
706 <filename>/tmp/staging</filename> and
707 <literal>Dir::State::status</literal> is set to
708 <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>, then the status file
709 will be looked up in
710 <filename>/tmp/staging/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>.
35bf76cf 711 If you want to prefix only relative paths, set <literal>Dir</literal> instead.
db2cca11 712 </para>
1408e219
DK
713
714 <para>
715 The <literal>Ignore-Files-Silently</literal> list can be used to specify
716 which files APT should silently ignore while parsing the files in the
717 fragment directories. Per default a file which end with <literal>.disabled</literal>,
718 <literal>~</literal>, <literal>.bak</literal> or <literal>.dpkg-[a-z]+</literal>
719 is silently ignored. As seen in the last default value these patterns can use regular
720 expression syntax.
721 </para>
24f6490f
AL
722 </refsect1>
723
724 <refsect1><title>APT in DSelect</title>
725 <para>
726 When APT is used as a &dselect; method several configuration directives
5723791e 727 control the default behavior. These are in the <literal>DSelect</literal> section.</para>
24f6490f
AL
728
729 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 730 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean</option></term>
5723791e
JR
731 <listitem><para>Cache Clean mode; this value may be one of
732 <literal>always</literal>, <literal>prompt</literal>,
733 <literal>auto</literal>, <literal>pre-auto</literal> and
734 <literal>never</literal>.
735 <literal>always</literal> and <literal>prompt</literal> will remove
736 all packages from the cache after upgrading, <literal>prompt</literal>
737 (the default) does so conditionally.
738 <literal>auto</literal> removes only those packages which are no longer
739 downloadable (replaced with a new version for instance).
740 <literal>pre-auto</literal> performs this action before downloading
741 new packages.</para></listitem>
24f6490f
AL
742 </varlistentry>
743
2b9b27c3 744 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 745 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
24f6490f
AL
746 options when it is run for the install phase.</para></listitem>
747 </varlistentry>
748
2b9b27c3 749 <varlistentry><term><option>Updateoptions</option></term>
5723791e 750 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
24f6490f
AL
751 options when it is run for the update phase.</para></listitem>
752 </varlistentry>
753
2b9b27c3 754 <varlistentry><term><option>PromptAfterUpdate</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
755 <listitem><para>If true the [U]pdate operation in &dselect; will always prompt to continue.
756 The default is to prompt only on error.</para></listitem>
757 </varlistentry>
758 </variablelist>
759 </refsect1>
760
5723791e 761 <refsect1><title>How APT calls &dpkg;</title>
24f6490f
AL
762 <para>Several configuration directives control how APT invokes &dpkg;. These are
763 in the <literal>DPkg</literal> section.</para>
764
765 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 766 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
5723791e 767 <listitem><para>This is a list of options to pass to &dpkg;. The options must be specified
24f6490f
AL
768 using the list notation and each list item is passed as a single argument
769 to &dpkg;.</para></listitem>
770 </varlistentry>
771
2b9b27c3 772 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Invoke</option></term><term><option>Post-Invoke</option></term>
24f6490f
AL
773 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before/after invoking &dpkg;.
