1APT-PATTERNS(7) APT APT-PATTERNS(7)
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6 apt-patterns - Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns
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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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13 These patterns provide the basic means to combine other patterns into
14 more complex expressions, as well as ?true and ?false patterns.
15 ?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN PATTERN ...
17 Selects objects where all specified patterns match.
18 ?false, ~F
20 Selects nothing.
21 ?not(PATTERN), !PATTERN
23 Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.
24 ?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN | PATTERN | ...
26 Selects objects where at least one of the specified patterns match.
27 ?true, ~T
29 Selects all objects.
30 (PATTERN)
32 Selects the same as PATTERN, can be used to work around precedence,
33 for example, (~ramd64|~ri386)~nfoo
34
36 ?all-versions(PATTERN)
37 Selects packages where all versions match PATTERN. When matching
38 versions instead, same as PATTERN.
39 ?any-version(PATTERN)
41 Selects any version where the pattern matches on the version.
42 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.
47 ?narrow(PATTERN...)
49 Selects any version matching all PATTERNs, short for
50 ?any-version(?and(PATTERN...)).
51
53 These patterns select specific packages.
54 ?architecture(WILDCARD), ~rWILDCARD
56 Selects packages matching the specified architecture, which may
57 contain wildcards using any.
58 ?automatic, ~M
60 Selects packages that were installed automatically.
61 ?broken, ~b
63 Selects packages that have broken dependencies.
64 ?config-files, ~c
66 Selects packages that are not fully installed, but have solely
67 residual configuration files left.
68 ?essential, ~E
70 Selects packages that have Essential: yes set in their control
71 file.
72 ?exact-name(NAME)
74 Selects packages with the exact specified name.
75 ?garbage, ~g
77 Selects packages that can be removed automatically.
78 ?installed, ~i
80 Selects packages that are currently installed.
81 ?name(REGEX), ~nREGEX
83 Selects packages where the name matches the given regular
84 expression.
85 ?obsolete, ~o
87 Selects packages that no longer exist in repositories.
88 ?upgradable, ~U
90 Selects packages that can be upgraded (have a newer candidate).
91 ?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.
96
98 These patterns select specific versions of a package.
99 ?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.
104 ?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.
109 ?section(REGEX), ~sREGEX
111 Selects versions where the section matches the specified regular
112 expression.
113 ?source-package(REGEX), ~eREGEX
115 Selects versions where the source package name matches the
116 specified regular expression.
117 ?source-version(REGEX)
119 Selects versions where the source package version matches the
120 specified regular expression.
121 ?version(REGEX), ~VREGEX
123 Selects versions where the version string matches the specified
124 regular expression.
125
127 apt remove ?garbage
128 Remove all packages that are automatically installed and no longer
129 needed - same as apt autoremove
130 apt purge ?config-files
132 Purge all packages that only have configuration files left
133 apt list '~i !~M (~slibs|~sperl|~spython)'
135 List all manually-installed packages in sections matching libs,
136 perl, or python.
137
139 Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but with
140 some tweaks:
141 · Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening parenthesis after a term,
143 it is always assumed to be the beginning of an argument list.
144 In aptitude, a syntactic form "?foo(bar)" could mean
146 "?and(?foo,bar)" if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this
147 will cause an error.
148 · Not all patterns are supported.
150 · Some additional patterns are available, for example, for finding
152 gstreamer codecs.
153 · Escaping terms with ~ is not supported.
155 · A trailing comma is allowed in argument lists
157 · ?narrow accepts infinite arguments
159 · foo cannot be used as a shortform for ?name(foo), as this can cause
161 typos to go unnoticed: Consider ?and(...,~poptional): this requires
162 the package to have required priority, but if you do not type the
163 ~, it would require the package name to contain poptional.
164 · Grouping patterns with (...) or writing ?or(A,B) as A|B are not
166 supported. We do not believe that the use of | is that common, and
167 the grouping is not necessary without it.
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170 apt-get(8), apt(8)
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173 APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
174 /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
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177 APT was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.
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180 Jason Gunthorpe
181 APT team
183
185 1. APT bug page
186 http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
187APT 2.0.2 04 February 2020 APT-PATTERNS(7)