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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
5 <!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
6 <!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
7 ]>
8
9 <refentry>
10
11 <refentryinfo>
12 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
13 &apt-author.team;
14 <author>
15 &apt-name.dburrows;
16 <contrib>Initial documentation of Debug::*.</contrib>
17 <email>dburrows@debian.org</email>
18 </author>
19 &apt-email;
20 &apt-product;
21 <!-- The last update date -->
22 <date>2015-12-14T00:00:00Z</date>
23 </refentryinfo>
24
25 <refmeta>
26 <refentrytitle>apt.conf</refentrytitle>
27 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
28 <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
29 </refmeta>
30
31 <!-- Man page title -->
32 <refnamediv>
33 <refname>apt.conf</refname>
34 <refpurpose>Configuration file for APT</refpurpose>
35 </refnamediv>
36
37 <refsect1><title>Description</title>
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
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
49 alphanumeric ascending order which have either no or "<literal>conf</literal>"
50 as filename extension and which only contain alphanumeric,
51 hyphen (-), underscore (_) and period (.) characters.
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>
54 configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para></listitem>
55 <listitem><para>the main configuration file specified by
56 <literal>Dir::Etc::main</literal></para></listitem>
57 <listitem><para>all options set in the binary specific configuration
58 subtree are moved into the root of the tree.</para></listitem>
59 <listitem><para>the command line options are applied to override the
60 configuration directives or to load even more configuration files.</para></listitem>
61 </orderedlist>
62 </refsect1>
63 <refsect1><title>Syntax</title>
64 <para>The configuration file is organized in a tree with options organized into
65 functional groups. Option specification is given with a double colon
66 notation; for instance <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> is an option within
67 the APT tool group, for the Get tool. Options do not inherit from their
68 parent groups.</para>
69
70 <para>Syntactically the configuration language is modeled after what the ISC tools
71 such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
72 <literal>//</literal> are treated as comments (ignored), as well as all text
73 between <literal>/*</literal> and <literal>*/</literal>, just like C/C++ comments.
74 Each line is of the form
75 <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true";</literal>.
76 The quotation marks and trailing semicolon are required.
77 The value must be on one line, and there is no kind of string concatenation.
78 Values must not include backslashes or extra quotation marks.
79 Option names are made up of alphanumeric characters and the characters "/-:._+".
80 A new scope can be opened with curly braces, like this:</para>
81
82 <informalexample><programlisting>
83 APT {
84 Get {
85 Assume-Yes "true";
86 Fix-Broken "true";
87 };
88 };
89 </programlisting></informalexample>
90
91 <para>with newlines placed to make it more readable. Lists can be created by
92 opening a scope and including a single string enclosed in quotes followed by a
93 semicolon. Multiple entries can be included, separated by a semicolon.</para>
94
95 <informalexample><programlisting>
96 DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
97 </programlisting></informalexample>
98
99 <para>In general the sample configuration file &configureindex;
100 is a good guide for how it should look.</para>
101
102 <para>Case is not significant in names of configuration items, so in the
103 previous example you could use <literal>dpkg::pre-install-pkgs</literal>.</para>
104
105 <para>Names for the configuration items are optional if a list is defined as can be seen in
106 the <literal>DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs</literal> example above. If you don't specify a name a
107 new entry will simply add a new option to the list. If you specify a name you can override
108 the option in the same way as any other option by reassigning a new value to the option.</para>
109
110 <para>Two special commands are defined: <literal>#include</literal> (which is
111 deprecated and not supported by alternative implementations) and
112 <literal>#clear</literal>. <literal>#include</literal> will include the
113 given file, unless the filename ends in a slash, in which case the whole
114 directory is included.
115 <literal>#clear</literal> is used to erase a part of the configuration tree. The
116 specified element and all its descendants are erased.
117 (Note that these lines also need to end with a semicolon.)</para>
118
119 <para>
120 The <literal>#clear</literal> command is the only way to delete a list or
121 a complete scope. Reopening a scope (or using the syntax described below
122 with an appended <literal>::</literal>) will <emphasis>not</emphasis>
123 override previously written entries. Options can only be overridden by
124 addressing a new value to them - lists and scopes can't be overridden,
125 only cleared.
126 </para>
127
128 <para>All of the APT tools take an -o option which allows an arbitrary configuration
129 directive to be specified on the command line. The syntax is a full option
130 name (<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal> for instance) followed by an equals
131 sign then the new value of the option. To append a new element to a list, add a
132 trailing <literal>::</literal> to the name of the list.
133 (As you might suspect, the scope syntax can't be used on the command line.)</para>
134
135 <para>
136 Note that appending items to a list using <literal>::</literal> only works
137 for one item per line, and that you should not use it in combination with
138 the scope syntax (which adds <literal>::</literal> implicitly). Using both
139 syntaxes together will trigger a bug which some users unfortunately depend
140 on: an option with the unusual name "<literal>::</literal>" which acts
141 like every other option with a name. This introduces many problems; for
142 one thing, users who write multiple lines in this
143 <emphasis>wrong</emphasis> syntax in the hope of appending to a list will
144 achieve the opposite, as only the last assignment for this option
145 "<literal>::</literal>" will be used. Future versions of APT will raise
146 errors and stop working if they encounter this misuse, so please correct
147 such statements now while APT doesn't explicitly complain about them.
148 </para>
149 </refsect1>
150
151 <refsect1><title>The APT Group</title>
152 <para>This group of options controls general APT behavior as well as holding the
153 options for all of the tools.</para>
154
155 <variablelist>
156 <varlistentry><term><option>Architecture</option></term>
157 <listitem><para>System Architecture; sets the architecture to use when fetching files and
158 parsing package lists. The internal default is the architecture apt was
159 compiled for.</para></listitem>
160 </varlistentry>
161
162 <varlistentry><term><option>Architectures</option></term>
163 <listitem><para>
164 All Architectures the system supports. For instance, CPUs implementing
165 the <literal>amd64</literal> (also called <literal>x86-64</literal>)
166 instruction set are also able to execute binaries compiled for the
167 <literal>i386</literal> (<literal>x86</literal>) instruction set. This
168 list is used when fetching files and parsing package lists. The
169 initial default is always the system's native architecture
170 (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>), and foreign architectures are
171 added to the default list when they are registered via
172 <command>dpkg --add-architecture</command>.
173 </para></listitem>
174 </varlistentry>
175
176 <varlistentry><term><option>Compressor</option></term>
177 <listitem><para>
178 This scope defines which compression formats are supported, how compression
179 and decompression can be performed if support for this format isn't built
180 into apt directly and a cost-value indicating how costly it is to compress
181 something in this format. As an example the following configuration stanza
182 would allow apt to download and uncompress as well as create and store
183 files with the low-cost <literal>.reversed</literal> file extension which
184 it will pass to the command <command>rev</command> without additional
185 commandline parameters for compression and uncompression:
186 <informalexample><programlisting>
187 APT::Compressor::rev {
188 Name "rev";
189 Extension ".reversed";
190 Binary "rev";
191 CompressArg {};
192 UncompressArg {};
193 Cost "10";
194 };
195 </programlisting></informalexample>
196 </para></listitem>
197 </varlistentry>
198
199 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Profiles</option></term>
200 <listitem><para>
201 List of all build profiles enabled for build-dependency resolution,
202 without the "<literal>profile.</literal>" namespace prefix.