774 Like <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The
5723791e 775 commands are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any
24f6490f
AL
776 fail APT will abort.</para></listitem>
777 </varlistentry>
778
2b9b27c3 779 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Install-Pkgs</option></term>
5723791e 780 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before invoking &dpkg;. Like
24f6490f 781 <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The commands
5723791e
JR
782 are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any fail APT
783 will abort. APT will pass the filenames of all .deb files it is going to
48498443
DK
784 install to the commands, one per line on the requested file descriptor, defaulting
785 to standard input.</para>
24f6490f 786
29efb9dd
JN
787 <para>Version 2 of this protocol sends more information through the requested
788 file descriptor: a line with the text <literal>VERSION 2</literal>,
789 the APT configuration space, and a list of package actions with filename
790 and version information.</para>
791
792 <para>Each configuration directive line has the form
793 <literal>key=value</literal>. Special characters (equal signs, newlines,
794 nonprintable characters, quotation marks, and percent signs in
795 <literal>key</literal> and newlines, nonprintable characters, and percent
796 signs in <literal>value</literal>) are %-encoded. Lists are represented
797 by multiple <literal>key::=value</literal> lines with the same key. The
798 configuration section ends with a blank line.</para>
799
800 <para>Package action lines consist of five fields in Version 2: old version, direction
801 of version change (&lt; for upgrades, &gt; for downgrades, = for no
802 change), new version, action. The version fields are "-" for no version
803 at all (for example when installing a package for the first time; no
804 version is treated as earlier than any real version, so that is an
805 upgrade, indicated as <literal>- &lt; 1.23.4</literal>). The action field
806 is "**CONFIGURE**" if the package is being configured, "**REMOVE**" if it
807 is being removed, or the filename of a .deb file if it is being
808 unpacked.</para>
809
810 <para>In Version 3 after each version field follows the architecture
811 of this version, which is "-" if there is no version, and a field showing
812 the MultiArch type "same", foreign", "allowed" or "none". Note that "none"
813 is an incorrect typename which is just kept to remain compatible, it
814 should be read as "no" and users are encouraged to support both.</para>
7a948ec7
DK
815
816 <para>The version of the protocol to be used for the command
817 <literal><replaceable>cmd</replaceable></literal> can be chosen by setting
818 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::Version</literal>
819 accordingly, the default being version 1. If APT isn't supporting the requested
820 version it will send the information in the highest version it has support for instead.
48498443
DK
821 </para>
822
823 <para>The file descriptor to be used to send the information can be requested with
824 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::InfoFD</literal>
825 which defaults to <literal>0</literal> for standard input and is available since
826 version 0.9.11. Support for the option can be detected by looking for the environment
827 variable <envar>APT_HOOK_INFO_FD</envar> which contains the number of the used
828 file descriptor as a confirmation.</para>
829 </listitem>
24f6490f
AL
830 </varlistentry>
831
2b9b27c3 832 <varlistentry><term><option>Run-Directory</option></term>
5723791e 833 <listitem><para>APT chdirs to this directory before invoking &dpkg;, the default is
24f6490f
AL
834 <filename>/</filename>.</para></listitem>
835 </varlistentry>
836
2b9b27c3 837 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-options</option></term>
5723791e 838 <listitem><para>These options are passed to &dpkg-buildpackage; when compiling packages;
24f6490f
AL
839 the default is to disable signing and produce all binaries.</para></listitem>
840 </varlistentry>
841 </variablelist>
3e9c4f70 842
5e312de7 843 <refsect2><title>dpkg trigger usage (and related options)</title>
5723791e
JR
844 <para>APT can call &dpkg; in such a way as to let it make aggressive use of triggers over
845 multiple calls of &dpkg;. Without further options &dpkg; will use triggers once each time it runs.
846 Activating these options can therefore decrease the time needed to perform the
847 install or upgrade. Note that it is intended to activate these options per default in the
848 future, but as it drastically changes the way APT calls &dpkg; it needs a lot more testing.
3e9c4f70 849 <emphasis>These options are therefore currently experimental and should not be used in
5723791e 850 production environments.</emphasis> It also breaks progress reporting such that all front-ends will
3e9c4f70
DK
851 currently stay around half (or more) of the time in the 100% state while it actually configures
852 all packages.</para>
a9564741 853 <para>Note that it is not guaranteed that APT will support these options or that these options will
5e312de7 854 not cause (big) trouble in the future. If you have understand the current risks and problems with
5723791e 855 these options, but are brave enough to help testing them, create a new configuration file and test a
5e312de7 856 combination of options. Please report any bugs, problems and improvements you encounter and make sure
5723791e 857 to note which options you have used in your reports. Asking &dpkg; for help could also be useful for
5e312de7 858 debugging proposes, see e.g. <command>dpkg --audit</command>. A defensive option combination would be
3e9c4f70 859<literallayout>DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
5e312de7
DK
860PackageManager::Configure "smart";
861DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
d5081aee 862DPkg::TriggersPending "true";</literallayout></para>
3e9c4f70
DK
863
864 <variablelist>
2b9b27c3 865 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::NoTriggers</option></term>
5723791e
JR
866 <listitem><para>Add the no triggers flag to all &dpkg; calls (except the ConfigurePending call).
