| 1 | <!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- --> |
| 2 | <!doctype debiandoc PUBLIC "-//DebianDoc//DTD DebianDoc//EN"> |
| 3 | <book> |
| 4 | <title>APT User's Guide</title> |
| 5 | |
| 6 | <author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author> |
| 7 | <version>$Id: guide.sgml,v 1.7 2003/04/26 23:26:13 doogie Exp $</version> |
| 8 | |
| 9 | <abstract> |
| 10 | This document provides an overview of how to use the the APT package manager. |
| 11 | </abstract> |
| 12 | |
| 13 | <copyright> |
| 14 | Copyright © Jason Gunthorpe, 1998. |
| 15 | <p> |
| 16 | "APT" and this document are free software; you can redistribute them and/or |
| 17 | modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published |
| 18 | by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your |
| 19 | option) any later version. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | <p> |
| 22 | For more details, on Debian systems, see the file |
| 23 | /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for the full license. |
| 24 | </copyright> |
| 25 | |
| 26 | <toc sect> |
| 27 | |
| 28 | <!-- General {{{ --> |
| 29 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 30 | <chapt>General |
| 31 | |
| 32 | <p> |
| 33 | The APT package currently contains two sections, the APT <prgn>dselect</> |
| 34 | method and the <prgn>apt-get</> command line user interface. Both provide |
| 35 | a way to install and remove packages as well as download new packages from |
| 36 | the Internet. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | <sect>Anatomy of the Package System |
| 39 | <p> |
| 40 | The Debian packaging system has a large amount of information associated with |
| 41 | each package to help assure that it integrates cleanly and easily into |
| 42 | the system. The most prominent of its features is the dependency system. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | <p> |
| 45 | The dependency system allows individual programs to make use of shared |
| 46 | elements in the system such as libraries. It simplifies placing infrequently |
| 47 | used portions of a program in separate packages to reduce the |
| 48 | number of things the average user is required to install. Also, it allows |
| 49 | for choices in mail transport agents, X servers and |
| 50 | so on. |
| 51 | |
| 52 | <p> |
| 53 | The first step to understanding the dependency system is to grasp the concept |
| 54 | of a simple dependency. The meaning of a simple dependency is that a package |
| 55 | requires another package to be installed at the same time to work properly. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | <p> |
| 58 | For instance, mailcrypt is an emacs extension that aids in encrypting email |
| 59 | with GPG. Without GPGP installed mailcrypt is useless, so mailcrypt has a |
| 60 | simple dependency on GPG. Also, because it is an emacs extension it has a |
| 61 | simple dependency on emacs, without emacs it is completely useless. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | <p> |
| 64 | The other important dependency to understand is a conflicting dependency. It |
| 65 | means that a package, when installed with another package, will not work and |
| 66 | may possibly be extremely harmful to the system. As an example consider a |
| 67 | mail transport agent such as sendmail, exim or qmail. It is not possible |
| 68 | to have two mail transport agents installed because both need to listen to |
| 69 | the network to receive mail. Attempting to install two will seriously |
| 70 | damage the system so all mail transport agents have a conflicting dependency |
| 71 | with all other mail transport agents. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | <p> |
| 74 | As an added complication there is the possibility for a package to pretend |
| 75 | to be another package. Consider that exim and sendmail for many intents are |
| 76 | identical, they both deliver mail and understand a common interface. Hence, |
| 77 | the package system has a way for them to declare that they are both |
| 78 | mail-transport-agents. So, exim and sendmail both declare that they provide a |
| 79 | mail-transport-agent and other packages that need a mail transport agent |
| 80 | depend on mail-transport-agent. This can add a great deal of confusion when |
| 81 | trying to manually fix packages. |
| 82 | |
| 83 | <p> |
| 84 | At any given time a single dependency may be met by packages that are already |
| 85 | installed or it may not be. APT attempts to help resolve dependency issues |
| 86 | by providing a number of automatic algorithms that help in selecting packages |
