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+ so that it can be outdated if the last update is too long ago, but in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