doc/apt-ftparchive.1.xml

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   5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
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   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>17 August 2009</date>
  19  </refentryinfo>
  20
  21  <refmeta>
  22    <refentrytitle>apt-ftparchive</refentrytitle>
  23    <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  24    <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
  25  </refmeta>
  26
  27  <!-- Man page title -->
  28  <refnamediv>
  29     <refname>apt-ftparchive</refname>
  30     <refpurpose>Utility to generate index files</refpurpose>
  31  </refnamediv>
  32
  33  <!-- Arguments -->
  34  <refsynopsisdiv>
  35    <cmdsynopsis>
  36       <command>apt-ftparchive</command>
  37       <arg><option>-hvdsq</option></arg>
  38       <arg><option>--md5</option></arg>
  39       <arg><option>--delink</option></arg>
  40       <arg><option>--readonly</option></arg>
  41       <arg><option>--contents</option></arg>
  42       <arg><option>--arch <replaceable>architecture</replaceable></option></arg>
  43       <arg><option>-o <replaceable>config</replaceable>=<replaceable>string</replaceable></option></arg>
  44       <arg><option>-c=<replaceable>file</replaceable></option></arg>
  45       <group choice="req">
  46          <arg>packages<arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>path</replaceable></arg><arg><replaceable>override</replaceable><arg><replaceable>pathprefix</replaceable></arg></arg></arg>
  47          <arg>sources<arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>path</replaceable></arg><arg><replaceable>override</replaceable><arg><replaceable>pathprefix</replaceable></arg></arg></arg>
  48          <arg>contents <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>path</replaceable></arg></arg>
  49          <arg>release <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>path</replaceable></arg></arg>
  50          <arg>generate <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>config-file</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>section</replaceable></arg></arg>
  51          <arg>clean <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>config-file</replaceable></arg></arg>
  52       </group>
  53    </cmdsynopsis>
  54  </refsynopsisdiv>
  55
  56  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  57    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> is the command line tool that generates the index
  58    files that APT uses to access a distribution source. The index files should
  59    be generated on the origin site based on the content of that site.</para>
  60
  61    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> is a superset of the &dpkg-scanpackages; program,
  62    incorporating its entire functionality via the <literal>packages</literal> command.
  63    It also contains a contents file generator, <literal>contents</literal>, and an
  64    elaborate means to 'script' the generation process for a complete
  65    archive.</para>
  66
  67    <para>Internally <command>apt-ftparchive</command> can make use of binary databases to
  68    cache the contents of a .deb file and it does not rely on any external
  69    programs aside from &gzip;. When doing a full generate it automatically
  70    performs file-change checks and builds the desired compressed output files.</para>
  71
  72    <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given one of the
  73    commands below must be present.</para>
  74
  75    <variablelist>
  76      <varlistentry><term>packages</term>
  77      <listitem><para>
  78      The packages command generates a package file from a directory tree. It
  79      takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .deb files,
  80      emitting a package record to stdout for each. This command is
  81      approximately equivalent to &dpkg-scanpackages;.</para>
  82
  83      <para>The option <option>--db</option> can be used to specify a binary caching DB.</para></listitem>
