<title>APT User's Guide</title>
<author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author>
-<version>$Id: guide.sgml,v 1.1 1998/07/02 02:58:12 jgg Exp $</version>
+<version>$Id: guide.sgml,v 1.3 2001/02/20 07:03:17 jgg Exp $</version>
<abstract>
This document provides an overview of how to use the the APT package manager.
requires another package to be installed at the same time to work properly.
<p>
-For instance, mail-crypt is an emacs extension that aids in encrypting email
-with PGP. Without PGP installed mail-crypt is useless, so mail-crypt has a
-simple dependency on PGP. Also, because it is an emacs extension it has a
+For instance, mailcrypt is an emacs extension that aids in encrypting email
+with GPG. Without GPGP installed mail-crypt is useless, so mailcrypt has a
+simple dependency on GPG. Also, because it is an emacs extension it has a
simple dependency on emacs, without emacs it is completely useless.
<p>
# apt-get update
Get http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/binary-i386/ Packages
Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/contrib Packages
-Updating package file cache...done
-Updating package status cache...done
-Checking system integrity...ok
+Reading Package Lists... Done
+Building Dependency Tree... Done
</example>
<p>
refers to packages that contain encryption technology or other things that
cannot be exported from the United States. Importing these packages into the
US is legal however.
-<footnote>As of this writing the non-US distribution has
-not been created, the only way to access it is by specifying
-stable/binary-i386/ at this prompt and by specifying a URL ending in
-debian-non-US </footnote>
<p>
<example>
the [C]onfig and [R]emove commands have no meaning, the [I]nstall command
performs both of them together.
+<p>
+By default APT will automatically remove the packages once they have been
+sucessfully installed. To change this behavor place <tt>Dselect::clean
+"prompt";</> in /etc/apt/apt.conf.
+
</chapt>
<!-- }}} -->
<!-- The Interfaces {{{ -->
how much is left to do.
<!-- ===================================================================== -->
-<sect>The Pre-Checks
+<sect>Startup
<p>
-Before all operations, except update, APT performs a number of checks on the
-systems. These are designed to safe guard the operations it is about to
-undertake. At any time the full set of checks may be run by performing
-<tt>apt-get check</>.
+Before all operations, except update, APT performs a number of actions to
+prepare its internal state. It also does some checks of the systems state.
+At any time these operations can be performed by running <tt>apt-get check</>.
<p>
<example>
# apt-get check
-Updating package file cache...done
-Updating package status cache...done
-Checking system integrity...ok
+Reading Package Lists... Done
+Building Dependancy Tree... Done
</example>
<p>
-The first check is to ensure that the archive package lists are matched to
-the pre-generated data cache, if they are not then the cache is automatically
-refreshed. This may fail if <tt>apt-get update</> has not been run to
-synchronize with the <em>Sources</>. The next check verifies that the state of
-the system matches the cached state and automatically rebuilds the cached
-state if they are not synchronized. This check should never fail and it
-indicates a serious error if it ever does.
+The first thing it does is read all the package files into memory. APT
+uses a caching scheme so this operation will be faster the second time it
+is run. If some of the package files are not found then they will be ignored
+and a warning will be printed when apt-get exits.
<p>
-The final check performs a detailed analysis of the system integrity. It
-checks every dependency of every installed or unpacked package and considers
+The final operation performs a detailed analysis of the system's dependencies.
+It checks every dependency of every installed or unpacked package and considers
if it is ok. Should this find a problem then a report will be printed out and
<prgn>apt-get</> will refuse to run.
<p>
<example>
# apt-get check
-Updating package file cache...done
-Updating package status cache...done
-Checking system integrity...dependency error
+Reading Package Lists... Done
+Building Dependancy Tree... Done
You might want to run apt-get -f install' to correct these.