203 By default this list is empty. The <envar>DEB_BUILD_PROFILES</envar>
204 as used by &dpkg-buildpackage; overrides the list notation.
205 </para></listitem>
206 </varlistentry>
207
208 <varlistentry><term><option>Default-Release</option></term>
209 <listitem><para>Default release to install packages from if more than one
210 version is available. Contains release name, codename or release version. Examples: 'stable', 'testing',
211 'unstable', '&debian-stable-codename;', '&debian-testing-codename;', '4.0', '5.0*'. See also &apt-preferences;.</para></listitem>
212 </varlistentry>
213
214 <varlistentry><term><option>Ignore-Hold</option></term>
215 <listitem><para>Ignore held packages; this global option causes the problem resolver to
216 ignore held packages in its decision making.</para></listitem>
217 </varlistentry>
218
219 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean-Installed</option></term>
220 <listitem><para>Defaults to on. When turned on the autoclean feature will remove any packages
221 which can no longer be downloaded from the cache. If turned off then
222 packages that are locally installed are also excluded from cleaning - but
223 note that APT provides no direct means to reinstall them.</para></listitem>
224 </varlistentry>
225
226 <varlistentry><term><option>Immediate-Configure</option></term>
227 <listitem><para>
228 Defaults to on, which will cause APT to install essential and important
229 packages as soon as possible in an install/upgrade operation, in order
230 to limit the effect of a failing &dpkg; call. If this option is
231 disabled, APT treats an important package in the same way as an extra
232 package: between the unpacking of the package A and its configuration
233 there can be many other unpack or configuration calls for other
234 unrelated packages B, C etc. If these cause the &dpkg; call to fail
235 (e.g. because package B's maintainer scripts generate an error), this
236 results in a system state in which package A is unpacked but
237 unconfigured - so any package depending on A is now no longer
238 guaranteed to work, as its dependency on A is no longer satisfied.
239 </para><para>
240 The immediate configuration marker is also applied in the potentially
241 problematic case of circular dependencies, since a dependency with the
242 immediate flag is equivalent to a Pre-Dependency. In theory this allows
243 APT to recognise a situation in which it is unable to perform immediate
244 configuration, abort, and suggest to the user that the option should be
245 temporarily deactivated in order to allow the operation to proceed.
246 Note the use of the word "theory" here; in the real world this problem
247 has rarely been encountered, in non-stable distribution versions, and
248 was caused by wrong dependencies of the package in question or by a
249 system in an already broken state; so you should not blindly disable
250 this option, as the scenario mentioned above is not the only problem it
251 can help to prevent in the first place.
252 </para><para>
253 Before a big operation like <literal>dist-upgrade</literal> is run
254 with this option disabled you should try to explicitly
255 <literal>install</literal> the package APT is unable to configure
256 immediately; but please make sure you also report your problem to your
257 distribution and to the APT team with the buglink below, so they can
258 work on improving or correcting the upgrade process.
259 </para></listitem>
260 </varlistentry>
261
262 <varlistentry><term><option>Force-LoopBreak</option></term>
263 <listitem><para>
264 Never enable this option unless you <emphasis>really</emphasis> know
265 what you are doing. It permits APT to temporarily remove an essential
266 package to break a Conflicts/Conflicts or Conflicts/Pre-Depends loop
267 between two essential packages. <emphasis>Such a loop should never exist
268 and is a grave bug</emphasis>. This option will work if the essential
269 packages are not <command>tar</command>, <command>gzip</command>,
270 <command>libc</command>, <command>dpkg</command>, <command>dash</command>
271 or anything that those packages depend on.
272 </para></listitem>
273 </varlistentry>
274
275 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache-Start</option></term><term><option>Cache-Grow</option></term><term><option>Cache-Limit</option></term>
276 <listitem><para>APT uses since version 0.7.26 a resizable memory mapped cache file to store the available
277 information. <literal>Cache-Start</literal> acts as a hint of the size the cache will grow to,
278 and is therefore the amount of memory APT will request at startup. The default value is
279 20971520 bytes (~20 MB). Note that this amount of space needs to be available for APT;
280 otherwise it will likely fail ungracefully, so for memory restricted devices this value should
281 be lowered while on systems with a lot of configured sources it should be increased.
282 <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> defines in bytes with the default of 1048576 (~1 MB) how much
283 the cache size will be increased in the event the space defined by <literal>Cache-Start</literal>
284 is not enough. This value will be applied again and again until either the cache is big
285 enough to store all information or the size of the cache reaches the <literal>Cache-Limit</literal>.
286 The default of <literal>Cache-Limit</literal> is 0 which stands for no limit.
287 If <literal>Cache-Grow</literal> is set to 0 the automatic growth of the cache is disabled.
288 </para></listitem>
289 </varlistentry>
290
291 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-Essential</option></term>
292 <listitem><para>Defines which packages are considered essential build dependencies.</para></listitem>
293 </varlistentry>
294
295 <varlistentry><term><option>Get</option></term>
296 <listitem><para>The Get subsection controls the &apt-get; tool; please see its
297 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
298 </varlistentry>
299
300 <varlistentry><term><option>Cache</option></term>
301 <listitem><para>The Cache subsection controls the &apt-cache; tool; please see its
302 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
303 </varlistentry>
304
305 <varlistentry><term><option>CDROM</option></term>
306 <listitem><para>The CDROM subsection controls the &apt-cdrom; tool; please see its
307 documentation for more information about the options here.</para></listitem>
308 </varlistentry>
309 </variablelist>
310 </refsect1>
311
312 <refsect1><title>The Acquire Group</title>
313 <para>The <literal>Acquire</literal> group of options controls the
314 download of packages as well as the various "acquire methods" responsible
315 for the download itself (see also &sources-list;).</para>
316
317 <variablelist>
318 <varlistentry><term><option>Check-Valid-Until</option></term>
319 <listitem><para>
320 Security related option defaulting to true, as giving a Release file's
321 validation an expiration date prevents replay attacks over a long
322 timescale, and can also for example help users to identify mirrors
323 that are no longer updated - but the feature depends on the
324 correctness of the clock on the user system. Archive maintainers are
325 encouraged to create Release files with the
326 <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header, but if they don't or a
327 stricter value is desired the <literal>Max-ValidTime</literal>
328 option below can be used.
329 The <option>Check-Valid-Until</option> option of &sources-list; entries should be
330 preferred to disable the check selectively instead of using this global override.
331 </para></listitem>
332 </varlistentry>
333
334 <varlistentry><term><option>Max-ValidTime</option></term>
335 <listitem><para>Maximum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
336 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
337 file should be considered valid.
338 If the Release file itself includes a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
339 the earlier date of the two is used as the expiration date.
340 The default value is <literal>0</literal> which stands for "valid forever".
341 Archive specific settings can be made by appending the label of the archive
342 to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
343 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Max</option> option there.
344 </para></listitem>
345 </varlistentry>
346
347 <varlistentry><term><option>Min-ValidTime</option></term>
348 <listitem><para>Minimum time (in seconds) after its creation (as indicated
349 by the <literal>Date</literal> header) that the <filename>Release</filename>
350 file should be considered valid.
