doc/apt-ftparchive.1.xml

   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    &apt-email;
  15    &apt-product;
  16    <!-- The last update date -->
  17    <date>2015-09-13T00:00:00Z</date>
  18  </refentryinfo>
  19
  20  <refmeta>
  21    <refentrytitle>apt-ftparchive</refentrytitle>
  22    <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  23    <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>apt-ftparchive</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>Utility to generate index files</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  &synopsis-command-apt-ftparchive;
  33
  34  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  35    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> is the command line tool that generates the index
  36    files that APT uses to access a distribution source. The index files should
  37    be generated on the origin site based on the content of that site.</para>
  38
  39    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> is a superset of the &dpkg-scanpackages; program,
  40    incorporating its entire functionality via the <literal>packages</literal> command.
  41    It also contains a contents file generator, <literal>contents</literal>, and an
  42    elaborate means to 'script' the generation process for a complete
  43    archive.</para>
  44
  45    <para>Internally <command>apt-ftparchive</command> can make use of binary databases to
  46    cache the contents of a .deb file and it does not rely on any external
  47    programs aside from &gzip;. When doing a full generate it automatically
  48    performs file-change checks and builds the desired compressed output files.</para>
  49
  50    <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given,
  51    one of the commands below must be present.</para>
  52
  53    <variablelist>
  54      <varlistentry><term><option>packages</option></term>
  55      <listitem><para>
  56      The packages command generates a package file from a directory tree. It
  57      takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .deb files,
  58      emitting a package record to stdout for each. This command is
  59      approximately equivalent to &dpkg-scanpackages;.</para>
  60
  61      <para>The option <option>--db</option> can be used to specify a binary caching DB.</para></listitem>
  62      </varlistentry>
  63
  64      <varlistentry><term><option>sources</option></term>
  65      <listitem><para>
  66      The <literal>sources</literal> command generates a source index file from a directory tree.
  67      It takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .dsc files,
  68      emitting a source record to stdout for each. This command is approximately
  69      equivalent to &dpkg-scansources;.</para>
  70      <para>
  71      If an override file is specified then a source override file will be
  72      looked for with an extension of .src. The --source-override option can be
  73      used to change the source override file that will be used.</para></listitem>
  74      </varlistentry>
  75
  76      <varlistentry><term><option>contents</option></term>
  77      <listitem><para>
  78      The <literal>contents</literal> command generates a contents file from a directory tree. It
  79      takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .deb files,
  80      and reads the file list from each file. It then sorts and writes to stdout
  81      the list of files matched to packages. Directories are not written to
  82      the output. If multiple packages own the same file then each package is
  83      separated by a comma in the output.</para>
  84      <para>
  85      The option <option>--db</option> can be used to specify a binary caching DB.</para></listitem>
  86      </varlistentry>
  87
  88      <varlistentry><term><option>release</option></term>
  89      <listitem><para>
  90      The <literal>release</literal> command generates a Release file from a
  91      directory tree. It recursively searches the given directory for uncompressed
  92      <filename>Packages</filename> and <filename>Sources</filename> files and ones
  93      compressed with <command>gzip</command>, <command>bzip2</command> or <command>lzma</command>
  94      as well as <filename>Release</filename> and <filename>md5sum.txt</filename> files by default
  95      (<literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release::Default-Patterns</literal>). Additional filename patterns
  96      can be added by listing them in <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release::Patterns</literal>.
  97      It then writes to stdout a <filename>Release</filename> file containing (by default) an MD5,
  98      SHA1, SHA256 and SHA512 digest for each file.</para>
  99      <para>
 100      Values for the additional metadata fields in the Release file are
 101      taken from the corresponding variables under
 102      <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release</literal>,
 103      e.g. <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release::Origin</literal>.  The supported fields
 104      are: <literal>Origin</literal>, <literal>Label</literal>, <literal>Suite</literal>,
 105      <literal>Version</literal>, <literal>Codename</literal>, <literal>Date</literal>,
 106      <literal>Valid-Until</literal>, <literal>Architectures</literal>,
 107      <literal>Components</literal>, <literal>Description</literal>.</para></listitem>
 108
 109      </varlistentry>
 110
 111      <varlistentry><term><option>generate</option></term>
 112      <listitem><para>
 113      The <literal>generate</literal> command is designed to be runnable from a cron script and
 114      builds indexes according to the given config file. The config language
 115      provides a flexible means of specifying which index files are built from
 116      which directories, as well as providing a simple means of maintaining the
 117      required settings.</para></listitem>
 118      </varlistentry>
 119
 120      <varlistentry><term><option>clean</option></term>
 121      <listitem><para>
 122      The <literal>clean</literal> command tidies the databases used by the given
 123      configuration file by removing any records that are no longer necessary.</para></listitem>
 124      </varlistentry>
 125    </variablelist>
 126  </refsect1>
 127
 128  <refsect1><title>The Generate Configuration</title>
 129    <para>
 130    The <literal>generate</literal> command uses a configuration file to describe the
 131    archives that are going to be generated. It follows the typical ISC
 132    configuration format as seen in ISC tools like bind 8 and dhcpd.
