X-Git-Url: https://git.saurik.com/apt.git/blobdiff_plain/ab48734ffcd5ba0aeb858a8401233cffafe188bb..41f28cb341b1757162826ba2f8fc1ce75ecb25b7:/doc/apt.conf.5.xml
diff --git a/doc/apt.conf.5.xml b/doc/apt.conf.5.xml
index db8dfa7ce..e2db9defb 100644
--- a/doc/apt.conf.5.xml
+++ b/doc/apt.conf.5.xml
@@ -12,15 +12,22 @@
&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
&apt-author.team;
+
+ Daniel
+ Burrows
+ Initial documentation of Debug::*.
+ dburrows@debian.org
+
&apt-email;
&apt-product;
- 29 February 2004
+ 18 September 2009
apt.conf
5
+ APT
@@ -41,18 +48,23 @@
loading even more config files.
The configuration file is organized in a tree with options organized into
- functional groups. option specification is given with a double colon
+ functional groups. Option specification is given with a double colon
notation, for instance APT::Get::Assume-Yes is an option within
- the APT tool group, for the Get tool. options do not inherit from their
+ the APT tool group, for the Get tool. Options do not inherit from their
parent groups.
Syntactically the configuration language is modeled after what the ISC tools
- such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
- // are treated as comments (ignored).
+ such as bind and dhcp use. Lines starting with
+ // are treated as comments (ignored), as well as all text
+ between /* and */, just like C/C++ comments.
Each line is of the form
- APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true"; The trailing
- semicolon is required and the quotes are optional. A new scope can be
- opened with curly braces, like:
+ APT::Get::Assume-Yes "true";. The trailing
+ semicolon and the quotes are required. The value must be on one line, and
+ there is no kind of string concatenation. It must not include inside quotes.
+ The behavior of the backslash "\" and escaped characters inside a value is
+ undefined and it should not be used. An option name may include
+ alphanumerical characters and the "/-:._+" characters. A new scope can
+ be opened with curly braces, like:
APT {
@@ -64,7 +76,7 @@ APT {
with newlines placed to make it more readable. Lists can be created by
- opening a scope and including a single word enclosed in quotes followed by a
+ opening a scope and including a single string enclosed in quotes followed by a
semicolon. Multiple entries can be included, each separated by a semicolon.
@@ -78,16 +90,41 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
The names of the configuration items are not case-sensitive. So in the previous example
you could use dpkg::pre-install-pkgs.
- Two specials are allowed, #include and #clear
+ Names for the configuration items are optional if a list is defined as it can be see in
+ the DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs example above. If you don't specify a name a
+ new entry will simply add a new option to the list. If you specify a name you can override
+ the option as every other option by reassigning a new value to the option.
+
+ Two specials are allowed, #include (which is deprecated
+ and not supported by alternative implementations) and #clear:
#include will include the given file, unless the filename
ends in a slash, then the whole directory is included.
- #clear is used to erase a list of names.
+ #clear is used to erase a part of the configuration tree. The
+ specified element and all its descendants are erased.
+ (Note that these lines also need to end with a semicolon.)
+
+ The #clear command is the only way to delete a list or a complete scope.
+ Reopening a scope or the ::-style described below will not
+ override previously written entries. Only options can be overridden by addressing a new
+ value to it - lists and scopes can't be overridden, only cleared.
All of the APT tools take a -o option which allows an arbitrary configuration
directive to be specified on the command line. The syntax is a full option
name (APT::Get::Assume-Yes for instance) followed by an equals
sign then the new value of the option. Lists can be appended too by adding
- a trailing :: to the list name.
+ a trailing :: to the list name. (As you might suspect: The scope syntax can't be used
+ on the command line.)
+
+ Note that you can use :: only for appending one item per line to a list and
+ that you should not use it in combination with the scope syntax.
+ (The scope syntax implicit insert ::) Using both syntaxes together will trigger a bug
+ which some users unfortunately relay on: An option with the unusual name "::"
+ which acts like every other option with a name. These introduces many problems
+ including that a user who writes multiple lines in this wrong syntax in
+ the hope to append to a list will gain the opposite as only the last assignment for this option
+ "::" will be used. Upcoming APT versions will raise errors and
+ will stop working if they encounter this misuse, so please correct such statements now
+ as long as APT doesn't complain explicit about them.
The APT Group
@@ -101,6 +138,11 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
compiled for.
