1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8" standalone=
"no"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC
"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM
"apt.ent">
8 <!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM
"apt-verbatim.ent">
20 <!-- The last update date -->
21 <date>21 April
2011</date>
25 <refentrytitle>apt-mark
</refentrytitle>
26 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
27 <refmiscinfo class=
"manual">APT
</refmiscinfo>
30 <!-- Man page title -->
32 <refname>apt-mark
</refname>
33 <refpurpose>mark/unmark a package as being automatically-installed
</refpurpose>
39 <command>apt-mark
</command>
40 <arg><option>-hv
</option></arg>
41 <arg><option>-f=
<replaceable>FILENAME
</replaceable></option></arg>
42 <group choice=
"plain">
45 <arg choice=
"plain">auto
</arg>
46 <arg choice=
"plain">manual
</arg>
47 <arg choice=
"plain">showauto
</arg>
48 <arg choice=
"plain">showmanual
</arg>
50 <arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>package
</replaceable></arg>
56 <refsect1><title>Description
</title>
57 <para><command>apt-mark
</command> will change whether a package has
58 been marked as being automatically installed.
61 When you request that a package is installed, and as a result
62 other packages are installed to satisfy its dependencies, the
63 dependencies are marked as being automatically installed. Once
64 these automatically installed packages are no longer depended on
65 by any manually installed packages, they will be removed by e.g.
66 <command>apt-get
</command> or
<command>aptitude
</command>.
69 <varlistentry><term>auto
</term>
70 <listitem><para><literal>auto
</literal> is used to mark a
71 package as being automatically installed, which will cause the
72 package to be removed when no more manually installed packages
73 depend on this package.
77 <varlistentry><term>manual
</term>
78 <listitem><para><literal>manual
</literal> is used to mark a
79 package as being manually installed, which will prevent the
80 package from being automatically removed if no other packages
85 <varlistentry><term>hold
</term>
86 <listitem><para><literal>hold
</literal> is used to mark a
87 package as hold back, which will prevent the package from being
88 automatically installed, upgraded or removed.
89 The command is only a wrapper around
<command>dpkg --set-selections
</command>
90 and the state is therefore maintained by
&dpkg; and not effected
91 by the
<option>--filename
</option> option.
95 <varlistentry><term>unhold
</term>
96 <listitem><para><literal>unhold
</literal> is used to cancel a
97 previously set hold on a package to allow all actions again.
101 <varlistentry><term>showauto
</term>
102 <listitem><para><literal>showauto
</literal> is used to print a
103 list of automatically installed packages with each package on a new line.
104 All automatically installed packages will be listed if no package is given.
105 If packages are given only those which are automatically installed will be shown.
109 <varlistentry><term>showmanual
</term>
110 <listitem><para><literal>showmanual
</literal> can be used in
111 the same way as
<literal>showauto
</literal> except that it will print
112 a list of manually installed packages instead.
116 <varlistentry><term>showhold
</term>
117 <listitem><para><literal>showhold
</literal> is used to print a list
118 of packages on hold in the same way as for the other show commands.
126 <refsect1><title>options
</title>
130 <term><option>-f=
<filename><replaceable>FILENAME
</replaceable></filename></option></term>
131 <term><option>--file=
<filename><replaceable>FILENAME
</replaceable></filename></option></term>
134 Read/Write package stats from
<filename><replaceable>FILENAME
</replaceable></filename>
135 instead of the default location, which
136 is
<filename>extended_status
</filename> in the directory defined
137 by the Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::State
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
144 <refsect1><title>Files
</title>
146 &file-extended_states;
150 <refsect1><title>See Also
</title>
151 <para>&apt-get;,
&aptitude;,&apt-conf;
</para>
154 <refsect1><title>Diagnostics
</title>
155 <para><command>apt-mark
</command> returns zero on normal operation, non-zero on error.
</para>