doc/apt-cache.8.xml

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   5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
   6 %aptent;
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   9
  10 <refentry>
  11
  12  <refentryinfo>
  13    &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
  14    &apt-author.team;
  15    &apt-email;
  16    &apt-product;
  17    <!-- The last update date -->
  18    <date>29 February 2004</date>
  19  </refentryinfo>
  20
  21  <refmeta>
  22    <refentrytitle>apt-cache</refentrytitle>
  23    <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>apt-cache</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  <!-- Arguments -->
  33  <refsynopsisdiv>
  34    <cmdsynopsis>
  35       <command>apt-cache</command>
  36       <arg><option>-hvsn</option></arg>
  37       <arg><option>-o=<replaceable>config string</replaceable></option></arg>
  38       <arg><option>-c=<replaceable>file</replaceable></option></arg>
  39       <group choice="req">
  40          <arg>add <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>file</replaceable></arg></arg>
  41          <arg>gencaches</arg>
  42          <arg>showpkg <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  43          <arg>showsrc <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  44          <arg>stats</arg>
  45          <arg>dump</arg>
  46          <arg>dumpavail</arg>
  47          <arg>unmet</arg>
  48          <arg>search <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>regex</replaceable></arg></arg>
  49          <arg>show <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  50          <arg>depends <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  51          <arg>rdepends <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  52          <arg>pkgnames <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>prefix</replaceable></arg></arg>
  53          <arg>dotty <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  54          <arg>policy <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkgs</replaceable></arg></arg>
  55          <arg>madison <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkgs</replaceable></arg></arg>
  56       </group>
  57    </cmdsynopsis>
  58  </refsynopsisdiv>
  59
  60  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  61    <para><command>apt-cache</command> performs a variety of operations on APT's package
  62    cache. <command>apt-cache</command> does not manipulate the state of the system
  63    but does provide operations to search and generate interesting output
  64    from the package metadata.</para>
  65
  66    <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given, one of the
  67    commands below must be present.</para>
  68
  69    <variablelist>
  70      <varlistentry><term>add <replaceable>file(s)</replaceable></term>
  71      <listitem><para><literal>add</literal> adds the named package index files to the package cache.
  72      This is for debugging only.</para></listitem>
  73      </varlistentry>
  74
  75      <varlistentry><term>gencaches</term>
  76      <listitem><para><literal>gencaches</literal> performs the same operation as
  77      <command>apt-get check</command>. It builds the source and package caches from
  78      the sources in &sources-list; and from
  79      <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</filename>.</para></listitem>
  80      </varlistentry>
  81
  82      <varlistentry><term>showpkg <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
  83      <listitem><para><literal>showpkg</literal> displays information about the packages listed on the
  84      command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available
  85      versions and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as
  86      well as forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal)
  87      dependencies are those packages upon which the package in question
  88      depends; reverse dependencies are those packages that depend upon the
  89      package in question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a
  90      package, but reverse dependencies need not be.
  91      For instance, <command>apt-cache showpkg libreadline2</command> would produce
  92      output similar to the following:</para>
  93
  94 <informalexample><programlisting>
  95 Package: libreadline2
  96 Versions: 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
  97 Reverse Depends:
  98   libreadlineg2,libreadline2
  99   libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
 100 Dependencies:
 101 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
 102 Provides:
 103 2.1-12 -
 104 Reverse Provides:
 105 </programlisting></informalexample>
 106
 107      <para>Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends on
 108      libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2 to work.
 109      In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
 110      libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and ncurses3.0 (and ldso) must also be
 111      installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
 112      installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
 113      is best to consult the apt source code.</para></listitem>
 114      </varlistentry>
 115
 116      <varlistentry><term>stats</term><listitem><para><literal>stats</literal> displays some statistics about the cache.
