doc/apt-get.8

   1 .\" $Id: apt-get.8,v 1.2 1998/11/23 01:15:56 jgg Exp $
   2 .\" This manpage is copyright (C) 1998 Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>.
   3 .\"
   4 .\" This is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify
   5 .\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
   6 .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2,
   7 .\" or (at your option) any later version.
   8 .\"
   9 .\" This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  10 .\" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  11 .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  12 .\" GNU General Public License for more details.
  13 .\"
  14 .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
  15 .\" License along with APT; if not, write to the Free Software
  16 .\" Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
  17 .\" 02111-1307 USA
  18 .TH apt-get 8 "16 June 1998" "Debian GNU/Linux"
  19 .SH NAME
  20 apt-get \- APT package handling utility \(em command-line interface
  21 .SH SYNOPSIS
  22 .B apt-get
  23 .RI [ options ]
  24 .RI [ command ]
  25 .RI [ package
  26 .IR ... ]
  27 .SH DESCRIPTION
  28 .B apt-get
  29 is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be considered the
  30 user's "back-end" to
  31 .BR apt (8).
  32 Use
  33 .BR apt (8)
  34 if the usage of apt-get does not seem intuitive.
  35 .PP
  36 .I command
  37 is one of
  38 .RS
  39 .PD 0
  40 .B update
  41 .PP
  42 .B upgrade
  43 .PP
  44 .B dselect-upgrade
  45 .PP
  46 .B dist-upgrade
  47 .PP
  48 .B install
  49 .PP
  50 .B check
  51 .PP
  52 .B clean
  53 .RE
  54 .PD 1
  55 .PP
  56 Unless one of the
  57 .IR -h ,
  58 .IR --help ,
  59 .IR -f ,
  60 or
  61 .I --fix-broken
  62 options is given, one of the above commands must be present. Only the
  63 .B install
  64 command requires any further arguments.
  65 .SS update
  66 .B update
  67 is used to resynchronize the package overview files from their
  68 sources. The overviews of available packages are fetched from the
  69 location(s) specified in
  70 .IR /etc/apt/sources.list .
  71 For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and
  72 scans the
  73 .I Packages.gz
  74 files, so that information about new and updated packages is available. An
  75 .B update
  76 should always be performed before an
  77 .B upgrade
  78 or
  79 .BR dist-upgrade .
  80 .SS upgrade
  81 .B upgrade
  82 is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed
  83 on the system from the sources enumerated in
  84 .IR /etc/apt/sources.list .
  85 Packages currently installed with new versions available are retrieved
  86 and upgraded; under no circumstances are currently installed packages
  87 removed, or packages not already installed retrieved and installed. New
  88 versions of currently installed packages that cannot be upgraded without
  89 changing the install status of another package will be left at their
  90 current version. An
  91 .B update
  92 must be performed first so that
  93 .B apt-get
  94 knows that new versions of packages are available.
  95 .SS dselect-upgrade
  96 .B dselect-upgrade
  97 is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian GNU/Linux packaging
  98 front-end,
  99 .BR dselect (8). " dselect-upgrade"
 100 follows the changes made by
 101 .B dselect
 102 to the
 103 .I Status
 104 field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
 105 that state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new
 106 packages).
 107 .B dselect-upgrade
 108 does not attempt to intelligently address dependency issues as
 109 .B dist-upgrade
 110 or
 111 .B install
 112 do. If any dependency problems arise,
 113 .B apt-get
 114 aborts without performing any of the actions requested, even those
 115 without problems.
 116 .B dselect-upgrade
 117 is only useful to users of
 118 .B dselect
 119 and the
 120 .I .deb
 121 package file format. The
 122 .I /etc/apt/sources.list
 123 file contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package
 124 files.
 125 .SS dist-upgrade
 126 .BR dist-upgrade ,
 127 in addition to performing the function of
 128 .BR upgrade ,
 129 also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of
 130 packages;
 131 .B apt-get
 132 has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade
 133 the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if
 134 necessary. The
 135 .I /etc/apt/sources.list
 136 file contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package
 137 files.
 138 .SS install
 139 .B install
 140 is followed by one or more
 141 .I packages
 142 desired for installation. Each
 143 .I package
 144 is a package name, not a fully qualified filename (for instance, in a
 145 Debian GNU/Linux system,
 146 .I lsdo
 147 would be the argument provided, not
 148 .IR ldso_1.9.6-2.deb ).
 149 All packages required by the package(s) specified for installation will
 150 also be retrieved and installed. The
 151 .I /etc/apt/sources.list
 152 file is used to locate the desired packages. If a hyphen is appended to
 153 the package name (with no intervening space), the identified package will
 154 be removed if it is installed. This latter feature may be used to override
 155 decisions made by apt-get's conflict resolution system.
 156 .SS check
 157 .B check
 158 is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks for broken
 159 packages.
 160 .SS clean
 161 .B clean
 162 clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. It removes
 163 everything but the lock file from
 164 .I /var/cache/apt/archives/
 165 and
 166 .IR /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/ .
 167 When APT is used as a
 168 .BR dselect (8)
 169 method,
 170 .B
 171 clean
 172 is run automatically.  Those who do not use dselect will likely want to
 173 run
 174 .B
 175 apt-get clean
 176 from time to time to free up disk space.
 177 .SH OPTIONS
 178 .TP
 179 .IR \-d , " --download-only"
 180 Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.
 181 .TP
 182 .IR \-f , " --fix-broken"
 183 Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
 184 place. This option may be used alone or in conjunction with any of the
 185 command actions, and is sometimes necessary when running APT for the
 186 first time; APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to
 187 exist on a system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure
 188 can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually
 189 means using dselect or dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending
 190 packages). Use of this option together with -m is discouraged.
 191 .TP
 192 .IR \-h , " --help"
 193 Help; display a helpful usage message and exit.
 194 .TP
 195 .IR \-m , " --ignore-missing"
 196 Ignore missing packages; If packages cannot be retrieved or fail the
 197 integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold back
 198 those packages and handle the result. Use of this option together with
 199 -f is discouraged.
 200 .TP
 201 .IR \-q , " --silent"
 202 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 203 .TP
 204 .I \-qq
 205 Very quiet; no output except for errors.
 206 .TP
 207 .IR \-s , " --simulate" , " --just-print" , " --dry-run" , " --recon " , " --no-act"
 208 No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not
 209 actually change the system.
 210 .TP
 211 .IR \-y , " --yes" , " --assume-yes"
 212 Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run
 213 non-interactively.
 214 .SH FILES
 215 .TP
 216 .I /etc/apt/sources.list
 217 see
 218 .BR sources.list (5)
 219 .TP
 220 .I /var/cache/apt/archives/
 221 storage area for retrieved package files
 222 .TP
 223 .I /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
 224 storage area for package files in transit
 225 .TP
 226 .I /var/state/apt/lists/
 227 storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 228 .I /etc/apt/sources.list
 229 .TP
 230 .I /var/state/apt/lists/partial/
 231 storage area for state information in transit
 232 .SH SEE ALSO
 233 .BR apt-cache (8),
 234 .BR dpkg (8),
 235 .BR dselect (8),
 236 .BR sources.list (5)
 237 .SH DIAGNOSTICS
 238 apt-get returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 239 .SH BUGS
 240 See <http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/pa/lapt.html>.  If you wish to report a
 241 bug in
 242 .BR apt-get ,
 243 please see
 244 .I /usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt
 245 or the
 246 .BR bug (1)
 247 command.
 248 .SH AUTHOR
 249 apt-get was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.