&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+ so that it can be outdated if the last update is too long ago, but in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>