867 See &dpkg; if you are interested in what this actually means. In short: &dpkg; will not run the
5f4331c4 868 triggers when this flag is present unless it is explicitly called to do so in an extra call.
5723791e
JR
869 Note that this option exists (undocumented) also in older APT versions with a slightly different
870 meaning: Previously these option only append --no-triggers to the configure calls to &dpkg; -
871 now APT will also add this flag to the unpack and remove calls.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 872 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 873 <varlistentry><term><option>PackageManager::Configure</option></term>
5723791e
JR
874 <listitem><para>Valid values are "<literal>all</literal>",
875 "<literal>smart</literal>" and "<literal>no</literal>".
876 The default value is "<literal>all</literal>", which causes APT to
877 configure all packages. The "<literal>smart</literal>" way is to
878 configure only packages which need to be configured before another
879 package can be unpacked (Pre-Depends), and let the rest be configured
880 by &dpkg; with a call generated by the ConfigurePending option (see
881 below). On the other hand, "<literal>no</literal>" will not configure
882 anything, and totally relies on &dpkg; for configuration (which at the
883 moment will fail if a Pre-Depends is encountered). Setting this option
884 to any value other than <literal>all</literal> will implicitly also
885 activate the next option by default, as otherwise the system could end
886 in an unconfigured and potentially unbootable state.</para></listitem>
3e9c4f70 887 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 888 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::ConfigurePending</option></term>
5723791e
JR
889 <listitem><para>If this option is set APT will call <command>dpkg --configure --pending</command>
890 to let &dpkg; handle all required configurations and triggers. This option is activated automatically
891 per default if the previous option is not set to <literal>all</literal>, but deactivating it could be useful
5f4331c4 892 if you want to run APT multiple times in a row - e.g. in an installer. In these sceneries you could
3e9c4f70
DK
893 deactivate this option in all but the last run.</para></listitem>
894 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 895 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::TriggersPending</option></term>
5723791e
JR
896 <listitem><para>Useful for the <literal>smart</literal> configuration as a package which has pending
897 triggers is not considered as <literal>installed</literal>, and &dpkg; treats them as <literal>unpacked</literal>
898 currently which is a showstopper for Pre-Dependencies (see debbugs #526774). Note that this will
5e312de7
DK
899 process all triggers, not only the triggers needed to configure this package.</para></listitem>
900 </varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 901 <varlistentry><term><option>OrderList::Score::Immediate</option></term>
5723791e
JR
902 <listitem><para>Essential packages (and their dependencies) should be configured immediately
903 after unpacking. It is a good idea to do this quite early in the upgrade process as these
904 configure calls also currently require <literal>DPkg::TriggersPending</literal> which
905 will run quite a few triggers (which may not be needed). Essentials get per default a high score
906 but the immediate flag is relatively low (a package which has a Pre-Depends is rated higher).
5e312de7 907 These option and the others in the same group can be used to change the scoring. The following
5723791e 908 example shows the settings with their default values.
