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5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM
"apt.ent">
13 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
17 <!-- The last update date -->
18 <date>30 October
2008</date>
22 <refentrytitle>apt-get
</refentrytitle>
23 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
26 <!-- Man page title -->
28 <refname>apt-get
</refname>
29 <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- command-line interface
</refpurpose>
35 <command>apt-get
</command>
36 <arg><option>-hvsqdyfmubV
</option></arg>
39 <replaceable>config_string
</replaceable>
44 <replaceable>config_file
</replaceable>
54 target_release_number_expression
62 <arg>dselect-upgrade
</arg>
64 <arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable>
68 =
<replaceable>pkg_version_number
</replaceable>
71 /
<replaceable>target_release_name
</replaceable>
77 <arg>remove
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
78 <arg>purge
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
80 <arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable>
82 =
<replaceable>pkg_version_number
</replaceable>
86 <arg>build-dep
<arg choice=
"plain" rep=
"repeat"><replaceable>pkg
</replaceable></arg></arg>
95 <refsect1><title>Description
</title>
96 <para><command>apt-get
</command> is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be
97 considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT
98 library. Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as dselect(
8),
99 aptitude, synaptic, gnome-apt and wajig.
</para>
101 <para>Unless the
<option>-h
</option>, or
<option>--help
</option> option is given, one of the
102 commands below must be present.
</para>
105 <varlistentry><term>update
</term>
106 <listitem><para><literal>update
</literal> is used to resynchronize the package index files from
107 their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the
108 location(s) specified in
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename>.
109 For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and
110 scans the
<filename>Packages.gz
</filename> files, so that information about new
111 and updated packages is available. An
<literal>update
</literal> should always be
112 performed before an
<literal>upgrade
</literal> or
<literal>dist-upgrade
</literal>. Please
113 be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size
114 of the package files cannot be known in advance.
</para></listitem>
117 <varlistentry><term>upgrade
</term>
118 <listitem><para><literal>upgrade
</literal> is used to install the newest versions of all packages
119 currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
120 <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename>. Packages currently installed with
121 new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances
122 are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed
123 retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that
124 cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package
125 will be left at their current version. An
<literal>update
</literal> must be
126 performed first so that
<command>apt-get
</command> knows that new versions of packages are
127 available.
</para></listitem>
130 <varlistentry><term>dselect-upgrade
</term>
131 <listitem><para><literal>dselect-upgrade
</literal>
132 is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
133 front-end,
&dselect;.
<literal>dselect-upgrade
</literal>
134 follows the changes made by
&dselect; to the
<literal>Status
</literal>
135 field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
136 that state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new
137 packages).
</para></listitem>
140 <varlistentry><term>dist-upgrade
</term>
141 <listitem><para><literal>dist-upgrade
</literal> in addition to performing the function of
142 <literal>upgrade
</literal>, also intelligently handles changing dependencies
143 with new versions of packages;
<command>apt-get
</command> has a "smart" conflict
144 resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important
145 packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
146 The
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename> file contains a list of locations
147 from which to retrieve desired package files.
148 See also &apt-preferences; for a mechanism for
149 overriding the general settings for individual packages.
</para></listitem>
152 <varlistentry><term>install
</term>
155 <literal>install
</literal> is followed by one or more
156 packages desired for installation or upgrading.
157 Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified
158 filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux system,
159 libc6 would be the argument provided, not
160 <literal>libc6_1.9
.6-
2.deb
</literal>). All packages required
161 by the package(s) specified for installation will also
162 be retrieved and installed.
163 The
<filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename> file is
164 used to locate the desired packages. If a hyphen is
165 appended to the package name (with no intervening space),
166 the identified package will be removed if it is installed.
167 Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a
168 package to install. These latter features may be used
169 to override decisions made by apt-get's conflict
173 <para>A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
174 following the package name with an equals and the version of the package
175 to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for
176 install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by
177 following the package name with a slash and the version of the
178 distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable).
</para>
180 <para>Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must
181 be used with care.
</para>
183 <para>This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or
184 more already-installed packages without upgrading every package
185 you have on your system. Unlike the "upgrade" target, which
186 installs the newest version of all currently installed packages,
187 "install" will install the newest version of only the package(s)
188 specified. Simply provide the name of the package(s) you wish
189 to upgrade, and if a newer version is available, it (and its
190 dependencies, as described above) will be downloaded and
194 <para>Finally, the &apt-preferences; mechanism allows you to
195 create an alternative installation policy for
196 individual packages.