| 87 | for installation. |
| 88 | </sect> |
| 89 | |
| 90 | </chapt> |
| 91 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 92 | <!-- apt-get {{{ --> |
| 93 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 94 | <chapt>apt-get |
| 95 | |
| 96 | <p> |
| 97 | <prgn>apt-get</> provides a simple way to install packages from the command |
| 98 | line. Unlike <prgn>dpkg</>, <prgn>apt-get</> does not understand .deb files, |
| 99 | it works with the package's proper name and can only install .deb archives from |
| 100 | a <em>Source</>. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | <p> |
| 103 | The first <footnote>If you are using an http proxy server you must set the |
| 104 | http_proxy environment variable first, see sources.list(5)</footnote> thing that |
| 105 | should be done before using <prgn>apt-get</> is to fetch the package lists |
| 106 | from the <em>Sources</> so that it knows what packages are |
| 107 | available. This is done with <tt>apt-get update</>. For instance, |
| 108 | |
| 109 | <p> |
| 110 | <example> |
| 111 | # apt-get update |
| 112 | Get http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/binary-i386/ Packages |
| 113 | Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/contrib Packages |
| 114 | Reading Package Lists... Done |
| 115 | Building Dependency Tree... Done |
| 116 | </example> |
| 117 | |
| 118 | <p> |
| 119 | Once updated there are several commands that can be used: |
| 120 | <taglist> |
| 121 | <tag>upgrade<item> |
| 122 | Upgrade will attempt to gently upgrade the whole system. Upgrade will |
| 123 | never install a new package or remove an existing package, nor will it |
| 124 | ever upgrade a package that might cause some other package to break. |
| 125 | This can be used daily to relatively safely upgrade the system. Upgrade |
| 126 | will list all of the packages that it could not upgrade, this usually |
| 127 | means that they depend on new packages or conflict with some other package. |
| 128 | <prgn>dselect</> or <tt>apt-get install</> can be used to force these |
| 129 | packages to install. |
| 130 | |
| 131 | <tag>install<item> |
| 132 | Install is used to install packages by name. The package is |
| 133 | automatically fetched and installed. This can be useful if you already |
| 134 | know the name of the package to install and do not want to go into a GUI |
| 135 | to select it. Any number of packages may be passed to install, they will |
| 136 | all be fetched. Install automatically attempts to resolve dependency problems |
| 137 | with the listed packages and will print a summary and ask for confirmation |
| 138 | if anything other than its arguments are changed. |
| 139 | |
| 140 | <tag>dist-upgrade<item> |
| 141 | Dist-upgrade is a complete upgrader designed to simplify upgrading between |
| 142 | releases of Debian. It uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine the best |
| 143 | set of packages to install, upgrade and remove to get as much of the system |
| 144 | to the newest release. In some situations it may be desired to use dist-upgrade |
| 145 | rather than spend the time manually resolving dependencies in <prgn>dselect</>. |
| 146 | Once dist-upgrade has completed then <prgn>dselect</> can be used to install |
| 147 | any packages that may have been left out. |
| 148 | |
| 149 | <p> |
| 150 | It is important to closely look at what dist-upgrade is going to do, its |
| 151 | decisions may sometimes be quite surprising. |
| 152 | </taglist> |
| 153 | |
| 154 | <p> |
| 155 | <prgn>apt-get</> has several command line options that are detailed in its |
| 156 | man page, <manref name="apt-get" section="8">. The most useful option is |
| 157 | <tt>-d</> which does not install the fetched files. If the system has to |
| 158 | download a large number of package it would be undesired to start installing |
| 159 | them in case something goes wrong. When <tt>-d</> is used the downloaded |
| 160 | archives can be installed by simply running the command that caused them to |
| 161 | be downloaded again without <tt>-d</>. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | </chapt> |
| 164 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 165 | <!-- DSelect {{{ --> |
| 166 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 167 | <chapt>DSelect |
| 168 | <p> |
| 169 | The APT <prgn>dselect</> method provides the complete APT system with |
| 170 | the <prgn>dselect</> package selection GUI. <prgn>dselect</> is used to |
| 171 | select the packages to be installed or removed and APT actually installs them. |
| 172 | |
| 173 | <p> |
