doc/apt-cache.8.yo

   1 mailto(apt@packages.debian.org)
   2 manpage(apt-cache)(8)(4 Dec 1998)(apt)()
   3 manpagename(apt-cache)(APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator)
   4
   5 manpagesynopsis()
   6 apt-cache command [argument ...]
   7
   8 manpagedescription()
   9 bf(apt-cache) performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
  10 bf(apt-cache) is seldom called directly; instead its operations are
  11 performed automatically by the other bf(apt) utilities.
  12
  13 em(command) is one of:
  14 itemize(
  15   it() add file1 [file2] [...]
  16   it() gencaches
  17   it() showpkg package1 [package2] [...]
  18   it() stats
  19   it() dump
  20   it() dumpavail
  21   it() unmet
  22   it() check
  23 )
  24
  25 Unless the -h, or --help option is given one of the above commands
  26 must be present.
  27
  28 startdit()
  29 dit(bf(add))
  30 bf(add) adds the names package index files to the package cache.
  31
  32 dit(bf(gencaches))
  33 bf(gencaches) performs the same opration as bf(apt-get check). It builds
  34 the source and package caches from thes sources in bf(/etc/apt/sources.list)
  35 and from bf(/var/lib/dpkg/status).
  36
  37 dit(bf(showpkg))
  38 bf(showpkg) displays information about the packages listed on the
  39 command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available versions
  40 and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as well as
  41 forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal) dependencies
  42 are those packages upon which the package in question depends; reverse
  43 dependencies are those packages that depend upon the package in
  44 question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a package,
  45 but reverse dependencies need not be.
  46 For instance, bf(apt-cache showpkg libreadline2) would produce output similar
  47 to the following:
  48
  49 verb(
  50 Package: libreadline2
  51
  52 Versions:
  53
  54 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/debian.midco.net_debian_dists_slink_main_binary-i386_Packages),
  55
  56 Reverse Depends:
  57
  58   libreadlineg2,libreadline2
  59
  60   libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
  61 Dependencies:
  62
  63 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null)) ldso (2 1.9.0-1)
  64
  65 Provides:
  66
  67 2.1-12 -
  68
  69 Reverse Provides:
  70 )
  71
  72 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-8, depends on libc5,
  73 ncurses3.0, and ldso, which must be installed for libreadline2 to work. In
  74 turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
  75 libreadline2 is installed, libc5, ncurses3.0, and ldso must also be
  76 installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
  77 installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
  78 is best to consult the apt source code.
  79
  80 dit(bf(stats))
  81 bf(stats) displays some statistics about bf(cache).
  82 No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
  83 itemize(
  84    it() bf(Total package names) is the number of package names found in the cache.
  85
  86    it() bf(Normal packages) is the number of regular, ordinary package names; these
  87    are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between their names and
  88    the names used by other packages for them in dependencies. The majority of
  89    packages fall into this category.
  90
  91    it() bf(Pure virtual packages) is the number of packages that exist only as
  92    a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the virtual
  93    package name, and no package actually uses the name. For instance,
  94    "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual
  95    package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent", but there is no
  96    package named "mail-transport-agent".
  97
  98    it() bf(Single virtual packages) is the number of packages with only one
  99    package providing a particular virtual package. For instance, in the
 100    Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but only
 101    one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".
 102
 103    it() bf(Mixed virtual packages) is the number of packages that either provide
 104    a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name as the
 105    package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, e2fsprogs is
 106    both an actual package, and provided by the e2compr package.
 107
 108    it() bf(Missing) is the number of package names that were referenced in a
 109    dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may be
 110    in evidence if a full distribution is not accesssed, or if a package
 111    (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution.
 112
 113    it() bf(Total distinct) versions is the number of package versions found in
 114    the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the number of total
 115    package names. If more than one distribution (both "stable" and "unstable",
 116    for instance), is being accessed, this value can be considerably larger
 117    than the number of total package names.
 118
 119    it() bf(Total dependencies) is the number of dependency relationships claimed
 120    by all of the packages in the cache.
 121 )
 122
 123 dit(bf(dump))
 124 bf(dump) shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is primarily
 125 for debugging.
 126
 127 dit(bf(dumpavail))
 128 bf(dumpavail) prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable for use
 129 with df(dpkg) and is used by the bf(dselect) method.
 130
 131 dit(bf(unmet))
 132 bf(unmet) displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package cache.
 133
 134 dit(bf(check))
 135 bf(check) is a random function for testing certain aspects of the cache.
 136 Do not use it.
 137
 138 enddit()
 139
 140 manpageoptions()
 141
 142 startdit()
 143 dit(bf(-h, --help))
 144 Show a short usage summary.
 145
 146 dit(bf(-p --pkg-cache))
 147 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the primary
 148 cache used by all operations.
 149
 150 dit(bf(-s --src-cache))
 151 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
 152 bf(gencaches) and it stores a parsed version of the package information from
 153 remote sources. When building the package cache the source cache is used
 154 to advoid reparsing all of the package files.
 155
 156 dit(bf(-q, --quiet))
 157 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 158 More qs will produce more quite up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 159 bf(-q=#) to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 160
 161 dit(bf(-i --important))
 162 Print only important deps; for use with unmet causes only em(Depends) and
 163 em(Pre-Depends) relations to be printed.
 164
 165 dit(bf(-c, --config-file))
 166 Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. bf(apt-get) will
 167 read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. See
 168 bf(apt.conf(5)) for syntax information.
 169
 170 dit(bf(-o, --option))
 171 Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option.
 172 The syntax is
 173 verb(-o Foo::Bar=bar)
 174 enddit()
 175
 176 manpagefiles()
 177 itemize(
 178   it() /etc/apt/sources.list
 179   locations to fetch packages from
 180
 181   it() /var/state/apt/lists/
 182   storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 183
 184   it() /var/state/apt/lists/partial/
 185   storage area for state information in transit
 186 )
 187
 188 manpageseealso()
 189 apt-get (8),
 190 dpkg (8),
 191 dselect (8),
 192 sources.list (5)
 193
 194 manpagediagnostics()
 195 apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 196
 197 manpagebugs()
 198 See http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/pa/lapt.html.  If you wish to report a
 199 bug in bf(apt-cache), please see bf(/usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt)
 200 or the bf(bug(1)) command.
 201
 202 manpageauthor()
 203 apt-get was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.