 117      No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
 118      <itemizedlist>
 119        <listitem><para><literal>Total package names</literal> is the number of package names found
 120        in the cache.</para>
 121        </listitem>
 122
 123        <listitem><para><literal>Normal packages</literal> is the number of regular, ordinary package
 124        names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between
 125        their names and the names used by other packages for them in
 126        dependencies. The majority of packages fall into this category.</para>
 127        </listitem>
 128
 129        <listitem><para><literal>Pure virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages that exist
 130        only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the
 131        virtual package name, and no package actually uses the name. For
 132        instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a
 133        pure virtual package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent",
 134        but there is no package named "mail-transport-agent".</para>
 135        </listitem>
 136
 137        <listitem><para><literal>Single virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages with only
 138        one package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in the
 139        Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but
 140        only one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".</para>
 141        </listitem>
 142
 143        <listitem><para><literal>Mixed virtual packages</literal> is the number of packages that either
 144        provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name
 145        as the package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system,
 146        "debconf" is both an actual package, and provided by the debconf-tiny
 147        package.</para>
 148        </listitem>
 149
 150        <listitem><para><literal>Missing</literal> is the number of package names that were referenced in
 151        a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may
 152        be in evidence if a full distribution is not accessed, or if a package
 153        (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution. Usually they
 154        are referenced from Conflicts or Breaks statements.</para>
 155        </listitem>
 156
 157        <listitem><para><literal>Total distinct</literal> versions is the number of package versions
 158        found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the
 159        number of total package names. If more than one distribution (both
 160        "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being accessed, this value
 161        can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.</para>
 162        </listitem>
 163
 164        <listitem><para><literal>Total dependencies</literal> is the number of dependency relationships
 165        claimed by all of the packages in the cache.</para>
 166        </listitem>
 167      </itemizedlist>
 168      </para></listitem>
 169      </varlistentry>
 170
 171      <varlistentry><term>showsrc <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
 172      <listitem><para><literal>showsrc</literal> displays all the source package records that match
 173      the given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all
 174      records that declare the name to be a Binary.</para></listitem>
 175      </varlistentry>
 176
 177      <varlistentry><term>dump</term>
 178      <listitem><para><literal>dump</literal> shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
 179      primarily for debugging.</para></listitem>
 180      </varlistentry>
 181
 182      <varlistentry><term>dumpavail</term>
 183      <listitem><para><literal>dumpavail</literal> prints out an available list to stdout. This is
 184      suitable for use with &dpkg; and is used by the &dselect; method.</para></listitem>
 185      </varlistentry>
 186
 187      <varlistentry><term>unmet</term>
 188      <listitem><para><literal>unmet</literal> displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the
 189      package cache.</para></listitem>
 190      </varlistentry>
 191
 192      <varlistentry><term>show <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
 193      <listitem><para><literal>show</literal> performs a function similar to
 194      <command>dpkg --print-avail</command>; it displays the package records for the
 195      named packages.</para></listitem>
 196      </varlistentry>
 197
 198      <varlistentry><term>search <replaceable>regex [ regex ... ]</replaceable></term>
 199      <listitem><para><literal>search</literal> performs a full text search on all available package
 200      lists for the regex pattern given. It searches the package names and the
 201      descriptions for an occurrence of the regular expression and prints out
 202      the package name and the short description. If <option>--full</option> is given
 203      then output identical to <literal>show</literal> is produced for each matched
 204      package, and if <option>--names-only</option> is given then the long description
 205      is not searched, only the package name is.</para>
 206      <para>
 207      Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search patterns that
 208      are and'ed together.</para></listitem>
 209      </varlistentry>
 210
 211      <varlistentry><term>depends <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
 212      <listitem><para><literal>depends</literal> shows a listing of each dependency a package has
 213      and all the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.</para></listitem>
 214      </varlistentry>
 215
 216      <varlistentry><term>rdepends <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
 217      <listitem><para><literal>rdepends</literal> shows a listing of each reverse dependency a
 218       package has.</para></listitem>
 219      </varlistentry>
 220
 221      <varlistentry><term>pkgnames <replaceable>[ prefix ]</replaceable></term>
 222      <listitem><para>This command prints the name of each package in the system. The optional
 223      argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output is suitable
 224      for use in a shell tab complete function and the output is generated
 225      extremely quickly. This command is best used with the
 226      <option>--generate</option> option.</para></listitem>
 227      </varlistentry>
 228
 229      <varlistentry><term>dotty <replaceable>pkg(s)</replaceable></term>
 230      <listitem><para><literal>dotty</literal> takes a list of packages on the command line and
 231      generates output suitable for use by dotty from the
 232      <ulink url="http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/">GraphViz</ulink>
 233      package. The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the
 234      relationships between the packages. By default the given packages will
 235      trace out all dependent packages; this can produce a very large graph.
 236      To limit the output to only the packages listed on the command line,
 237      set the <literal>APT::Cache::GivenOnly</literal> option.</para>
 238
 239      <para>The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are boxes,
 240      pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
 241      missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped
 242      [leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are conflicts.</para>
 243
 244      <para>Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.</para></listitem>
 245      </varlistentry>
 246
 247      <varlistentry><term>policy <replaceable>[ pkg(s) ]</replaceable></term>
 248      <listitem><para><literal>policy</literal> is meant to help debug issues relating to the
 249      preferences file. With no arguments it will print out the
 250      priorities of each source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information
 251      about the priority selection of the named package.</para></listitem>
 252      </varlistentry>
 253
 254      <varlistentry><term>madison <replaceable>/[ pkg(s) ]</replaceable></term>
 255      <listitem><para><literal>apt-cache</literal>'s <literal>madison</literal> command attempts to mimic
 256      the output format and a subset of the functionality of the Debian
 257      archive management tool, <literal>madison</literal>.  It displays
 258      available versions of a package in a tabular format.  Unlike the
 259      original <literal>madison</literal>, it can only display information for
 260      the architecture for which APT has retrieved package lists
 261      (<literal>APT::Architecture</literal>).</para></listitem>
 262      </varlistentry>
 263    </variablelist>
 264  </refsect1>
 265
 266  <refsect1><title>options</title>
 267    &apt-cmdblurb;
 268
 269    <variablelist>
 270      <varlistentry><term><option>-p</option></term><term><option>--pkg-cache</option></term>
 271      <listitem><para>Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the
 272      primary cache used by all operations.