| 174 | To enable the APT method you need to select [A]ccess in <prgn>dselect</> |
| 175 | and then choose the APT method. You will be prompted for a set of |
| 176 | <em>Sources</> which are places to fetch archives from. These can be remote |
| 177 | Internet sites, local Debian mirrors or CD-ROMs. Each source can provide |
| 178 | a fragment of the total Debian archive, APT will automatically combine them |
| 179 | to form a complete set of packages. If you have a CD-ROM then it is a good idea |
| 180 | to specify it first and then specify a mirror so that you have access to |
| 181 | the latest bug fixes. APT will automatically use packages on your CD-ROM before |
| 182 | downloading from the Internet. |
| 183 | |
| 184 | <p> |
| 185 | <example> |
| 186 | Set up a list of distribution source locations |
| 187 | |
| 188 | Please give the base URL of the debian distribution. |
| 189 | The access schemes I know about are: http file |
| 190 | |
| 191 | For example: |
| 192 | file:/mnt/debian, |
| 193 | ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian, |
| 194 | http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian, |
| 195 | |
| 196 | |
| 197 | URL [http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian]: |
| 198 | </example> |
| 199 | |
| 200 | <p> |
| 201 | The <em>Sources</> setup starts by asking for the base of the Debian |
| 202 | archive, defaulting to a HTTP mirror. Next it asks for the distribution to |
| 203 | get. |
| 204 | |
| 205 | <p> |
| 206 | <example> |
| 207 | Please give the distribution tag to get or a path to the |
| 208 | package file ending in a /. The distribution |
| 209 | tags are typically something like: stable unstable testing non-US |
| 210 | |
| 211 | Distribution [stable]: |
| 212 | </example> |
| 213 | |
| 214 | <p> |
| 215 | The distribution refers to the Debian version in the archive, <em>stable</> |
| 216 | refers to the latest released version and <em>unstable</> refers to the |
| 217 | developmental version. <em>non-US</> is only available on some mirrors and |
| 218 | refers to packages that contain encryption technology or other things that |
| 219 | cannot be exported from the United States. Importing these packages into the |
| 220 | US is legal however. |
| 221 | |
| 222 | <p> |
| 223 | <example> |
| 224 | Please give the components to get |
| 225 | The components are typically something like: main contrib non-free |
| 226 | |
| 227 | Components [main contrib non-free]: |
| 228 | </example> |
| 229 | |
| 230 | <p> |
| 231 | The components list refers to the list of sub distributions to fetch. The |
| 232 | distribution is split up based on software licenses, main being DFSG free |
| 233 | packages while contrib and non-free contain things that have various |
| 234 | restrictions placed on their use and distribution. |
| 235 | |
| 236 | <p> |
| 237 | Any number of sources can be added, the setup script will continue to |
| 238 | prompt until you have specified all that you want. |
| 239 | |
| 240 | <p> |
| 241 | Before starting to use <prgn>dselect</> it is necessary to update the |
| 242 | available list by selecting [U]pdate from the menu. This is a superset of |
| 243 | <tt>apt-get update</> that makes the fetched information available to |
| 244 | <prgn>dselect</>. [U]pdate must be performed even if <tt>apt-get update</> |
| 245 | has been run before. |
| 246 | |
| 247 | <p> |
| 248 | You can then go on and make your selections using [S]elect and then |
| 249 | perform the installation using [I]nstall. When using the APT method |
| 250 | the [C]onfig and [R]emove commands have no meaning, the [I]nstall command |
| 251 | performs both of them together. |
| 252 | |
| 253 | <p> |
| 254 | By default APT will automatically remove the package (.deb) files once they have been |
| 255 | successfully installed. To change this behavior place <tt>Dselect::clean |
| 256 | "prompt";</> in /etc/apt/apt.conf. |
| 257 | |
| 258 | </chapt> |
| 259 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 260 | <!-- The Interfaces {{{ --> |
| 261 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 262 | <chapt>The Interface |
| 263 | |
| 264 | <p> |
| 265 | Both that APT <prgn>dselect</> method and <prgn>apt-get</> share the same |
| 266 | interface. It is a simple system that generally tells you what it will do |
| 267 | and then goes and does it. |
| 268 | <footnote> |
| 269 | The <prgn>dselect</> method actually is a set of wrapper scripts |
| 270 | to <prgn>apt-get</>. The method actually provides more functionality than |
| 271 | is present in <prgn>apt-get</> alone. |
| 272 | </footnote> |