+ Default-Release
+ Default release to install packages from if more than one
+ version available. Contains release name, codename or release version. Examples: 'stable', 'testing', 'unstable', 'lenny', 'squeeze', '4.0', '5.0*'. See also &apt-preferences;.
+
+
Ignore-Hold
Ignore Held packages; This global option causes the problem resolver to
ignore held packages in its decision making.
@@ -114,11 +156,26 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
Immediate-Configure
- Disable Immediate Configuration; This dangerous option disables some
- of APT's ordering code to cause it to make fewer dpkg calls. Doing
- so may be necessary on some extremely slow single user systems but
- is very dangerous and may cause package install scripts to fail or worse.
- Use at your own risk.
+ Defaults to on which will cause APT to install essential and important packages
+ as fast as possible in the install/upgrade operation. This is done to limit the effect of a failing
+ &dpkg; call: If this option is disabled APT does treat an important package in the same way as
+ an extra package: Between the unpacking of the important package A and his configuration can then
+ be many other unpack or configuration calls, e.g. for package B which has no relation to A, but
+ causes the dpkg call to fail (e.g. because maintainer script of package B generates an error) which results
+ in a system state in which package A is unpacked but unconfigured - each package depending on A is now no
+ longer guaranteed to work as their dependency on A is not longer satisfied. The immediate configuration marker
+ is also applied to all dependencies which can generate a problem if the dependencies e.g. form a circle
+ as a dependency with the immediate flag is comparable with a Pre-Dependency. So in theory it is possible
+ that APT encounters a situation in which it is unable to perform immediate configuration, error out and
+ refers to this option so the user can deactivate the immediate configuration temporary to be able to perform
+ an install/upgrade again. Note the use of the word "theory" here as this problem was only encountered by now
+ in real world a few times in non-stable distribution versions and caused by wrong dependencies of the package
+ in question or by a system in an already broken state, so you should not blindly disable this option as
+ the mentioned scenario above is not the only problem immediate configuration can help to prevent in the first place.
+ Before a big operation like dist-upgrade is run with this option disabled it should be tried to
+ explicitly install the package APT is unable to configure immediately, but please make sure to
+ report your problem also to your distribution and to the APT team with the buglink below so they can work on
+ improving or correcting the upgrade process.
Force-LoopBreak
@@ -161,6 +218,12 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
and the URI handlers.
+ PDiffs
+ Try to download deltas called PDiffs for
+ Packages or Sources files instead of downloading whole ones. True
+ by default.
+
+
Queue-Mode
Queuing mode; Queue-Mode can be one of host or
access which determines how APT parallelizes outgoing
@@ -184,8 +247,9 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
standard form of http://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/. Per
host proxies can also be specified by using the form
http::Proxy::<host> with the special keyword DIRECT
- meaning to use no proxies. The http_proxy environment variable
- will override all settings.
+ meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
+ http_proxy environment variable
+ will be used.
Three settings are provided for cache control with HTTP/1.1 compliant
proxy caches. No-Cache tells the proxy to not use its cached
@@ -201,18 +265,50 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
this applies to all things including connection timeout and data timeout.
One setting is provided to control the pipeline depth in cases where the
- remote server is not RFC conforming or buggy (such as Squid 2.0.2)
+ remote server is not RFC conforming or buggy (such as Squid 2.0.2).
Acquire::http::Pipeline-Depth can be a value from 0 to 5
indicating how many outstanding requests APT should send. A value of
zero MUST be specified if the remote host does not properly linger
on TCP connections - otherwise data corruption will occur. Hosts which
- require this are in violation of RFC 2068.
+ require this are in violation of RFC 2068.
+
+ The used bandwidth can be limited with Acquire::http::Dl-Limit
+ which accepts integer values in kilobyte. The default value is 0 which deactivates
+ the limit and tries uses as much as possible of the bandwidth (Note that this option implicit
+ deactivates the download from multiple servers at the same time.)
+ https
+ HTTPS URIs. Cache-control and proxy options are the same as for
+ http method.
+ Pipeline-Depth option is not supported yet.
+
+ CaInfo suboption specifies place of file that
+ holds info about trusted certificates.
+ <host>::CaInfo is corresponding per-host option.
+ Verify-Peer boolean suboption determines whether verify
+ server's host certificate against trusted certificates or not.
+ <host>::Verify-Peer is corresponding per-host option.
+ Verify-Host boolean suboption determines whether verify
+ server's hostname or not.
+ <host>::Verify-Host is corresponding per-host option.