</para>
198 <para>If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one
199 of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression,
201 to all package names in the database. Any matches are then installed (or
202 removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo'
203 and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression
204 with a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular expression.
</para></listitem>
207 <varlistentry><term>remove
</term>
208 <listitem><para><literal>remove
</literal> is identical to
<literal>install
</literal> except that packages are
209 removed instead of installed. If a plus sign is appended to the package
210 name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
211 installed instead of removed.
</para></listitem>
214 <varlistentry><term>purge
</term>
215 <listitem><para><literal>purge
</literal> is identical to
<literal>remove
</literal> except that packages are
216 removed and purged.
</para></listitem>
219 <varlistentry><term>source
</term>
220 <listitem><para><literal>source
</literal> causes
<command>apt-get
</command> to fetch source packages. APT
221 will examine the available packages to decide which source package to
222 fetch. It will then find and download into the current directory the
223 newest available version of that source package. Source packages are
224 tracked separately from binary packages via
<literal>deb-src
</literal> type lines
225 in the &sources-list; file. This probably will mean that you will not
226 get the same source as the package you have installed or as you could
227 install. If the --compile options is specified then the package will be
228 compiled to a binary .deb using dpkg-buildpackage, if --download-only is
229 specified then the source package will not be unpacked.
</para>
231 <para>A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing the source name
232 with an equals and then the version to fetch, similar to the mechanism
233 used for the package files. This enables exact matching of the source
234 package name and version, implicitly enabling the
235 <literal>APT::Get::Only-Source
</literal> option.
</para>
237 <para>Note that source packages are not tracked like binary packages, they
238 exist only in the current directory and are similar to downloading source
239 tar balls.
</para></listitem>
242 <varlistentry><term>build-dep
</term>
243 <listitem><para><literal>build-dep
</literal> causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an
244 attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source package.
</para></listitem>
247 <varlistentry><term>check
</term>
248 <listitem><para><literal>check
</literal> is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks
249 for broken dependencies.
</para></listitem>
252 <varlistentry><term>clean
</term>
253 <listitem><para><literal>clean
</literal> clears out the local repository of retrieved package
254 files. It removes everything but the lock file from
255 <filename>&cachedir;/archives/
</filename> and
256 <filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/
</filename>. When APT is used as a
257 &dselect; method,
<literal>clean
</literal> is run automatically.
258 Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run
<literal>apt-get clean
</literal>
259 from time to time to free up disk space.
</para></listitem>
262 <varlistentry><term>autoclean
</term>
263 <listitem><para>Like
<literal>clean
</literal>,
<literal>autoclean
</literal> clears out the local
264 repository of retrieved package files. The difference is that it only
265 removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely
266 useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without
267 it growing out of control. The configuration option
268 <literal>APT::Clean-Installed
</literal> will prevent installed packages from being
269 erased if it is set to off.
</para></listitem>
272 <varlistentry><term>autoremove
</term>
273 <listitem><para><literal>autoremove
</literal> is used to remove packages that were automatically
274 installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and that are no more needed.
</para></listitem>
279 <refsect1><title>options
</title>
283 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-install-recommends
</option></term>
284 <listitem><para>Do not consider recommended packages as a dependency for installing.
285 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Install-Recommends
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
288 <varlistentry><term><option>-d
</option></term><term><option>--download-only
</option></term>
289 <listitem><para>Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.
290 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Download-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
293 <varlistentry><term><option>-f
</option></term><term><option>--fix-broken
</option></term>
294 <listitem><para>Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
295 place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
296 to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. Any Package that are specified
297 must completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
298 running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package
299 dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
300 dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention
301 (which usually means using
&dselect; or
<command>dpkg --remove
</command> to eliminate some of
302 the offending packages). Use of this option together with
<option>-m
</option> may produce an
303 error in some situations.
