<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
-<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
- "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
+<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
+ "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
%aptent;
&apt-email;
&apt-product;
<!-- The last update date -->
- <date>29 February 2004</date>
+ <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<para><command>apt-config</command> is an internal program used by various
portions of the APT suite to provide consistent configurability. It accesses
the main configuration file <filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> in a
- manner that is easy to use by scripted applications.</para>
+ manner that is easy to use for scripted applications.</para>
<para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is
- given one of the commands below must be present.
+ given, one of the commands below must be present.
</para>
<variablelist>
- <varlistentry><term>shell</term>
+ <varlistentry><term><option>shell</option></term>
<listitem><para>
- shell is used to access the configuration information from a shell
- script. It is given pairs of arguments, the first being a shell
- variable and the second the configuration value to query. As output
- it lists a series of shell assignments commands for each present value.
- In a shell script it should be used like:
+ shell is used to access the configuration information from a shell
+ script. It is given pairs of arguments, the first being a shell
+ variable and the second the configuration value to query. As output
+ it lists shell assignment commands for each value present.
+ In a shell script it should be used as follows:
</para>
<informalexample><programlisting>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
- <varlistentry><term>dump</term>
+ <varlistentry><term><option>dump</option></term>
<listitem><para>
Just show the contents of the configuration space.</para>
</listitem>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--format '<replaceable>%f "%v";%n</replaceable>'</option></term>
- <listitem><para>Defines the output of each config option. %t will be replaced with the tagname,
- %f with the complete tagname and %v with the value of the option.
- Use uppercase letters and the respective values will be quoted. Additionally
- %n will be replaced by a newline, %N by a tab. A % can be
+ <listitem><para>Defines the output of each config option. %t will be replaced with its individual name,
+ %f with its full hierarchical name and %v with its value.
+ Use uppercase letters and special characters in the value will be encoded to ensure that
+ it can e.g. be safely used in a quoted-string as defined by RFC822. Additionally
+ %n will be replaced by a newline, and %N by a tab. A % can be
printed by using %%.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>