 133    &apt-conf; contains a description of the syntax. Note that the generate
 134    configuration is parsed in sectional manner, but &apt-conf; is parsed in a
 135    tree manner. This only effects how the scope tag is handled.</para>
 136
 137    <para>
 138    The generate configuration has four separate sections, each described below.</para>
 139
 140      <refsect2><title><literal>Dir</literal> Section</title>
 141      <para>
 142      The <literal>Dir</literal> section defines the standard directories needed to
 143      locate the files required during the generation process. These
 144      directories are prepended certain relative paths defined in later
 145      sections to produce a complete an absolute path.</para>
 146      <variablelist>
 147       <varlistentry><term><option>ArchiveDir</option></term>
 148       <listitem><para>
 149       Specifies the root of the FTP archive, in a standard
 150       Debian configuration this is the directory that contains the
 151       <filename>ls-LR</filename> and dist nodes.</para></listitem>
 152       </varlistentry>
 153
 154       <varlistentry><term><option>OverrideDir</option></term>
 155       <listitem><para>
 156       Specifies the location of the override files.</para></listitem>
 157       </varlistentry>
 158
 159       <varlistentry><term><option>CacheDir</option></term>
 160       <listitem><para>
 161       Specifies the location of the cache files.</para></listitem>
 162       </varlistentry>
 163
 164       <varlistentry><term><option>FileListDir</option></term>
 165       <listitem><para>
 166       Specifies the location of the file list files,
 167       if the <literal>FileList</literal> setting is used below.</para></listitem>
 168       </varlistentry>
 169      </variablelist>
 170    </refsect2>
 171
 172    <refsect2><title><literal>Default</literal> Section</title>
 173      <para>
 174      The <literal>Default</literal> section specifies default values, and settings
 175      that control the operation of the generator. Other sections may override
 176      these defaults with a per-section setting.</para>
 177      <variablelist>
 178       <varlistentry><term><option>Packages::Compress</option></term>
 179       <listitem><para>
 180       Sets the default compression schemes to use
 181       for the package index files. It is a string that contains a space
 182       separated list of at least one of: '.' (no compression), 'gzip' and
 183       'bzip2'. The default for all compression schemes is '. gzip'.</para></listitem>
 184       </varlistentry>
 185
 186       <varlistentry><term><option>Packages::Extensions</option></term>
 187       <listitem><para>
 188       Sets the default list of file extensions that are package files.
 189       This defaults to '.deb'.</para></listitem>
 190       </varlistentry>
 191
 192       <varlistentry><term><option>Sources::Compress</option></term>
 193       <listitem><para>
 194       This is similar to <literal>Packages::Compress</literal>
 195       except that it controls the compression for the Sources files.</para></listitem>