351 Use this if you need to use a seldom updated (local) mirror of a more
352 frequently updated archive with a <literal>Valid-Until</literal> header
353 instead of completely disabling the expiration date checking.
354 Archive specific settings can and should be used by appending the label of
355 the archive to the option name. Preferably, the same can be achieved for specific
356 &sources-list; entries by using the <option>Valid-Until-Min</option> option there.
357 </para></listitem>
358 </varlistentry>
359
360 <varlistentry><term><option>PDiffs</option></term>
361 <listitem><para>Try to download deltas called <literal>PDiffs</literal> for
362 indexes (like <filename>Packages</filename> files) instead of
363 downloading whole ones. True by default. Preferably, this can be set
364 for specific &sources-list; entries or index files by using the
365 <option>PDiffs</option> option there.</para>
366 <para>Two sub-options to limit the use of PDiffs are also available:
367 <literal>FileLimit</literal> can be used to specify a maximum number of
368 PDiff files should be downloaded to update a file. <literal>SizeLimit</literal>
369 on the other hand is the maximum percentage of the size of all patches
370 compared to the size of the targeted file. If one of these limits is
371 exceeded the complete file is downloaded instead of the patches.
372 </para></listitem>
373 </varlistentry>
374
375 <varlistentry><term><option>By-Hash</option></term>
376 <listitem><para>Try to download indexes via an URI constructed from a
377 hashsum of the expected file rather than downloaded via a well-known
378 stable filename. True by default, but automatically disabled if the
379 source indicates no support for it. Usage can be forced with the special
380 value "force". Preferably, this can be set for specific &sources-list; entries
381 or index files by using the <option>By-Hash</option> option there.
382 </para></listitem>
383 </varlistentry>
384
385 <varlistentry><term><option>Queue-Mode</option></term>
386 <listitem><para>Queuing mode; <literal>Queue-Mode</literal> can be one of <literal>host</literal> or
387 <literal>access</literal> which determines how APT parallelizes outgoing
388 connections. <literal>host</literal> means that one connection per target host
389 will be opened, <literal>access</literal> means that one connection per URI type
390 will be opened.</para></listitem>
391 </varlistentry>
392
393 <varlistentry><term><option>Retries</option></term>
394 <listitem><para>Number of retries to perform. If this is non-zero APT will retry failed
395 files the given number of times.</para></listitem>
396 </varlistentry>
397
398 <varlistentry><term><option>Source-Symlinks</option></term>
399 <listitem><para>Use symlinks for source archives. If set to true then source archives will
400 be symlinked when possible instead of copying. True is the default.</para></listitem>
401 </varlistentry>
402
403 <varlistentry><term><option>http</option></term>
404 <listitem><para><literal>http::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for HTTP
405 URIs. It is in the standard form of <literal>http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
406 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
407 <literal>http::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
408 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
409 <envar>http_proxy</envar> environment variable
410 will be used.</para>
411
412 <para>Three settings are provided for cache control with HTTP/1.1 compliant
413 proxy caches.
414 <literal>No-Cache</literal> tells the proxy not to use its cached
415 response under any circumstances.
416 <literal>Max-Age</literal> sets the allowed maximum age (in seconds) of
417 an index file in the cache of the proxy.
418 <literal>No-Store</literal> specifies that the proxy should not store
419 the requested archive files in its cache, which can be used to prevent
420 the proxy from polluting its cache with (big) .deb files.</para>
421
422 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
423 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
424
425 <para>The setting <literal>Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth</literal> can be used to
426 enable HTTP pipelining (RFC 2616 section 8.1.2.2) which can be beneficial e.g. on
427 high-latency connections. It specifies how many requests are sent in a pipeline.
428 APT tries to detect and workaround misbehaving webservers and proxies at runtime, but
429 if you know that yours does not conform to the HTTP/1.1 specification pipelining can
430 be disabled by setting the value to 0. It is enabled by default with the value 10.</para>
431
432 <para><literal>Acquire::http::AllowRedirect</literal> controls whether APT will follow
433 redirects, which is enabled by default.</para>
434
435 <para>The used bandwidth can be limited with
436 <literal>Acquire::http::Dl-Limit</literal> which accepts integer
437 values in kilobytes per second. The default value is 0 which
438 deactivates the limit and tries to use all available bandwidth.
439 Note that this option implicitly disables downloading from
440 multiple servers at the same time.</para>
441
442 <para><literal>Acquire::http::User-Agent</literal> can be used to set a different
443 User-Agent for the http download method as some proxies allow access for clients
444 only if the client uses a known identifier.</para>
445
446 <para><literal>Acquire::http::Proxy-Auto-Detect</literal> can be used to
447 specify an external command to discover the http proxy to use. Apt expects
448 the command to output the proxy on stdout in the style
449 <literal>http://proxy:port/</literal>. This will override the
450 generic <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy</literal> but not any specific
451 host proxy configuration set via
452 <literal>Acquire::http::Proxy::$HOST</literal>.
453
454 See the &squid-deb-proxy-client; package for an example implementation that
455 uses avahi. This option takes precedence over the legacy option name
456 <literal>ProxyAutoDetect</literal>.
457 </para>
458
459 </listitem>
460 </varlistentry>
461
462 <varlistentry><term><option>https</option></term>
463 <listitem><para>
464 The <literal>Cache-control</literal>, <literal>Timeout</literal>,
465 <literal>AllowRedirect</literal>, <literal>Dl-Limit</literal> and
466 <literal>proxy</literal> options work for HTTPS URIs in the same way
467 as for the <literal>http</literal> method, and default to the same
468 values if they are not explicitly set. The
469 <literal>Pipeline-Depth</literal> option is not yet supported.
470 </para>
471
472 <para><literal>CaInfo</literal> suboption specifies place of file that
473 holds info about trusted certificates.
474 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::CaInfo</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
475 <literal>Verify-Peer</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
476 server's host certificate should be verified against trusted certificates.
477 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Peer</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
478 <literal>Verify-Host</literal> boolean suboption determines whether or not the
479 server's hostname should be verified.
480 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::Verify-Host</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
481 <literal>SslCert</literal> determines what certificate to use for client
482 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslCert</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
483 <literal>SslKey</literal> determines what private key to use for client
484 authentication. <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslKey</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
485 <literal>SslForceVersion</literal> overrides default SSL version to use.
486 It can contain either of the strings '<literal>TLSv1</literal>' or
487 '<literal>SSLv3</literal>'.
488 <literal>&lt;host&gt;::SslForceVersion</literal> is the corresponding per-host option.
489 </para></listitem></varlistentry>
490
491 <varlistentry><term><option>ftp</option></term>
492 <listitem><para>
493 <literal>ftp::Proxy</literal> sets the default proxy to use for FTP URIs.
