-<!doctype debiandoc system>
<!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- -->
+<!doctype debiandoc PUBLIC "-//DebianDoc//DTD DebianDoc//EN">
<book>
<title>APT User's Guide</title>
<author>Jason Gunthorpe <email>jgg@debian.org</email></author>
-<version>$Id: guide.sgml,v 1.2 1998/11/23 01:15:59 jgg Exp $</version>
+<version>$Id: guide.sgml,v 1.7 2003/04/26 23:26:13 doogie Exp $</version>
<abstract>
This document provides an overview of how to use the the APT package manager.
option) any later version.
<p>
-For more details, on Debian GNU/Linux systems, see the file
-/usr/doc/copyright/GPL for the full license.
+For more details, on Debian systems, see the file
+/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for the full license.
</copyright>
<toc sect>
<p>
The Debian packaging system has a large amount of information associated with
each package to help assure that it integrates cleanly and easily into
-the system. The most prominent of features is the dependency system.
+the system. The most prominent of its features is the dependency system.
<p>
The dependency system allows individual programs to make use of shared
elements in the system such as libraries. It simplifies placing infrequently
used portions of a program in separate packages to reduce the
number of things the average user is required to install. Also, it allows
-a choices in for such things as mail transport agents, X servers and
+for choices in mail transport agents, X servers and
so on.
<p>
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 mailcrypt 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>
<p>
<prgn>apt-get</> provides a simple way to install packages from the command
line. Unlike <prgn>dpkg</>, <prgn>apt-get</> does not understand .deb files,
-it works with the packages proper name and can only install .deb archives from
+it works with the package's proper name and can only install .deb archives from
a <em>Source</>.
<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/ testing/contrib Packages
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
</example>
<p>
-Once updated there are several useful commands that can be used,
+Once updated there are several commands that can be used:
<taglist>
<tag>upgrade<item>
Upgrade will attempt to gently upgrade the whole system. Upgrade will
This can be used daily to relatively safely upgrade the system. Upgrade
will list all of the packages that it could not upgrade, this usually
means that they depend on new packages or conflict with some other package.
-<prgn>Dselect</> or <tt>apt-get install</> can be used to force these
+<prgn>dselect</> or <tt>apt-get install</> can be used to force these
packages to install.
<tag>install<item>
-Install is used to install single packages by name. The package is
+Install is used to install packages by name. The package is
automatically fetched and installed. This can be useful if you already
know the name of the package to install and do not want to go into a GUI
to select it. Any number of packages may be passed to install, they will
all be fetched. Install automatically attempts to resolve dependency problems
with the listed packages and will print a summary and ask for confirmation
-if anything other than it's arguments are changed
+if anything other than its arguments are changed.
<tag>dist-upgrade<item>
-Dist-upgrade is a complete upgrader designed to make simple upgrading between
+Dist-upgrade is a complete upgrader designed to simplify upgrading between
releases of Debian. It uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine the best
set of packages to install, upgrade and remove to get as much of the system
to the newest release. In some situations it may be desired to use dist-upgrade
</taglist>
<p>
-<prgn>apt-get</> has several command line options that are detailed in it's
+<prgn>apt-get</> has several command line options that are detailed in its
man page, <manref name="apt-get" section="8">. The most useful option is
<tt>-d</> which does not install the fetched files. If the system has to
download a large number of package it would be undesired to start installing
select the packages to be installed or removed and APT actually installs them.
<p>
-To enable the APT method you need to
to select [A]ccess in <prgn>dselect</>
+To enable the APT method you need to select [A]ccess in <prgn>dselect</>
and then choose the APT method. You will be prompted for a set of
<em>Sources</> which are places to fetch archives from. These can be remote
-Internet sites, local Debian mirrors or CDROMs. Each source can provide
+Internet sites, local Debian mirrors or CD-ROMs. Each source can provide
a fragment of the total Debian archive, APT will automatically combine them
-to form a complete set of packages. If you have a CDROM then it is a good idea
+to form a complete set of packages. If you have a CD-ROM then it is a good idea
to specify it first and then specify a mirror so that you have access to
-the latest bug fixes. APT will automatically use packages on your CDROM before
+the latest bug fixes. APT will automatically use packages on your CD-ROM before
downloading from the Internet.
<p>
<example>
Please give the distribution tag to get or a path to the
package file ending in a /. The distribution
- tags are typically something like: stable unstable frozen non-US
+ tags are typically something like: stable unstable testing non-US
Distribution [stable]:
</example>
<p>
The components list refers to the list of sub distributions to fetch. The
-distribution is split up based on software copyright, main being DFSG free
+distribution is split up based on software licenses, main being DFSG free
packages while contrib and non-free contain things that have various
restrictions placed on their use and distribution.
<p>
Before starting to use <prgn>dselect</> it is necessary to update the
-available list by selecting [U]pdate from the menu. This is a super-set of
+available list by selecting [U]pdate from the menu. This is a superset of
<tt>apt-get update</> that makes the fetched information available to
<prgn>dselect</>. [U]pdate must be performed even if <tt>apt-get update</>
has been run before.
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
+By default APT will automatically remove the package (.deb) files once they have been
+successfully installed. To change this behavior place <tt>Dselect::clean
"prompt";</> in /etc/apt/apt.conf.
</chapt>
<sect>Startup
<p>
-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 chec</>
+Before all operations except update, APT performs a number of actions to
+prepare its internal state. It also does some checks of the system's state.
+At any time these operations can be performed by running <tt>apt-get check</>.
<p>
<example>
# apt-get check
Reading Package Lists... Done
-Building Dependancy Tree... Done
+Building Dependency Tree... Done
</example>
<p>
and a warning will be printed when apt-get exits.
<p>
-The final operation performs a detailed analysis of the systems dependencies.
+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
+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
Reading Package Lists... Done
-Building Dependancy Tree... Done
+Building Dependency Tree... Done
You might want to run apt-get -f install' to correct these.
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
9fonts: Depends: xlib6g but it is not installed
<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
+certain constraints on the order that packages are installed. In both cases
+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.
be taken off. The <tt>-f</> option is especially good at generating packages
to remove so extreme care should be used in that case. The list may contain
packages that are going to be removed because they are only
-partially removed, possibly due to an aborted installation.
+partially installed, possibly due to an aborted installation.
</sect1>
<sect1>The New Packages list
<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: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:2 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/contrib Packages
+Hit http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/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
+Get:5 http://llug.sep.bnl.gov/debian/ testing/non-free Packages
+11% [5 testing/non-free `Waiting for file' 0/32.1k 0%] 2203b/s 1m52s
</example>
<p>
inaccuracies.
<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
+The next section of the status line is repeated once for each download thread
+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 [
is the fetch number as shown on the history lines. The next word
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 begins 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.
-The second last element is the instantenous average speed. This values is
+The second last element is the instantaneous average speed. This values is
updated every 5 seconds and reflects the rate of data transfer for that
period. Finally is shown the estimated transfer time. This is updated
regularly and reflects the time to complete everything at the shown
<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