| 273 | After printing out a summary of what will happen APT then will print out some |
| 274 | informative status messages so that you can estimate how far along it is and |
| 275 | how much is left to do. |
| 276 | |
| 277 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 278 | <sect>Startup |
| 279 | |
| 280 | <p> |
| 281 | Before all operations except update, APT performs a number of actions to |
| 282 | prepare its internal state. It also does some checks of the system's state. |
| 283 | At any time these operations can be performed by running <tt>apt-get check</>. |
| 284 | <p> |
| 285 | <example> |
| 286 | # apt-get check |
| 287 | Reading Package Lists... Done |
| 288 | Building Dependency Tree... Done |
| 289 | </example> |
| 290 | |
| 291 | <p> |
| 292 | The first thing it does is read all the package files into memory. APT |
| 293 | uses a caching scheme so this operation will be faster the second time it |
| 294 | is run. If some of the package files are not found then they will be ignored |
| 295 | and a warning will be printed when apt-get exits. |
| 296 | |
| 297 | <p> |
| 298 | The final operation performs a detailed analysis of the system's dependencies. |
| 299 | It checks every dependency of every installed or unpacked package and considers |
| 300 | if it is OK. Should this find a problem then a report will be printed out and |
| 301 | <prgn>apt-get</> will refuse to run. |
| 302 | |
| 303 | <p> |
| 304 | <example> |
| 305 | # apt-get check |
| 306 | Reading Package Lists... Done |
| 307 | Building Dependency Tree... Done |
| 308 | You might want to run apt-get -f install' to correct these. |
| 309 | Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies: |
| 310 | 9fonts: Depends: xlib6g but it is not installed |
| 311 | uucp: Depends: mailx but it is not installed |
| 312 | blast: Depends: xlib6g (>= 3.3-5) but it is not installed |
| 313 | adduser: Depends: perl-base but it is not installed |
| 314 | aumix: Depends: libgpmg1 but it is not installed |
| 315 | debiandoc-sgml: Depends: sgml-base but it is not installed |
| 316 | bash-builtins: Depends: bash (>= 2.01) but 2.0-3 is installed |
| 317 | cthugha: Depends: svgalibg1 but it is not installed |
| 318 | Depends: xlib6g (>= 3.3-5) but it is not installed |
| 319 | libreadlineg2: Conflicts:libreadline2 (<< 2.1-2.1) |
| 320 | </example> |
| 321 | |
| 322 | <p> |
| 323 | In this example the system has many problems, including a serious problem |
| 324 | with libreadlineg2. For each package that has unmet dependencies a line |
| 325 | is printed out indicating the package with the problem and the dependencies |
| 326 | that are unmet. A short explanation of why the package has a dependency |
| 327 | problem is also included. |
| 328 | |
| 329 | <p> |
| 330 | There are two ways a system can get into a broken state like this. The |
| 331 | first is caused by <prgn>dpkg</> missing some subtle relationships between |
| 332 | packages when performing upgrades. <footnote>APT however considers all known |
| 333 | dependencies and attempts to prevent broken packages</footnote>. The second is |
| 334 | if a package installation fails during an operation. In this situation a |
| 335 | package may have been unpacked without its dependents being installed. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | <p> |
| 338 | The second situation is much less serious than the first because APT places |
| 339 | certain constraints on the order that packages are installed. In both cases |
| 340 | supplying the <tt>-f</> option to <prgn>apt-get</> will cause APT to deduce a |
| 341 | possible solution to the problem and then continue on. The APT <prgn>dselect</> |
| 342 | method always supplies the <tt>-f</> option to allow for easy continuation |
| 343 | of failed maintainer scripts. |
| 344 | |
| 345 | <p> |
| 346 | However, if the <tt>-f</> option is used to correct a seriously broken system |
| 347 | caused by the first case then it is possible that it will either fail |
| 348 | immediately or the installation sequence will fail. In either case it is |
| 349 | necessary to manually use dpkg (possibly with forcing options) to correct |
| 350 | the situation enough to allow APT to proceed. |
| 351 | </sect> |
| 352 | |
| 353 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 354 | <sect>The Status Report |
| 355 | |
| 356 | <p> |
| 357 | Before proceeding <prgn>apt-get</> will present a report on what will happen. |
| 358 | Generally the report reflects the type of operation being performed but there |
| 359 | are several common elements. In all cases the lists reflect the final state |
