apt-patterns(7)

1APT-PATTERNS(7)                       APT                      APT-PATTERNS(7)
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NAME

6       apt-patterns - Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns
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DESCRIPTION

9       Starting with version 2.0, APT provides support for patterns, which can
10       be used to query the apt cache for packages.
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LOGIC PATTERNS

13       These patterns provide the basic means to combine other patterns into
14       more complex expressions, as well as ?true and ?false patterns.
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16       ?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN PATTERN ...
17           Selects objects where all specified patterns match.
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19       ?false, ~F
20           Selects nothing.
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22       ?not(PATTERN), !PATTERN
23           Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.
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25       ?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN | PATTERN | ...
26           Selects objects where at least one of the specified patterns match.
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28       ?true, ~T
29           Selects all objects.
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31       (PATTERN)
32           Selects the same as PATTERN, can be used to work around precedence,
33           for example, (~ramd64|~ri386)~nfoo
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NARROWING PATTERNS

36       ?all-versions(PATTERN)
37           Selects packages where all versions match PATTERN. When matching
38           versions instead, same as PATTERN.
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40       ?any-version(PATTERN)
41           Selects any version where the pattern matches on the version.
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43           For example, while ?and(?version(1),?version(2)) matches a package
44           which has one version containing 1 and one version containing 2,
45           ?any-version(?and(?version(1),?version(2))) restricts the ?and to
46           act on the same version.
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48       ?narrow(PATTERN...)
49           Selects any version matching all PATTERNs, short for
50           ?any-version(?and(PATTERN...)).
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PACKAGE PATTERNS

53       These patterns select specific packages.
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55       ?architecture(WILDCARD), ~rWILDCARD
56           Selects packages matching the specified architecture, which may
57           contain wildcards using any.
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59       ?automatic, ~M
60           Selects packages that were installed automatically.
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62       ?broken, ~b
63           Selects packages that have broken dependencies.
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65       ?config-files, ~c
66           Selects packages that are not fully installed, but have solely
67           residual configuration files left.
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69       ?essential, ~E
70           Selects packages that have Essential: yes set in their control
71           file.
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73       ?exact-name(NAME)
74           Selects packages with the exact specified name.
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76       ?garbage, ~g
77           Selects packages that can be removed automatically.
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79       ?installed, ~i
80           Selects packages that are currently installed.
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82       ?name(REGEX), ~nREGEX
83           Selects packages where the name matches the given regular
84           expression.
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86       ?obsolete, ~o
87           Selects packages that no longer exist in repositories.
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89       ?upgradable, ~U
90           Selects packages that can be upgraded (have a newer candidate).
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92       ?virtual, ~v
93           Selects all virtual packages; that is packages without a version.
94           These exist when they are referenced somewhere in the archive, for
95           example because something depends on that name.
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VERSION PATTERNS

98       These patterns select specific versions of a package.
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100       ?archive(REGEX), ~AREGEX
101           Selects versions that come from the archive that matches the
102           specified regular expression. Archive, here, means the values after
103           a= in apt-cache policy.
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105       ?origin(REGEX), ~OREGEX
106           Selects versions that come from the origin that matches the
107           specified regular expression. Origin, here, means the values after
108           o= in apt-cache policy.
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110       ?section(REGEX), ~sREGEX
111           Selects versions where the section matches the specified regular
112           expression.
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114       ?source-package(REGEX), ~eREGEX
115           Selects versions where the source package name matches the
116           specified regular expression.
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118       ?source-version(REGEX)
119           Selects versions where the source package version matches the
120           specified regular expression.
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122       ?version(REGEX), ~VREGEX
123           Selects versions where the version string matches the specified
124           regular expression.
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PACKAGE RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS

127       These patterns match specific package versions that depend/conflict
128       with some other packages.
129
130       ?depends(PATTERN), ~DPATTERN, ?pre-depends(PATTERN),
131       ~DPre-Depends:PATTERN, ?suggests(PATTERN), ~DSuggests:PATTERN,
132       ?conflicts(PATTERN), ~DConflicts:PATTERN, ?replaces(PATTERN),
133       ~DReplaces:PATTERN, ?obsoletes(PATTERN), ~DObsoletes:PATTERN,
134       ?breaks(PATTERN), ~DBreaks:PATTERN, ?enhances(PATTERN),
135       ~DEnhances:PATTERN
136           Selects versions depending/pre-depending/suggesting/conflicting/etc
137           on/with/ packages matching PATTERN.
138
139       ?reverse-depType(PATTERN), ~RDepType:PATTERN
140           Opposite of ?depends and friends - selects all packages that have
141           reverse-dependencies (versions) matching PATTERN.
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143           depType is one of the dependency types such as depends, so that we
144           don't have to repeat the entire list from the first paragraph here.
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EXAMPLES

147       apt remove ?garbage
148           Remove all packages that are automatically installed and no longer
149           needed - same as apt autoremove
150
151       apt purge ?config-files
152           Purge all packages that only have configuration files left
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154       apt list '~i !~M (~slibs|~sperl|~spython)'
155           List all manually-installed packages in sections matching libs,
156           perl, or python.
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MIGRATING FROM APTITUDE

159       Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but with
160       some tweaks:
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162       ·   Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening parenthesis after a term,
163           it is always assumed to be the beginning of an argument list.
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165           In aptitude, a syntactic form "?foo(bar)" could mean
166           "?and(?foo,bar)" if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this
167           will cause an error.
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169       ·   Not all patterns are supported.
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171       ·   Some additional patterns are available, for example, for finding
172           gstreamer codecs.
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174       ·   Escaping terms with ~ is not supported.
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176       ·   A trailing comma is allowed in argument lists
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178       ·   ?narrow accepts infinite arguments
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180       ·   foo cannot be used as a shortform for ?name(foo), as this can cause
181           typos to go unnoticed: Consider ?and(...,~poptional): this requires
182           the package to have required priority, but if you do not type the
183           ~, it would require the package name to contain poptional.
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185       ·   Grouping patterns with (...)  or writing ?or(A,B) as A|B are not
186           supported. We do not believe that the use of | is that common, and
187           the grouping is not necessary without it.
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189       ·   Dependency types for ~D and related operators need to be specified
190           in the canonical case.
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BUGS

196       APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
197       /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
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AUTHOR

200       APT was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.
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AUTHORS

203       Jason Gunthorpe
204
205       APT team
206

NOTES

208        1. APT bug page
209           http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
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213APT 2.1.20                     27 December 2020                APT-PATTERNS(7)