304 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Fix-Broken
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
307 <varlistentry><term><option>-m
</option></term><term><option>--ignore-missing
</option></term>
308 <term><option>--fix-missing
</option></term>
309 <listitem><para>Ignore missing packages; If packages cannot be retrieved or fail the
310 integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold back
311 those packages and handle the result. Use of this option together with
312 <option>-f
</option> may produce an error in some situations. If a package is
313 selected for installation (particularly if it is mentioned on the
314 command line) and it could not be downloaded then it will be silently
316 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Fix-Missing
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
319 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-download
</option></term>
320 <listitem><para>Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with
321 <option>--ignore-missing
</option> to force APT to use only the .debs it has
323 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Download
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
326 <varlistentry><term><option>-q
</option></term><term><option>--quiet
</option></term>
327 <listitem><para>Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
328 More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of
2. You can also use
329 <option>-q=#
</option> to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
330 Note that quiet level
2 implies
<option>-y
</option>, you should never use -qq
331 without a no-action modifier such as -d, --print-uris or -s as APT may
332 decided to do something you did not expect.
333 Configuration Item:
<literal>quiet
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
336 <varlistentry><term><option>-s
</option></term>
337 <term><option>--simulate
</option></term>
338 <term><option>--just-print
</option></term>
339 <term><option>--dry-run
</option></term>
340 <term><option>--recon
</option></term>
341 <term><option>--no-act
</option></term>
342 <listitem><para>No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not
343 actually change the system.
344 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Simulate
</literal>.
</para>
346 <para>Simulate prints out
347 a series of lines each one representing a dpkg operation, Configure (Conf),
348 Remove (Remv), Unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken packages with
349 and empty set of square brackets meaning breaks that are of no consequence
350 (rare).
</para></listitem>
353 <varlistentry><term><option>-y
</option></term><term><option>--yes
</option></term>
354 <term><option>--assume-yes
</option></term>
355 <listitem><para>Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run
356 non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held
357 package, trying to install a unauthenticated package or removing an essential package
358 occurs then
<literal>apt-get
</literal> will abort.
359 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
362 <varlistentry><term><option>-u
</option></term><term><option>--show-upgraded
</option></term>
363 <listitem><para>Show upgraded packages; Print out a list of all packages that are to be
365 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Show-Upgraded
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
368 <varlistentry><term><option>-V
</option></term><term><option>--verbose-versions
</option></term>
369 <listitem><para>Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
370 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Show-Versions
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
373 <varlistentry><term><option>-b
</option></term><term><option>--compile
</option></term>
374 <term><option>--build
</option></term>
375 <listitem><para>Compile source packages after downloading them.
376 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Compile
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
379 <varlistentry><term><option>--ignore-hold
</option></term>
380 <listitem><para>Ignore package Holds; This causes
<command>apt-get
</command> to ignore a hold
381 placed on a package. This may be useful in conjunction with
382 <literal>dist-upgrade
</literal> to override a large number of undesired holds.
383 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Ignore-Hold
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
386 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-upgrade
</option></term>
387 <listitem><para>Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with
<literal>install
</literal>,
388 <literal>no-upgrade
</literal> will prevent packages on the command line
389 from being upgraded if they are already installed.
390 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Upgrade
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
393 <varlistentry><term><option>--force-yes
</option></term>
394 <listitem><para>Force yes; This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue
395 without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It
396 should not be used except in very special situations. Using
397 <literal>force-yes
</literal> can potentially destroy your system!
398 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::force-yes
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
401 <varlistentry><term><option>--print-uris
</option></term>
402 <listitem><para>Instead of fetching the files to install their URIs are printed. Each
403 URI will have the path, the destination file name, the size and the expected
404 md5 hash. Note that the file name to write to will not always match
405 the file name on the remote site! This also works with the
406 <literal>source
</literal> and
<literal>update
</literal> commands. When used with the
407 <literal>update
</literal> command the MD5 and size are not included, and it is
408 up to the user to decompress any compressed files.
409 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Print-URIs
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
412 <varlistentry><term><option>--purge
</option></term>
413 <listitem><para>Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed.
414 An asterisk ("*") will be displayed next to packages which are
415 scheduled to be purged.
416 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Purge
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
419 <varlistentry><term><option>--reinstall
</option></term>
420 <listitem><para>Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.
421 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::ReInstall
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
424 <varlistentry><term><option>--list-cleanup
</option></term>
425 <listitem><para>This option defaults to on, use
<literal>--no-list-cleanup
</literal> to turn it
426 off. When on
<command>apt-get
</command> will automatically manage the contents of
427 <filename>&statedir;/lists
</filename> to ensure that obsolete files are erased.