494 It is in the standard form of <literal>ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/</literal>.
495 Per host proxies can also be specified by using the form
496 <literal>ftp::Proxy::&lt;host&gt;</literal> with the special keyword <literal>DIRECT</literal>
497 meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
498 <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable
499 will be used. To use an FTP
500 proxy you will have to set the <literal>ftp::ProxyLogin</literal> script in the
501 configuration file. This entry specifies the commands to send to tell
502 the proxy server what to connect to. Please see
503 &configureindex; for an example of
504 how to do this. The substitution variables representing the corresponding
505 URI component are <literal>$(PROXY_USER)</literal>,
506 <literal>$(PROXY_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE_USER)</literal>,
507 <literal>$(SITE_PASS)</literal>, <literal>$(SITE)</literal> and
508 <literal>$(SITE_PORT)</literal>.</para>
509
510 <para>The option <literal>timeout</literal> sets the timeout timer used by the method;
511 this value applies to the connection as well as the data timeout.</para>
512
513 <para>Several settings are provided to control passive mode. Generally it is
514 safe to leave passive mode on; it works in nearly every environment.
515 However, some situations require that passive mode be disabled and port
516 mode FTP used instead. This can be done globally or for connections that
517 go through a proxy or for a specific host (see the sample config file
518 for examples).</para>
519
520 <para>It is possible to proxy FTP over HTTP by setting the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar>
521 environment variable to an HTTP URL - see the discussion of the http method
522 above for syntax. You cannot set this in the configuration file and it is
523 not recommended to use FTP over HTTP due to its low efficiency.</para>
524
525 <para>The setting <literal>ForceExtended</literal> controls the use of RFC2428
526 <literal>EPSV</literal> and <literal>EPRT</literal> commands. The default is false, which means
527 these commands are only used if the control connection is IPv6. Setting this
528 to true forces their use even on IPv4 connections. Note that most FTP servers
529 do not support RFC2428.</para></listitem>
530 </varlistentry>
531
532 <varlistentry><term><option>cdrom</option></term>
533 <listitem><para>
534 For URIs using the <literal>cdrom</literal> method, the only configurable
535 option is the mount point, <literal>cdrom::Mount</literal>, which must be
536 the mount point for the CD-ROM (or DVD, or whatever) drive as specified in
537 <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>. It is possible to provide alternate mount
538 and unmount commands if your mount point cannot be listed in the fstab.
539 The syntax is to put <literallayout>/cdrom/::Mount "foo";</literallayout> within
540 the <literal>cdrom</literal> block. It is important to have the trailing slash.
541 Unmount commands can be specified using UMount.
542 </para></listitem>
543 </varlistentry>
544
545 <varlistentry><term><option>gpgv</option></term>
546 <listitem><para>
547 For GPGV URIs the only configurable option is <literal>gpgv::Options</literal>,
548 which passes additional parameters to gpgv.
549 </para></listitem>
550 </varlistentry>
551
552 <varlistentry><term><option>CompressionTypes</option></term>
553 <listitem><para>List of compression types which are understood by the acquire methods.
554 Files like <filename>Packages</filename> can be available in various compression formats.
555 By default the acquire methods can decompress and recompress many common formats like <command>xz</command> and
556 <command>gzip</command>; with this scope the supported formats can be queried, modified
557 as well as support for more formats added (see also <option>APT::Compressor</option>). The syntax for this is:
558 <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::<replaceable>FileExtension</replaceable> "<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable>";</synopsis>
559 </para><para>Also, the <literal>Order</literal> subgroup can be used to define in which order
560 the acquire system will try to download the compressed files. The acquire system will try the first
561 and proceed with the next compression type in this list on error, so to prefer one over the other type
562 simply add the preferred type first - types not already added will be implicitly appended
563 to the end of the list, so e.g. <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order:: "gz";</synopsis> can
564 be used to prefer <command>gzip</command> compressed files over all other compression formats.
565 If <command>xz</command> should be preferred over <command>gzip</command> and <command>bzip2</command> the
566 configure setting should look like this: <synopsis>Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order { "xz"; "gz"; };</synopsis>
567 It is not needed to add <literal>bz2</literal> to the list explicitly as it will be added automatically.</para>
568 <para>Note that the
569 <literal>Dir::Bin::<replaceable>Methodname</replaceable></literal>
570 will be checked at run time. If this option has been set and support for
571 this format isn't directly built into apt, the method will only be used if
572 this file exists; e.g. for the <literal>bzip2</literal> method (the
573 inbuilt) setting is: <literallayout>Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";</literallayout>
574 Note also that list entries specified on the command line will be added at the end of the list
575 specified in the configuration files, but before the default entries. To prefer a type in this case
576 over the ones specified in the configuration files you can set the option direct - not in list style.
577 This will not override the defined list; it will only prefix the list with this type.</para>
578 <para>The special type <literal>uncompressed</literal> can be used to give uncompressed files a
579 preference, but note that most archives don't provide uncompressed files so this is mostly only
580 useable for local mirrors.</para></listitem>
581 </varlistentry>
582
583 <varlistentry><term><option>GzipIndexes</option></term>
584 <listitem><para>
585 When downloading <literal>gzip</literal> compressed indexes (Packages, Sources, or
586 Translations), keep them gzip compressed locally instead of unpacking
587 them. This saves quite a lot of disk space at the expense of more CPU
588 requirements when building the local package caches. False by default.
589 </para></listitem>
590 </varlistentry>
591
592 <varlistentry><term><option>Languages</option></term>
593 <listitem><para>The Languages subsection controls which <filename>Translation</filename> files are downloaded
594 and in which order APT tries to display the description-translations. APT will try to display the first
595 available description in the language which is listed first. Languages can be defined with their
596 short or long language codes. Note that not all archives provide <filename>Translation</filename>
597 files for every language - the long language codes are especially rare.</para>
598 <para>The default list includes "environment" and "en". "<literal>environment</literal>" has a special meaning here:
599 it will be replaced at runtime with the language codes extracted from the <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal> environment variable.
600 It will also ensure that these codes are not included twice in the list. If <literal>LC_MESSAGES</literal>
601 is set to "C" only the <filename>Translation-en</filename> file (if available) will be used.
602 To force APT to use no Translation file use the setting <literal>Acquire::Languages=none</literal>. "<literal>none</literal>"
603 is another special meaning code which will stop the search for a suitable <filename>Translation</filename> file.
604 This tells APT to download these translations too, without actually
605 using them unless the environment specifies the languages. So the
606 following example configuration will result in the order "en, de" in an
607 English locale or "de, en" in a German one. Note that "fr" is
608 downloaded, but not used unless APT is used in a French locale (where
609 the order would be "fr, de, en").
610 <programlisting>Acquire::Languages { "environment"; "de"; "en"; "none"; "fr"; };</programlisting></para>
611 <para>Note: To prevent problems resulting from APT being executed in different environments
612 (e.g. by different users or by other programs) all Translation files which are found in
613 <filename>/var/lib/apt/lists/</filename> will be added to the end of the list
614 (after an implicit "<literal>none</literal>").</para>
615 </listitem>
616 </varlistentry>
617
618 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv4</option></term>
619 <listitem><para>
620 When downloading, force to use only the IPv4 protocol.
621 </para></listitem>
622 </varlistentry>
623
624 <varlistentry><term><option>ForceIPv6</option></term>
625 <listitem><para>
626 When downloading, force to use only the IPv6 protocol.
627 </para></listitem>
628 </varlistentry>
629
630 <varlistentry><term><option>MaxReleaseFileSize</option></term>
631 <listitem><para>
632 The maximum file size of Release/Release.gpg/InRelease files.
633 The default is 10MB.
634 </para></listitem>
635 </varlistentry>
636
637 <varlistentry><term><option>EnableSrvRecords</option></term>
638 <listitem><para>
639 This option controls if apt will use the DNS SRV server record
640 as specified in RFC 2782 to select an alternative server to
641 connect to.
