1APT-CACHE(8) apt-cache APT-CACHE(8)
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6 apt-cache - APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator
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10 apt-cache [options] [-o config=string] [-c=cfgfile] command [pkg|file(s)|regex]
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14 apt-cache performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
15 apt-cache does not manipulate the state of the system but does provide
16 operations to search and generate interesting output from the package
17 metadata.
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21 Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below
22 must be present.
23 add file(s)
26 Adds the named package index file(s) to the package cache. This
27 is for debugging only.
28 gencaches
31 Performs the same operation as apt-get check. It builds the
32 source and package caches from the sources in sources.list(5)
33 and from /var/lib/rpm/.
34 showpkg pkg(s)
37 Displays information about the packages listed on the command-
38 line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available ver‐
39 sions and reverse dependencies of each package specified are
40 listed, as well as forward dependencies for each version. For‐
41 ward (normal) dependencies are those packages upon which the
42 package in question depends; reverse dependencies are those
43 packages that depend upon the package in question. Thus, forward
44 dependencies must be satisfied for a package, but reverse depen‐
45 dencies need not be. For instance, apt-cache showpkg libread‐
46 line2 would produce output similar to the following:
47 Package: libreadline2
49 Versions: 2.1-12(/var/lib/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
50 Reverse Depends:
51 libreadlineg2,libreadline2
52 libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
53 Dependencies:
54 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
55 Provides:
56 2.1-12 -
57 Reverse Provides:
58 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends
60 on libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2
61 to work. In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend
62 on libreadline2. If libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and
63 ncurses3.0 (and ldso) must also be installed; libreadlineg2 and
64 libreadline2-altdev do not have to be installed. For the spe‐
65 cific meaning of the remainder of the output it is best to con‐
66 sult the apt source code.
67 stats Displays some statistics about the cache. No further arguments
70 are expected. Statistics reported are:
71 · Total package names is the number of package names found in
73 the cache.
74 · Normal packages is the number of regular, ordinary package
76 names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one correspon‐
77 dence between their names and the names used by other packages
78 for them in dependencies. The majority of packages fall into
79 this category.
80 · Pure virtual packages is the number of packages that exist
82 only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "pro‐
83 vide" the virtual package name, and no package actually uses
84 the name. For instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian
85 GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual package; several packages
86 provide "mail-transport-agent", but there is no package named
87 "mail-transport-agent".
88 · Single virtual packages is the number of packages with only
90 one package providing a particular virtual package. For exam‐
91 ple, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a
92 virtual package, but only one package, xless, provides
93 "X11-text-viewer".
94 · Mixed virtual packages is the number of packages that either
96 provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual pack‐
97 age name as the package name. For instance, in the Debian
98 GNU/Linux system, "debconf" is both an actual package, and
99 provided by the debconf-tiny package.
100 · Missing is the number of package names that were referenced in
102 a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing
103 packages may be in evidence if a full distribution is not
104 accessed, or if a package (real or virtual) has been dropped
105 from the distribution. Usually they are referenced from Con‐
106 flicts statements.
107 · Total distinct versions is the number of package versions
109 found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to
110 the number of total package names. If more than one distribu‐
111 tion (both "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being
112 accessed, this value can be considerably larger than the num‐
113 ber of total package names.
114 · Total dependencies is the number of dependency relationships
116 claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
117 showsrc pkg(s)
120 Displays all the source package records that match the given
121 package names. All versions are shown, as well as all records
122 that declare the name to be a Binary.
123 dump Shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is pri‐
126 marily for debugging.
127 dumpavail
130 Prints out an available list to stdout.
131 unmet Displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package
134 cache.
135 show pkg(s)
138 Displays the package records for the named packages.
139 search regex [regex ...]
142 Performs a full text search on all available package lists for
143 the regex pattern given. It searches the package names and the
144 descriptions for an occurrence of the regular expression and
145 prints out the package name and the short description. If --full
146 is given then output identical to show is produced for each
147 matched package, and if --names-only is given then the long
148 description is not searched, only the package name is.