| 360 | of things, taking into account the <tt>-f</> option and any other relevant |
| 361 | activities to the command being executed. |
| 362 | |
| 363 | <sect1>The Extra Package list |
| 364 | <p> |
| 365 | <example> |
| 366 | The following extra packages will be installed: |
| 367 | libdbd-mysql-perl xlib6 zlib1 xzx libreadline2 libdbd-msql-perl |
| 368 | mailpgp xdpkg fileutils pinepgp zlib1g xlib6g perl-base |
| 369 | bin86 libgdbm1 libgdbmg1 quake-lib gmp2 bcc xbuffy |
| 370 | squake pgp-i python-base debmake ldso perl libreadlineg2 |
| 371 | ssh |
| 372 | </example> |
| 373 | |
| 374 | <p> |
| 375 | The Extra Package list shows all of the packages that will be installed |
| 376 | or upgraded in excess of the ones mentioned on the command line. It is |
| 377 | only generated for an <tt>install</> command. The listed packages are |
| 378 | often the result of an Auto Install. |
| 379 | </sect1> |
| 380 | |
| 381 | <sect1>The Packages to Remove |
| 382 | <p> |
| 383 | <example> |
| 384 | The following packages will be REMOVED: |
| 385 | xlib6-dev xpat2 tk40-dev xkeycaps xbattle xonix |
| 386 | xdaliclock tk40 tk41 xforms0.86 ghostview xloadimage xcolorsel |
| 387 | xadmin xboard perl-debug tkined xtetris libreadline2-dev perl-suid |
| 388 | nas xpilot xfig |
| 389 | </example> |
| 390 | |
| 391 | <p> |
| 392 | The Packages to Remove list shows all of the packages that will be |
| 393 | removed from the system. It can be shown for any of the operations and |
| 394 | should be given a careful inspection to ensure nothing important is to |
| 395 | be taken off. The <tt>-f</> option is especially good at generating packages |
| 396 | to remove so extreme care should be used in that case. The list may contain |
| 397 | packages that are going to be removed because they are only |
| 398 | partially installed, possibly due to an aborted installation. |
| 399 | </sect1> |
| 400 | |
| 401 | <sect1>The New Packages list |
| 402 | <p> |
| 403 | <example> |
| 404 | The following NEW packages will installed: |
| 405 | zlib1g xlib6g perl-base libgdbmg1 quake-lib gmp2 pgp-i python-base |
| 406 | </example> |
| 407 | |
| 408 | <p> |
| 409 | The New Packages list is simply a reminder of what will happen. The packages |
| 410 | listed are not presently installed in the system but will be when APT is done. |
| 411 | </sect1> |
| 412 | |
| 413 | <sect1>The Kept Back list |
| 414 | <p> |
| 415 | <example> |
| 416 | The following packages have been kept back |
| 417 | compface man-db tetex-base msql libpaper svgalib1 |
| 418 | gs snmp arena lynx xpat2 groff xscreensaver |
| 419 | </example> |
| 420 | |
| 421 | <p> |
| 422 | Whenever the whole system is being upgraded there is the possibility that |
| 423 | new versions of packages cannot be installed because they require new things |
| 424 | or conflict with already installed things. In this case the package will |
| 425 | appear in the Kept Back list. The best way to convince packages listed |
| 426 | there to install is with <tt>apt-get install</> or by using <prgn>dselect</> |
| 427 | to resolve their problems. |
| 428 | </sect1> |
| 429 | |
| 430 | <sect1>Held Packages warning |
| 431 | <p> |
| 432 | <example> |
| 433 | The following held packages will be changed: |
| 434 | cvs |
| 435 | </example> |
| 436 | |
| 437 | <p> |
| 438 | Sometimes you can ask APT to install a package that is on hold, in such a |
| 439 | case it prints out a warning that the held package is going to be |
| 440 | changed. This should only happen during dist-upgrade or install. |
| 441 | </sect1> |
| 442 | |
| 443 | <sect1>Final summary |
| 444 | <p> |
| 445 | Finally, APT will print out a summary of all the changes that will occur. |
| 446 | |
| 447 | <p> |
| 448 | <example> |
| 449 | 206 packages upgraded, 8 newly installed, 23 to remove and 51 not upgraded. |
| 450 | 12 packages not fully installed or removed. |
| 451 | Need to get 65.7M/66.7M of archives. After unpacking 26.5M will be used. |
| 452 | </example> |
| 453 | |
| 454 | <p> |
| 455 | The first line of the summary simply is a reduced version of all of the |
| 456 | lists and includes the number of upgrades - that is packages already |
| 457 | installed that have new versions available. The second line indicates the |
| 458 | number of poorly configured packages, possibly the result of an aborted |
| 459 | installation. The final line shows the space requirements that the |
| 460 | installation needs. The first pair of numbers refer to the size of |
| 461 | the archive files. The first number indicates the number of bytes that |
| 462 | must be fetched from remote locations and the second indicates the |
