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5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM
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13 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
17 <!-- The last update date -->
18 <date>08 November
2008</date>
22 <refentrytitle>apt-get
</refentrytitle>
23 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
24 <refmiscinfo class=
"manual">APT
</refmiscinfo>
27 <!-- Man page title -->
29 <refname>apt-get
</refname>
30 <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- command-line interface
</refpurpose>
36 <command>apt-get
</command>
37 <arg><option>-sqdyfmubV
</option></arg>
40 <replaceable>config_string
</replaceable>
45 <replaceable>config_file
</replaceable>
51 <replaceable>target_release
</replaceable>
56 <arg choice='plain'
>update
</arg>
57 <arg choice='plain'
>upgrade
</arg>
58 <arg choice='plain'
>dselect-upgrade
</arg>
59 <arg choice='plain'
>dist-upgrade
</arg>
60 <arg choice='plain'
>install
61 <arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable>
65 =
<replaceable>pkg_version_number
</replaceable>
68 /
<replaceable>target_release
</replaceable>
74 <arg choice='plain'
>remove
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
75 <arg choice='plain'
>purge
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
76 <arg choice='plain'
>source
77 <arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable>
81 =
<replaceable>pkg_version_number
</replaceable>
84 /
<replaceable>target_release
</replaceable>
90 <arg choice='plain'
>build-dep
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
91 <arg choice='plain'
>check
</arg>
92 <arg choice='plain'
>clean
</arg>
93 <arg choice='plain'
>autoclean
</arg>
94 <arg choice='plain'
>autoremove
</arg>
97 <arg choice='plain'
>-v
</arg>
98 <arg choice='plain'
>--version
</arg>
103 <arg choice='plain'
>-h
</arg>
104 <arg choice='plain'
>--help
</arg>
111 <refsect1><title>Description
</title>
112 <para><command>apt-get
</command> is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be
113 considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT
114 library. Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as
&dselect;,
115 &aptitude;,
&synaptic; and
&wajig;.
</para>
117 <para>Unless the
<option>-h
</option>, or
<option>--help
</option> option is given, one of the
118 commands below must be present.
</para>
121 <varlistentry><term>update
</term>
122 <listitem><para><literal>update
</literal> is used to resynchronize the package index files from
123 their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the
124 location(s) specified in
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename>.
125 For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and
126 scans the
<filename>Packages.gz
</filename> files, so that information about new
127 and updated packages is available. An
<literal>update
</literal> should always be
128 performed before an
<literal>upgrade
</literal> or
<literal>dist-upgrade
</literal>. Please
129 be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size
130 of the package files cannot be known in advance.
</para></listitem>
133 <varlistentry><term>upgrade
</term>
134 <listitem><para><literal>upgrade
</literal> is used to install the newest versions of all packages
135 currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
136 <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename>. Packages currently installed with
137 new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances
138 are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed
139 retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that
140 cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package
141 will be left at their current version. An
<literal>update
</literal> must be
142 performed first so that
<command>apt-get
</command> knows that new versions of packages are
143 available.
</para></listitem>
146 <varlistentry><term>dselect-upgrade
</term>
147 <listitem><para><literal>dselect-upgrade
</literal>
148 is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
149 front-end,
&dselect;.
<literal>dselect-upgrade
</literal>
150 follows the changes made by
&dselect; to the
<literal>Status
</literal>
151 field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
152 that state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new
153 packages).
</para></listitem>
156 <varlistentry><term>dist-upgrade
</term>
157 <listitem><para><literal>dist-upgrade
</literal> in addition to performing the function of
158 <literal>upgrade
</literal>, also intelligently handles changing dependencies
159 with new versions of packages;
<command>apt-get
</command> has a "smart" conflict
160 resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important
161 packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
162 So,
<literal>dist-upgrade
</literal> command may remove some packages.
163 The
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename> file contains a list of locations
164 from which to retrieve desired package files.
165 See also &apt-preferences; for a mechanism for
166 overriding the general settings for individual packages.
</para></listitem>
169 <varlistentry><term>install
</term>
171 <para><literal>install
</literal> is followed by one or more
172 packages desired for installation or upgrading.
173 Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified
174 filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux system,
175 libc6 would be the argument provided, not
176 <literal>libc6_1.9
.6-
2.deb
</literal>). All packages required
177 by the package(s) specified for installation will also
178 be retrieved and installed.
179 The
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename> file is
180 used to locate the desired packages. If a hyphen is
181 appended to the package name (with no intervening space),
182 the identified package will be removed if it is installed.