149 Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search pat‐
151 terns that are and'ed together.
152 depends pkg(s)
155 Shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all the
156 possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.
157 whatdepends pkg(s)
160 Shows a listing of what depends on a package.
161 whatprovides pkg(s)
164 Shows a listing of package which provides a dependency.
165 pkgnames prefix
168 Prints the name of each package in the system. The optional
169 argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output
170 is suitable for use in a shell tab complete function and the
171 output is generated extremely quickly. This command is best
172 used with the --generate option.
173 dotty pkg(s)
176 Takes a list of packages on the command line and generates out‐
177 put suitable for use by dotty from the GraphViz
178 (http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/) package. The
179 result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the rela‐
180 tionships between the packages. By default the given packages
181 will trace out all dependent packages; this can produce a very
182 large graph. To limit the output to only the packages listed on
183 the command line, set the APT::Cache::GivenOnly option.
184 The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages
186 are boxes, pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are dia‐
187 monds, missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recur‐
188 sion was stopped [leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends,
189 green lines are conflicts.
190 Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
192 policy [pkg(s)]
195 This is meant to help debug issues relating to the preferences
196 file. With no arguments it will print out the priorities of each
197 source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information about the
198 priority selection of the named package.
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202 All command-line options may be set using the configuration file, the
203 descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
204 options you can override the config file by using something like
205 -f-,--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.
206 -p, --pkg-cache
209 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is
210 the primary cache used by all operations.
211 Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::pkgcache.
213 -s, --src-cache
216 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used
217 only by gencaches and it stores a parsed version of the package
218 information from remote sources. When building the package cache
219 the source cache is used to advoid reparsing all of the package
220 files.
221 Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache.
223 -q, --quiet
226 Quiet. Produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress
227 indicators. More q's will produce more quietness up to a maxi‐
228 mum of two. You can also use -q=# to set the quietness level,
229 overriding the configuration file.
230 Configuration Item: quiet.
232 -i, --important
235 Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet. Causes
236 only Depends and Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
237 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Important.
239 -f, --full
242 Print full package records when searching.
243 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::ShowFull.
245 -a, --all-versions
248 Print full records for all available versions. This is the
249 default; to turn it off, use --no-all-versions. If --no-all-ver‐
250 sions is specified, only the candidate version will be displayed
251 (the one which would be selected for installation). This option
252 is only applicable to the show command.
253 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllVersions.
255 -g, --generate
258 Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use
259 the cache as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use
260 --no-generate.
261 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Generate.
263 -n, --names-only
266 Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions.
267 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::NamesOnly.
269 --all-names
272 Make pkgnames print all names, including virtual packages and
273 missing dependencies.
274 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllNames.
276 --recurse
279 Make depends recursive so that all packages mentioned are
280 printed once.
281 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::RecurseDepends.
283 -h, --help
286 Show a short usage summary.
287 -v, --version
290 Show the program version.
291 -c, --config-file
294 Configuration File. Specify a configuration file to use. The
295 program will read the default configuration file and then this
296 configuration file. See apt.conf(5) for syntax information.
297 -o, --option
300 Set a Configuration Option. This will set an arbitrary configu‐
301 ration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar.
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305 /etc/apt/sources.list
306 Locations to fetch packages from.
307 Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::SourceList.
309 /var/lib/apt/lists/
312 Storage area for state information for each package resource
313 specified in sources.list(5).
314 Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists.
316 /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/
319 Storage area for state information in transit.
320 Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists (implicit partial).
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325 apt.conf(5), sources.list(5), apt-get(8)
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329 apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
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333 Reporting bugs in APT-RPM is best done in the APT-RPM mailinglist at
334 http://apt-rpm.org/mailinglist.shtml.
335
338 Maintainer and contributor information can be found in the credits page
339 http://apt-rpm.org/about.shtml of APT-RPM.
340APT-RPM 14 Jun 2006 APT-CACHE(8)