  84      </varlistentry>
  85
  86      <varlistentry><term>sources</term>
  87      <listitem><para>
  88      The <literal>sources</literal> command generates a source index file from a directory tree.
  89      It takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .dsc files,
  90      emitting a source record to stdout for each. This command is approximately
  91      equivalent to &dpkg-scansources;.</para>
  92      <para>
  93      If an override file is specified then a source override file will be
  94      looked for with an extension of .src. The --source-override option can be
  95      used to change the source override file that will be used.</para></listitem>
  96      </varlistentry>
  97
  98      <varlistentry><term>contents</term>
  99      <listitem><para>
 100      The <literal>contents</literal> command generates a contents file from a directory tree. It
 101      takes the given directory and recursively searches it for .deb files,
 102      and reads the file list from each file. It then sorts and writes to stdout
 103      the list of files matched to packages. Directories are not written to
 104      the output. If multiple packages own the same file then each package is
 105      separated by a comma in the output.</para>
 106      <para>
 107      The option <option>--db</option> can be used to specify a binary caching DB.</para></listitem>
 108      </varlistentry>
 109
 110      <varlistentry><term>release</term>
 111      <listitem><para>
 112      The <literal>release</literal> command generates a Release file from a
 113      directory tree. It recursively searches the given directory for
 114      Packages, Packages.gz, Packages.bz2, Sources, Sources.gz,
 115      Sources.bz2, Release and md5sum.txt files.  It then writes to
 116      stdout a Release file containing an MD5 digest and SHA1 digest
 117      for each file.</para>
 118      <para>
 119      Values for the additional metadata fields in the Release file are
 120      taken from the corresponding variables under
 121      <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release</literal>,
 122      e.g. <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Release::Origin</literal>.  The supported fields
 123      are: <literal>Origin</literal>, <literal>Label</literal>, <literal>Suite</literal>,
 124      <literal>Version</literal>, <literal>Codename</literal>, <literal>Date</literal>,
 125      <literal>Architectures</literal>, <literal>Components</literal>, <literal>Description</literal>.</para></listitem>
 126
 127      </varlistentry>
 128
 129      <varlistentry><term>generate</term>
 130      <listitem><para>
 131      The <literal>generate</literal> command is designed to be runnable from a cron script and
 132      builds indexes according to the given config file. The config language
 133      provides a flexible means of specifying which index files are built from
 134      which directories, as well as providing a simple means of maintaining the
 135      required settings.</para></listitem>
 136      </varlistentry>
 137
 138      <varlistentry><term>clean</term>
 139      <listitem><para>
 140      The <literal>clean</literal> command tidies the databases used by the given
 141      configuration file by removing any records that are no longer necessary.</para></listitem>
 142      </varlistentry>
 143    </variablelist>
 144  </refsect1>
 145
 146  <refsect1><title>The Generate Configuration</title>
 147    <para>
 148    The <literal>generate</literal> command uses a configuration file to describe the
 149    archives that are going to be generated. It follows the typical ISC
 150    configuration format as seen in ISC tools like bind 8 and dhcpd.
 151    &apt-conf; contains a description of the syntax. Note that the generate
 152    configuration is parsed in sectional manner, but &apt-conf; is parsed in a
 153    tree manner. This only effects how the scope tag is handled.</para>
 154
 155    <para>
 156    The generate configuration has 4 separate sections, each described below.</para>
 157
 158    <refsect2><title>Dir Section</title>
 159      <para>
 160      The <literal>Dir</literal> section defines the standard directories needed to
 161      locate the files required during the generation process. These
 162      directories are prepended certain relative paths defined in later
 163      sections to produce a complete an absolute path.</para>
 164      <variablelist>
 165       <varlistentry><term>ArchiveDir</term>
 166       <listitem><para>
 167       Specifies the root of the FTP archive, in a standard
 168       Debian configuration this is the directory that contains the
 169       <filename>ls-LR</filename> and dist nodes.</para></listitem>
 170       </varlistentry>
 171
 172       <varlistentry><term>OverrideDir</term>
 173       <listitem><para>
 174       Specifies the location of the override files.</para></listitem>
 175       </varlistentry>
 176
 177       <varlistentry><term>CacheDir</term>
 178       <listitem><para>
 179       Specifies the location of the cache files</para></listitem>
 180       </varlistentry>
 181
 182       <varlistentry><term>FileListDir</term>
 183       <listitem><para>
 184       Specifies the location of the file list files,
 185       if the <literal>FileList</literal> setting is used below.</para></listitem>
 186       </varlistentry>
 187      </variablelist>
 188    </refsect2>
 189
 190    <refsect2><title>Default Section</title>
 191      <para>
 192      The <literal>Default</literal> section specifies default values, and settings
 193      that control the operation of the generator. Other sections may override
 194      these defaults with a per-section setting.</para>
 195      <variablelist>
 196       <varlistentry><term>Packages::Compress</term>
 197       <listitem><para>
 198       Sets the default compression schemes to use
 199       for the Package index files. It is a string that contains a space
 200       separated list of at least one of: '.' (no compression), 'gzip' and
 201       'bzip2'. The default for all compression schemes is '. gzip'.</para></listitem>
