doc/apt-get.8.xml

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  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-get</refentrytitle>
  23    <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>apt-get</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- command-line interface</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  <!-- Arguments -->
  33  <refsynopsisdiv>
  34    <cmdsynopsis>
  35       <command>apt-get</command>
  36       <arg><option>-hvs</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>update</arg>
  41          <arg>upgrade</arg>
  42          <arg>dselect-upgrade</arg>
  43          <arg>install <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  44          <arg>remove <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  45          <arg>source <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  46          <arg>build-dep <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
  47          <arg>check</arg>
  48          <arg>clean</arg>
  49          <arg>autoclean</arg>
  50          <arg>autoremove</arg>
  51       </group>
  52    </cmdsynopsis>
  53  </refsynopsisdiv>
  54
  55  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  56    <para><command>apt-get</command> is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be
  57    considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT
  58    library.  Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as dselect(8),
  59    aptitude, synaptic, gnome-apt and wajig.</para>
  60
  61    <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given, one of the
  62    commands below must be present.</para>
  63
  64    <variablelist>
  65      <varlistentry><term>update</term>
  66      <listitem><para><literal>update</literal> is used to resynchronize the package index files from
  67      their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the
  68      location(s) specified in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename>.
  69      For example, when using a Debian archive, this command retrieves and
  70      scans the <filename>Packages.gz</filename> files, so that information about new
  71      and updated packages is available. An <literal>update</literal> should always be
  72      performed before an <literal>upgrade</literal> or <literal>dist-upgrade</literal>. Please
  73      be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size
  74      of the package files cannot be known in advance.</para></listitem>
  75      </varlistentry>
  76
  77      <varlistentry><term>upgrade</term>
  78      <listitem><para><literal>upgrade</literal> is used to install the newest versions of all packages
  79      currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
  80      <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename>. Packages currently installed with
  81      new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances
  82      are currently installed packages removed, or packages not already installed
  83      retrieved and installed. New versions of currently installed packages that
  84      cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package
  85      will be left at their current version. An <literal>update</literal> must be
  86      performed first so that <command>apt-get</command> knows that new versions of packages are
  87      available.</para></listitem>
  88      </varlistentry>
  89
  90      <varlistentry><term>dselect-upgrade</term>
  91      <listitem><para><literal>dselect-upgrade</literal>
  92      is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
  93      front-end, &dselect;. <literal>dselect-upgrade</literal>
  94      follows the changes made by &dselect; to the <literal>Status</literal>
  95      field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
  96      that state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new
  97      packages).</para></listitem>
  98      </varlistentry>
  99
 100      <varlistentry><term>dist-upgrade</term>
 101      <listitem><para><literal>dist-upgrade</literal> in addition to performing the function of
 102      <literal>upgrade</literal>, also intelligently handles changing dependencies
 103      with new versions of packages; <command>apt-get</command> has a "smart" conflict
 104      resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important
 105      packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
 106      The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> file contains a list of locations
 107      from which to retrieve desired package files.
