&apt-email;
&apt-product;
<!-- The last update date -->
- <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
+ <date>2015-10-27T00:00:00Z</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
&synopsis-command-apt-cache;
<refsect1><title>Description</title>
- <para><command>apt-cache</command> performs a variety of operations on APT's package
- cache. <command>apt-cache</command> does not manipulate the state of the system
- but does provide operations to search and generate interesting output
- from the package metadata.</para>
+ <para>
+ <command>apt-cache</command> performs a variety of operations on APT's
+ package cache. <command>apt-cache</command> does not manipulate the
+ state of the system but does provide operations to search and generate
+ interesting output from the package metadata. The metadata is acquired
+ and updated via the 'update' command of e.g. <command>apt-get</command>,
+ so that it can be outdated if the last update is too long ago, but in
+ exchange <command>apt-cache</command> works independently of the
+ availability of the configured sources (e.g. offline).
+ </para>
<para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given, one of the
commands below must be present.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>Total distinct</literal> versions is the number of package versions
- found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the
- number of total package names. If more than one distribution is being accessed
+ found in the cache. If more than one distribution is being accessed
(for instance, "stable" and "unstable"), this value
can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><option>showsrc</option> <option><replaceable>&synopsis-pkg;</replaceable>…</option></term>
- <listitem><para><literal>showsrc</literal> displays all the source package records that match
- the given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all
- records that declare the name to be a binary package.</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para><literal>showsrc</literal> displays all the
+ source package records that match the given package names. All
+ versions are shown, as well as all records that declare the name
+ to be a binary package. Use <option>--only-source</option> to
+ display only source package names.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><option>dump</option></term>
If <option>--full</option> is given
then output identical to <literal>show</literal> is produced for each matched
package, and if <option>--names-only</option> is given then the long description
- is not searched, only the package name is.</para>
+ is not searched, only the package name and provided packages are.</para>
<para>
Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search patterns that
are and'ed together.</para></listitem>
<term><option>--no-breaks</option></term>
<term><option>--no-replaces</option></term>
<term><option>--no-enhances</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Per default the <literal>depends</literal> and
- <literal>rdepends</literal> print all dependencies. This can be tweaked with
+ <listitem><para>Per default the <command>depends</command> and
+ <command>rdepends</command> print all dependencies. This can be tweaked with
these flags which will omit the specified dependency type.
Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::Show<replaceable>DependencyType</replaceable></literal>
e.g. <literal>APT::Cache::ShowRecommends</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry><term><option>--implicit</option></term>
+ <listitem><para>Per default <command>depends</command> and <command>rdepends</command>
+ print only dependencies explicitly expressed in the metadata. With this flag
+ it will also show dependencies implicitly added based on the encountered data.
+ A <literal>Conflicts: foo</literal> e.g. expresses implicitly that this package
+ also conflicts with the package foo from any other architecture.
+ Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::ShowImplicit</literal>.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
<varlistentry><term><option>-f</option></term><term><option>--full</option></term>
<listitem><para>Print full package records when searching.
Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::ShowFull</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><option>--names-only</option></term><term><option>-n</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions.
+ <listitem><para>Only search on the package and provided package names, not the long descriptions.
Configuration Item: <literal>APT::Cache::NamesOnly</literal>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>