 196       </varlistentry>
 197
 198       <varlistentry><term><option>Sources::Extensions</option></term>
 199       <listitem><para>
 200       Sets the default list of file extensions that are source files.
 201       This defaults to '.dsc'.</para></listitem>
 202       </varlistentry>
 203
 204       <varlistentry><term><option>Contents::Compress</option></term>
 205       <listitem><para>
 206       This is similar to <literal>Packages::Compress</literal>
 207       except that it controls the compression for the Contents files.</para></listitem>
 208       </varlistentry>
 209
 210       <varlistentry><term><option>Translation::Compress</option></term>
 211       <listitem><para>
 212       This is similar to <literal>Packages::Compress</literal>
 213       except that it controls the compression for the Translation-en master file.</para></listitem>
 214       </varlistentry>
 215
 216       <varlistentry><term><option>DeLinkLimit</option></term>
 217       <listitem><para>
 218       Specifies the number of kilobytes to delink (and
 219       replace with hard links) per run. This is used in conjunction with the
 220       per-section <literal>External-Links</literal> setting.</para></listitem>
 221       </varlistentry>
 222
 223       <varlistentry><term><option>FileMode</option></term>
 224       <listitem><para>
 225       Specifies the mode of all created index files. It
 226       defaults to 0644. All index files are set to this mode with no regard
 227       to the umask.</para></listitem>
 228       </varlistentry>
 229
 230       <varlistentry><term><option>LongDescription</option></term>
 231       <listitem><para>
 232       Specifies whether long descriptions should be included in the <filename>Packages</filename> file or split
 233       out into a master <filename>Translation-en</filename> file.</para></listitem>
 234       </varlistentry>
 235      </variablelist>
 236    </refsect2>
 237
 238    <refsect2><title><literal>TreeDefault</literal> Section</title>
 239      <para>
 240      Sets defaults specific to <literal>Tree</literal> sections. All of these
 241      variables are substitution variables and have the strings $(DIST),
 242      $(SECTION) and $(ARCH) replaced with their respective values.</para>
 243
 244      <variablelist>
 245       <varlistentry><term><option>MaxContentsChange</option></term>
 246       <listitem><para>
 247       Sets  the number of kilobytes of contents
 248       files that are generated each day. The contents files are round-robined
 249       so that over several days they will all be rebuilt.</para></listitem>
 250       </varlistentry>
 251
 252       <varlistentry><term><option>ContentsAge</option></term>
 253       <listitem><para>
 254       Controls the number of days a contents file is allowed
 255       to be checked without changing. If this limit is passed the mtime of the
 256       contents file is updated. This case can occur if the package file is
 257       changed in such a way that does not result in a new contents file
 258       [override edit for instance]. A hold off is allowed in hopes that new
 259       .debs will be installed, requiring a new file anyhow. The default is 10,
 260       the units are in days.</para></listitem>
 261       </varlistentry>
 262
 263       <varlistentry><term><option>Directory</option></term>
 264       <listitem><para>
 265       Sets the top of the .deb directory tree. Defaults to
 266       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/binary-$(ARCH)/</filename></para></listitem>
 267       </varlistentry>
 268
 269       <varlistentry><term><option>SrcDirectory</option></term>
 270       <listitem><para>
 271       Sets the top of the source package directory tree. Defaults to
 272       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/source/</filename></para></listitem>
 273       </varlistentry>
 274
 275       <varlistentry><term><option>Packages</option></term>
 276       <listitem><para>
 277       Sets the output Packages file. Defaults to
 278       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/binary-$(ARCH)/Packages</filename></para></listitem>
 279       </varlistentry>
 280
 281       <varlistentry><term><option>Sources</option></term>
 282       <listitem><para>
 283       Sets the output Sources file. Defaults to
 284       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/source/Sources</filename></para></listitem>
 285       </varlistentry>
 286
 287       <varlistentry><term><option>Translation</option></term>
 288       <listitem><para>
 289       Sets the output Translation-en master file with the long descriptions if they
 290       should be not included in the Packages file. Defaults to
 291       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/i18n/Translation-en</filename></para></listitem>
 292       </varlistentry>
 293
 294       <varlistentry><term><option>InternalPrefix</option></term>
 295       <listitem><para>
 296       Sets the path prefix that causes a symlink to be
 297       considered an internal link instead of an external link. Defaults to
 298       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/</filename></para></listitem>
 299       </varlistentry>
 300
 301       <varlistentry><term><option>Contents</option></term>
 302       <listitem><para>
 303       Sets the output Contents file. Defaults to
 304       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/Contents-$(ARCH)</filename>. If this setting causes multiple
 305       Packages files to map onto a single Contents file (as is the default)
 306       then <command>apt-ftparchive</command> will integrate those package files
 307       together automatically.</para></listitem>
 308       </varlistentry>
 309
 310       <varlistentry><term><option>Contents::Header</option></term>
 311       <listitem><para>
 312       Sets header file to prepend to the contents output.</para></listitem>
 313       </varlistentry>
 314
 315       <varlistentry><term><option>BinCacheDB</option></term>
 316       <listitem><para>
 317       Sets the binary cache database to use for this
 318       section. Multiple sections can share the same database.</para></listitem>
 319       </varlistentry>
 320
 321       <varlistentry><term><option>FileList</option></term>
 322       <listitem><para>
 323       Specifies that instead of walking the directory tree,
 324       <command>apt-ftparchive</command> should read the list of files from the given
 325       file. Relative files names are prefixed with the archive directory.</para></listitem>
 326       </varlistentry>
 327
 328       <varlistentry><term><option>SourceFileList</option></term>
 329       <listitem><para>
 330       Specifies that instead of walking the directory tree,
 331       <command>apt-ftparchive</command> should read the list of files from the given
 332       file. Relative files names are prefixed with the archive directory.