 108      See also &apt-preferences; for a mechanism for
 109      overriding the general settings for individual packages.</para></listitem>
 110      </varlistentry>
 111
 112      <varlistentry><term>install</term>
 113      <listitem><para><literal>install</literal> is followed by one or more packages desired for
 114      installation. Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified
 115      filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux system, libc6 would be the
 116      argument provided, not <literal>libc6_1.9.6-2.deb</literal>) All packages required
 117      by the package(s) specified for installation will also be retrieved and
 118      installed. The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> file is used to locate
 119      the desired packages. If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with
 120      no intervening space), the identified package will be removed if it is
 121      installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a package to
 122      install. These latter features may be used to override decisions made by
 123      apt-get's conflict resolution system.</para>
 124
 125      <para>A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
 126      following the package name with an equals and the version of the package
 127      to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for
 128      install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by
 129      following the package name with a slash and the version of the
 130      distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable).</para>
 131
 132      <para>Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must
 133      be used with care.</para>
 134
 135      <para>Finally, the &apt-preferences; mechanism allows you to
 136      create an alternative installation policy for
 137      individual packages.</para>
 138
 139      <para>If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one
 140      of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression,
 141      and it is applied
 142      to all package names in the database. Any matches are then installed (or
 143      removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo'
 144      and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression
 145      with a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular expression.</para></listitem>
 146      </varlistentry>
 147
 148      <varlistentry><term>remove</term>
 149      <listitem><para><literal>remove</literal> is identical to <literal>install</literal> except that packages are
 150      removed instead of installed. If a plus sign is appended to the package
 151      name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
 152      installed instead of removed.</para></listitem>
 153      </varlistentry>
 154
 155      <varlistentry><term>source</term>
 156      <listitem><para><literal>source</literal> causes <command>apt-get</command> to fetch source packages. APT
 157      will examine the available packages to decide which source package to
 158      fetch. It will then find and download into the current directory the
 159      newest available version of that source package. Source packages are
 160      tracked separately from binary packages via <literal>deb-src</literal> type lines
 161      in the &sources-list; file. This probably will mean that you will not
 162      get the same source as the package you have installed or as you could
 163      install. If the --compile options is specified then the package will be
 164      compiled to a binary .deb using dpkg-buildpackage, if --download-only is
 165      specified then the source package will not be unpacked.</para>
 166
 167      <para>A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing the source name
 168      with an equals and then the version to fetch, similar to the mechanism
 169      used for the package files. This enables exact matching of the source
 170      package name and version, implicitly enabling the
 171      <literal>APT::Get::Only-Source</literal> option.</para>
 172
 173      <para>Note that source packages are not tracked like binary packages, they
 174      exist only in the current directory and are similar to downloading source
 175      tar balls.</para></listitem>
 176      </varlistentry>
 177
 178      <varlistentry><term>build-dep</term>
 179      <listitem><para><literal>build-dep</literal> causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an
 180      attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source package.</para></listitem>
 181      </varlistentry>
 182
 183      <varlistentry><term>check</term>
 184      <listitem><para><literal>check</literal> is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks
 185      for broken dependencies.</para></listitem>
 186      </varlistentry>
 187
 188      <varlistentry><term>clean</term>
 189      <listitem><para><literal>clean</literal> clears out the local repository of retrieved package
 190      files. It removes everything but the lock file from
 191      <filename>&cachedir;/archives/</filename> and
 192      <filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</filename>. When APT is used as a
 193      &dselect; method, <literal>clean</literal> is run automatically.
 194      Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run <literal>apt-get clean</literal>
 195      from time to time to free up disk space.</para></listitem>
 196      </varlistentry>
 197
 198      <varlistentry><term>autoclean</term>
 199      <listitem><para>Like <literal>clean</literal>, <literal>autoclean</literal> clears out the local
 200      repository of retrieved package files. The difference is that it only
 201      removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely
 202      useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without
 203      it growing out of control. The configuration option
 204      <literal>APT::Clean-Installed</literal> will prevent installed packages from being
 205      erased if it is set to off.</para></listitem>
 206      </varlistentry>
 207
 208      <varlistentry><term>autoremove</term>
 209      <listitem><para><literal>autoremove</literal> is used to remove packages that were automatically
 210      installed to satisfy dependencies for some package and that are no more needed.</para></listitem>
 211      </varlistentry>
 212    </variablelist>
 213  </refsect1>
 214
 215  <refsect1><title>options</title>
 216    &apt-cmdblurb;
 217
 218    <variablelist>
 219      <varlistentry><term><option>-d</option></term><term><option>--download-only</option></term>
 220      <listitem><para>Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.