183 Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a
184 package to install. These latter features may be used
185 to override decisions made by apt-get's conflict
189 <para>A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
190 following the package name with an equals and the version of the package
191 to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for
192 install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by
193 following the package name with a slash and the version of the
194 distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable).
</para>
196 <para>Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must
197 be used with care.
</para>
199 <para>This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or
200 more already-installed packages without upgrading every package
201 you have on your system. Unlike the "upgrade" target, which
202 installs the newest version of all currently installed packages,
203 "install" will install the newest version of only the package(s)
204 specified. Simply provide the name of the package(s) you wish
205 to upgrade, and if a newer version is available, it (and its
206 dependencies, as described above) will be downloaded and
210 <para>Finally, the &apt-preferences; mechanism allows you to
211 create an alternative installation policy for
212 individual packages.
</para>
214 <para>If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one
215 of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression,
217 to all package names in the database. Any matches are then installed (or
218 removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo'
219 and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression
220 with a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular expression.
</para></listitem>
223 <varlistentry><term>remove
</term>
224 <listitem><para><literal>remove
</literal> is identical to
<literal>install
</literal> except that packages are
225 removed instead of installed. Note the removing a package leaves its
226 configuration files in system. If a plus sign is appended to the package
227 name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
228 installed instead of removed.
</para></listitem>
231 <varlistentry><term>purge
</term>
232 <listitem><para><literal>purge
</literal> is identical to
<literal>remove
</literal> except that packages are
233 removed and purged (any configuration files are deleted too).
</para></listitem>
236 <varlistentry><term>source
</term>
237 <listitem><para><literal>source
</literal> causes
<command>apt-get
</command> to fetch source packages. APT
238 will examine the available packages to decide which source package to
239 fetch. It will then find and download into the current directory the
240 newest available version of that source package while respect the
241 default release, set with the option
<literal>APT::Default-Release
</literal>,
242 the
<option>-t
</option> option or per package with the
243 <literal>pkg/release
</literal> syntax, if possible.
</para>
245 <para>Source packages are tracked separately
246 from binary packages via
<literal>deb-src
</literal> type lines
247 in the &sources-list; file. This means that you will need to add such a line
248 for each repository you want to get sources from. If you don't do this
249 you will properly get another (newer, older or none) source version than
250 the one you have installed or could install.
</para>
252 <para>If the
<option>--compile
</option> option is specified
253 then the package will be compiled to a binary .deb using
254 <command>dpkg-buildpackage
</command>, if
<option>--download-only
</option>
255 is specified then the source package will not be unpacked.
</para>
257 <para>A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing the source name
258 with an equals and then the version to fetch, similar to the mechanism
259 used for the package files. This enables exact matching of the source
260 package name and version, implicitly enabling the
261 <literal>APT::Get::Only-Source
</literal> option.
</para>
263 <para>Note that source packages are not tracked like binary packages, they
264 exist only in the current directory and are similar to downloading source
265 tar balls.
</para></listitem>
268 <varlistentry><term>build-dep
</term>
269 <listitem><para><literal>build-dep
</literal> causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an
270 attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source package.
</para></listitem>
273 <varlistentry><term>check
</term>
274 <listitem><para><literal>check
</literal> is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks
275 for broken dependencies.
</para></listitem>
278 <varlistentry><term>clean
</term>
279 <listitem><para><literal>clean
</literal> clears out the local repository of retrieved package
280 files. It removes everything but the lock file from
281 <filename>&cachedir;/archives/
</filename> and
282 <filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/
</filename>. When APT is used as a
283 &dselect; method,
<literal>clean
</literal> is run automatically.
284 Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run
<literal>apt-get clean
</literal>
285 from time to time to free up disk space.
</para></listitem>
288 <varlistentry><term>autoclean
</term>
289 <listitem><para>Like
<literal>clean
</literal>,
<literal>autoclean
</literal> clears out the local
290 repository of retrieved package files. The difference is that it only
291 removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely
292 useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without
293 it growing out of control. The configuration option
294 <literal>APT::Clean-Installed
</literal> will prevent installed packages from being
295 erased if it is set to off.
</para></listitem>
298 <varlistentry><term>autoremove
</term>
299 <listitem><para><literal>autoremove
</literal> is used to remove packages that were automatically
300 installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and that are no more needed.
</para></listitem>
305 <refsect1><title>options
</title>
309 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-install-recommends
</option></term>
310 <listitem><para>Do not consider recommended packages as a dependency for installing.
311 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Install-Recommends
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
314 <varlistentry><term><option>-d
</option></term><term><option>--download-only
</option></term>
315 <listitem><para>Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.