5e312de7
DK
909 <literallayout>OrderList::Score {
910 Delete 500;
911 Essential 200;
912 Immediate 10;
913 PreDepends 50;
914};</literallayout>
915 </para></listitem>
916 </varlistentry>
3e9c4f70
DK
917 </variablelist>
918 </refsect2>
24f6490f
AL
919 </refsect1>
920
0224daf2
EL
921 <refsect1>
922 <title>Periodic and Archives options</title>
923 <para><literal>APT::Periodic</literal> and <literal>APT::Archives</literal>
924 groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is
5723791e 925 done by the <literal>/etc/cron.daily/apt</literal> script. See the top of
0224daf2
EL
926 this script for the brief documentation of these options.
927 </para>
928 </refsect1>
929
be1b8568
EL
930 <refsect1>
931 <title>Debug options</title>
932 <para>
933 Enabling options in the <literal>Debug::</literal> section will
934 cause debugging information to be sent to the standard error
935 stream of the program utilizing the <literal>apt</literal>
936 libraries, or enable special program modes that are primarily
937 useful for debugging the behavior of <literal>apt</literal>.
938 Most of these options are not interesting to a normal user, but a
939 few may be:
940
941 <itemizedlist>
942 <listitem>
943 <para>
944 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> enables output
945 about the decisions made by
946 <literal>dist-upgrade, upgrade, install, remove, purge</literal>.
947 </para>
948 </listitem>
949
950 <listitem>
951 <para>
952 <literal>Debug::NoLocking</literal> disables all file
953 locking. This can be used to run some operations (for
954 instance, <literal>apt-get -s install</literal>) as a
955 non-root user.
956 </para>
957 </listitem>
958
959 <listitem>
960 <para>
961 <literal>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</literal> prints out the actual
962 command line each time that <literal>apt</literal> invokes
963 &dpkg;.
964 </para>
965 </listitem>
966
967 <listitem>
968 <para>
969 <literal>Debug::IdentCdrom</literal> disables the inclusion
25838be6 970 of statfs data in CD-ROM IDs. <!-- TODO: provide a
be1b8568
EL
971 motivating example, except I haven't a clue why you'd want
972 to do this. -->
973 </para>
974 </listitem>
975 </itemizedlist>
8a3642bd 976 </para>
be1b8568
EL
977
978 <para>
979 A full list of debugging options to apt follows.
980 </para>
981
982 <variablelist>
983 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 984 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::cdrom</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
985
986 <listitem>
987 <para>
988 Print information related to accessing
989 <literal>cdrom://</literal> sources.
990 </para>
991 </listitem>
992 </varlistentry>
993
994 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 995 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::ftp</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
996
997 <listitem>
998 <para>
999 Print information related to downloading packages using
1000 FTP.
1001 </para>
1002 </listitem>
1003 </varlistentry>
1004
1005 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1006 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::http</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1007
1008 <listitem>
1009 <para>
1010 Print information related to downloading packages using
1011 HTTP.
1012 </para>
1013 </listitem>
1014 </varlistentry>
1015
1016 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1017 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::https</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1018
1019 <listitem>
1020 <para>
1021 Print information related to downloading packages using
1022 HTTPS.
1023 </para>
1024 </listitem>
1025 </varlistentry>
1026
1027 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1028 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::gpgv</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1029
1030 <listitem>
1031 <para>
1032 Print information related to verifying cryptographic
1033 signatures using <literal>gpg</literal>.
1034 </para>
1035 </listitem>
1036 </varlistentry>
1037
1038 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1039 <term><option>Debug::aptcdrom</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1040
1041 <listitem>
1042 <para>
1043 Output information about the process of accessing
1044 collections of packages stored on CD-ROMs.
1045 </para>
1046 </listitem>
1047 </varlistentry>
1048
1049 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1050 <term><option>Debug::BuildDeps</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1051 <listitem>
1052 <para>
1053 Describes the process of resolving build-dependencies in
1054 &apt-get;.
1055 </para>
1056 </listitem>
1057 </varlistentry>
1058
1059 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1060 <term><option>Debug::Hashes</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1061 <listitem>
1062 <para>
1063 Output each cryptographic hash that is generated by the
1064 <literal>apt</literal> libraries.
