1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8" standalone=
"no"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC
"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM
"apt.ent"> %aptent;
5 <!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM
"apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
6 <!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM
"apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
12 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
16 <!-- The last update date -->
17 <date>2012-
06-
09T00:
00:
00Z
</date>
21 <refentrytitle>apt-config
</refentrytitle>
22 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
23 <refmiscinfo class=
"manual">APT
</refmiscinfo>
26 <!-- Man page title -->
28 <refname>apt-config
</refname>
29 <refpurpose>APT Configuration Query program
</refpurpose>
32 &synopsis-command-apt-config;
34 <refsect1><title>Description
</title>
35 <para><command>apt-config
</command> is an internal program used by various
36 portions of the APT suite to provide consistent configurability. It accesses
37 the main configuration file
<filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf
</filename> in a
38 manner that is easy to use for scripted applications.
</para>
40 <para>Unless the
<option>-h
</option>, or
<option>--help
</option> option is
41 given, one of the commands below must be present.
45 <varlistentry><term><option>shell
</option></term>
47 shell is used to access the configuration information from a shell
48 script. It is given pairs of arguments, the first being a shell
49 variable and the second the configuration value to query. As output
50 it lists shell assignment commands for each value present.
51 In a shell script it should be used as follows:
54 <informalexample><programlisting>
56 RES=`apt-config shell OPTS MyApp::options`
58 </programlisting></informalexample>
60 <para>This will set the shell environment variable $OPTS to the value of
61 MyApp::options with a default of
<option>-f
</option>.
</para>
64 <para>The configuration item may be postfixed with a /[fdbi]. f returns
65 file names, d returns directories, b returns true or false and i returns
66 an integer. Each of the returns is normalized and verified
71 <varlistentry><term><option>dump
</option></term>
73 Just show the contents of the configuration space.
</para>
80 <refsect1><title>options
</title>
85 <term><option>--empty
</option></term>
86 <listitem><para>Include options which have an empty value. This is the default, so
87 use --no-empty to remove them from the output.
</para></listitem>
91 <term><option>--format '
<replaceable>%f
"%v
";
%n
</replaceable>'
</option></term>
92 <listitem><para>Defines the output of each config option.
%t will be replaced with its individual name,
93 %f with its full hierarchical name and
%v with its value.
94 Use uppercase letters and special characters in the value will be encoded to ensure that
95 it can e.g. be safely used in a quoted-string as defined by RFC822. Additionally
96 %n will be replaced by a newline, and
%N by a tab. A
% can be
97 printed by using
%%.
</para></listitem>
105 <refsect1><title>See Also
</title>
110 <refsect1><title>Diagnostics
</title>
111 <para><command>apt-config
</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal
100 on error.