-<!doctype debiandoc system>
<!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- -->
+<!doctype debiandoc PUBLIC "-//DebianDoc//DTD DebianDoc//EN">
<book>
<title>APT Files</title>
<author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author>
-<version>$Id: files.sgml,v 1.3 1998/10/02 04:39:57 jgg Exp $</version>
+<version>$Id: files.sgml,v 1.12 2003/04/26 23:26:13 doogie Exp $</version>
<abstract>
This document describes the complete implementation and format of the
</abstract>
<copyright>
-Copyright © Jason Gunthorpe, 1998.
+Copyright © Jason Gunthorpe, 1998-1999.
<p>
"APT" and this document are free software; you can redistribute them and/or
modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
<p>
For more details, on Debian GNU/Linux systems, see the file
-/usr/doc/copyright/GPL for the full license.
+/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for the full license.
</copyright>
<toc sect>
<p>
The var directory structure is as follows:
<example>
- /var/state/apt/
+ /var/lib/apt/
lists/
partial/
xstatus
+ userstatus
+ cdroms.list
/var/cache/apt/
pkgcache.bin
srcpkgcache.bin
partial/
/etc/apt/
sources.list
- cdromdevs.list
+ apt.conf
/usr/lib/apt/
methods/
cdrom
ftp
http
+ file
+ gzip
+ copy
</example>
<p>
-As is specified in the FHS 2.0 /var/state/apt is used for application
+As is specified in the FHS 2.1 /var/lib/apt is used for application
data that is not expected to be user modified. /var/cache/apt is used
for regeneratable data and is where the package cache and downloaded .debs
go.
fastest source listed first. The format of each line is:
<p>
-<var>type ui args</var>
+<var>type uri args</var>
<p>
The first item, <var>type</var>, indicates the format for the remainder
<p>
The <em>deb</em> type is to be a typical two level debian distributions,
dist/<var>distribution</var>/<var>component</var>. Typically distribution
- is one of stable, unstable or frozen while component is one of main,
+ is one of stable, unstable or testing while component is one of main,
contrib, non-free or non-us. The format for the deb line is as follows:
<p>
- deb <var>uri</var> <var>distribution</var> <var>compontent</var>
+ deb <var>uri</var> <var>distribution</var> <var>component</var>
[<var>component</var> ...]
<p>
necessary to list a number of deb lines for the same URI. APT will
sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set to allow
connection reuse. It is important to order things in the sourcelist
- from most prefered to least prefered (fastest to slowest).
+ from most preferred to least preferred (fastest to slowest).
</sect1>
<sect1>URI specification
<taglist>
<tag>cdrom<item>
- The cdrom scheme is special in that If Modifed Since queries are never
+ The cdrom scheme is special in that If Modified Since queries are never
performed and that APT knows how to match a cdrom to the name it
- was given when first inserted. It does this by examining the date
- and size of the package file. APT also knows all of the possible
- prefix paths for the cdrom drives and that the user should be prompted
+ was given when first inserted. APT also knows all of the possible
+ mount points the cdrom drives and that the user should be prompted
to insert a CD if it cannot be found. The path is relative to an
- arbitary mount point (of APT's choosing) and must not start with a
+ arbitrary mount point (of APT's choosing) and must not start with a
slash. The first pathname component is the given name and is purely
descriptive and of the users choice. However, if a file in the root of
- the cdrom is called 'cdname' its contents will be used instead of
+ the cdrom is called '.disk/info' its contents will be used instead of
prompting. The name serves as a tag for the cdrom and should be unique.
- APT will track the CDROM's based on their tag and package file
- properties.
<example>
cdrom:Debian 1.3/debian
</example>
<tag>http<item>
- This scheme specifies a HTTP server for the debian archive. HTTP is prefered
+ This scheme specifies a HTTP server for the debian archive. HTTP is preferred
over FTP because If Modified Since queries against the Package file are
- possible. Newer HTTP protcols may even support reget which would make
- http the protocol of choice.
+ possible as well as deep pipelining and resume capabilities.
<example>
http://www.debian.org/archive
</example>
</example>
<tag>file<item>
- The file scheme allows an arbitary directory in the file system to be
- considered as a debian archive. This is usefull for NFS mounts and
+ The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
+ considered as a debian archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and
local mirrors/archives.