 333       This is used when processing source indexes.</para></listitem>
 334       </varlistentry>
 335      </variablelist>
 336    </refsect2>
 337
 338    <refsect2><title><literal>Tree</literal> Section</title>
 339      <para>
 340      The <literal>Tree</literal> section defines a standard Debian file tree which
 341      consists of a base directory, then multiple sections in that base
 342      directory and finally multiple Architectures in each section. The exact
 343      pathing used is defined by the <literal>Directory</literal> substitution variable.</para>
 344      <para>
 345      The <literal>Tree</literal> section takes a scope tag which sets the
 346      <literal>$(DIST)</literal> variable and defines the root of the tree
 347      (the path is prefixed by <literal>ArchiveDir</literal>).
 348      Typically this is a setting such as <filename>dists/&debian-stable-codename;</filename>.</para>
 349      <para>
 350      All of the settings defined in the <literal>TreeDefault</literal> section can be
 351      used in a <literal>Tree</literal> section as well as three new variables.</para>
 352      <para>
 353      When processing a <literal>Tree</literal> section <command>apt-ftparchive</command>
 354      performs an operation similar to:
 355      <programlisting>
 356 for i in Sections do
 357    for j in Architectures do
 358       Generate for DIST=scope SECTION=i ARCH=j
 359      </programlisting></para>
 360
 361      <variablelist>
 362       <varlistentry><term><option>Sections</option></term>
 363       <listitem><para>
 364       This is a space separated list of sections which appear
 365       under the distribution; typically this is something like
 366       <literal>main contrib non-free</literal></para></listitem>
 367       </varlistentry>
 368
 369       <varlistentry><term><option>Architectures</option></term>
 370       <listitem><para>
 371       This is a space separated list of all the architectures that appear under
 372       search section. The special architecture 'source' is used to indicate
 373       that this tree has a source archive.  The architecture 'all' signals that
 374       architecture specific files like <filename>Packages</filename> should not
 375       include information about architecture <literal>all</literal> packages in
 376       all files as they will be available in a dedicated file.
 377       </para></listitem>
 378       </varlistentry>
 379
 380       <varlistentry><term><option>LongDescription</option></term>
 381       <listitem><para>
 382       Specifies whether long descriptions should be included in the <filename>Packages</filename> file or split
 383       out into a master <filename>Translation-en</filename> file.</para></listitem>
 384       </varlistentry>
 385
 386       <varlistentry><term><option>BinOverride</option></term>
 387       <listitem><para>
 388       Sets the binary override file. The override file
 389       contains section, priority and maintainer address information.</para></listitem>
 390       </varlistentry>
 391
 392       <varlistentry><term><option>SrcOverride</option></term>
 393       <listitem><para>
 394       Sets the source override file. The override file
 395       contains section information.</para></listitem>
 396       </varlistentry>
 397
 398       <varlistentry><term><option>ExtraOverride</option></term>
 399       <listitem><para>
 400       Sets the binary extra override file.</para></listitem>
 401       </varlistentry>
 402
 403       <varlistentry><term><option>SrcExtraOverride</option></term>
 404       <listitem><para>
 405       Sets the source extra override file.</para></listitem>
 406       </varlistentry>
 407      </variablelist>
 408    </refsect2>
 409
 410    <refsect2><title><literal>BinDirectory</literal> Section</title>
 411      <para>
 412      The <literal>bindirectory</literal> section defines a binary directory tree
 413      with no special structure. The scope tag specifies the location of
 414      the binary directory and the settings are similar to the <literal>Tree</literal>
 415      section with no substitution variables or
 416      <literal>Section</literal><literal>Architecture</literal> settings.</para>
