doc/apt-get.8.sgml

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   4 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
   5 %aptent;
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   8
   9 <refentry>
  10  &apt-docinfo;
  11
  12  <refmeta>
  13    <refentrytitle>apt-get</>
  14    <manvolnum>8</>
  15  </refmeta>
  16
  17  <!-- Man page title -->
  18  <refnamediv>
  19     <refname>apt-get</>
  20     <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- command-line interface</>
  21  </refnamediv>
  22
  23  <!-- Arguments -->
  24  <refsynopsisdiv>
  25    <cmdsynopsis>
  26       <command>apt-get</>
  27       <arg><option>-hvs</></arg>
  28       <arg><option>-o=<replaceable/config string/</></arg>
  29       <arg><option>-c=<replaceable/file/</></arg>
  30       <group choice=req>
  31          <arg>update</>
  32          <arg>upgrade</>
  33          <arg>dselect-upgrade</>
  34          <arg>install <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  35          <arg>remove <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  36          <arg>source <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  37          <arg>build-dep <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  38          <arg>check</>
  39          <arg>clean</>
  40          <arg>autoclean</>
  41       </group>
  42    </cmdsynopsis>
  43  </refsynopsisdiv>
  44
  45  <RefSect1><Title>Description</>
  46    <para>
  47    <command/apt-get/ is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be
  48    considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT library.
  49    <para>
  50    Unless the <option/-h/, or <option/--help/ option is given, one of the
  51    commands below must be present.
  52
  53    <VariableList>
  54      <VarListEntry><Term>update</Term>
  55      <ListItem><Para>
  56      <literal/update/ is used to resynchronize the package index files from
  57      their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the
  58      location(s) specified in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</>.
  59      For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and
  60      scans the <filename>Packages.gz</> files, so that information about new
  61      and updated packages is available. An <literal/update/ should always be
  62      performed before an <literal/upgrade/ or <literal/dist-upgrade/. Please
  63      be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size
  64      of the package files cannot be known in advance.
  65      </VarListEntry>
  66
  67      <VarListEntry><Term>upgrade</Term>
  68      <ListItem><Para>
  69      <literal/upgrade/ is used to install the newest versions of all packages
  70      currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
  71      <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</>. Packages currently installed with
  72      new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances
  73      are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed
  74      retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that
  75      cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package
  76      will be left at their current version. An <literal/update/ must be
  77      performed first so that <command/apt-get/ knows that new versions of packages are
  78      available.
  79      </VarListEntry>
  80
  81      <VarListEntry><Term>dselect-upgrade</Term>
  82      <ListItem><Para>
  83      <literal/dselect-upgrade/
  84      is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
  85      front-end, &dselect;. <literal/dselect-upgrade/
  86      follows the changes made by &dselect; to the <literal/Status/
  87      field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
  88      that state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new
  89      packages).
  90      </VarListEntry>
  91
  92      <VarListEntry><Term>dist-upgrade</Term>
  93      <ListItem><Para>
  94      <literal/dist-upgrade/, in addition to performing the function of
  95      <literal/upgrade/, also intelligently handles changing dependencies
  96      with new versions of packages; <command/apt-get/ has a "smart" conflict
  97      resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important
  98      packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
  99      The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</> file contains a list of locations
 100      from which to retrieve desired package files.
 101      See also &apt-preferences; for a mechanism for
 102      overriding the general settings for individual packages.
 103      </VarListEntry>
 104
 105      <VarListEntry><Term>install</Term>
 106      <ListItem><Para>
 107      <literal/install/ is followed by one or more packages desired for
 108      installation. Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified
 109      filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux system, libc6 would be the
 110      argument provided, not <literal/libc6_1.9.6-2.deb/). All packages required
 111      by the package(s) specified for installation will also be retrieved and
 112      installed. The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</> file is used to locate
 113      the desired packages. If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with
 114      no intervening space), the identified package will be removed if it is
 115      installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a package to
 116      install. These latter features may be used to override decisions made by
 117      apt-get's conflict resolution system.
 118      <para>
 119      A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
 120      following the package name with an equals and the version of the package
 121      to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for
 122      install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by
 123      following the package name with a slash and the version of the
 124      distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable).
 125      <para>
 126      Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must
 127      be used with care.
 128      <para>
 129      Finally, the &apt-preferences; mechanism allows you to
 130      create an alternative installation policy for
 131      individual packages.
