X-Git-Url: https://git.saurik.com/apt.git/blobdiff_plain/51c4e07f4cba0615ff269b5a8d04dfd3d1313b00..766761fd836d9e247daea924809965c21cc65dc7:/doc/apt.8.xml?ds=inline
diff --git a/doc/apt.8.xml b/doc/apt.8.xml
index e00b6417a..0529a90fb 100644
--- a/doc/apt.8.xml
+++ b/doc/apt.8.xml
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
&apt-email;
&apt-product;
- 2013-11-25T00:00:00Z
+ 2015-10-20T00:00:00Z
@@ -31,146 +31,142 @@
&synopsis-command-apt;
Description
- apt (Advanced Package Tool) is the
- command-line tool for handling packages. It provides a commandline
- interface for the package management of the system.
-
- See also &apt-get; and &apt-cache; for more low-level command options.
+ apt provides a high-level commandline interface for
+ the package management system. It is intended as an end user interface and
+ enables some options better suited for interactive usage by default
+ compared to more specialized APT tools like &apt-get; and &apt-cache;.
+
+ Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end
+ user interface and as such only mentions the most used commands and options
+ partly to not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to avoid
+ overwhelming readers with a cornucopia of options and details.
-
- list is used to
- display a list of packages. It supports shell pattern for matching
- package names and the following options:
- ,
- ,
- ,
-
- are supported.
+ (&apt-get;)
+ is used to download package
+ information from all configured sources. Other commands operate on
+ this data to e.g. perform package upgrades or search in and display
+ details about all packages available for installation.
-
-
- search searches for the given
- term(s) and display matching packages.
+
+ (&apt-get;)
+ is used to install available
+ upgrades of all packages currently installed on the system from the
+ sources configured via &sources-list;. New packages will be
+ installed if required to statisfy dependencies, but existing
+ packages will never be removed. If an upgrade for a package requires
+ the remove of an installed package the upgrade for this package
+ isn't performed.
-
- show shows the package information
- for the given package(s).
+ (&apt-get;)
+ full-upgrade performs the function of
+ upgrade but will remove currently installed packages if this is
+ needed to upgrade the system as a whole.
-
-
- install is followed by one or more
- package names desired for installation or upgrading.
-
-
- 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, testing, unstable).
-
+ , , (&apt-get;)
+ Performs the requested action on one or more packages
+ specified via ®ex;, &glob; or exact match. The requested action
+ can be overridden for specific packages by append a plus (+) to the
+ package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it.
+
+ 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. Alternatively the version from a specific release can be
+ selected by following the package name with a forward slash (/) and
+ codename (&stable-codename;, &testing-codename;, sid â¦) or suite name (stable,
+ testing, unstable). This will also select versions from this release
+ for dependencies of this package if needed to satisfy the request.
+
+ Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually
+ small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the
+ remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for the
+ accidentally removed package will restore its function as before in
+ that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these leftovers
+ by calling purge even on already removed
+ packages. Note that this does not affect any data or configuration
+ stored in your home directory.
+
-
- remove is identical to install except that packages are
- removed instead of installed. Note that removing a package leaves its
- configuration files on the system. If a plus sign is appended to the package
- name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be
- installed instead of removed.
+ (&apt-get;)
+
+ autoremove is used to remove packages that were
+ automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages
+ and are now no longer needed as dependencies changed or the package(s)
+ needing them were removed in the meantime.
+
+ You should check that the list does not include applications you have
+ grown to like even though they were once installed just as a
+ dependency of another package. You can mark such a package as manually
+ installed by using &apt-mark;. Packages which you have installed explicitly
+ via install are also never proposed for automatic removal.
+
-
- edit-sources lets you edit
- your sources.list file and provides basic sanity checks.
+ (&apt-cache;)
+ can be used to search for the given
+ ®ex; term(s) in the list of available packages and display
+ matches. This can e.g. be useful if you are looking for packages
+ having a specific feature. If you are looking for a package
+ including a specific file try &apt-file;.
-
- update is used to
- resynchronize the package index files from their sources.
+ (&apt-cache;)
+ Show information about the given package(s) including
+ its dependencies, installation and download size, sources the
+ package is available from, the description of the packages content
+ and much more. It can e.g. be helpful to look at this information
+ before allowing &apt; to remove a package or while searching for
+ new packages to install.
-
-
- upgrade is used to install the
- newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system
- from the sources enumerated in
- /etc/apt/sources.list. New packages will be
- installed, but existing packages will never be removed.
+
+ (work-in-progress)
+ is somewhat similar to dpkg-query --list
+ in that it can display a list of packages satisfying certain
+ criteria. It supports &glob; patterns for matching package names as
+ well as options to list installed (),
+ upgradeable () or all available
+ () versions.
-
- full-upgrade performs the
- function of upgrade but may also remove installed packages
- if that is required in order to resolve a package conflict.
+ (work-in-progress)
+ edit-sources lets you edit
+ your &sources-list; files in your preferred texteditor while also
+ providing basic sanity checks.
-
- options
- &apt-cmdblurb;
-
-
-
- &apt-commonoptions;
-
-
-
- Script usage
+ Script Usage and Differences from Other APT Tools
- The &apt; commandline is designed as a end-user tool and it may
- change the output between versions. While it tries to not break
- backward compatibility there is no guarantee for it either.
- All features of &apt; are available in &apt-cache; and &apt-get;
- via APT options. Please prefer using these commands in your scripts.
-
-
-
- Differences to &apt-get;
- The apt command is meant to be pleasant for
- end users and does not need to be backward compatible like
- &apt-get;. Therefore some options are different:
-
-
-
- The option DPkg::Progress-Fancy is enabled.
-
-
-
- The option APT::Color is enabled.
-
-
-
- A new list command is available
- similar to dpkg --list.
-
-
-
- The option upgrade has
- --with-new-pkgs enabled by default.
-
-
-
-
-
-
+ The &apt; commandline is designed as an end-user tool and it may
+ change behavior between versions. While it tries not to break
+ backward compatibility this is not guaranteed either if a change
+ seems beneficial for interactive use.
+
+ All features of &apt; are available in dedicated APT tools like &apt-get;
+ and &apt-cache; as well. &apt; just changes the default value of some
+ options (see &apt-conf; and specifically the Binary scope). So you should
+ prefer using these commands (potentially with some additional options
+ enabled) in your scripts as they keep backward compatibility as much as possible.
+ See Also&apt-get;, &apt-cache;, &sources-list;,
- &apt-conf;, &apt-config;,
+ &apt-conf;, &apt-config;,
The APT User's guide in &guidesdir;, &apt-preferences;, the APT Howto.