1065 </para>
1066 </listitem>
1067 </varlistentry>
1068
1069 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1070 <term><option>Debug::IdentCDROM</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1071 <listitem>
1072 <para>
1073 Do not include information from <literal>statfs</literal>,
1074 namely the number of used and free blocks on the CD-ROM
1075 filesystem, when generating an ID for a CD-ROM.
1076 </para>
1077 </listitem>
1078 </varlistentry>
1079
1080 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1081 <term><option>Debug::NoLocking</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1082 <listitem>
1083 <para>
1084 Disable all file locking. For instance, this will allow
1085 two instances of <quote><literal>apt-get
1086 update</literal></quote> to run at the same time.
1087 </para>
1088 </listitem>
1089 </varlistentry>
1090
1091 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1092 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1093
1094 <listitem>
1095 <para>
1096 Log when items are added to or removed from the global
1097 download queue.
1098 </para>
1099 </listitem>
1100 </varlistentry>
1101
1102 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1103 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Auth</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1104 <listitem>
1105 <para>
1106 Output status messages and errors related to verifying
1107 checksums and cryptographic signatures of downloaded files.
1108 </para>
1109 </listitem>
1110 </varlistentry>
1111
1112 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1113 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Diffs</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1114 <listitem>
1115 <para>
1116 Output information about downloading and applying package
1117 index list diffs, and errors relating to package index list
1118 diffs.
1119 </para>
1120 </listitem>
1121 </varlistentry>
1122
1123 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1124 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::RRed</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1125
1126 <listitem>
1127 <para>
1128 Output information related to patching apt package lists
1129 when downloading index diffs instead of full indices.
1130 </para>
1131 </listitem>
1132 </varlistentry>
1133
1134 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1135 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Worker</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1136
1137 <listitem>
1138 <para>
1139 Log all interactions with the sub-processes that actually
1140 perform downloads.
1141 </para>
1142 </listitem>
1143 </varlistentry>
1144
1145 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1146 <term><option>Debug::pkgAutoRemove</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1147
1148 <listitem>
1149 <para>
1150 Log events related to the automatically-installed status of
1151 packages and to the removal of unused packages.
1152 </para>
1153 </listitem>
1154 </varlistentry>
1155
1156 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1157 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1158 <listitem>
1159 <para>
1160 Generate debug messages describing which packages are being
1161 automatically installed to resolve dependencies. This
1162 corresponds to the initial auto-install pass performed in,
1163 e.g., <literal>apt-get install</literal>, and not to the
1164 full <literal>apt</literal> dependency resolver; see
1165 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> for that.
1166 </para>
1167 </listitem>
1168 </varlistentry>
1169
af29ffb4 1170 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1171 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</option></term>
af29ffb4
MV
1172 <listitem>
1173 <para>
5723791e 1174 Generate debug messages describing which packages are marked
af29ffb4
MV
1175 as keep/install/remove while the ProblemResolver does his work.
1176 Each addition or deletion may trigger additional actions;
5723791e 1177 they are shown indented two additional spaces under the original entry.
af29ffb4
MV
1178 The format for each line is <literal>MarkKeep</literal>,
1179 <literal>MarkDelete</literal> or <literal>MarkInstall</literal> followed by
1180 <literal>package-name &lt;a.b.c -&gt; d.e.f | x.y.z&gt; (section)</literal>
1181 where <literal>a.b.c</literal> is the current version of the package,
1182 <literal>d.e.f</literal> is the version considered for installation and
1183 <literal>x.y.z</literal> is a newer version, but not considered for installation
1184 (because of a low pin score). The later two can be omitted if there is none or if
5723791e 1185 it is the same as the installed version.
af29ffb4
MV
1186 <literal>section</literal> is the name of the section the package appears in.