 221      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Download-Only</literal>.</para></listitem>
 222      </varlistentry>
 223
 224      <varlistentry><term><option>-f</option></term><term><option>--fix-broken</option></term>
 225      <listitem><para>Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
 226      place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
 227      to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. Any Package that are specified
 228      must completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
 229      running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package
 230      dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
 231      dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention
 232      (which usually means using &dselect; or <command>dpkg --remove</command> to eliminate some of
 233      the offending packages). Use of this option together with <option>-m</option> may produce an
 234      error in some situations.
 235      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Fix-Broken</literal>.</para></listitem>
 236      </varlistentry>
 237
 238      <varlistentry><term><option>-m</option></term><term><option>--ignore-missing</option></term>
 239      <term><option>--fix-missing</option></term>
 240      <listitem><para>Ignore missing packages; If packages cannot be retrieved or fail the
 241      integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package files), hold back
 242      those packages and handle the result. Use of this option together with
 243      <option>-f</option> may produce an error in some situations. If a package is
 244      selected for installation (particularly if it is mentioned on the
 245      command line) and it could not be downloaded then it will be silently
 246      held back.
 247      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Fix-Missing</literal>.</para></listitem>
 248      </varlistentry>
 249
 250      <varlistentry><term><option>--no-download</option></term>
 251      <listitem><para>Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with
 252      <option>--ignore-missing</option> to force APT to use only the .debs it has
 253      already downloaded.
 254      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Download</literal>.</para></listitem>
 255      </varlistentry>
 256
 257      <varlistentry><term><option>-q</option></term><term><option>--quiet</option></term>
 258      <listitem><para>Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 259      More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 260      <option>-q=#</option> to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 261      Note that quiet level 2 implies <option>-y</option>, you should never use -qq
 262      without a no-action modifier such as -d, --print-uris or -s as APT may
 263      decided to do something you did not expect.
 264      Configuration Item: <literal>quiet</literal>.</para></listitem>
 265      </varlistentry>
 266
 267      <varlistentry><term><option>-s</option></term>
 268                    <term><option>--simulate</option></term>
 269                    <term><option>--just-print</option></term>
 270                    <term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
 271                    <term><option>--recon</option></term>
 272                    <term><option>--no-act</option></term>
 273      <listitem><para>No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur but do not
 274      actually change the system.
 275      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Simulate</literal>.</para>
 276
 277      <para>Simulate prints out
 278      a series of lines each one representing a dpkg operation, Configure (Conf),
 279      Remove (Remv), Unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken packages with
 280      and empty set of square brackets meaning breaks that are of no consequence
 281      (rare).</para></listitem>
 282      </varlistentry>
 283
 284      <varlistentry><term><option>-y</option></term><term><option>--yes</option></term>
 285                    <term><option>--assume-yes</option></term>
 286      <listitem><para>Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run
 287      non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as changing a held
 288      package, trying to install a unauthenticated package or removing an essential package
 289      occurs then <literal>apt-get</literal> will abort.
 290      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Assume-Yes</literal>.</para></listitem>
 291      </varlistentry>
 292
 293      <varlistentry><term><option>-u</option></term><term><option>--show-upgraded</option></term>
 294      <listitem><para>Show upgraded packages; Print out a list of all packages that are to be
 295      upgraded.
 296      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Show-Upgraded</literal>.</para></listitem>
 297      </varlistentry>
 298
 299      <varlistentry><term><option>-V</option></term><term><option>--verbose-versions</option></term>
 300      <listitem><para>Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
 301      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Show-Versions</literal>.</para></listitem>
 302      </varlistentry>
 303
 304      <varlistentry><term><option>-b</option></term><term><option>--compile</option></term>
 305                    <term><option>--build</option></term>
 306      <listitem><para>Compile source packages after downloading them.
 307      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Compile</literal>.</para></listitem>
 308      </varlistentry>
 309
 310      <varlistentry><term><option>--ignore-hold</option></term>
 311      <listitem><para>Ignore package Holds; This causes <command>apt-get</command> to ignore a hold
 312      placed on a package. This may be useful in conjunction with
 313      <literal>dist-upgrade</literal> to override a large number of undesired holds.
