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