<example>
file:/var/debian
<sect1>Hashing the URI
<p>
-All permanent information aquired from any of the sources is stored in the
+All permanent information acquired from any of the sources is stored in the
lists directory. Thus, there must be a way to relate the filename in the
lists directory to a line in the sourcelist. To simplify things this is
done by quoting the URI and treating _'s as quoteable characters and
converting / to _. The URI spec says this is done by converting a
sensitive character into %xx where xx is the hexadecimal representation
-from the ascii character set. Examples:
+from the ASCII character set. Examples:
<example>
http://www.debian.org/archive/dists/stable/binary-i386/Packages
-/var/state/apt/lists/www.debian.org_archive_dists_stable_binary-i386_Packages
+/var/lib/apt/lists/www.debian.org_archive_dists_stable_binary-i386_Packages
cdrom:Debian 1.3/debian/Packages
-/var/state/apt/info/Debian%201.3_debian_Packages
+/var/lib/apt/info/Debian%201.3_debian_Packages
</example>
<p>
The extra status file serves the same purpose as the normal dpkg status file
(/var/lib/dpkg/status) except that it stores information unique to apt.
This includes the autoflag, target distribution and version and any other
-uniqe features that come up over time. It duplicates nothing from the normal
+unique features that come up over time. It duplicates nothing from the normal
dpkg status file. Please see other APT documentation for a discussion
-of the exact internal behavior of these fields. The Package field is
+of the exact internal behaviour of these fields. The Package field is
placed directly before the new fields to indicate which package they
apply to. The new fields are as follows:
<tag>X-TargetDist<item>
The TargetDist item indicates which distribution versions are offered for
- installation from. It should be stable, unstable or frozen.
+ installation from. It should be stable, unstable or testing.
<tag>X-TargetVersion<item>
The target version item is set if the user selects a specific version, it
<p>
The archives directory is where all downloaded .deb archives go. When the
file transfer is initiated the deb is placed in partial. Once the file
-is fully downloaded and its MD5 hash and size are verifitied it is moved
+is fully downloaded and its MD5 hash and size are verified it is moved
from partial into archives/. Any files found in archives/ can be assumed
to be verified.
<p>
-No dirctory structure is transfered from the receiving site and all .deb
+No directory structure is transfered from the receiving site and all .deb
file names conform to debian conventions. No short (msdos) filename should
be placed in archives. If the need arises .debs should be unpacked, scanned
and renamed to their correct internal names. This is mostly to prevent
-file name conflicts but other programs may depend on this if convenient.
+file name conflicts but other programs may depend on this if convenient.
+A conforming .deb is one of the form, name_version_arch.deb. Our archive
+scripts do not handle epochs, but they are necessary and should be re-inserted.
+If necessary _'s and :'s in the fields should be quoted using the % convention.
+It must be possible to extract all 3 fields by examining the file name.
Downloaded .debs must be found in one of the package lists with an exact
name + version match..
</sect>
<taglist>
<tag>Site<item>
This is the proper host name of the site. It should not be a host within
-debian.org and generally cnames should be advoided here.
+debian.org and generally cnames should be avoided here.
<tag>Aliases<item>
These list any commonly used aliases for the site. This field is used to make
The Archive field gives the path(s) to the debian archive. [access]
specifies the access method and may be one of ftp, http, rsync, nfs, or
smb. For many of the types it is possible to prefix the path with :###
-indicating that an alternate port should be used. Generaly paths
+indicating that an alternate port should be used. Generally paths
start with a / and end with a /, rsync is an exception in that the
first directory component is not a path but a label.
<em>unstable</>.
<tag>Component<item>
-Referes to the sub-component of the archive, <em>main</>, <em>contrib</>
-etc.
+Refers to the sub-component of the archive, <em>main</>, <em>contrib</>
+etc. Component may be omitted if there are no components for this archive.
<tag>Version<item>
This is a version string with the same properties as in the Packages file.
<example>
Archive: stable
-Compontent: main
+Component: main
Version: 1.3.1r6
Origin: Debian
Label: Debian
And unstable,
<example>
Archive: unstable
-Compontent: main
+Component: main
Version: 2.1
Origin: Debian
Label: Debian
projects / apt.git / blobdiff