316 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Download-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
319 <varlistentry><term><option>-f
</option></term><term><option>--fix-broken
</option></term>
320 <listitem><para>Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
321 place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
322 to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are specified,
323 these have to completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
324 running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package
325 dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
326 dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention
327 (which usually means using
&dselect; or
<command>dpkg --remove
</command> to eliminate some of
328 the offending packages). Use of this option together with
<option>-m
</option> may produce an
329 error in some situations.
330 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Fix-Broken
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
333 <varlistentry><term><option>-m
</option></term><term><option>--ignore-missing
</option></term>
334 <term><option>--fix-missing
</option></term>
335 <listitem><para>Ignore missing packages; If packages cannot be retrieved or fail the
336 integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold back
337 those packages and handle the result. Use of this option together with
338 <option>-f
</option> may produce an error in some situations. If a package is
339 selected for installation (particularly if it is mentioned on the
340 command line) and it could not be downloaded then it will be silently
342 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Fix-Missing
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
345 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-download
</option></term>
346 <listitem><para>Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with
347 <option>--ignore-missing
</option> to force APT to use only the .debs it has
349 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Download
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
352 <varlistentry><term><option>-q
</option></term><term><option>--quiet
</option></term>
353 <listitem><para>Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
354 More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of
2. You can also use
355 <option>-q=#
</option> to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
356 Note that quiet level
2 implies
<option>-y
</option>, you should never use -qq
357 without a no-action modifier such as -d, --print-uris or -s as APT may
358 decided to do something you did not expect.
359 Configuration Item:
<literal>quiet
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
362 <varlistentry><term><option>-s
</option></term>
363 <term><option>--simulate
</option></term>
364 <term><option>--just-print
</option></term>
365 <term><option>--dry-run
</option></term>
366 <term><option>--recon
</option></term>
367 <term><option>--no-act
</option></term>
368 <listitem><para>No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not
369 actually change the system.
370 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Simulate
</literal>.
</para>
372 <para>Simulation run as user will deactivate locking (
<literal>Debug::NoLocking
</literal>)
373 automatic. Also a notice will be displayed indicating that this is only a simulation,
374 if the option
<literal>APT::Get::Show-User-Simulation-Note
</literal> is set (Default: true).
375 Neither NoLocking nor the notice will be triggered if run as root (root should know what
376 he is doing without further warnings by
<literal>apt-get
</literal>).
</para>
378 <para>Simulate prints out
379 a series of lines each one representing a dpkg operation, Configure (Conf),
380 Remove (Remv), Unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken packages
381 and empty set of square brackets meaning breaks that are of no consequence
382 (rare).
</para></listitem>
385 <varlistentry><term><option>-y
</option></term><term><option>--yes
</option></term>
386 <term><option>--assume-yes
</option></term>
387 <listitem><para>Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run
388 non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held
389 package, trying to install a unauthenticated package or removing an essential package
390 occurs then
<literal>apt-get
</literal> will abort.
391 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
394 <varlistentry><term><option>-u
</option></term><term><option>--show-upgraded
</option></term>
395 <listitem><para>Show upgraded packages; Print out a list of all packages that are to be
397 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Show-Upgraded
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
400 <varlistentry><term><option>-V
</option></term><term><option>--verbose-versions
</option></term>
401 <listitem><para>Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
402 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Show-Versions
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
405 <varlistentry><term><option>-b
</option></term><term><option>--compile
</option></term>
406 <term><option>--build
</option></term>
407 <listitem><para>Compile source packages after downloading them.
408 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Compile
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
411 <varlistentry><term><option>--install-recommends
</option></term>
412 <listitem><para>Also install recommended packages.
</para></listitem>
415 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-install-recommends
</option></term>
416 <listitem><para>Do not install recommended packages.
</para></listitem>
419 <varlistentry><term><option>--ignore-hold
</option></term>
420 <listitem><para>Ignore package Holds; This causes
<command>apt-get
</command> to ignore a hold
421 placed on a package. This may be useful in conjunction with
422 <literal>dist-upgrade
</literal> to override a large number of undesired holds.
423 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Ignore-Hold
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
426 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-upgrade
</option></term>
427 <listitem><para>Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with
<literal>install
</literal>,
428 <literal>no-upgrade
</literal> will prevent packages on the command line
429 from being upgraded if they are already installed.
430 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Upgrade
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
433 <varlistentry><term><option>--only-upgrade
</option></term>
434 <listitem><para>Do not install new packages; When used in conjunction with
<literal>install
</literal>,
435 <literal>only-upgrade
</literal> will prevent packages on the command line
436 from being upgraded if they are not already installed.