 417      <variablelist>
 418       <varlistentry><term><option>Packages</option></term>
 419       <listitem><para>
 420       Sets the Packages file output.</para></listitem>
 421       </varlistentry>
 422
 423       <varlistentry><term><option>Sources</option></term>
 424       <listitem><para>
 425       Sets the Sources file output. At least one of
 426       <literal>Packages</literal> or <literal>Sources</literal> is required.</para></listitem>
 427       </varlistentry>
 428
 429       <varlistentry><term><option>Contents</option></term>
 430       <listitem><para>
 431       Sets the Contents file output (optional).</para></listitem>
 432       </varlistentry>
 433
 434       <varlistentry><term><option>BinOverride</option></term>
 435       <listitem><para>
 436       Sets the binary override file.</para></listitem>
 437       </varlistentry>
 438
 439       <varlistentry><term><option>SrcOverride</option></term>
 440       <listitem><para>
 441       Sets the source override file.</para></listitem>
 442       </varlistentry>
 443
 444       <varlistentry><term><option>ExtraOverride</option></term>
 445       <listitem><para>
 446       Sets the binary extra override file.</para></listitem>
 447       </varlistentry>
 448
 449       <varlistentry><term><option>SrcExtraOverride</option></term>
 450       <listitem><para>
 451       Sets the source extra override file.</para></listitem>
 452       </varlistentry>
 453
 454       <varlistentry><term><option>BinCacheDB</option></term>
 455       <listitem><para>
 456       Sets the cache DB.</para></listitem>
 457       </varlistentry>
 458
 459       <varlistentry><term><option>PathPrefix</option></term>
 460       <listitem><para>
 461       Appends a path to all the output paths.</para></listitem>
 462       </varlistentry>
 463
 464       <varlistentry><term><option>FileList</option></term><term><option>SourceFileList</option></term>
 465       <listitem><para>
 466       Specifies the file list file.</para></listitem>
 467       </varlistentry>
 468      </variablelist>
 469    </refsect2>
 470  </refsect1>
 471
 472
 473  <refsect1><title>The Binary Override File</title>
 474    <para>The binary override file is fully compatible with &dpkg-scanpackages;. It
 475    contains four fields separated by spaces. The first field is the package name,
 476    the second is the priority to force that package to, the third is
 477    the section to force that package to and the final field is the maintainer
 478    permutation field.</para>
 479    <para>The general form of the maintainer field is:
 480    <literallayout>old [// oldn]* => new</literallayout>
 481    or simply,
 482    <literallayout>new</literallayout>
 483    The first form allows a double-slash separated list of old email addresses
 484    to be specified. If any of those are found then new is substituted for the
 485    maintainer field. The second form unconditionally substitutes the
 486    maintainer field.</para>
 487  </refsect1>
 488
 489
 490  <refsect1><title>The Source Override File</title>
 491    <para>
 492    The source override file is fully compatible with &dpkg-scansources;. It
 493    contains two fields separated by spaces. The first field is the source
 494    package name, the second is the section to assign it.</para>
 495  </refsect1>
 496
 497  <refsect1><title>The Extra Override File</title>
 498    <para>
 499    The extra override file allows any arbitrary tag to be added or replaced
 500    in the output. It has three columns, the first is the package, the second is
 501    the tag and the remainder of the line is the new value.</para>
 502  </refsect1>
 503
 504  <refsect1><title>options</title>
 505    &apt-cmdblurb;
 506
 507    <variablelist>
 508       <varlistentry>
 509          <term><option>--md5</option></term>
 510          <term><option>--sha1</option></term>
 511          <term><option>--sha256</option></term>
 512          <term><option>--sha512</option></term>
 513      <listitem><para>
 514      Generate the given checksum. These options default to on, when turned off the generated
 515      index files will not have the checksum fields where possible.
