doc/apt-config.8.xml

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
   2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
   3   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
   4
   5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
   6 %aptent;
   7
   8 ]>
   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-config</refentrytitle>
  23    <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>apt-config</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>APT Configuration Query program</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  <!-- Arguments -->
  33  <refsynopsisdiv>
  34    <cmdsynopsis>
  35       <command>apt-config</command>
  36       <arg><option>-hv</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>shell</arg>
  41          <arg>dump</arg>
  42       </group>
  43    </cmdsynopsis>
  44  </refsynopsisdiv>
  45
  46  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  47    <para><command>apt-config</command> is an internal program used by various
  48    portions of the APT suite to provide consistent configurability. It accesses
  49    the main configuration file <filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> in a
  50    manner that is easy to use by scripted applications.</para>
  51
  52    <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is
  53    given one of the commands below must be present.
  54    </para>
  55
  56    <variablelist>
  57      <varlistentry><term>shell</term>
  58      <listitem><para>
  59      shell is used to access the configuration information from a shell
  60      script. It is given pairs of arguments, the first being a shell
  61      variable and the second the configuration value to query. As output
  62      it lists a series of shell assignments commands for each present value.
  63      In a shell script it should be used like:
  64      </para>
  65
  66 <informalexample><programlisting>
  67 OPTS="-f"
  68 RES=`apt-config shell OPTS MyApp::options`
  69 eval $RES
  70 </programlisting></informalexample>
  71
  72      <para>This will set the shell environment variable $OPTS to the value of
  73      MyApp::options with a default of <option>-f</option>.</para>
  74
  75
  76      <para>The configuration item may be postfixed with a /[fdbi]. f returns
  77      file names, d returns directories, b returns true or false and i returns
  78      an integer. Each of the returns is normalized and verified
  79      internally.</para>
  80      </listitem>
  81      </varlistentry>
  82
  83      <varlistentry><term>dump</term>
  84      <listitem><para>
  85      Just show the contents of the configuration space.</para>
  86      </listitem>
  87      </varlistentry>
  88
  89    </variablelist>
  90  </refsect1>
  91
  92  <refsect1><title>options</title>
  93    &apt-cmdblurb;
  94
  95    <variablelist>
  96
  97      &apt-commonoptions;
  98
  99    </variablelist>
 100  </refsect1>
 101
 102  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 103    <para>&apt-conf;
 104    </para>
 105  </refsect1>
 106
 107  <refsect1><title>Diagnostics</title>
 108    <para><command>apt-config</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 109    </para>
 110  </refsect1>
 111
 112  &manbugs;
 113
 114 </refentry>
 115