<RefSect1><Title>Description</>
<para>
<command/apt-get/ is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be
- considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT library.
+ considered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT
+ library. Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as dselect(8),
+ aptitude, synaptic, gnome-apt and wajig.
<para>
- Unless the <option/-h/, or <option/--help/ option is given one of the
+ Unless the <option/-h/, or <option/--help/ option is given, one of the
commands below must be present.
<VariableList>
<VarListEntry><Term>dselect-upgrade</Term>
<ListItem><Para>
- is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian GNU/Linux packaging
+ <literal/dselect-upgrade/
+ is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
front-end, &dselect;. <literal/dselect-upgrade/
follows the changes made by &dselect; to the <literal/Status/
field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize
<literal/upgrade/, also intelligently handles changing dependencies
with new versions of packages; <command/apt-get/ has a "smart" conflict
resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important
- packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
+ packages at the expense of less important ones if necessary.
The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</> file contains a list of locations
from which to retrieve desired package files.
+ See also &apt-preferences; for a mechanism for
+ overriding the general settings for individual packages.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><Term>install</Term>
<literal/install/ is followed by one or more packages desired for
installation. Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified
filename (for instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux system, libc6 would be the
- argument provided, not em(libc6_1.9.6-2.deb)). All packages required
+ argument provided, not <literal/libc6_1.9.6-2.deb/). All packages required
by the package(s) specified for installation will also be retrieved and
installed. The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</> file is used to locate
the desired packages. If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with
no intervening space), the identified package will be removed if it is
installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used to designate a package to
install. These latter features may be used to override decisions made by
- apt-get's conflict resolution system.
+ apt-get's conflict resolution system.
<para>
A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
following the package name with an equals and the version of the package
to select. This will cause that version to be located and selected for
install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by
following the package name with a slash and the version of the
- distribution or the Archive name (stable, frozen, unstable).
+ distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing, unstable).
<para>
Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must
be used with care.
<para>
+ Finally, the &apt-preferences; mechanism allows you to
+ create an alternative installation policy for
+ individual packages.
+ <para>
If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one
- of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regex and it is applied
+ of '.', '?' or '*' then it is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression,
+ and it is applied
to all package names in the database. Any matches are then installed (or
removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*' matches 'how-lo'
- and 'lowest'. If this is undesired prefix with a '^' character.
+ and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression
+ with a '^' or '$' character, or create a more specific regular expression.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><Term>remove</Term>
<literal/remove/ is identical to <literal/install/ except that packages are
removed instead of installed. If a plus sign is appended to the package
name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
- installed.
+ installed instead of removed.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><Term>source</Term>
<VarListEntry><Term>build-dep</Term>
<ListItem><Para>
<literal/build-dep/ causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an
- attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source packages.
+ attempt to satisfy the build dependencies for a source package.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><Term>check</Term>
<literal/clean/ clears out the local repository of retrieved package
files. It removes everything but the lock file from
<filename>&cachedir;/archives/</> and
- <filename>&cachedir;/archive/partial/</>. When APT is used as a
+ <filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</>. When APT is used as a
&dselect; method, <literal/clean/ is run automatically.
Those who do not use dselect will likely want to run <literal/apt-get clean/
from time to time to free up disk space.
useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without
it growing out of control. The configuration option
<literal/APT::Clean-Installed/ will prevent installed packages from being
- erased if it is set off.
+ erased if it is set to off.
</VarListEntry>
</VariableList>
</RefSect1>
<ListItem><Para>
Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
- to permit APT to deduce a likely soltion. Any Package that are specified
- must completly correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
+ to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. Any Package that are specified
+ must completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package
dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention
Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Show-Upgraded/.
</VarListEntry>
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-V/</><term><option/--verbose-versions/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Show-Versions/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
<VarListEntry><term><option/-b/</><term><option/--compile/</>
<term><option/--build/</>
<ListItem><Para>
<VarListEntry><term><option/--no-upgrade/</>
<ListItem><Para>
- Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with <literal/install/
- <literal/no-upgrade/ will prevent packages listed from being upgraded
- if they are already installed.
+
+ Do not upgrade packages; When used in conjunction with
+ <literal/install/, <literal/no-upgrade/ will prevent packages
+ listed on the command linefrom being upgraded if they are already
+ installed.
+
Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Upgrade/.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><option/--purge/</>
<ListItem><Para>
Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed.
+ An asterisk ("*") will be displayed next to packages which are
+ scheduled to be purged.
Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Purge/.
</VarListEntry>
lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be
retrieved from. Some common examples might be
<option>-t '2.1*'</> or <option>-t unstable</>.
- Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Default-Release/
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Default-Release/;
+ see also the &apt-preferences; manual page.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><option/--trivial-only/</>
<VarListEntry><term><option/--only-source/</>
<ListItem><Para>
- Only has meaning for the <literal/source/ command. indicates that the
- given source names are not to be mapped through the binary table.
+ Only has meaning for the <literal/source/ command. Indicates that the
+ given source names are not to be mapped through the binary
+ table. This means that if this option is specified, the
+ <literal/source/ command will only accept source package names as
+ arguments, rather than accepting binary package names and looking
+ up the corresponding source package.
Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Get::Only-Source/
</VarListEntry>
<variablelist>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- locations to fetch packages from.
+ Locations to fetch packages from.
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::SourceList/.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/preferences</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- version preferences file
+ Version preferences file.
+ This is where you would specify "pinning",
+ i.e. a preference to get certain packages
+ from a separate source
+ or from a different version of a distribution.
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::Preferences/.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- storage area for retrieved package files.
+ Storage area for retrieved package files.
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::Archives/.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>&cachedir;/archives/partial/</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- storage area for package files in transit.
+ Storage area for package files in transit.
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::Archives/ (implicit partial).
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
+ Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
&sources-list;
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/.
</VarListEntry>
<VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/</></term>
<ListItem><Para>
- storage area for state information in transit.
+ Storage area for state information in transit.
Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/ (implicit partial).
</VarListEntry>
</variablelist>
<RefSect1><Title>See Also</>
<para>
- &apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;, &dpkg;, &dselect;, &sources-list;, &apt-conf;,
- The APT User's guide in &docdir;, &apt-preferences;.
+ &apt-cache;, &apt-cdrom;, &dpkg;, &dselect;, &sources-list;,
+ &apt-conf;, &apt-config;,
+ The APT User's guide in &docdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.
</RefSect1>
<RefSect1><Title>Diagnostics</>
projects / apt.git / blobdiff