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   it() search
  24   it() show
  25   it() showpkg
  26 )
  27
  28 Unless the -h, or --help option is given one of the above commands
  29 must be present.
  30
  31 startdit()
  32 dit(bf(add))
  33 bf(add) adds the names package index files to the package cache.
  34
  35 dit(bf(gencaches))
  36 bf(gencaches) performs the same opration as bf(apt-get check). It builds
  37 the source and package caches from thes sources in bf(/etc/apt/sources.list)
  38 and from bf(/var/lib/dpkg/status).
  39
  40 dit(bf(showpkg))
  41 bf(showpkg) displays information about the packages listed on the
  42 command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available versions
  43 and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as well as
  44 forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal) dependencies
  45 are those packages upon which the package in question depends; reverse
  46 dependencies are those packages that depend upon the package in
  47 question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a package,
  48 but reverse dependencies need not be.
  49 For instance, bf(apt-cache showpkg libreadline2) would produce output similar
  50 to the following:
  51
  52 verb(
  53 Package: libreadline2
  54
  55 Versions:
  56
  57 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/debian.midco.net_debian_dists_slink_main_binary-i386_Packages),
  58
  59 Reverse Depends:
  60
  61   libreadlineg2,libreadline2
  62
  63   libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
  64 Dependencies:
  65
  66 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null)) ldso (2 1.9.0-1)
  67
  68 Provides:
  69
  70 2.1-12 -
  71
  72 Reverse Provides:
  73 )
  74
  75 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-8, depends on libc5,
  76 ncurses3.0, and ldso, which must be installed for libreadline2 to work. In
  77 turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
  78 libreadline2 is installed, libc5, ncurses3.0, and ldso must also be
  79 installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
  80 installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
  81 is best to consult the apt source code.
  82
  83 dit(bf(stats))
  84 bf(stats) displays some statistics about bf(cache).
  85 No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
  86 itemize(
  87    it() bf(Total package names) is the number of package names found in the cache.
  88
  89    it() bf(Normal packages) is the number of regular, ordinary package names; these
  90    are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between their names and
  91    the names used by other packages for them in dependencies. The majority of
  92    packages fall into this category.
  93
  94    it() bf(Pure virtual packages) is the number of packages that exist only as
  95    a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the virtual
  96    package name, and no package actually uses the name. For instance,
  97    "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual
  98    package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent", but there is no
  99    package named "mail-transport-agent".
 100
 101    it() bf(Single virtual packages) is the number of packages with only one
 102    package providing a particular virtual package. For instance, in the
 103    Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but only
 104    one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".
 105
 106    it() bf(Mixed virtual packages) is the number of packages that either provide
 107    a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name as the
 108    package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, e2fsprogs is
 109    both an actual package, and provided by the e2compr package.
 110
 111    it() bf(Missing) is the number of package names that were referenced in a
 112    dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may be
 113    in evidence if a full distribution is not accesssed, or if a package
 114    (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution.
 115
 116    it() bf(Total distinct) versions is the number of package versions found in
 117    the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the number of total
 118    package names. If more than one distribution (both "stable" and "unstable",
 119    for instance), is being accessed, this value can be considerably larger
 120    than the number of total package names.
 121
 122    it() bf(Total dependencies) is the number of dependency relationships claimed
 123    by all of the packages in the cache.
 124 )
 125
 126 dit(bf(dump))
 127 bf(dump) shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is primarily
 128 for debugging.
 129
 130 dit(bf(dumpavail))
 131 bf(dumpavail) prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable for use
 132 with df(dpkg) and is used by the bf(dselect) method.
 133
 134 dit(bf(unmet))
 135 bf(unmet) displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package cache.
 136
 137 dit(bf(check))
 138 bf(check) is a random function for testing certain aspects of the cache.
 139 Do not use it.
 140
 141 dit(bf(showpkg))
 142 bf(showpkg) displays a listing of the given package cache structure and some
 143 related information about it. The list is ment primarily for debugging.
 144
 145 dit(bf(show))
 146 bf(show) performs the same function as dpkg --print-avail, it displays
 147 the package records for the named packages.
 148
 149 dit(bf(search))
 150 bf(search) performs a full text search on all available package files for
 151 the pattern given. It searchs the package names and the descriptions for
 152 an occurance of the string and prints out the package name and the short
 153 description. If --full is given then output identical to bf(show) is produced
 154 for each matched package and if --names-only is given then the long
 155 description is not searched, only the package name is.
 156
 157 enddit()
 158
 159 manpageoptions()
 160 All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the
 161 descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
 162 options you can override the config file by using something like bf(-f-),
 163 bf(--no-f), bf(-f=no) or several other variations.
 164
 165 startdit()
 166 dit(bf(-h, --help))
 167 Show a short usage summary.
 168
 169 dit(bf(-v, --version))
 170 Show the program verison.
 171
 172 dit(bf(-p --pkg-cache))
 173 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the primary
 174 cache used by all operations.
 175 See bf(Dir::Cache::pkgcache).
 176
 177 dit(bf(-s --src-cache))
 178 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
 179 bf(gencaches) and it stores a parsed version of the package information from
 180 remote sources. When building the package cache the source cache is used
 181 to advoid reparsing all of the package files.
 182 See bf(Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache).
 183
 184 dit(bf(-q, --quiet))
 185 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 186 More qs will produce more quite up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 187 bf(-q=#) to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 188 See bf(quiet).
 189
 190 dit(bf(-i --important))
 191 Print only important deps; for use with unmet causes only em(Depends) and
 192 em(Pre-Depends) relations to be printed.
 193 See bf(APT::Cache::Important).
 194
 195 dit(bf(-f --full))
 196 Print full package records when searching. See bf(APT::Cache::ShowFull).
 197
 198 dit(bf(--names-only))
 199 Only search on the package names, not the long description. See
 200 bf(APT::Cache::Names-Only).
 201
 202 dit(bf(-c, --config-file))
 203 Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. bf(apt-get) will
 204 read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. See
 205 bf(apt.conf(5)) for syntax information.
 206
 207 dit(bf(-o, --option))
 208 Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option.
 209 The syntax is
 210 verb(-o Foo::Bar=bar)
 211 enddit()
 212
 213 manpagefiles()
 214 itemize(
 215   it() /etc/apt/sources.list
 216   locations to fetch packages from
 217
 218   it() /var/state/apt/lists/
 219   storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 220
 221   it() /var/state/apt/lists/partial/
 222   storage area for state information in transit
 223 )
 224
 225 manpageseealso()
 226 apt-get(8),
 227 sources.list(5),
 228 apt.conf(5)
 229
 230 manpagediagnostics()
 231 apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 232
 233 manpagebugs()
 234 See http://bugs.debian.org/apt.  If you wish to report a
 235 bug in bf(apt-cache), please see bf(/usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt)
 236 or the bf(bug(1)) command.
 237
 238 manpageauthor()
 239 apt-get was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.