+ SslCert determines what certificate to use for client
+ authentication. <host>::SslCert is corresponding per-host option.
+ SslKey determines what private key to use for client
+ authentication. <host>::SslKey is corresponding per-host option.
+ SslForceVersion overrides default SSL version to use.
+ Can contain 'TLSv1' or 'SSLv3' string.
+ <host>::SslForceVersion is corresponding per-host option.
+
+
ftp
- FTP URIs; ftp::Proxy is the default proxy server to use. It is in the
- standard form of ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/ and is
- overridden by the ftp_proxy environment variable. To use a ftp
+ FTP URIs; ftp::Proxy is the default ftp proxy to use. It is in the
+ standard form of ftp://[[user][:pass]@]host[:port]/. Per
+ host proxies can also be specified by using the form
+ ftp::Proxy::<host> with the special keyword DIRECT
+ meaning to use no proxies. If no one of the above settings is specified,
+ ftp_proxy environment variable
+ will be used. To use a ftp
proxy you will have to set the ftp::ProxyLogin script in the
configuration file. This entry specifies the commands to send to tell
the proxy server what to connect to. Please see
@@ -250,7 +346,7 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
as specified in /etc/fstab. It is possible to provide
alternate mount and unmount commands if your mount point cannot be listed
in the fstab (such as an SMB mount and old mount packages). The syntax
- is to put "/cdrom/"::Mount "foo"; within
+ is to put /cdrom/::Mount "foo"; within
the cdrom block. It is important to have the trailing slash. Unmount
commands can be specified using UMount.
@@ -261,6 +357,34 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
+ CompressionTypes
+ List of compression types which are understood by the acquire methods.
+ Files like Packages can be available in various compression formats.
+ Per default the acquire methods can decompress bzip2, lzma
+ and gzip compressed files, with this setting more formats can be added
+ on the fly or the used method can be changed. The syntax for this is:
+ Acquire::CompressionTypes::FileExtension "Methodname";
+ Also the Order subgroup can be used to define in which order
+ the acquire system will try to download the compressed files. The acquire system will try the first
+ and proceed with the next compression type in this list on error, so to prefer one over the other type
+ simple add the preferred type at first - not already added default types will be added at run time
+ to the end of the list, so e.g. Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order:: "gz"; can
+ be used to prefer gzip compressed files over bzip2 and lzma.
+ If lzma should be preferred over gzip and bzip2 the
+ configure setting should look like this Acquire::CompressionTypes::Order { "lzma"; "gz"; };
+ It is not needed to add bz2 explicit to the list as it will be added automatic.
+ Note that at run time the Dir::Bin::Methodname will
+ be checked: If this setting exists the method will only be used if this file exists, e.g. for
+ the bzip2 method (the inbuilt) setting is Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";
+ Note also that list entries specified on the command line will be added at the end of the list
+ specified in the configuration files, but before the default entries. To prefer a type in this case
+ over the ones specified in in the configuration files you can set the option direct - not in list style.
+ This will not override the defined list, it will only prefix the list with this type.
+ While it is possible to add an empty compression type to the order list, but APT in its current
+ version doesn't understand it correctly and will display many warnings about not downloaded files -
+ these warnings are most of the time false negatives. Future versions will maybe include a way to
+ really prefer uncompressed files to support the usage of local mirrors.
+
@@ -295,6 +419,7 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
Binary programs are pointed to by Dir::Bin. Dir::Bin::Methods
specifies the location of the method handlers and gzip,
+ bzip2, lzma,
dpkg, apt-get dpkg-source
dpkg-buildpackage and apt-cache specify the location
of the respective programs.
@@ -387,19 +512,472 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
the default is to disable signing and produce all binaries.
+
+ dpkg trigger usage (and related options)
+ APT can call dpkg in a way so it can make aggressive use of triggers over
+ multiply calls of dpkg. Without further options dpkg will use triggers only in between his
+ own run. Activating these options can therefore decrease the time needed to perform the
+ install / upgrade. Note that it is intended to activate these options per default in the
+ future, but as it changes the way APT calling dpkg drastically it needs a lot more testing.
+ These options are therefore currently experimental and should not be used in
+ productive environments. Also it breaks the progress reporting so all frontends will
+ currently stay around half (or more) of the time in the 100% state while it actually configures
+ all packages.