 516      Configuration Items: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::<replaceable>Checksum</replaceable></literal> and
 517      <literal>APT::FTPArchive::<replaceable>Index</replaceable>::<replaceable>Checksum</replaceable></literal> where
 518      <literal><replaceable>Index</replaceable></literal> can be <literal>Packages</literal>, <literal>Sources</literal> or
 519      <literal>Release</literal> and <literal><replaceable>Checksum</replaceable></literal> can be <literal>MD5</literal>,
 520      <literal>SHA1</literal>, <literal>SHA256</literal> or <literal>SHA512</literal>.</para></listitem>
 521      </varlistentry>
 522
 523      <varlistentry><term><option>-d</option></term><term><option>--db</option></term>
 524      <listitem><para>
 525      Use a binary caching DB. This has no effect on the generate command.
 526      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::DB</literal>.</para></listitem>
 527      </varlistentry>
 528
 529      <varlistentry><term><option>-q</option></term><term><option>--quiet</option></term>
 530      <listitem><para>
 531      Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 532      More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 533      <option>-q=#</option> to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 534      Configuration Item: <literal>quiet</literal>.</para></listitem>
 535      </varlistentry>
 536
 537      <varlistentry><term><option>--delink</option></term>
 538      <listitem><para>
 539      Perform Delinking. If the <literal>External-Links</literal> setting is used then
 540      this option actually enables delinking of the files. It defaults to on and
 541      can be turned off with <option>--no-delink</option>.
 542      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::DeLinkAct</literal>.</para></listitem>
 543      </varlistentry>
 544
 545      <varlistentry><term><option>--contents</option></term>
 546      <listitem><para>
 547      Perform contents generation. When this option is set and package indexes
 548      are being generated with a cache DB then the file listing will also be
 549      extracted and stored in the DB for later use. When using the generate
 550      command this option also allows the creation of any Contents files. The
 551      default is on.
 552      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Contents</literal>.</para></listitem>
 553      </varlistentry>
 554
 555      <varlistentry><term><option>-s</option></term><term><option>--source-override</option></term>
 556      <listitem><para>
 557      Select the source override file to use with the <literal>sources</literal> command.
 558      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::SourceOverride</literal>.</para></listitem>
 559      </varlistentry>
 560
 561      <varlistentry><term><option>--readonly</option></term>
 562      <listitem><para>
 563      Make the caching databases read only.
 564      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::ReadOnlyDB</literal>.</para></listitem>
 565      </varlistentry>
 566
 567      <varlistentry><term><option>-a</option></term><term><option>--arch</option></term>
 568      <listitem><para>Accept in the <literal>packages</literal> and <literal>contents</literal>
 569      commands only package files matching <literal>*_arch.deb</literal> or
 570      <literal>*_all.deb</literal> instead of all package files in the given path.
 571      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Architecture</literal>.</para></listitem>
 572      </varlistentry>
 573
 574      <varlistentry><term><option>APT::FTPArchive::AlwaysStat</option></term>
 575      <listitem><para>
 576      &apt-ftparchive; caches as much as possible of metadata in a cachedb. If packages
 577      are recompiled and/or republished with the same version again, this will lead to problems
 578      as the now outdated cached metadata like size and checksums will be used. With this option
 579      enabled this will no longer happen as it will be checked if the file was changed.
 580      Note that this option is set to "<literal>false</literal>" by default as it is not recommend
 581      to upload multiply versions/builds of a package with the same versionnumber, so in theory
 582      nobody will have these problems and therefore all these extra checks are useless.
 583      </para></listitem>
 584      </varlistentry>
 585
 586      <varlistentry><term><option>APT::FTPArchive::LongDescription</option></term>
 587      <listitem><para>
 588      This configuration option defaults to "<literal>true</literal>" and should only be set to
 589      <literal>"false"</literal> if the Archive generated with &apt-ftparchive; also provides
 590      <filename>Translation</filename> files. Note that the <filename>Translation-en</filename>
 591      master file can only be created in the generate command.
 592      </para></listitem>
 593      </varlistentry>
 594
 595      &apt-commonoptions;
 596
 597    </variablelist>
 598  </refsect1>
 599
 600 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 601
 602 <para>To create a compressed Packages file for a directory containing
 603 binary packages (.deb):
 604
 605 <programlisting>
 606 <command>apt-ftparchive</command> packages <replaceable>directory</replaceable> | <command>gzip</command> > <filename>Packages.gz</filename>
 607 </programlisting></para>
 608
 609 </refsect1>
 610
 611  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 612    <para>&apt-conf;</para>
 613  </refsect1>
 614
 615  <refsect1><title>Diagnostics</title>
 616    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.</para>
 617  </refsect1>
 618
 619  &manbugs;
 620
 621 </refentry>