642 The default is "true".
643 </para></listitem>
644 </varlistentry>
645
646 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowInsecureRepositories</option></term>
647 <listitem><para>
648 Allow the update operation to load data files from
649 a repository without a trusted signature. If enabled this
650 option no data files will be loaded and the update
651 operation fails with a error for this source. The default
652 is false for backward compatibility. This will be changed
653 in the future.
654 </para></listitem>
655 </varlistentry>
656
657 <varlistentry><term><option>AllowDowngradeToInsecureRepositories</option></term>
658 <listitem><para>
659 Allow that a repository that was previously gpg signed to become
660 unsigned durign a update operation. When there is no valid signature
661 of a previously trusted repository apt will refuse the update. This
662 option can be used to override this protection. You almost certainly
663 never want to enable this. The default is false.
664
665 Note that apt will still consider packages from this source
666 untrusted and warn about them if you try to install
667 them.
668 </para></listitem>
669 </varlistentry>
670
671 <varlistentry><term><option>Changelogs::URI</option> scope</term>
672 <listitem><para>
673 Acquiring changelogs can only be done if an URI is known from where to get them.
674 Preferable the Release file indicates this in a 'Changelogs' field. If this isn't
675 available the Label/Origin field of the Release file is used to check if a
676 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal> or
677 <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal> option
678 exists and if so this value is taken. The value in the Release file can be overridden
679 with <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Label::<replaceable>LABEL</replaceable></literal>
680 or <literal>Acquire::Changelogs::URI::Override::Origin::<replaceable>ORIGIN</replaceable></literal>.
681
682 The value should be a normal URI to a text file, except that package specific data is
683 replaced with the placeholder <literal>@CHANGEPATH@</literal>. The
684 value for it is: 1. if the package is from a component (e.g. <literal>main</literal>)
685 this is the first part otherwise it is omitted, 2. the first letter of source package name,
686 except if the source package name starts with '<literal>lib</literal>' in which case it will
687 be the first four letters. 3. The complete source package name. 4. the complete name again and
688 5. the source version.
689 The first (if present), second, third and fourth part are separated by a slash ('<literal>/</literal>')
690 and between the fourth and fifth part is an underscore ('<literal>_</literal>').
691
692 The special value '<literal>no</literal>' is available for this option indicating that
693 this source can't be used to acquire changelog files from. Another source will be tried
694 if available in this case.
695 </para></listitem>
696 </varlistentry>
697
698 </variablelist>
699 </refsect1>
700
701 <refsect1><title>Binary specific configuration</title>
702 <para>Especially with the introduction of the <command>apt</command> binary
703 it can be useful to set certain options only for a specific binary as
704 even options which look like they would effect only a certain binary like
705 <option>APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> effect
706 <command>apt-get</command> as well as <command>apt</command>.
707 </para>
708 <para>Setting an option for a specific binary only can be achieved by
709 setting the option inside the
710 <option>Binary::<replaceable>specific-binary</replaceable></option>
711 scope. Setting the option <option>APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> for
712 the <command>apt</command> only can e.g. by done by setting
713 <option>Binary::apt::APT::Get::Show-Versions</option> instead.</para>
714 <para>Note that as seen in the DESCRIPTION section further above you can't
715 set binary-specific options on the commandline itself nor in
716 configuration files loaded via the commandline.</para>
717 </refsect1>
718
719 <refsect1><title>Directories</title>
720
721 <para>The <literal>Dir::State</literal> section has directories that pertain to local
722 state information. <literal>lists</literal> is the directory to place downloaded
723 package lists in and <literal>status</literal> is the name of the &dpkg; status file.
724 <literal>preferences</literal> is the name of the APT <filename>preferences</filename> file.
725 <literal>Dir::State</literal> contains the default directory to prefix on all
726 sub-items if they do not start with <filename>/</filename> or <filename>./</filename>.</para>
727
728 <para><literal>Dir::Cache</literal> contains locations pertaining to local cache
729 information, such as the two package caches <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> and
730 <literal>pkgcache</literal> as well as the location to place downloaded archives,
731 <literal>Dir::Cache::archives</literal>. Generation of caches can be turned off
732 by setting <literal>pkgcache</literal> or <literal>srcpkgcache</literal> to
733 <literal>""</literal>. This will slow down startup but save disk space. It
734 is probably preferable to turn off the pkgcache rather than the srcpkgcache.
735 Like <literal>Dir::State</literal> the default directory is contained in
736 <literal>Dir::Cache</literal></para>
737
738 <para><literal>Dir::Etc</literal> contains the location of configuration files,
739 <literal>sourcelist</literal> gives the location of the sourcelist and
740 <literal>main</literal> is the default configuration file (setting has no effect,
741 unless it is done from the config file specified by
742 <envar>APT_CONFIG</envar>).</para>
743
744 <para>The <literal>Dir::Parts</literal> setting reads in all the config fragments in
745 lexical order from the directory specified. After this is done then the
746 main config file is loaded.</para>
747
748 <para>Binary programs are pointed to by <literal>Dir::Bin</literal>. <literal>Dir::Bin::Methods</literal>
749 specifies the location of the method handlers and <literal>gzip</literal>,
750 <literal>bzip2</literal>, <literal>lzma</literal>,
751 <literal>dpkg</literal>, <literal>apt-get</literal> <literal>dpkg-source</literal>
752 <literal>dpkg-buildpackage</literal> and <literal>apt-cache</literal> specify the location
753 of the respective programs.</para>
754
755 <para>
756 The configuration item <literal>RootDir</literal> has a special
757 meaning. If set, all paths will be
758 relative to <literal>RootDir</literal>, <emphasis>even paths that
759 are specified absolutely</emphasis>. So, for instance, if
760 <literal>RootDir</literal> is set to
761 <filename>/tmp/staging</filename> and
762 <literal>Dir::State::status</literal> is set to
763 <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>, then the status file
764 will be looked up in
765 <filename>/tmp/staging/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>.
766 If you want to prefix only relative paths, set <literal>Dir</literal> instead.
767 </para>
768
769 <para>
770 The <literal>Ignore-Files-Silently</literal> list can be used to specify
771 which files APT should silently ignore while parsing the files in the
772 fragment directories. Per default a file which end with <literal>.disabled</literal>,
773 <literal>~</literal>, <literal>.bak</literal> or <literal>.dpkg-[a-z]+</literal>
774 is silently ignored. As seen in the last default value these patterns can use regular
775 expression syntax.
776 </para>
777 </refsect1>
778
779 <refsect1><title>APT in DSelect</title>
780 <para>
781 When APT is used as a &dselect; method several configuration directives
782 control the default behavior. These are in the <literal>DSelect</literal> section.</para>
783
784 <variablelist>
785 <varlistentry><term><option>Clean</option></term>
786 <listitem><para>Cache Clean mode; this value may be one of
787 <literal>always</literal>, <literal>prompt</literal>,
788 <literal>auto</literal>, <literal>pre-auto</literal> and
789 <literal>never</literal>.
