1APT(8)                                APT                               APT(8)
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NAME

6       apt - command-line interface
7

SYNOPSIS

9       apt [-h] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release]
10           [-a=architecture] {list | search | show | update |
11           install pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
12           remove pkg...  | upgrade | full-upgrade | edit-sources |
13           {-v | --version} | {-h | --help}}
14

DESCRIPTION

16       apt provides a high-level commandline interface for the package
17       management system. It is intended as an end user interface and enables
18       some options better suited for interactive usage by default compared to
19       more specialized APT tools like apt-get(8) and apt-cache(8).
20
21       Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end user interface
22       and as such only mentions the most used commands and options partly to
23       not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to avoid
24       overwhelming readers with a cornucopia of options and details.
25
26       update (apt-get(8))
27           update is used to download package information from all configured
28           sources. Other commands operate on this data to e.g. perform
29           package upgrades or search in and display details about all
30           packages available for installation.
31
32       upgrade (apt-get(8))
33           upgrade is used to install available upgrades of all packages
34           currently installed on the system from the sources configured via
35           sources.list(5). New packages will be installed if required to
36           satisfy dependencies, but existing packages will never be removed.
37           If an upgrade for a package requires the removal of an installed
38           package the upgrade for this package isn't performed.
39
40       full-upgrade (apt-get(8))
41           full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade but will remove
42           currently installed packages if this is needed to upgrade the
43           system as a whole.
44
45       install, reinstall, remove, purge (apt-get(8))
46           Performs the requested action on one or more packages specified via
47           regex(7), glob(7) or exact match. The requested action can be
48           overridden for specific packages by appending a plus (+) to the
49           package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it.
50
51           A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
52           following the package name with an equals (=) and the version of
53           the package to select. Alternatively the version from a specific
54           release can be selected by following the package name with a
55           forward slash (/) and codename (bookworm, trixie, sid ...) or suite
56           name (stable, testing, unstable). This will also select versions
57           from this release for dependencies of this package if needed to
58           satisfy the request.
59
60           Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually
61           small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the
62           remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for
63           the accidentally removed package will restore its function as
64           before in that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these
65           leftovers by calling purge even on already removed packages. Note
66           that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your
67           home directory.
68
69       autoremove (apt-get(8))
70           autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically
71           installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no
72           longer needed as dependencies changed or the package(s) needing
73           them were removed in the meantime.
74
75           You should check that the list does not include applications you
76           have grown to like even though they were once installed just as a
77           dependency of another package. You can mark such a package as
78           manually installed by using apt-mark(8). Packages which you have
79           installed explicitly via install are also never proposed for
80           automatic removal.
81
82       satisfy (apt-get(8))
83           satisfy satisfies dependency strings, as used in Build-Depends. It
84           also handles conflicts, by prefixing an argument with "Conflicts:
85           ".
86
87           Example: apt satisfy "foo, bar (>= 1.0)" "Conflicts: baz, fuzz"
88
89       search (apt-cache(8))
90           search can be used to search for the given regex(7) term(s) in the
91           list of available packages and display matches. This can e.g. be
92           useful if you are looking for packages having a specific feature.
93           If you are looking for a package including a specific file try apt-
94           file(1).
95
96       show (apt-cache(8))
97           Show information about the given package(s) including its
98           dependencies, installation and download size, sources the package
99           is available from, the description of the packages content and much
100           more. It can e.g. be helpful to look at this information before
101           allowing apt(8) to remove a package or while searching for new
102           packages to install.
103
104       list
105           list is somewhat similar to dpkg-query --list in that it can
106           display a list of packages satisfying certain criteria. It supports
107           glob(7) patterns for matching package names, apt-patterns(7), as
108           well as options to list installed (--installed), upgradeable
109           (--upgradeable) or all available (--all-versions) versions.
110
111       edit-sources (work-in-progress)
112           edit-sources lets you edit your sources.list(5) files in your
113           preferred text editor while also providing basic sanity checks.
114

SCRIPT USAGE AND DIFFERENCES FROM OTHER APT TOOLS

116       The apt(8) commandline is designed as an end-user tool and it may
117       change behavior between versions. While it tries not to break backward
118       compatibility this is not guaranteed either if a change seems
119       beneficial for interactive use.
120
121       All features of apt(8) are available in dedicated APT tools like apt-
122       get(8) and apt-cache(8) as well.  apt(8) just changes the default value
123       of some options (see apt.conf(5) and specifically the Binary scope). So
124       you should prefer using these commands (potentially with some
125       additional options enabled) in your scripts as they keep backward
126       compatibility as much as possible.
127

SEE ALSO

129       apt-get(8), apt-cache(8), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5), apt-config(8),
130       apt-patterns(7), The APT User's guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/,
131       apt_preferences(5), the APT Howto.
132

DIAGNOSTICS

134       apt returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
135

BUGS

137       APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
138       /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
139

AUTHOR

141       APT team
142

NOTES

144        1. APT bug page
145           http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
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149APT 2.7.6                        20 July 2023                           APT(8)
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