428 The only reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your source
430 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::List-Cleanup
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
433 <varlistentry><term><option>-t
</option></term>
434 <term><option>--target-release
</option></term>
435 <term><option>--default-release
</option></term>
436 <listitem><para>This option controls the default input to the policy engine, it creates
437 a default pin at priority
990 using the specified release string.
438 This overrides the general settings in
<filename>/etc/apt/preferences
</filename>.
439 Specifically pinned packages are not affected by the value
440 of this option. In short, this option
441 lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be
442 retrieved from. Some common examples might be
443 <option>-t '
2.1*'
</option> or
<option>-t unstable
</option>.
444 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Default-Release
</literal>;
445 see also the &apt-preferences; manual page.
</para></listitem>
448 <varlistentry><term><option>--trivial-only
</option></term>
450 Only perform operations that are 'trivial'. Logically this can be considered
451 related to
<option>--assume-yes
</option>, where
<option>--assume-yes
</option> will answer
452 yes to any prompt,
<option>--trivial-only
</option> will answer no.
453 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Trivial-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
456 <varlistentry><term><option>--no-remove
</option></term>
457 <listitem><para>If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without
459 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Remove
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
462 <varlistentry><term><option>--auto-remove
</option></term>
463 <listitem><para>If the command is either
<literal>install
</literal> or
<literal>remove
</literal>,
464 then this option acts like running
<literal>autoremove
</literal> command, removing the unused
465 dependency packages. Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::AutomaticRemove
</literal>.
469 <varlistentry><term><option>--only-source
</option></term>
470 <listitem><para>Only has meaning for the
471 <literal>source
</literal> and
<literal>build-dep
</literal>
472 commands. Indicates that the given source names are not to be
473 mapped through the binary table. This means that if this option
474 is specified, these commands will only accept source package
475 names as arguments, rather than accepting binary package names
476 and looking up the corresponding source package. Configuration
477 Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Only-Source
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
480 <varlistentry><term><option>--diff-only
</option></term><term><option>--dsc-only
</option></term><term><option>--tar-only
</option></term>
481 <listitem><para>Download only the diff, dsc, or tar file of a source archive.
482 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Diff-Only
</literal>,
<literal>APT::Get::Dsc-Only
</literal>, and
483 <literal>APT::Get::Tar-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
486 <varlistentry><term><option>--arch-only
</option></term>
487 <listitem><para>Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies.
488 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::Arch-Only
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
491 <varlistentry><term><option>--allow-unauthenticated
</option></term>
492 <listitem><para>Ignore if packages can't be authenticated and don't prompt about it.
493 This is useful for tools like pbuilder.
494 Configuration Item:
<literal>APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
503 <refsect1><title>Files
</title>
505 <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list
</filename></term>
506 <listitem><para>Locations to fetch packages from.
507 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Etc::SourceList
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
510 <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf
</filename></term>
511 <listitem><para>APT configuration file.
512 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Etc::Main
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
515 <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/
</filename></term>
516 <listitem><para>APT configuration file fragments.
517 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Etc::Parts
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
520 <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/preferences
</filename></term>
521 <listitem><para>Version preferences file.
522 This is where you would specify "pinning",
523 i.e. a preference to get certain packages
524 from a separate source
525 or from a different version of a distribution.
526 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Etc::Preferences
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
529 <varlistentry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/
</filename></term>
530 <listitem><para>Storage area for retrieved package files.
531 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Cache::Archives
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
534 <varlistentry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/
</filename></term>
535 <listitem><para>Storage area for package files in transit.
536 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::Cache::Archives
</literal> (implicit partial).
</para></listitem>
539 <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/
</filename></term>
540 <listitem><para>Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
542 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::State::Lists
</literal>.
</para></listitem>
545 <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/
</filename></term>
546 <listitem><para> Storage area for state information in transit.
547 Configuration Item:
<literal>Dir::State::Lists
</literal> (implicit partial).
</para></listitem>
552 <refsect1><title>See Also
</title>
553 <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;,
&dpkg;,
&dselect;, &sources-list;,
554 &apt-conf;, &apt-config;, &apt-secure;,
555 The APT User's guide in
&guidesdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.
</para>
558 <refsect1><title>Diagnostics
</title>
559 <para><command>apt-get
</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal
100 on error.
</para>
562 <title>ORIGINAL AUTHORS
</title>
563 <para>&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
</para>
566 <title>CURRENT AUTHORS
</title>