 202       </varlistentry>
 203
 204       <varlistentry><term>Packages::Extensions</term>
 205       <listitem><para>
 206       Sets the default list of file extensions that are package files.
 207       This defaults to '.deb'.</para></listitem>
 208       </varlistentry>
 209
 210       <varlistentry><term>Sources::Compress</term>
 211       <listitem><para>
 212       This is similar to <literal>Packages::Compress</literal>
 213       except that it controls the compression for the Sources files.</para></listitem>
 214       </varlistentry>
 215
 216       <varlistentry><term>Sources::Extensions</term>
 217       <listitem><para>
 218       Sets the default list of file extensions that are source files.
 219       This defaults to '.dsc'.</para></listitem>
 220       </varlistentry>
 221
 222       <varlistentry><term>Contents::Compress</term>
 223       <listitem><para>
 224       This is similar to <literal>Packages::Compress</literal>
 225       except that it controls the compression for the Contents files.</para></listitem>
 226       </varlistentry>
 227
 228       <varlistentry><term>DeLinkLimit</term>
 229       <listitem><para>
 230       Specifies the number of kilobytes to delink (and
 231       replace with hard links) per run. This is used in conjunction with the
 232       per-section <literal>External-Links</literal> setting.</para></listitem>
 233       </varlistentry>
 234
 235       <varlistentry><term>FileMode</term>
 236       <listitem><para>
 237       Specifies the mode of all created index files. It
 238       defaults to 0644. All index files are set to this mode with no regard
 239       to the umask.</para></listitem>
 240       </varlistentry>
 241      </variablelist>
 242    </refsect2>
 243
 244    <refsect2><title>TreeDefault Section</title>
 245      <para>
 246      Sets defaults specific to <literal>Tree</literal> sections. All of these
 247      variables are substitution variables and have the strings $(DIST),
 248      $(SECTION) and $(ARCH) replaced with their respective values.</para>
 249
 250      <variablelist>
 251       <varlistentry><term>MaxContentsChange</term>
 252       <listitem><para>
 253       Sets  the number of kilobytes of contents
 254       files that are generated each day. The contents files are round-robined
 255       so that over several days they will all be rebuilt.</para></listitem>
 256       </varlistentry>
 257
 258       <varlistentry><term>ContentsAge</term>
 259       <listitem><para>
 260       Controls the number of days a contents file is allowed
 261       to be checked without changing. If this limit is passed the mtime of the
 262       contents file is updated. This case can occur if the package file is
 263       changed in such a way that does not result in a new contents file
 264       [override edit for instance]. A hold off is allowed in hopes that new
 265       .debs will be installed, requiring a new file anyhow. The default is 10,
 266       the units are in days.</para></listitem>
 267       </varlistentry>
 268
 269       <varlistentry><term>Directory</term>
 270       <listitem><para>
 271       Sets the top of the .deb directory tree. Defaults to
 272       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/binary-$(ARCH)/</filename></para></listitem>
 273       </varlistentry>
 274
 275       <varlistentry><term>SrcDirectory</term>
 276       <listitem><para>
 277       Sets the top of the source package directory tree. Defaults to
 278       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/source/</filename></para></listitem>
 279       </varlistentry>
 280
 281       <varlistentry><term>Packages</term>
 282       <listitem><para>
 283       Sets the output Packages file. Defaults to
 284       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/binary-$(ARCH)/Packages</filename></para></listitem>
 285       </varlistentry>
 286
 287       <varlistentry><term>Sources</term>
 288       <listitem><para>
 289       Sets the output Sources file. Defaults to
 290       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/source/Sources</filename></para></listitem>
 291       </varlistentry>
 292
 293       <varlistentry><term>Translation</term>
 294       <listitem><para>
 295       Set the output Translation-en master file with the long descriptions if they
 296       should be not included in the Packages file. Defaults to
 297       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/i18n/Translation-en</filename></para></listitem>
 298       </varlistentry>
 299
 300       <varlistentry><term>LongDescription</term>
 301       <listitem><para>
 302       Sets if long descriptions should be included in the Packages file or split