790 <literal>always</literal> and <literal>prompt</literal> will remove
791 all packages from the cache after upgrading, <literal>prompt</literal>
792 (the default) does so conditionally.
793 <literal>auto</literal> removes only those packages which are no longer
794 downloadable (replaced with a new version for instance).
795 <literal>pre-auto</literal> performs this action before downloading
796 new packages.</para></listitem>
797 </varlistentry>
798
799 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
800 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
801 options when it is run for the install phase.</para></listitem>
802 </varlistentry>
803
804 <varlistentry><term><option>Updateoptions</option></term>
805 <listitem><para>The contents of this variable are passed to &apt-get; as command line
806 options when it is run for the update phase.</para></listitem>
807 </varlistentry>
808
809 <varlistentry><term><option>PromptAfterUpdate</option></term>
810 <listitem><para>If true the [U]pdate operation in &dselect; will always prompt to continue.
811 The default is to prompt only on error.</para></listitem>
812 </varlistentry>
813 </variablelist>
814 </refsect1>
815
816 <refsect1><title>How APT calls &dpkg;</title>
817 <para>Several configuration directives control how APT invokes &dpkg;. These are
818 in the <literal>DPkg</literal> section.</para>
819
820 <variablelist>
821 <varlistentry><term><option>options</option></term>
822 <listitem><para>This is a list of options to pass to &dpkg;. The options must be specified
823 using the list notation and each list item is passed as a single argument
824 to &dpkg;.</para></listitem>
825 </varlistentry>
826
827 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Invoke</option></term><term><option>Post-Invoke</option></term>
828 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before/after invoking &dpkg;.
829 Like <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The
830 commands are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any
831 fail APT will abort.</para></listitem>
832 </varlistentry>
833
834 <varlistentry><term><option>Pre-Install-Pkgs</option></term>
835 <listitem><para>This is a list of shell commands to run before invoking &dpkg;. Like
836 <literal>options</literal> this must be specified in list notation. The commands
837 are invoked in order using <filename>/bin/sh</filename>; should any fail APT
838 will abort. APT will pass the filenames of all .deb files it is going to
839 install to the commands, one per line on the requested file descriptor, defaulting
840 to standard input.</para>
841
842 <para>Version 2 of this protocol sends more information through the requested
843 file descriptor: a line with the text <literal>VERSION 2</literal>,
844 the APT configuration space, and a list of package actions with filename
845 and version information.</para>
846
847 <para>Each configuration directive line has the form
848 <literal>key=value</literal>. Special characters (equal signs, newlines,
849 nonprintable characters, quotation marks, and percent signs in
850 <literal>key</literal> and newlines, nonprintable characters, and percent
851 signs in <literal>value</literal>) are %-encoded. Lists are represented
852 by multiple <literal>key::=value</literal> lines with the same key. The
853 configuration section ends with a blank line.</para>
854
855 <para>Package action lines consist of five fields in Version 2: package
856 name (without architecture qualification even if foreign), old version,
857 direction of version change (&lt; for upgrades, &gt; for downgrades, = for
858 no change), new version, action. The version fields are "-" for no version
859 at all (for example when installing a package for the first time; no
860 version is treated as earlier than any real version, so that is an
861 upgrade, indicated as <literal>- &lt; 1.23.4</literal>). The action field
862 is "**CONFIGURE**" if the package is being configured, "**REMOVE**" if it
863 is being removed, or the filename of a .deb file if it is being
864 unpacked.</para>
865
866 <para>In Version 3 after each version field follows the architecture
867 of this version, which is "-" if there is no version, and a field showing
868 the MultiArch type "same", "foreign", "allowed" or "none". Note that "none"
869 is an incorrect typename which is just kept to remain compatible, it
870 should be read as "no" and users are encouraged to support both.</para>
871
872 <para>The version of the protocol to be used for the command
873 <literal><replaceable>cmd</replaceable></literal> can be chosen by setting
874 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::Version</literal>
875 accordingly, the default being version 1. If APT isn't supporting the requested
876 version it will send the information in the highest version it has support for instead.
877 </para>
878
879 <para>The file descriptor to be used to send the information can be requested with
880 <literal>DPkg::Tools::options::<replaceable>cmd</replaceable>::InfoFD</literal>
881 which defaults to <literal>0</literal> for standard input and is available since
882 version 0.9.11. Support for the option can be detected by looking for the environment
883 variable <envar>APT_HOOK_INFO_FD</envar> which contains the number of the used
884 file descriptor as a confirmation.</para>
885 </listitem>
886 </varlistentry>
887
888 <varlistentry><term><option>Run-Directory</option></term>
889 <listitem><para>APT chdirs to this directory before invoking &dpkg;, the default is
890 <filename>/</filename>.</para></listitem>
891 </varlistentry>
892
893 <varlistentry><term><option>Build-options</option></term>
894 <listitem><para>These options are passed to &dpkg-buildpackage; when compiling packages;
895 the default is to disable signing and produce all binaries.</para></listitem>
896 </varlistentry>
897 </variablelist>
898
899 <refsect2><title>dpkg trigger usage (and related options)</title>
900 <para>APT can call &dpkg; in such a way as to let it make aggressive use of triggers over
901 multiple calls of &dpkg;. Without further options &dpkg; will use triggers once each time it runs.
902 Activating these options can therefore decrease the time needed to perform the
903 install or upgrade. Note that it is intended to activate these options per default in the
904 future, but as it drastically changes the way APT calls &dpkg; it needs a lot more testing.
905 <emphasis>These options are therefore currently experimental and should not be used in
906 production environments.</emphasis> It also breaks progress reporting such that all front-ends will
907 currently stay around half (or more) of the time in the 100% state while it actually configures
908 all packages.</para>
909 <para>Note that it is not guaranteed that APT will support these options or that these options will
910 not cause (big) trouble in the future. If you have understand the current risks and problems with
911 these options, but are brave enough to help testing them, create a new configuration file and test a
912 combination of options. Please report any bugs, problems and improvements you encounter and make sure
913 to note which options you have used in your reports. Asking &dpkg; for help could also be useful for
914 debugging proposes, see e.g. <command>dpkg --audit</command>. A defensive option combination would be
915 <literallayout>DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
916 PackageManager::Configure "smart";
917 DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
918 DPkg::TriggersPending "true";</literallayout></para>
919
920 <variablelist>
921 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::NoTriggers</option></term>
922 <listitem><para>Add the no triggers flag to all &dpkg; calls (except the ConfigurePending call).
923 See &dpkg; if you are interested in what this actually means. In short: &dpkg; will not run the
924 triggers when this flag is present unless it is explicitly called to do so in an extra call.
925 Note that this option exists (undocumented) also in older APT versions with a slightly different
926 meaning: Previously these option only append --no-triggers to the configure calls to &dpkg; -
927 now APT will also add this flag to the unpack and remove calls.</para></listitem>
928 </varlistentry>
929 <varlistentry><term><option>PackageManager::Configure</option></term>
930 <listitem><para>Valid values are "<literal>all</literal>",
931 "<literal>smart</literal>" and "<literal>no</literal>".
