<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 1.7 1999/02/15 06:38:03 jgg 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
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>
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
<tag>cdrom<item>
The cdrom scheme is special in that If Modifed 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
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
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>
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>
<tag>Component<item>
Referes to the sub-component of the archive, <em>main</>, <em>contrib</>
-etc.
+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.