 273      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Cache::pkgcache</literal>.</para></listitem>
 274      </varlistentry>
 275
 276      <varlistentry><term><option>-s</option></term><term><option>--src-cache</option></term>
 277      <listitem><para>Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
 278      <literal>gencaches</literal> and it stores a parsed version of the package
 279      information from remote sources. When building the package cache the
 280      source cache is used to avoid reparsing all of the package files.
 281      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache</literal>.</para></listitem>
 282      </varlistentry>
 283
 284      <varlistentry><term><option>-q</option></term><term><option>--quiet</option></term>
 285      <listitem><para>Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 286      More q's will produce more quietness up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 287      <option>-q=#</option> to set the quietness level, overriding the configuration file.
 288      Configuration Item: <literal>quiet</literal>.</para></listitem>
 289      </varlistentry>
 290
 291      <varlistentry><term><option>-i</option></term><term><option>--important</option></term>
 292      <listitem><para>Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet. Causes only Depends and
 293      Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
 294      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::Important</literal>.</para></listitem>
 295      </varlistentry>
 296
 297      <varlistentry><term><option>-f</option></term><term><option>--full</option></term>
 298      <listitem><para>Print full package records when searching.
 299      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::ShowFull</literal>.</para></listitem>
 300      </varlistentry>
 301
 302      <varlistentry><term><option>-a</option></term><term><option>--all-versions</option></term>
 303      <listitem><para>Print full records for all available versions. This is the
 304      default; to turn it off, use <option>--no-all-versions</option>.
 305      If <option>--no-all-versions</option> is specified, only the candidate version
 306      will displayed (the one which would be selected for installation).
 307      This option is only applicable to  the <literal>show</literal> command.
 308      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::AllVersions</literal>.</para></listitem>
 309      </varlistentry>
 310
 311      <varlistentry><term><option>-g</option></term><term><option>--generate</option></term>
 312      <listitem><para>Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use the cache
 313      as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use <option>--no-generate</option>.
 314      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::Generate</literal>.</para></listitem>
 315      </varlistentry>
 316
 317      <varlistentry><term><option>--names-only</option></term><term><option>-n</option></term>
 318      <listitem><para>Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions.
 319      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::NamesOnly</literal>.</para></listitem>
 320      </varlistentry>
 321
 322      <varlistentry><term><option>--all-names</option></term>
 323      <listitem><para>Make <literal>pkgnames</literal> print all names, including virtual packages
 324      and missing dependencies.
 325      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::AllNames</literal>.</para></listitem>
 326      </varlistentry>
 327
 328      <varlistentry><term><option>--recurse</option></term>
 329      <listitem><para>Make <literal>depends</literal> and <literal>rdepends</literal> recursive so
 330      that all packages mentioned are printed once.
 331      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::RecurseDepends</literal>.</para></listitem>
 332      </varlistentry>
 333
 334       <varlistentry><term><option>--installed</option></term>
 335       <listitem><para>
 336       Limit the output of <literal>depends</literal> and <literal>rdepends</literal> to
 337       packages which are currently installed.
 338       Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::Installed</literal>.</para></listitem>
 339       </varlistentry>
 340
 341      &apt-commonoptions;
 342
 343    </variablelist>
 344  </refsect1>
 345
 346  <refsect1><title>Files</title>
 347    <variablelist>
 348      <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename></term>
 349      <listitem><para>Locations to fetch packages from.
 350      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Etc::SourceList</literal>.</para></listitem>
 351      </varlistentry>
 352
 353      <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/</filename></term>
 354      <listitem><para>Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 355      &sources-list;
 356      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::State::Lists</literal>.</para></listitem>
 357      </varlistentry>
 358
 359      <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/</filename></term>
 360      <listitem><para>Storage area for state information in transit.
 361      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::State::Lists</literal> (implicit partial).</para></listitem>
 362      </varlistentry>
 363    </variablelist>
 364  </refsect1>
 365
 366  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 367    <para>&apt-conf;, &sources-list;, &apt-get;
 368    </para>
 369  </refsect1>
 370
 371  <refsect1><title>Diagnostics</title>
 372    <para><command>apt-cache</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 373    </para>
 374  </refsect1>
 375
 376  &manbugs;
 377
 378 </refentry>