932 The default value is "<literal>all</literal>", which causes APT to
933 configure all packages. The "<literal>smart</literal>" way is to
934 configure only packages which need to be configured before another
935 package can be unpacked (Pre-Depends), and let the rest be configured
936 by &dpkg; with a call generated by the ConfigurePending option (see
937 below). On the other hand, "<literal>no</literal>" will not configure
938 anything, and totally relies on &dpkg; for configuration (which at the
939 moment will fail if a Pre-Depends is encountered). Setting this option
940 to any value other than <literal>all</literal> will implicitly also
941 activate the next option by default, as otherwise the system could end
942 in an unconfigured and potentially unbootable state.</para></listitem>
943 </varlistentry>
944 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::ConfigurePending</option></term>
945 <listitem><para>If this option is set APT will call <command>dpkg --configure --pending</command>
946 to let &dpkg; handle all required configurations and triggers. This option is activated automatically
947 per default if the previous option is not set to <literal>all</literal>, but deactivating it could be useful
948 if you want to run APT multiple times in a row - e.g. in an installer. In these sceneries you could
949 deactivate this option in all but the last run.</para></listitem>
950 </varlistentry>
951 <varlistentry><term><option>DPkg::TriggersPending</option></term>
952 <listitem><para>Useful for the <literal>smart</literal> configuration as a package which has pending
953 triggers is not considered as <literal>installed</literal>, and &dpkg; treats them as <literal>unpacked</literal>
954 currently which is a showstopper for Pre-Dependencies (see debbugs #526774). Note that this will
955 process all triggers, not only the triggers needed to configure this package.</para></listitem>
956 </varlistentry>
957 <varlistentry><term><option>OrderList::Score::Immediate</option></term>
958 <listitem><para>Essential packages (and their dependencies) should be configured immediately
959 after unpacking. It is a good idea to do this quite early in the upgrade process as these
960 configure calls also currently require <literal>DPkg::TriggersPending</literal> which
961 will run quite a few triggers (which may not be needed). Essentials get per default a high score
962 but the immediate flag is relatively low (a package which has a Pre-Depends is rated higher).
963 These option and the others in the same group can be used to change the scoring. The following
964 example shows the settings with their default values.
965 <literallayout>OrderList::Score {
966 Delete 500;
967 Essential 200;
968 Immediate 10;
969 PreDepends 50;
970 };</literallayout>
971 </para></listitem>
972 </varlistentry>
973 </variablelist>
974 </refsect2>
975 </refsect1>
976
977 <refsect1>
978 <title>Periodic and Archives options</title>
979 <para><literal>APT::Periodic</literal> and <literal>APT::Archives</literal>
980 groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is
981 done by the <literal>/etc/cron.daily/apt</literal> script. See the top of
982 this script for the brief documentation of these options.
983 </para>
984 </refsect1>
985
986 <refsect1>
987 <title>Debug options</title>
988 <para>
989 Enabling options in the <literal>Debug::</literal> section will
990 cause debugging information to be sent to the standard error
991 stream of the program utilizing the <literal>apt</literal>
992 libraries, or enable special program modes that are primarily
993 useful for debugging the behavior of <literal>apt</literal>.
994 Most of these options are not interesting to a normal user, but a
995 few may be:
996
997 <itemizedlist>
998 <listitem>
999 <para>
1000 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> enables output
1001 about the decisions made by
1002 <literal>dist-upgrade, upgrade, install, remove, purge</literal>.
1003 </para>
1004 </listitem>
1005
1006 <listitem>
1007 <para>
1008 <literal>Debug::NoLocking</literal> disables all file
1009 locking. This can be used to run some operations (for
1010 instance, <literal>apt-get -s install</literal>) as a
1011 non-root user.
1012 </para>
1013 </listitem>
1014
1015 <listitem>
1016 <para>
1017 <literal>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</literal> prints out the actual
1018 command line each time that <literal>apt</literal> invokes
1019 &dpkg;.
1020 </para>
1021 </listitem>
1022
1023 <listitem>
1024 <para>
1025 <literal>Debug::IdentCdrom</literal> disables the inclusion
1026 of statfs data in CD-ROM IDs. <!-- TODO: provide a
1027 motivating example, except I haven't a clue why you'd want
1028 to do this. -->
1029 </para>
1030 </listitem>
1031 </itemizedlist>
1032 </para>
1033
1034 <para>
1035 A full list of debugging options to apt follows.
1036 </para>
1037
1038 <variablelist>
1039 <varlistentry>
1040 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::cdrom</option></term>
1041
1042 <listitem>
1043 <para>
1044 Print information related to accessing
1045 <literal>cdrom://</literal> sources.
1046 </para>
1047 </listitem>
1048 </varlistentry>
1049
1050 <varlistentry>
1051 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::ftp</option></term>
1052
1053 <listitem>
1054 <para>
1055 Print information related to downloading packages using
1056 FTP.
1057 </para>
1058 </listitem>
1059 </varlistentry>
1060
1061 <varlistentry>
1062 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::http</option></term>
1063
1064 <listitem>
1065 <para>
1066 Print information related to downloading packages using
1067 HTTP.
1068 </para>
1069 </listitem>
1070 </varlistentry>
1071
1072 <varlistentry>
1073 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::https</option></term>
1074
1075 <listitem>
1076 <para>
1077 Print information related to downloading packages using
1078 HTTPS.
1079 </para>
1080 </listitem>
1081 </varlistentry>
1082
1083 <varlistentry>
1084 <term><option>Debug::Acquire::gpgv</option></term>
1085
1086 <listitem>
1087 <para>
1088 Print information related to verifying cryptographic
1089 signatures using <literal>gpg</literal>.
1090 </para>
1091 </listitem>
1092 </varlistentry>
1093
1094 <varlistentry>
1095 <term><option>Debug::aptcdrom</option></term>
1096
1097 <listitem>
1098 <para>
1099 Output information about the process of accessing
1100 collections of packages stored on CD-ROMs.
1101 </para>
1102 </listitem>
1103 </varlistentry>
1104
1105 <varlistentry>
1106 <term><option>Debug::BuildDeps</option></term>
1107 <listitem>
1108 <para>
1109 Describes the process of resolving build-dependencies in
1110 &apt-get;.
1111 </para>
1112 </listitem>
1113 </varlistentry>
1114
1115 <varlistentry>
1116 <term><option>Debug::Hashes</option></term>
1117 <listitem>
1118 <para>
1119 Output each cryptographic hash that is generated by the
1120 <literal>apt</literal> libraries.
1121 </para>
1122 </listitem>
1123 </varlistentry>
1124
1125 <varlistentry>
1126 <term><option>Debug::IdentCDROM</option></term>
1127 <listitem>
1128 <para>
1129 Do not include information from <literal>statfs</literal>,
1130 namely the number of used and free blocks on the CD-ROM
1131 filesystem, when generating an ID for a CD-ROM.
1132 </para>
1133 </listitem>
1134 </varlistentry>
1135
1136 <varlistentry>
1137 <term><option>Debug::NoLocking</option></term>
1138 <listitem>
1139 <para>
1140 Disable all file locking. For instance, this will allow
1141 two instances of <quote><literal>apt-get
1142 update</literal></quote> to run at the same time.