| 463 | total size of all the archives required. The next number indicates the |
| 464 | size difference between the presently installed packages and the newly |
| 465 | installed packages. It is roughly equivalent to the space required in |
| 466 | /usr after everything is done. If a large number of packages are being |
| 467 | removed then the value may indicate the amount of space that will be |
| 468 | freed. |
| 469 | |
| 470 | <p> |
| 471 | Some other reports can be generated by using the -u option to show packages |
| 472 | to upgrade, they are similar to the previous examples. |
| 473 | </sect> |
| 474 | |
| 475 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 476 | <sect>The Status Display |
| 477 | <p> |
| 478 | During the download of archives and package files APT prints out a series of |
| 479 | status messages. |
| 480 | |
| 481 | <p> |
| 482 | <example> |
| 483 | # apt-get update |
| 484 | Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/non-US/ Packages |
| 485 | Get:2 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/contrib Packages |
| 486 | Hit http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/main Packages |
| 487 | Get:4 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ unstable/binary-i386/ Packages |
| 488 | Get:5 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/non-free Packages |
| 489 | 11% [5 testing/non-free `Waiting for file' 0/32.1k 0%] 2203b/s 1m52s |
| 490 | </example> |
| 491 | |
| 492 | <p> |
| 493 | The lines starting with <em>Get</> are printed out when APT begins to fetch |
| 494 | a file while the last line indicates the progress of the download. The first |
| 495 | percent value on the progress line indicates the total percent done of all |
| 496 | files. Unfortunately since the size of the Package files is unknown |
| 497 | <tt>apt-get update</> estimates the percent done which causes some |
| 498 | inaccuracies. |
| 499 | |
| 500 | <p> |
| 501 | The next section of the status line is repeated once for each download thread |
| 502 | and indicates the operation being performed and some useful information |
| 503 | about what is happening. Sometimes this section will simply read <em>Forking</> |
| 504 | which means the OS is loading the download module. The first word after the [ |
| 505 | is the fetch number as shown on the history lines. The next word |
| 506 | is the short form name of the object being downloaded. For archives it will |
| 507 | contain the name of the package that is being fetched. |
| 508 | |
| 509 | <p> |
| 510 | Inside of the single quote is an informative string indicating the progress |
| 511 | of the negotiation phase of the download. Typically it progresses from |
| 512 | <em>Connecting</> to <em>Waiting for file</> to <em>Downloading</> or |
| 513 | <em>Resuming</>. The final value is the number of bytes downloaded from the |
| 514 | remote site. Once the download begins this is represented as <tt>102/10.2k</> |
| 515 | indicating that 102 bytes have been fetched and 10.2 kilobytes is expected. |
| 516 | The total size is always shown in 4 figure notation to preserve space. After |
| 517 | the size display is a percent meter for the file itself. |
| 518 | The second last element is the instantaneous average speed. This values is |
| 519 | updated every 5 seconds and reflects the rate of data transfer for that |
| 520 | period. Finally is shown the estimated transfer time. This is updated |
| 521 | regularly and reflects the time to complete everything at the shown |
| 522 | transfer rate. |
| 523 | |
| 524 | <p> |
| 525 | The status display updates every half second to provide a constant feedback |
| 526 | on the download progress while the Get lines scroll back whenever a new |
| 527 | file is started. Since the status display is constantly updated it is |
| 528 | unsuitable for logging to a file, use the <tt>-q</> option to remove the |
| 529 | status display. |
| 530 | </sect> |
| 531 | |
| 532 | <!-- ===================================================================== --> |
| 533 | <sect>Dpkg |
| 534 | |
| 535 | <p> |
| 536 | APT uses <prgn>dpkg</> for installing the archives and will switch |
| 537 | over to the <prgn>dpkg</> interface once downloading is completed. |
| 538 | <prgn>dpkg</> will also ask a number of questions as it processes the packages |
| 539 | and the packages themselves may also ask several questions. Before each |
| 540 | question there is usually a description of what it is asking and the |
| 541 | questions are too varied to discuss completely here. |
| 542 | </sect> |
| 543 | |
| 544 | </chapt> |
| 545 | <!-- }}} --> |
| 546 | |
| 547 | </book> |