 303       out into a master Translation-en file.</para></listitem>
 304       </varlistentry>
 305
 306       <varlistentry><term>InternalPrefix</term>
 307       <listitem><para>
 308       Sets the path prefix that causes a symlink to be
 309       considered an internal link instead of an external link. Defaults to
 310       <filename>$(DIST)/$(SECTION)/</filename></para></listitem>
 311       </varlistentry>
 312
 313       <varlistentry><term>Contents</term>
 314       <listitem><para>
 315       Sets the output Contents file. Defaults to
 316       <filename>$(DIST)/Contents-$(ARCH)</filename>. If this setting causes multiple
 317       Packages files to map onto a single Contents file (such as the default)
 318       then <command>apt-ftparchive</command> will integrate those package files
 319       together automatically.</para></listitem>
 320       </varlistentry>
 321
 322       <varlistentry><term>Contents::Header</term>
 323       <listitem><para>
 324       Sets header file to prepend to the contents output.</para></listitem>
 325       </varlistentry>
 326
 327       <varlistentry><term>BinCacheDB</term>
 328       <listitem><para>
 329       Sets the binary cache database to use for this
 330       section. Multiple sections can share the same database.</para></listitem>
 331       </varlistentry>
 332
 333       <varlistentry><term>FileList</term>
 334       <listitem><para>
 335       Specifies that instead of walking the directory tree,
 336       <command>apt-ftparchive</command> should read the list of files from the given
 337       file. Relative files names are prefixed with the archive directory.</para></listitem>
 338       </varlistentry>
 339
 340       <varlistentry><term>SourceFileList</term>
 341       <listitem><para>
 342       Specifies that instead of walking the directory tree,
 343       <command>apt-ftparchive</command> should read the list of files from the given
 344       file. Relative files names are prefixed with the archive directory.
 345       This is used when processing source indexes.</para></listitem>
 346       </varlistentry>
 347      </variablelist>
 348    </refsect2>
 349
 350    <refsect2><title>Tree Section</title>
 351      <para>
 352      The <literal>Tree</literal> section defines a standard Debian file tree which
 353      consists of a base directory, then multiple sections in that base
 354      directory and finally multiple Architectures in each section. The exact
 355      pathing used is defined by the <literal>Directory</literal> substitution variable.</para>
 356      <para>
 357      The <literal>Tree</literal> section takes a scope tag which sets the
 358      <literal>$(DIST)</literal> variable and defines the root of the tree
 359      (the path is prefixed by <literal>ArchiveDir</literal>).
 360      Typically this is a setting such as <filename>dists/woody</filename>.</para>
 361      <para>
 362      All of the settings defined in the <literal>TreeDefault</literal> section can be
 363      use in a <literal>Tree</literal> section as well as three new variables.</para>
 364      <para>
 365      When processing a <literal>Tree</literal> section <command>apt-ftparchive</command>
 366      performs an operation similar to:
 367      <programlisting>
 368 for i in Sections do
 369    for j in Architectures do
 370       Generate for DIST=scope SECTION=i ARCH=j
 371      </programlisting></para>
 372
 373      <variablelist>
 374       <varlistentry><term>Sections</term>
 375       <listitem><para>
 376       This is a space separated list of sections which appear
 377       under the distribution, typically this is something like
 378       <literal>main contrib non-free</literal></para></listitem>
 379       </varlistentry>
 380
 381       <varlistentry><term>Architectures</term>
 382       <listitem><para>
 383       This is a space separated list of all the
 384       architectures that appear under search section. The special architecture
 385       'source' is used to indicate that this tree has a source archive.</para></listitem>
 386       </varlistentry>
 387
 388       <varlistentry><term>LongDescription</term>
 389       <listitem><para>
 390       Sets if long descriptions should be included in the Packages file or split
 391       out into a master Translation-en file.</para></listitem>
 392       </varlistentry>
 393
 394       <varlistentry><term>BinOverride</term>
 395       <listitem><para>
 396       Sets the binary override file. The override file
 397       contains section, priority and maintainer address information.</para></listitem>
 398       </varlistentry>
 399
 400       <varlistentry><term>SrcOverride</term>
 401       <listitem><para>
 402       Sets the source override file. The override file