 314      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Ignore-Hold</literal>.</para></listitem>
 315      </varlistentry>
 316
 317      <varlistentry><term><option>--no-upgrade</option></term>
 318      <listitem><para>Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with <literal>install</literal>,
 319      <literal>no-upgrade</literal> will prevent packages on the command line
 320      from being upgraded if they are already installed.
 321      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Upgrade</literal>.</para></listitem>
 322      </varlistentry>
 323
 324      <varlistentry><term><option>--force-yes</option></term>
 325      <listitem><para>Force yes; This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue
 326      without prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It
 327      should not be used except in very special situations. Using
 328      <literal>force-yes</literal> can potentially destroy your system!
 329      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::force-yes</literal>.</para></listitem>
 330      </varlistentry>
 331
 332      <varlistentry><term><option>--print-uris</option></term>
 333      <listitem><para>Instead of fetching the files to install their URIs are printed. Each
 334      URI will have the path, the destination file name, the size and the expected
 335      md5 hash. Note that the file name to write to will not always match
 336      the file name on the remote site! This also works with the
 337      <literal>source</literal> and <literal>update</literal> commands. When used with the
 338      <literal>update</literal> command the MD5 and size are not included, and it is
 339      up to the user to decompress any compressed files.
 340      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Print-URIs</literal>.</para></listitem>
 341      </varlistentry>
 342
 343      <varlistentry><term><option>--purge</option></term>
 344      <listitem><para>Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed.
 345      An asterisk ("*") will be displayed next to packages which are
 346      scheduled to be purged.
 347      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Purge</literal>.</para></listitem>
 348      </varlistentry>
 349
 350      <varlistentry><term><option>--reinstall</option></term>
 351      <listitem><para>Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.
 352      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::ReInstall</literal>.</para></listitem>
 353      </varlistentry>
 354
 355      <varlistentry><term><option>--list-cleanup</option></term>
 356      <listitem><para>This option defaults to on, use <literal>--no-list-cleanup</literal> to turn it
 357      off. When on <command>apt-get</command> will automatically manage the contents of
 358      <filename>&statedir;/lists</filename> to ensure that obsolete files are erased.
 359      The only  reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your source
 360      list.
 361      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::List-Cleanup</literal>.</para></listitem>
 362      </varlistentry>
 363
 364      <varlistentry><term><option>-t</option></term>
 365                    <term><option>--target-release</option></term>
 366                    <term><option>--default-release</option></term>
 367      <listitem><para>This option controls the default input to the policy engine, it creates
 368      a default pin at priority 990 using the specified release string. The
 369      preferences file may further override this setting. In short, this option
 370      lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be
 371      retrieved from. Some common examples might be
 372      <option>-t '2.1*'</option> or <option>-t unstable</option>.
 373      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Default-Release</literal>;
 374      see also the &apt-preferences; manual page.</para></listitem>
 375      </varlistentry>
 376
 377      <varlistentry><term><option>--trivial-only</option></term>
 378      <listitem><para>
 379      Only perform operations that are 'trivial'. Logically this can be considered
 380      related to <option>--assume-yes</option>, where <option>--assume-yes</option> will answer
 381      yes to any prompt, <option>--trivial-only</option> will answer no.
 382      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Trivial-Only</literal>.</para></listitem>
 383      </varlistentry>
 384
 385      <varlistentry><term><option>--no-remove</option></term>
 386      <listitem><para>If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without
 387      prompting.
 388      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Remove</literal>.</para></listitem>
 389      </varlistentry>
 390
 391      <varlistentry><term><option>--auto-remove</option></term>
 392      <listitem><para>If the command is either <literal>install</literal> or <literal>remove</literal>,
 393      then this option acts like running <literal>autoremove</literal> command, removing the unused
 394      dependency packages. Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::AutomaticRemove</literal>.