+ Note that it is not guaranteed that APT will support these options or that these options will
+ not cause (big) trouble in the future. If you have understand the current risks and problems with
+ these options, but are brave enough to help testing them create a new configuration file and test a
+ combination of options. Please report any bugs, problems and improvements you encounter and make sure
+ to note which options you have used in your reports. Asking dpkg for help could also be useful for
+ debugging proposes, see e.g. dpkg --audit. A defensive option combination would be
+DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
+PackageManager::Configure "smart";
+DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
+DPkg::TriggersPending "true";
+
+
+ DPkg::NoTriggers
+ Add the no triggers flag to all dpkg calls (except the ConfigurePending call).
+ See &dpkg; if you are interested in what this actually means. In short: dpkg will not run the
+ triggers when this flag is present unless it is explicitly called to do so in an extra call.
+ Note that this option exists (undocumented) also in older apt versions with a slightly different
+ meaning: Previously these option only append --no-triggers to the configure calls to dpkg -
+ now apt will add these flag also to the unpack and remove calls.
+
+ PackageManager::Configure
+ Valid values are "all", "smart" and "no".
+ "all" is the default value and causes APT to configure all packages explicit.
+ The "smart" way is it to configure only packages which need to be configured before
+ another package can be unpacked (Pre-Depends) and let the rest configure by dpkg with a call generated
+ by the next option. "no" on the other hand will not configure anything and totally
+ rely on dpkg for configuration (which will at the moment fail if a Pre-Depends is encountered).
+ Setting this option to another than the all value will implicitly activate also the next option per
+ default as otherwise the system could end in an unconfigured status which could be unbootable!
+
+
+ DPkg::ConfigurePending
+ If this option is set apt will call dpkg --configure --pending
+ to let dpkg handle all required configurations and triggers. This option is activated automatic
+ per default if the previous option is not set to all, but deactivating could be useful
+ if you want to run APT multiple times in a row - e.g. in an installer. In these sceneries you could
+ deactivate this option in all but the last run.
+
+ DPkg::TriggersPending
+ Useful for smart configuration as a package which has pending
+ triggers is not considered as installed and dpkg treats them as unpacked
+ currently which is a dealbreaker for Pre-Dependencies (see debbugs #526774). Note that this will
+ process all triggers, not only the triggers needed to configure this package.
+
+ PackageManager::UnpackAll
+ As the configuration can be deferred to be done at the end by dpkg it can be
+ tried to order the unpack series only by critical needs, e.g. by Pre-Depends. Default is true
+ and therefore the "old" method of ordering in various steps by everything. While both method
+ were present in earlier APT versions the OrderCritical method was unused, so
+ this method is very experimental and needs further improvements before becoming really useful.
+
+
+ OrderList::Score::Immediate
+ Essential packages (and there dependencies) should be configured immediately
+ after unpacking. It will be a good idea to do this quite early in the upgrade process as these
+ these configure calls require currently also DPkg::TriggersPending which
+ will run quite a few triggers (which maybe not needed). Essentials get per default a high score
+ but the immediate flag is relatively low (a package which has a Pre-Depends is higher rated).
+ These option and the others in the same group can be used to change the scoring. The following
+ example shows the settings with there default values.
+ OrderList::Score {
+ Delete 500;
+ Essential 200;
+ Immediate 10;
+ PreDepends 50;
+};
+
+
+
+
- Debug options
- Most of the options in the debug section are not interesting to
- the normal user, however Debug::pkgProblemResolver shows
- interesting output about the decisions dist-upgrade makes.
- Debug::NoLocking disables file locking so APT can do some
- operations as non-root and Debug::pkgDPkgPM will print out the
- command line for each dpkg invokation. Debug::IdentCdrom will
- disable the inclusion of statfs data in CDROM IDs.
- Debug::Acquire::gpgv Debugging of the gpgv method.
+
+ Periodic and Archives options
+ APT::Periodic and APT::Archives
+ groups of options configure behavior of apt periodic updates, which is
+ done by /etc/cron.daily/apt script. See header of
+ this script for the brief documentation of these options.
+
+
+ Debug options
+
+ Enabling options in the Debug:: section will
+ cause debugging information to be sent to the standard error
+ stream of the program utilizing the apt
+ libraries, or enable special program modes that are primarily
+ useful for debugging the behavior of apt.