 403       contains section information.</para></listitem>
 404       </varlistentry>
 405
 406       <varlistentry><term>ExtraOverride</term>
 407       <listitem><para>
 408       Sets the binary extra override file.</para></listitem>
 409       </varlistentry>
 410
 411       <varlistentry><term>SrcExtraOverride</term>
 412       <listitem><para>
 413       Sets the source extra override file.</para></listitem>
 414       </varlistentry>
 415      </variablelist>
 416    </refsect2>
 417
 418    <refsect2><title>BinDirectory Section</title>
 419      <para>
 420      The <literal>bindirectory</literal> section defines a binary directory tree
 421      with no special structure. The scope tag specifies the location of
 422      the binary directory and the settings are similar to the <literal>Tree</literal>
 423      section with no substitution variables or
 424      <literal>Section</literal><literal>Architecture</literal> settings.</para>
 425      <variablelist>
 426       <varlistentry><term>Packages</term>
 427       <listitem><para>
 428       Sets the Packages file output.</para></listitem>
 429       </varlistentry>
 430
 431       <varlistentry><term>Sources</term>
 432       <listitem><para>
 433       Sets the Sources file output. At least one of
 434       <literal>Packages</literal> or <literal>Sources</literal> is required.</para></listitem>
 435       </varlistentry>
 436
 437       <varlistentry><term>Contents</term>
 438       <listitem><para>
 439       Sets the Contents file output. (optional)</para></listitem>
 440       </varlistentry>
 441
 442       <varlistentry><term>BinOverride</term>
 443       <listitem><para>
 444       Sets the binary override file.</para></listitem>
 445       </varlistentry>
 446
 447       <varlistentry><term>SrcOverride</term>
 448       <listitem><para>
 449       Sets the source override file.</para></listitem>
 450       </varlistentry>
 451
 452       <varlistentry><term>ExtraOverride</term>
 453       <listitem><para>
 454       Sets the binary extra override file.</para></listitem>
 455       </varlistentry>
 456
 457       <varlistentry><term>SrcExtraOverride</term>
 458       <listitem><para>
 459       Sets the source extra override file.</para></listitem>
 460       </varlistentry>
 461
 462       <varlistentry><term>BinCacheDB</term>
 463       <listitem><para>
 464       Sets the cache DB.</para></listitem>
 465       </varlistentry>
 466
 467       <varlistentry><term>PathPrefix</term>
 468       <listitem><para>
 469       Appends a path to all the output paths.</para></listitem>
 470       </varlistentry>
 471
 472       <varlistentry><term>FileList, SourceFileList</term>
 473       <listitem><para>
 474       Specifies the file list file.</para></listitem>
 475       </varlistentry>
 476      </variablelist>
 477    </refsect2>
 478  </refsect1>
 479
 480
 481  <refsect1><title>The Binary Override File</title>
 482    <para>The binary override file is fully compatible with &dpkg-scanpackages;. It
 483    contains 4 fields separated by spaces. The first field is the package name,
 484    the second is the priority to force that package to, the third is the
 485    the section to force that package to and the final field is the maintainer
 486    permutation field.</para>
 487    <para>The general form of the maintainer field is:
 488    <literallayout>old [// oldn]* => new</literallayout>
 489    or simply,
 490    <literallayout>new</literallayout>
 491    The first form allows a double-slash separated list of old email addresses
 492    to be specified. If any of those are found then new is substituted for the
 493    maintainer field. The second form unconditionally substitutes the
 494    maintainer field.</para>
 495  </refsect1>
 496
 497
 498  <refsect1><title>The Source Override File</title>
 499    <para>
 500    The source override file is fully compatible with &dpkg-scansources;. It
 501    contains 2 fields separated by spaces. The first fields is the source
 502    package name, the second is the section to assign it.</para>
 503  </refsect1>
 504
 505  <refsect1><title>The Extra Override File</title>
 506    <para>
 507    The extra override file allows any arbitrary tag to be added or replaced
 508    in the output. It has 3 columns, the first is the package, the second is
 509    the tag and the remainder of the line is the new value.</para>
 510  </refsect1>
 511
 512  <refsect1><title>options</title>
 513    &apt-cmdblurb;
 514
 515    <variablelist>
 516      <varlistentry><term><option>--md5</option></term>
 517      <listitem><para>
 518      Generate MD5 sums. This defaults to on, when turned off the generated
 519      index files will not have MD5Sum fields where possible.