 132      <para>
 133      If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one
 134      of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression,
 135      and it is applied
 136      to all package names in the database. Any matches are then installed (or
 137      removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo'
 138      and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression
 139      with a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular expression.
 140      </VarListEntry>
 141
 142      <VarListEntry><Term>remove</Term>
 143      <ListItem><Para>
 144      <literal/remove/ is identical to <literal/install/ except that packages are
 145      removed instead of installed. If a plus sign is appended to the package
 146      name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
 147      installed instead of removed.
 148      </VarListEntry>
 149
 150      <VarListEntry><Term>source</Term>
 151      <ListItem><Para>
 152      <literal/source/ causes <command/apt-get/ to fetch source packages. APT
 153      will examine the available packages to decide which source package to
 154      fetch. It will then find and download into the current directory the
 155      newest available version of that source package. Source packages are
 156      tracked separately from binary packages via <literal/deb-src/ type lines
 157      in the &sources-list; file. This probably will mean that you will not
 158      get the same source as the package you have installed or as you could
 159      install. If the --compile options is specified then the package will be
 160      compiled to a binary .deb using dpkg-buildpackage, if --download-only is
 161      specified then the source package will not be unpacked.
 162      <para>
 163      A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing the source name
 164      with an equals and then the version to fetch, similar to the mechanism
 165      used for the package files. This enables exact matching of the source
 166      package name and version, implicitly enabling the
 167      <literal/APT::Get::Only-Source/ option.
 168
 169      <para>
 170      Note that source packages are not tracked like binary packages, they
 171      exist only in the current directory and are similar to downloading source
 172      tar balls.
 173      </VarListEntry>
 174
 175      <VarListEntry><Term>build-dep</Term>
 176      <ListItem><Para>
 177      <literal/build-dep/ causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an
 178      attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source package.
 179      </VarListEntry>
 180
 181      <VarListEntry><Term>check</Term>
 182      <ListItem><Para>
 183      <literal/check/ is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks
 184      for broken dependencies.
 185      </VarListEntry>
 186
 187      <VarListEntry><Term>clean</Term>
 188      <ListItem><Para>
 189      <literal/clean/ clears out the local repository of retrieved package
 190      files. It removes everything but the lock file from
 191      <filename>&cachedir;/archives/</> and
 192      <filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</>. When APT is used as a
 193      &dselect; method, <literal/clean/ is run automatically.
 194      Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run <literal/apt-get clean/
 195      from time to time to free up disk space.
 196      </VarListEntry>
 197
 198      <VarListEntry><Term>autoclean</Term>
 199      <ListItem><Para>
 200      Like <literal/clean/, <literal/autoclean/ clears out the local
 201      repository of retrieved package files. The difference is that it only
 202      removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely
 203      useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without
 204      it growing out of control. The configuration option
 205      <literal/APT::Clean-Installed/ will prevent installed packages from being
 206      erased if it is set to off.
 207      </VarListEntry>
 208    </VariableList>
 209  </RefSect1>
 210
 211  <RefSect1><Title>Options</>
 212    &apt-cmdblurb;
 213
 214    <VariableList>
 215      <VarListEntry><term><option/-d/</><term><option/--download-only/</>
 216      <ListItem><Para>
 217      Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.
 218      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Download-Only/.
 219      </VarListEntry>
 220
 221      <VarListEntry><term><option/-f/</><term><option/--fix-broken/</>
 222      <ListItem><Para>
 223      Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
 224      place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
 225      to permit APT to deduce a likely soltion. Any Package that are specified
 226      must completly correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
 227      running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package
 228      dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
 229      dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention
 230      (which usually means using &dselect; or <command/dpkg --remove/ to eliminate some of
 231      the offending packages). Use of this option together with <option/-m/ may produce an
 232      error in some situations.
 233      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Fix-Broken/.
 234      </VarListEntry>
 235
 236      <VarListEntry><term><option/-m/</><term><option/--ignore-missing/</>
 237                    <term><option/--fix-missing/</>
 238      <ListItem><Para>
 239      Ignore missing packages; If packages cannot be retrieved or fail the
 240      integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold back
 241      those packages and handle the result. Use of this option together with
 242      <option/-f/ may produce an error in some situations. If a package is
 243      selected for installation (particularly if it is mentioned on the
 244      command line) and it could not be downloaded then it will be silently
 245      held back.
 246      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Fix-Missing/.
 247      </VarListEntry>
 248
 249      <VarListEntry><term><option/--no-download/</>
 250      <ListItem><Para>
 251      Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with
 252      <option/--ignore-missing/ to force APT to use only the .debs it has
 253      already downloaded.