+ Most of these options are not interesting to a normal user, but a
+ few may be:
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgProblemResolver enables output
+ about the decisions made by
+ dist-upgrade, upgrade, install, remove, purge.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::NoLocking disables all file
+ locking. This can be used to run some operations (for
+ instance, apt-get -s install) as a
+ non-root user.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgDPkgPM prints out the actual
+ command line each time that apt invokes
+ &dpkg;.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::IdentCdrom disables the inclusion
+ of statfs data in CDROM IDs.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ A full list of debugging options to apt follows.
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Acquire::cdrom
+
+
+
+ Print information related to accessing
+ cdrom:// sources.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Acquire::ftp
+
+
+
+ Print information related to downloading packages using
+ FTP.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Acquire::http
+
+
+
+ Print information related to downloading packages using
+ HTTP.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Acquire::https
+
+
+
+ Print information related to downloading packages using
+ HTTPS.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Acquire::gpgv
+
+
+
+ Print information related to verifying cryptographic
+ signatures using gpg.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::aptcdrom
+
+
+
+ Output information about the process of accessing
+ collections of packages stored on CD-ROMs.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::BuildDeps
+
+
+ Describes the process of resolving build-dependencies in
+ &apt-get;.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::Hashes
+
+
+ Output each cryptographic hash that is generated by the
+ apt libraries.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::IdentCDROM
+
+
+ Do not include information from statfs,
+ namely the number of used and free blocks on the CD-ROM
+ filesystem, when generating an ID for a CD-ROM.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::NoLocking
+
+
+ Disable all file locking. For instance, this will allow
+ two instances of apt-get
+ update
to run at the same time.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAcquire
+
+
+
+ Log when items are added to or removed from the global
+ download queue.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAcquire::Auth
+
+
+ Output status messages and errors related to verifying
+ checksums and cryptographic signatures of downloaded files.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAcquire::Diffs
+
+
+ Output information about downloading and applying package
+ index list diffs, and errors relating to package index list
+ diffs.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAcquire::RRed
+
+
+
+ Output information related to patching apt package lists
+ when downloading index diffs instead of full indices.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAcquire::Worker
+
+
+
+ Log all interactions with the sub-processes that actually
+ perform downloads.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgAutoRemove
+
+
+
+ Log events related to the automatically-installed status of
+ packages and to the removal of unused packages.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgDepCache::AutoInstall
+
+
+ Generate debug messages describing which packages are being
+ automatically installed to resolve dependencies. This
+ corresponds to the initial auto-install pass performed in,
+ e.g., apt-get install, and not to the
+ full apt dependency resolver; see
+ Debug::pkgProblemResolver for that.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker
+
+
+ Generate debug messages describing which package is marked
+ as keep/install/remove while the ProblemResolver does his work.
+ Each addition or deletion may trigger additional actions;
+ they are shown indented two additional space under the original entry.
+ The format for each line is MarkKeep,
+ MarkDelete or MarkInstall followed by
+ package-name <a.b.c -> d.e.f | x.y.z> (section)
+ where a.b.c is the current version of the package,
+ d.e.f is the version considered for installation and
+ x.y.z is a newer version, but not considered for installation
+ (because of a low pin score). The later two can be omitted if there is none or if
+ it is the same version as the installed.
+ section is the name of the section the package appears in.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgInitConfig
+
+
+ Dump the default configuration to standard error on
+ startup.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgDPkgPM
+
+
+ When invoking &dpkg;, output the precise command line with
+ which it is being invoked, with arguments separated by a
+ single space character.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgDPkgProgressReporting
+
+
+ Output all the data received from &dpkg; on the status file
+ descriptor and any errors encountered while parsing it.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgOrderList
+
+
+
+ Generate a trace of the algorithm that decides the order in
+ which apt should pass packages to
+ &dpkg;.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgPackageManager
+
+
+
+ Output status messages tracing the steps performed when
+ invoking &dpkg;.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgPolicy
+
+
+
+ Output the priority of each package list on startup.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgProblemResolver
+
+
+
+ Trace the execution of the dependency resolver (this
+ applies only to what happens when a complex dependency
+ problem is encountered).
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::pkgProblemResolver::ShowScores
+
+
+ Display a list of all installed packages with their calculated score
+ used by the pkgProblemResolver. The description of the package
+ is the same as described in Debug::pkgDepCache::Marker
+
+
+
+
+
+ Debug::sourceList
+
+
+
+ Print information about the vendors read from
+ /etc/apt/vendors.list.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Examples
&configureindex; is a
@@ -408,7 +986,9 @@ DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs {"/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt";};
Files
- /etc/apt/apt.conf
+
+ &file-aptconf;
+
See Also