 395      </para></listitem>
 396      </varlistentry>
 397
 398      <varlistentry><term><option>--only-source</option></term>
 399      <listitem><para>Only has meaning for the
 400      <literal>source</literal> and <literal>build-dep</literal>
 401      commands.  Indicates that the given source names are not to be
 402      mapped through the binary table.  This means that if this option
 403      is specified, these commands will only accept source package
 404      names as arguments, rather than accepting binary package names
 405      and looking up the corresponding source package.  Configuration
 406      Item: <literal>APT::Get::Only-Source</literal>.</para></listitem>
 407      </varlistentry>
 408
 409      <varlistentry><term><option>--diff-only</option></term><term><option>--tar-only</option></term>
 410      <listitem><para>Download only the diff or tar file of a source archive.
 411      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Diff-Only</literal> and
 412      <literal>APT::Get::Tar-Only</literal>.</para></listitem>
 413      </varlistentry>
 414
 415      <varlistentry><term><option>--arch-only</option></term>
 416      <listitem><para>Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies.
 417      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::Arch-Only</literal>.</para></listitem>
 418      </varlistentry>
 419
 420      <varlistentry><term><option>--allow-unauthenticated</option></term>
 421      <listitem><para>Ignore if packages can't be authenticated and don't prompt about it.
 422      This is usefull for tools like pbuilder.
 423      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated</literal>.</para></listitem>
 424      </varlistentry>
 425
 426
 427      &apt-commonoptions;
 428
 429    </variablelist>
 430  </refsect1>
 431
 432  <refsect1><title>Files</title>
 433    <variablelist>
 434      <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename></term>
 435      <listitem><para>Locations to fetch packages from.
 436      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Etc::SourceList</literal>.</para></listitem>
 437      </varlistentry>
 438
 439      <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename></term>
 440      <listitem><para>APT configuration file.
 441      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Etc::Main</literal>.</para></listitem>
 442      </varlistentry>
 443
 444      <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/</filename></term>
 445      <listitem><para>APT configuration file fragments
 446      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Etc::Parts</literal>.</para></listitem>
 447      </varlistentry>
 448
 449      <varlistentry><term><filename>/etc/apt/preferences</filename></term>
 450      <listitem><para>Version preferences file.
 451      This is where you would specify "pinning",
 452      i.e. a preference to get certain packages
 453      from a separate source
 454      or from a different version of a distribution.
 455      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Etc::Preferences</literal>.</para></listitem>
 456      </varlistentry>
 457
 458      <varlistentry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/</filename></term>
 459      <listitem><para>Storage area for retrieved package files.
 460      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Cache::Archives</literal>.</para></listitem>
 461      </varlistentry>
 462
 463      <varlistentry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</filename></term>
 464      <listitem><para>Storage area for package files in transit.
 465      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::Cache::Archives</literal> (implicit partial). </para></listitem>
 466      </varlistentry>
 467
 468      <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/</filename></term>
 469      <listitem><para>Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 470      &sources-list;
 471      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::State::Lists</literal>.</para></listitem>
 472      </varlistentry>
 473
 474      <varlistentry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/</filename></term>
 475      <listitem><para> Storage area for state information in transit.
 476      Configuration Item: <literal>Dir::State::Lists</literal> (implicit partial).</para></listitem>
 477      </varlistentry>
 478    </variablelist>
 479  </refsect1>
 480
 481  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 482    <para>&apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;, &dpkg;, &dselect;, &sources-list;,
 483    &apt-conf;, &apt-config;, &apt-secure;,
 484    The APT User's guide in &guidesdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.</para>
 485  </refsect1>
 486
 487  <refsect1><title>Diagnostics</title>
 488    <para><command>apt-get</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.</para>
 489  </refsect1>
 490
 491  &manbugs;
 492
 493 </refentry>