 254      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Download/.
 255      </VarListEntry>
 256
 257      <VarListEntry><term><option/-q/</><term><option/--quiet/</>
 258      <ListItem><Para>
 259      Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 260      More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 261      <option/-q=#/ to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 262      Note that quiet level 2 implies <option/-y/, you should never use -qq
 263      without a no-action modifier such as -d, --print-uris or -s as APT may
 264      decided to do something you did not expect.
 265      Configuration Item: <literal/quiet/.
 266      </VarListEntry>
 267
 268      <VarListEntry><term><option/-s/</>
 269                    <term><option/--simulate/</>
 270                    <term><option/--just-print/</>
 271                    <term><option/--dry-run/</>
 272                    <term><option/--recon/</>
 273                    <term><option/--no-act/</>
 274      <ListItem><Para>
 275      No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not
 276      actually change the system.
 277      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Simulate/.
 278      <para>
 279      Simulate prints out
 280      a series of lines each one representing a dpkg operation, Configure (Conf),
 281      Remove (Remv), Unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken packages with
 282      and empty set of square brackets meaning breaks that are of no consequence
 283      (rare).
 284      </VarListEntry>
 285
 286      <VarListEntry><term><option/-y/</><term><option/--yes/</>
 287                    <term><option/--assume-yes/</>
 288      <ListItem><Para>
 289      Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run
 290      non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held
 291      package or removing an essential package occurs then <literal/apt-get/
 292      will abort.
 293      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Assume-Yes/.
 294      </VarListEntry>
 295
 296      <VarListEntry><term><option/-u/</><term><option/--show-upgraded/</>
 297      <ListItem><Para>
 298      Show upgraded packages; Print out a list of all packages that are to be
 299      upgraded.
 300      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Show-Upgraded/.
 301      </VarListEntry>
 302
 303      <VarListEntry><term><option/-V/</><term><option/--verbose-versions/</>
 304      <ListItem><Para>
 305      Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
 306      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Show-Versions/.
 307      </VarListEntry>
 308
 309      <VarListEntry><term><option/-b/</><term><option/--compile/</>
 310                    <term><option/--build/</>
 311      <ListItem><Para>
 312      Compile source packages after downloading them.
 313      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Compile/.
 314      </VarListEntry>
 315
 316      <VarListEntry><term><option/--ignore-hold/</>
 317      <ListItem><Para>
 318      Ignore package Holds; This causes <command/apt-get/ to ignore a hold
 319      placed on a package. This may be useful in conjunction with
 320      <literal/dist-upgrade/ to override a large number of undesired holds.
 321      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Ignore-Hold/.
 322      </VarListEntry>
 323
 324      <VarListEntry><term><option/--no-upgrade/</>
 325      <ListItem><Para>
 326      Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with <literal/install/
 327      <literal/no-upgrade/ will prevent packages listed from being upgraded
 328      if they are already installed.
 329      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Upgrade/.
 330      </VarListEntry>
 331
 332      <VarListEntry><term><option/--force-yes/</>
 333      <ListItem><Para>
 334      Force yes; This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue
 335      without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It
 336      should not be used except in very special situations. Using
 337      <literal/force-yes/ can potentially destroy your system!
 338      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::force-yes/.
 339      </VarListEntry>
 340
 341      <VarListEntry><term><option/--print-uris/</>
 342      <ListItem><Para>
 343      Instead of fetching the files to install their URIs are printed. Each
 344      URI will have the path, the destination file name, the size and the expected
 345      md5 hash. Note that the file name to write to will not always match
 346      the file name on the remote site! This also works with the
 347      <literal/source/ and <literal/update/ commands. When used with the
 348      <literal/update/ command the MD5 and size are not included, and it is
 349      up to the user to decompress any compressed files.
 350      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Print-URIs/.
 351      </VarListEntry>
 352
 353      <VarListEntry><term><option/--purge/</>
 354      <ListItem><Para>
 355      Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed.
 356      An asterisk ("*") will be displayed next to packages which are
 357      scheduled to be purged.
 358      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Purge/.
 359      </VarListEntry>
 360
 361      <VarListEntry><term><option/--reinstall/</>
 362      <ListItem><Para>
 363      Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.
 364      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::ReInstall/.
 365      </VarListEntry>
 366
 367      <VarListEntry><term><option/--list-cleanup/</>
 368      <ListItem><Para>
 369      This option defaults to on, use <literal/--no-list-cleanup/ to turn it
 370      off. When on <command/apt-get/ will automatically manage the contents of
 371      <filename>&statedir;/lists</> to ensure that obsolete files are erased.