-Sorry, but the following packages are broken - this means they have unmet
-dependencies:
- libdbd-mysql-perl: Depends:perl
- xzx: Depends:xlib6
- libdbd-msql-perl: Depends:perl
- mailpgp: Depends:pgp-i Depends:pgp-us
- xdpkg: Depends:python
- squake: Depends:quake-lib Depends:quake-lib-stub
- debmake: Depends:fileutils
- libreadlineg2: Conflicts:libreadline2
- ssh: Depends:gmp2 Depends:xlib6g Depends:zlib1g
+Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
+ 9fonts: Depends: xlib6g but it is not installed
+ uucp: Depends: mailx but it is not installed
+ blast: Depends: xlib6g (>= 3.3-5) but it is not installed
+ adduser: Depends: perl-base but it is not installed
+ aumix: Depends: libgpmg1 but it is not installed
+ debiandoc-sgml: Depends: sgml-base but it is not installed
+ bash-builtins: Depends: bash (>= 2.01) but 2.0-3 is installed
+ cthugha: Depends: svgalibg1 but it is not installed
+ Depends: xlib6g (>= 3.3-5) but it is not installed
+ libreadlineg2: Conflicts:libreadline2 (<< 2.1-2.1)
</example>
<p>
In this example the system has many problems, including a serious problem
with libreadlineg2. For each package that has unmet dependencies a line
is printed out indicating the package with the problem and the dependencies
-that are unmet. For brevity the version inter-relationships are omitted.
+that are unmet. A short explanation of why the package has a dependency
+problem is also included.
<p>
There are two ways a system can get into a broken state like this. The
-first is caused by <prgn>dpkg missing</> some subtle relationships between
+first is caused by <prgn>dpkg</> missing some subtle relationships between
packages when performing upgrades. <footnote>APT however considers all known
dependencies and attempts to prevent broken packages</footnote>. The second is
if a package installation fails during an operation. In this situation a
<p>
The second situation is much less serious than the first because APT places
certain assurances on the order that packages are installed. In both cases
-supplying the <tt>-f</> option to <prgn>atp-get</> will cause APT to deduce a
+supplying the <tt>-f</> option to <prgn>apt-get</> will cause APT to deduce a
possible solution to the problem and then continue on. The APT <prgn>dselect</>
method always supplies the <tt>-f</> option to allow for easy continuation
of failed maintainer scripts.
removed then the value may indicate the amount of space that will be
freed.
+<p>
+Some other reports can be generated by using the -u option to show packages
+to upgrade, they are similar to the previous examples.
</sect>
<!-- ===================================================================== -->
<sect>The Status Display
<p>
During the download of archives and package files APT prints out a series of
-status messages,
+status messages.
<p>
<example>
# apt-get update
-Get http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/binary-i386/ Packages
-Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/contrib Packages
-Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/main Packages
-Get http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ unstable/binary-i386/ Packages
-Get http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/non-free Packages
-11% [Packages `Waiting for file' 0/32.1k 0%] 2203b/s 1m52s
+Get:1 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ stable/non-US/ Packages
+Get:2 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/contrib Packages
+Hit http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/main Packages
+Get:4 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US/ unstable/binary-i386/ Packages
+Get:5 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ frozen/non-free Packages
+11% [5 frozen/non-free `Waiting for file' 0/32.1k 0%] 2203b/s 1m52s
</example>
<p>
<p>
The next section of the status line is repeated once for each dowload thread
-and indicates the operation being performed and some usefull information
+and indicates the operation being performed and some useful information
about what is happening. Sometimes this section will simply read <em>Forking</>
-which means the OS is loading the download module. The first word after the [
+which means the OS is loading the download module. The first word after the [
+is the fetch number as shown on the history lines. The next word
is the short form name of the object being downloaded. For archives it will
contain the name of the package that is being fetched.
of the negotiation phase of the download. Typically it progresses from
<em>Connecting</> to <em>Waiting for file</> to <em>Downloading</> or
<em>Resuming</>. The final value is the number of bytes downloaded from the
-remote site. Once the download beings this is represented as <tt>102/10.2k</>
+remote site. Once the download begings this is represented as <tt>102/10.2k</>
indicating that 102 bytes have been fetched and 10.2 kilobytes is expected.
The total size is always shown in 4 figure notation to preserve space. After
the size display is a percent meter for the file itself.
<p>
APT uses <prgn>dpkg</> for installing the archives and will switch
over to the <prgn>dpkg</> interface once downloading is completed.
-<prgn>dpkg</> will also as a number of questions as it processes the packages
+<prgn>dpkg</> will also ask a number of questions as it processes the packages
and the packages themselves may also ask several questions. Before each
question there is usually a description of what it is asking and the
questions are too varied to discuss completely here.
projects / apt.git / blobdiff