437 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Only-Upgrade
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
440 <varlistentry><term><option>--force-yes
</option></term>
441 <listitem><para>Force yes; This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue
442 without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It
443 should not be used except in very special situations. Using
444 <literal>force-yes
</literal> can potentially destroy your system!
445 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::force-yes
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
448 <varlistentry><term><option>--print-uris
</option></term>
449 <listitem><para>Instead of fetching the files to install their URIs are printed. Each
450 URI will have the path, the destination file name, the size and the expected
451 md5 hash. Note that the file name to write to will not always match
452 the file name on the remote site! This also works with the
453 <literal>source
</literal> and
<literal>update
</literal> commands. When used with the
454 <literal>update
</literal> command the MD5 and size are not included, and it is
455 up to the user to decompress any compressed files.
456 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Print-URIs
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
459 <varlistentry><term><option>--purge
</option></term>
460 <listitem><para>Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed.
461 An asterisk ("*") will be displayed next to packages which are
462 scheduled to be purged.
<option>remove --purge
</option> is equivalent to the
463 <option>purge
</option> command.
464 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Purge
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
467 <varlistentry><term><option>--reinstall
</option></term>
468 <listitem><para>Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.
469 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::ReInstall
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
472 <varlistentry><term><option>--list-cleanup
</option></term>
473 <listitem><para>This option defaults to on, use
<literal>--no-list-cleanup
</literal> to turn it
474 off. When on
<command>apt-get
</command> will automatically manage the contents of
475 <filename>&statedir;/lists
</filename> to ensure that obsolete files are erased.
476 The only reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your source
478 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::List-Cleanup
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
481 <varlistentry><term><option>-t
</option></term>
482 <term><option>--target-release
</option></term>
483 <term><option>--default-release
</option></term>
484 <listitem><para>This option controls the default input to the policy engine, it creates
485 a default pin at priority
990 using the specified release string.
486 This overrides the general settings in
<filename>/etc/apt/preferences
</filename>.
487 Specifically pinned packages are not affected by the value
488 of this option. In short, this option
489 lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be
490 retrieved from. Some common examples might be
491 <option>-t '
2.1*'
</option>,
<option>-t unstable
</option>
492 or
<option>-t sid
</option>.
493 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Default-Release
</literal>;
494 see also the &apt-preferences; manual page.
</para></listitem>
497 <varlistentry><term><option>--trivial-only
</option></term>
499 Only perform operations that are 'trivial'. Logically this can be considered
500 related to
<option>--assume-yes
</option>, where
<option>--assume-yes
</option> will answer
501 yes to any prompt,
<option>--trivial-only
</option> will answer no.
502 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Trivial-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
505 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-remove
</option></term>
506 <listitem><para>If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without
508 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Remove
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
511 <varlistentry><term><option>--auto-remove
</option></term>
512 <listitem><para>If the command is either
<literal>install
</literal> or
<literal>remove
</literal>,
513 then this option acts like running
<literal>autoremove
</literal> command, removing the unused
514 dependency packages. Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::AutomaticRemove
</literal>.
518 <varlistentry><term><option>--only-source
</option></term>
519 <listitem><para>Only has meaning for the
520 <literal>source
</literal> and
<literal>build-dep
</literal>
521 commands. Indicates that the given source names are not to be
522 mapped through the binary table. This means that if this option
523 is specified, these commands will only accept source package
524 names as arguments, rather than accepting binary package names
525 and looking up the corresponding source package. Configuration
526 Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Only-Source
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
529 <varlistentry><term><option>--diff-only
</option></term><term><option>--dsc-only
</option></term><term><option>--tar-only
</option></term>
530 <listitem><para>Download only the diff, dsc, or tar file of a source archive.
531 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Diff-Only
</literal>,
<literal>APT::Get::Dsc-Only
</literal>, and
532 <literal>APT::Get::Tar-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
535 <varlistentry><term><option>--arch-only
</option></term>
536 <listitem><para>Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies.
537 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Arch-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
540 <varlistentry><term><option>--allow-unauthenticated
</option></term>
541 <listitem><para>Ignore if packages can't be authenticated and don't prompt about it.
542 This is useful for tools like pbuilder.
543 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
552 <refsect1><title>Files
</title>
562 <refsect1><title>See Also
</title>
563 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;,
&dpkg;,
&dselect;, &sources-list;,
564 &apt-conf;, &apt-config;, &apt-secure;,
565 The APT User's guide in
&guidesdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.
</para>
568 <refsect1><title>Diagnostics
</title>
569 <para><command>apt-get
</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal
100 on error.
</para>
572 <title>ORIGINAL AUTHORS
</title>
573 <para>&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
</para>
576 <title>CURRENT AUTHORS
</title>