1143 </para>
1144 </listitem>
1145 </varlistentry>
1146
1147 <varlistentry>
1148 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire</option></term>
1149
1150 <listitem>
1151 <para>
1152 Log when items are added to or removed from the global
1153 download queue.
1154 </para>
1155 </listitem>
1156 </varlistentry>
1157
1158 <varlistentry>
1159 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Auth</option></term>
1160 <listitem>
1161 <para>
1162 Output status messages and errors related to verifying
1163 checksums and cryptographic signatures of downloaded files.
1164 </para>
1165 </listitem>
1166 </varlistentry>
1167
1168 <varlistentry>
1169 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Diffs</option></term>
1170 <listitem>
1171 <para>
1172 Output information about downloading and applying package
1173 index list diffs, and errors relating to package index list
1174 diffs.
1175 </para>
1176 </listitem>
1177 </varlistentry>
1178
1179 <varlistentry>
1180 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::RRed</option></term>
1181
1182 <listitem>
1183 <para>
1184 Output information related to patching apt package lists
1185 when downloading index diffs instead of full indices.
1186 </para>
1187 </listitem>
1188 </varlistentry>
1189
1190 <varlistentry>
1191 <term><option>Debug::pkgAcquire::Worker</option></term>
1192
1193 <listitem>
1194 <para>
1195 Log all interactions with the sub-processes that actually
1196 perform downloads.
1197 </para>
1198 </listitem>
1199 </varlistentry>
1200
1201 <varlistentry>
1202 <term><option>Debug::pkgAutoRemove</option></term>
1203
1204 <listitem>
1205 <para>
1206 Log events related to the automatically-installed status of
1207 packages and to the removal of unused packages.
1208 </para>
1209 </listitem>
1210 </varlistentry>
1211
1212 <varlistentry>
1213 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall</option></term>
1214 <listitem>
1215 <para>
1216 Generate debug messages describing which packages are being
1217 automatically installed to resolve dependencies. This
1218 corresponds to the initial auto-install pass performed in,
1219 e.g., <literal>apt-get install</literal>, and not to the
1220 full <literal>apt</literal> dependency resolver; see
1221 <literal>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</literal> for that.
1222 </para>
1223 </listitem>
1224 </varlistentry>
1225
1226 <varlistentry>
1227 <term><option>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</option></term>
1228 <listitem>
1229 <para>
1230 Generate debug messages describing which packages are marked
1231 as keep/install/remove while the ProblemResolver does his work.
1232 Each addition or deletion may trigger additional actions;
1233 they are shown indented two additional spaces under the original entry.
1234 The format for each line is <literal>MarkKeep</literal>,
1235 <literal>MarkDelete</literal> or <literal>MarkInstall</literal> followed by
1236 <literal>package-name &lt;a.b.c -&gt; d.e.f | x.y.z&gt; (section)</literal>
1237 where <literal>a.b.c</literal> is the current version of the package,
1238 <literal>d.e.f</literal> is the version considered for installation and
1239 <literal>x.y.z</literal> is a newer version, but not considered for installation
1240 (because of a low pin score). The later two can be omitted if there is none or if
1241 it is the same as the installed version.
1242 <literal>section</literal> is the name of the section the package appears in.
1243 </para>
1244 </listitem>
1245 </varlistentry>
1246
1247 <varlistentry>
1248 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgPM</option></term>
1249 <listitem>
1250 <para>
1251 When invoking &dpkg;, output the precise command line with
1252 which it is being invoked, with arguments separated by a
1253 single space character.
1254 </para>
1255 </listitem>
1256 </varlistentry>
1257
1258 <varlistentry>
1259 <term><option>Debug::pkgDPkgProgressReporting</option></term>
1260 <listitem>
1261 <para>
1262 Output all the data received from &dpkg; on the status file
1263 descriptor and any errors encountered while parsing it.
1264 </para>
1265 </listitem>
1266 </varlistentry>
1267
1268 <varlistentry>
1269 <term><option>Debug::pkgOrderList</option></term>
1270
1271 <listitem>
1272 <para>
1273 Generate a trace of the algorithm that decides the order in
1274 which <literal>apt</literal> should pass packages to
1275 &dpkg;.
1276 </para>
1277 </listitem>
1278 </varlistentry>
1279
1280 <varlistentry>
1281 <term><option>Debug::pkgPackageManager</option></term>
1282
1283 <listitem>
1284 <para>
1285 Output status messages tracing the steps performed when
1286 invoking &dpkg;.
1287 </para>
1288 </listitem>
1289 </varlistentry>
1290
1291 <varlistentry>
1292 <term><option>Debug::pkgPolicy</option></term>
1293
1294 <listitem>
1295 <para>
1296 Output the priority of each package list on startup.
1297 </para>
1298 </listitem>
1299 </varlistentry>
1300
1301 <varlistentry>
1302 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver</option></term>
1303
1304 <listitem>
1305 <para>
1306 Trace the execution of the dependency resolver (this
1307 applies only to what happens when a complex dependency
1308 problem is encountered).
1309 </para>
1310 </listitem>
1311 </varlistentry>
1312
1313 <varlistentry>
1314 <term><option>Debug::pkgProblemResolver::ShowScores</option></term>
1315 <listitem>
1316 <para>
1317 Display a list of all installed packages with their calculated score
1318 used by the pkgProblemResolver. The description of the package
1319 is the same as described in <literal>Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker</literal>
1320 </para>
1321 </listitem>
1322 </varlistentry>
1323
1324 <varlistentry>
1325 <term><option>Debug::sourceList</option></term>
1326
1327 <listitem>
1328 <para>
1329 Print information about the vendors read from
1330 <filename>/etc/apt/vendors.list</filename>.
1331 </para>
1332 </listitem>
1333 </varlistentry>
1334
1335 <varlistentry>
1336 <term><option>Debug::RunScripts</option></term>
1337 <listitem>
1338 <para>
1339 Display the external commands that are called by apt hooks.
1340 This includes e.g. the config options
1341 <literal>DPkg::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal> or
1342 <literal>APT::Update::{Pre,Post}-Invoke</literal>.
1343 </para>
1344 </listitem>
1345 </varlistentry>
1346
1347 <!-- 2009/07/11 Currently used nowhere. The corresponding code
1348 is commented.
1349 <varlistentry>
1350 <term><literal>Debug::Vendor</literal></term>
1351
1352 <listitem>
1353 <para>
1354 Print information about each vendor.
1355 </para>
1356 </listitem>
1357 </varlistentry>
1358 -->
1359
1360 </variablelist>
1361 </refsect1>
1362
1363 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
1364 <para>&configureindex; is a
1365 configuration file showing example values for all possible
1366 options.</para>
1367 </refsect1>
1368
1369 <refsect1><title>Files</title>
1370 <variablelist>
1371 &file-aptconf;
1372 </variablelist>
1373 </refsect1>
1374
1375 <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
1376 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-config;<!-- ? reading apt.conf -->, &apt-preferences;.</para>
1377 </refsect1>
1378
1379 &manbugs;
1380
1381 </refentry>
1382