 520      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::MD5</literal></para></listitem>
 521      </varlistentry>
 522
 523      <varlistentry><term><option>-d</option></term><term><option>--db</option></term>
 524      <listitem><para>
 525      Use a binary caching DB. This has no effect on the generate command.
 526      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::DB</literal>.</para></listitem>
 527      </varlistentry>
 528
 529      <varlistentry><term><option>-q</option></term><term><option>--quiet</option></term>
 530      <listitem><para>
 531      Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 532      More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 533      <option>-q=#</option> to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 534      Configuration Item: <literal>quiet</literal>.</para></listitem>
 535      </varlistentry>
 536
 537      <varlistentry><term><option>--delink</option></term>
 538      <listitem><para>
 539      Perform Delinking. If the <literal>External-Links</literal> setting is used then
 540      this option actually enables delinking of the files. It defaults to on and
 541      can be turned off with <option>--no-delink</option>.
 542      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::DeLinkAct</literal>.</para></listitem>
 543      </varlistentry>
 544
 545      <varlistentry><term><option>--contents</option></term>
 546      <listitem><para>
 547      Perform contents generation. When this option is set and package indexes
 548      are being generated with a cache DB then the file listing will also be
 549      extracted and stored in the DB for later use. When using the generate
 550      command this option also allows the creation of any Contents files. The
 551      default is on.
 552      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Contents</literal>.</para></listitem>
 553      </varlistentry>
 554
 555      <varlistentry><term><option>-s</option></term><term><option>--source-override</option></term>
 556      <listitem><para>
 557      Select the source override file to use with the <literal>sources</literal> command.
 558      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::SourceOverride</literal>.</para></listitem>
 559      </varlistentry>
 560
 561      <varlistentry><term><option>--readonly</option></term>
 562      <listitem><para>
 563      Make the caching databases read only.
 564      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::ReadOnlyDB</literal>.</para></listitem>
 565      </varlistentry>
 566
 567      <varlistentry><term><option>-a</option></term><term><option>--arch</option></term>
 568      <listitem><para>Accept in the <literal>packages</literal> and <literal>contents</literal>
 569      commands only package files matching <literal>*_arch.deb</literal> or
 570      <literal>*_all.deb</literal> instead of all package files in the given path.
 571      Configuration Item: <literal>APT::FTPArchive::Architecture</literal>.</para></listitem>
 572      </varlistentry>
 573
 574      <varlistentry><term><option>APT::FTPArchive::AlwaysStat</option></term>
 575      <listitem><para>
 576      &apt-ftparchive; caches as much as possible of metadata in a cachedb. If packages
 577      are recompiled and/or republished with the same version again, this will lead to problems
 578      as the now outdated cached metadata like size and checksums will be used. With this option
 579      enabled this will no longer happen as it will be checked if the file was changed.
 580      Note that this option is set to "<literal>false</literal>" by default as it is not recommend
 581      to upload multiply versions/builds of a package with the same versionnumber, so in theory
 582      nobody will have these problems and therefore all these extra checks are useless.
 583      </para></listitem>
 584      </varlistentry>
 585
 586      <varlistentry><term><option>APT::FTPArchive::LongDescription</option></term>
 587      <listitem><para>
 588      This configuration option defaults to "<literal>true</literal>" and should only be set to
 589      <literal>"false"</literal> if the Archive generated with &apt-ftparchive; also provides
 590      <filename>Translation</filename> files. Note that the <filename>Translation-en</filename>
 591      master file can only be created in the generate command.
 592      </para></listitem>
 593      </varlistentry>
 594
 595      &apt-commonoptions;
 596
 597    </variablelist>
 598  </refsect1>
 599
 600 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 601
 602 <para>To create a compressed Packages file for a directory containing
 603 binary packages (.deb):
 604
 605 <programlisting>
 606 <command>apt-ftparchive</command> packages <replaceable>directory</replaceable> | <command>gzip</command> > <filename>Packages.gz</filename>
 607 </programlisting></para>
 608
 609 </refsect1>
 610
 611  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 612    <para>&apt-conf;</para>
 613  </refsect1>
 614
 615  <refsect1><title>Diagnostics</title>
 616    <para><command>apt-ftparchive</command> returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.</para>
 617  </refsect1>
 618
 619  &manbugs;
 620
 621 </refentry>