 372      The only  reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your source
 373      list.
 374      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::List-Cleanup/.
 375      </VarListEntry>
 376
 377      <VarListEntry><term><option/-t/</>
 378                    <term><option/--target-release/</>
 379                    <term><option/--default-release/</>
 380      <ListItem><Para>
 381      This option controls the default input to the policy engine, it creates
 382      a default pin at priority 990 using the specified release string. The
 383      preferences file may further override this setting. In short, this option
 384      lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be
 385      retrieved from. Some common examples might be
 386      <option>-t '2.1*'</> or <option>-t unstable</>.
 387      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Default-Release/;
 388      see also the &apt-preferences; manual page.
 389      </VarListEntry>
 390
 391      <VarListEntry><term><option/--trivial-only/</>
 392      <ListItem><Para>
 393      Only perform operations that are 'trivial'. Logically this can be considered
 394      related to <option/--assume-yes/, where <option/--assume-yes/ will answer
 395      yes to any prompt, <option/--trivial-only/ will answer no.
 396      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Trivial-Only/.
 397      </VarListEntry>
 398
 399      <VarListEntry><term><option/--no-remove/</>
 400      <ListItem><Para>
 401      If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without
 402      prompting.
 403      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Remove/
 404      </VarListEntry>
 405
 406      <VarListEntry><term><option/--only-source/</>
 407      <ListItem><Para>
 408      Only has meaning for the <literal/source/ command.  Indicates that the
 409      given source names are not to be mapped through the binary
 410      table.  This means that if this option is specified, the
 411      <literal/source/ command will only accept source package names as
 412      arguments, rather than accepting binary package names and looking
 413      up the corresponding source package.
 414      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Only-Source/
 415      </VarListEntry>
 416
 417      <VarListEntry><term><option/--diff-only/</><term><option/--tar-only/</>
 418      <ListItem><Para>
 419      Download only the diff or tar file of a source archive.
 420      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Diff-Only/ and
 421      <literal/APT::Get::Tar-Only/
 422      </VarListEntry>
 423
 424      <VarListEntry><term><option/--arch-only/</>
 425      <ListItem><Para>
 426      Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies.
 427      Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Arch-Only/
 428      </VarListEntry>
 429
 430      &apt-commonoptions;
 431
 432    </VariableList>
 433  </RefSect1>
 434
 435  <RefSect1><Title>Files</>
 436    <variablelist>
 437      <VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</></term>
 438      <ListItem><Para>
 439      Locations to fetch packages from.
 440      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::SourceList/.
 441      </VarListEntry>
 442
 443      <VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</></term>
 444      <ListItem><Para>
 445      APT configuration file.
 446      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::Main/.
 447      </VarListEntry>
 448
 449      <VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/</></term>
 450      <ListItem><Para>
 451      APT configuration file fragments
 452      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::Parts/.
 453      </VarListEntry>
 454
 455      <VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/preferences</></term>
 456      <ListItem><Para>
 457      Version preferences file.
 458      This is where you would specify "pinning",
 459      i.e. a preference to get certain packages
 460      from a separate source
 461      or from a different version of a distribution.
 462      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::Preferences/.
 463      </VarListEntry>
 464
 465      <VarListEntry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/</></term>
 466      <ListItem><Para>
 467      Storage area for retrieved package files.
 468      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::Archives/.
 469      </VarListEntry>
 470
 471      <VarListEntry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</></term>
 472      <ListItem><Para>
 473      Storage area for package files in transit.
 474      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::Archives/ (implicit partial).
 475      </VarListEntry>
 476
 477      <VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/</></term>
 478      <ListItem><Para>
 479      Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 480      &sources-list;
 481      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/.
 482      </VarListEntry>
 483
 484      <VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/</></term>
 485      <ListItem><Para>
 486      Storage area for state information in transit.
 487      Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/ (implicit partial).
 488      </VarListEntry>
 489    </variablelist>
 490  </RefSect1>
 491
 492  <RefSect1><Title>See Also</>
 493    <para>
 494    &apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;, &dpkg;, &dselect;, &sources-list;, &apt-conf;,
 495    The APT User's guide in &docdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.
 496  </RefSect1>
 497
 498  <RefSect1><Title>Diagnostics</>
 499    <para>
 500    <command/apt-get/ returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 501  </RefSect1>
 502
 503  &manbugs;
 504  &manauthor;
 505
 506 </refentry>