1187 </para>
1188 </listitem>
1189 </varlistentry>
be1b8568
EL
1190
1191 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1192 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1193 <listitem>
1194 <para>
1195 When invoking &dpkg;, output the precise command line with
1196 which it is being invoked, with arguments separated by a
1197 single space character.
1198 </para>
1199 </listitem>
1200 </varlistentry>
1201
1202 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1203 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgProgressReporting</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1204 <listitem>
1205 <para>
1206 Output all the data received from &dpkg; on the status file
1207 descriptor and any errors encountered while parsing it.
1208 </para>
1209 </listitem>
1210 </varlistentry>
1211
1212 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1213 <term><option>Debug::pkgOrderList</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1214
1215 <listitem>
1216 <para>
1217 Generate a trace of the algorithm that decides the order in
1218 which <literal>apt</literal> should pass packages to
1219 &dpkg;.
1220 </para>
1221 </listitem>
1222 </varlistentry>
1223
1224 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1225 <term><option>Debug::pkgPackageManager</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1226
1227 <listitem>
1228 <para>
1229 Output status messages tracing the steps performed when
1230 invoking &dpkg;.
1231 </para>
1232 </listitem>
1233 </varlistentry>
1234
1235 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1236 <term><option>Debug::pkgPolicy</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1237
1238 <listitem>
1239 <para>
1240 Output the priority of each package list on startup.
1241 </para>
1242 </listitem>
1243 </varlistentry>
1244
1245 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1246 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1247
1248 <listitem>
1249 <para>
1250 Trace the execution of the dependency resolver (this
1251 applies only to what happens when a complex dependency
1252 problem is encountered).
1253 </para>
1254 </listitem>
1255 </varlistentry>
1256
8b4894fe 1257 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1258 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver::ShowScores</option></term>
8b4894fe
MV
1259 <listitem>
1260 <para>
1261 Display a list of all installed packages with their calculated score
1262 used by the pkgProblemResolver. The description of the package
1263 is the same as described in <literal>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</literal>
1264 </para>
1265 </listitem>
1266 </varlistentry>
1267
be1b8568 1268 <varlistentry>
2b9b27c3 1269 <term><option>Debug::sourceList</option></term>
be1b8568
EL
1270
1271 <listitem>
1272 <para>
1273 Print information about the vendors read from
1274 <filename>/etc/apt/vendors.list</filename>.
1275 </para>
1276 </listitem>
1277 </varlistentry>
1278
e5b7e019
MV
1279 <varlistentry>
1280 <term><option>Debug::RunScripts</option></term>
1281 <listitem>
1282 <para>
1283 Display the external commands that are called by apt hooks.
1284 This includes e.g. the config options
1285 <literal>DPkg::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal> or
1286 <literal>APT::Update::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal>.
1287 </para>
1288 </listitem>
1289 </varlistentry>
1290
d82cdf73
MV
1291<!-- 2009/07/11 Currently used nowhere. The corresponding code
1292is commented.
be1b8568
EL
1293 <varlistentry>
1294 <term><literal>Debug::Vendor</literal></term>
1295
1296 <listitem>
1297 <para>
1298 Print information about each vendor.
1299 </para>
1300 </listitem>
1301 </varlistentry>
d82cdf73 1302-->
45df0ad2 1303
be1b8568 1304 </variablelist>
24f6490f
AL
1305 </refsect1>
1306
1307 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
640c5d94
MZ
1308 <para>&configureindex; is a
1309 configuration file showing example values for all possible
24f6490f
AL
1310 options.</para>
1311 </refsect1>
1312
1313 <refsect1><title>Files</title>
6e2525a1 1314 <variablelist>
1221c3a3 1315 &file-aptconf;
6e2525a1 1316 </variablelist>
24f6490f
AL
1317 </refsect1>
1318
1319 <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
1320 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-config;<!-- ? reading apt.conf -->, &apt-preferences;.</para>
1321 </refsect1>
1322
1323 &manbugs;
24f6490f
AL
1324
1325</refentry>
1326