1APT-CACHE(8)                          APT                         APT-CACHE(8)
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3
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NAME

6       apt-cache - query the APT cache
7

SYNOPSIS

9       apt-cache [-agipns] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] {gencaches |
10                 showpkg pkg...  | showsrc pkg...  | stats | dump | dumpavail
11                 | unmet | search regex...  |
12                 show pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
13                 depends pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
14                 rdepends pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
15                 pkgnames [prefix]  |
16                 dotty pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
17                 xvcg pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
18                 policy [pkg...]  | madison pkg...  | {-v | --version} |
19                 {-h | --help}}
20

DESCRIPTION

22       apt-cache performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
23       apt-cache does not manipulate the state of the system but does provide
24       operations to search and generate interesting output from the package
25       metadata. The metadata is acquired and updated via the 'update' command
26       of e.g.  apt-get, so that it can be outdated if the last update is too
27       long ago, but in exchange apt-cache works independently of the
28       availability of the configured sources (e.g. offline).
29
30       Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below
31       must be present.
32
33       gencaches
34           gencaches creates APT's package cache. This is done implicitly by
35           all commands needing this cache if it is missing or outdated.
36
37       showpkg pkg...
38           showpkg displays information about the packages listed on the
39           command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available
40           versions and reverse dependencies of each package listed are
41           listed, as well as forward dependencies for each version. Forward
42           (normal) dependencies are those packages upon which the package in
43           question depends; reverse dependencies are those packages that
44           depend upon the package in question. Thus, forward dependencies
45           must be satisfied for a package, but reverse dependencies need not
46           be. For instance, apt-cache showpkg libreadline2 would produce
47           output similar to the following:
48
49               Package: libreadline2
50               Versions: 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
51               Reverse Depends:
52                 libreadlineg2,libreadline2
53                 libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
54               Dependencies:
55               2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
56               Provides:
57               2.1-12 -
58               Reverse Provides:
59           Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends on
60           libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2 to
61           work. In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on
62           libreadline2. If libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and ncurses3.0
63           (and ldso) must also be installed; libreadlineg2 and
64           libreadline2-altdev do not have to be installed. For the specific
65           meaning of the remainder of the output it is best to consult the
66           apt source code.
67
68       stats
69           stats displays some statistics about the cache. No further
70           arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
71
72           •   Total package names is the number of package names found in the
73               cache.
74
75           •   Normal packages is the number of regular, ordinary package
76               names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence
77               between their names and the names used by other packages for
78               them in dependencies. The majority of packages fall into this
79               category.
80
81           •   Pure virtual packages is the number of packages that exist only
82               as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the
83               virtual package name, and no package actually uses the name.
84               For instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian system is a
85               pure virtual package; several packages provide
86               "mail-transport-agent", but there is no package named
87               "mail-transport-agent".
88
89           •   Single virtual packages is the number of packages with only one
90               package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in
91               the Debian system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but
92               only one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".
93
94           •   Mixed virtual packages is the number of packages that either
95               provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual
96               package name as the package name. For instance, in the Debian
97               system, "debconf" is both an actual package, and provided by
98               the debconf-tiny package.
99
100           •   Missing is the number of package names that were referenced in
101               a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing
102               packages may be an evidence if a full distribution is not
103               accessed, or if a package (real or virtual) has been dropped
104               from the distribution. Usually they are referenced from
105               Conflicts or Breaks statements.
106
107           •   Total distinct versions is the number of package versions found
108               in the cache. If more than one distribution is being accessed
109               (for instance, "stable" and "unstable"), this value can be
110               considerably larger than the number of total package names.
111
112           •   Total dependencies is the number of dependency relationships
113               claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
114
115
116       showsrc pkg...
117           showsrc displays all the source package records that match the
118           given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all records
119           that declare the name to be a binary package. Use --only-source to
120           display only source package names.
121
122       dump
123           dump shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
124           primarily for debugging.
125
126       dumpavail
127           dumpavail prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable
128           for use with dpkg(1) and is used by the dselect(1) method.
129
130       unmet
131           unmet displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package
132           cache.
133
134       show pkg...
135           show performs a function similar to dpkg --print-avail; it displays
136           the package records for the named packages.
137
138       search regex...
139           search performs a full text search on all available package lists
140           for the POSIX regex pattern given, see regex(7). It searches the
141           package names and the descriptions for an occurrence of the regular
142           expression and prints out the package name and the short
143           description, including virtual package names. If --full is given
144           then output identical to show is produced for each matched package,
145           and if --names-only is given then the long description is not
146           searched, only the package name and provided packages are.
147
148           Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search patterns
149           that are and'ed together.
150
151       depends pkg...
152           depends shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all
153           the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.
154
155       rdepends pkg...
156           rdepends shows a listing of each reverse dependency a package has.
157
158       pkgnames [prefix]
159           This command prints the name of each package APT knows. The
160           optional argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The
161           output is suitable for use in a shell tab complete function and the
162           output is generated extremely quickly. This command is best used
163           with the --generate option.
164
165           Note that a package which APT knows of is not necessarily available
166           to download, installable or installed, e.g. virtual packages are
167           also listed in the generated list.
168
169       dotty pkg...
170           dotty takes a list of packages on the command line and generates
171           output suitable for use by dotty from the GraphViz[1] package. The
172           result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the
173           relationships between the packages. By default the given packages
174           will trace out all dependent packages; this can produce a very
175           large graph. To limit the output to only the packages listed on the
176           command line, set the APT::Cache::GivenOnly option.
177
178           The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are
179           boxes, pure virtual packages are triangles, mixed virtual packages
180           are diamonds, missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean
181           recursion was stopped (leaf packages), blue lines are pre-depends,
182           green lines are conflicts.
183
184           Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
185
186       xvcg pkg...
187           The same as dotty, only for xvcg from the VCG tool[2].
188
189       policy [pkg...]
190           policy is meant to help debug issues relating to the preferences
191           file. With no arguments it will print out the priorities of each
192           source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information about the
193           priority selection of the named package.
194
195       madison pkg...
196           apt-cache's madison command attempts to mimic the output format and
197           a subset of the functionality of the Debian archive management
198           tool, madison. It displays available versions of a package in a
199           tabular format. Unlike the original madison, it can only display
200           information for the architecture for which APT has retrieved
201           package lists (APT::Architecture).
202

OPTIONS

204       All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the
205       descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
206       options you can override the config file by using something like
207       -f-,--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.
208
209       -p, --pkg-cache
210           Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is
211           the primary cache used by all operations. Configuration Item:
212           Dir::Cache::pkgcache.
213
214       -s, --src-cache
215           Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only
216           by gencaches and it stores a parsed version of the package
217           information from remote sources. When building the package cache
218           the source cache is used to avoid reparsing all of the package
219           files. Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache.
220
221       -q, --quiet
222           Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress
223           indicators. More q's will produce more quietness up to a maximum of
224           2. You can also use -q=# to set the quietness level, overriding the
225           configuration file. Configuration Item: quiet.
226
227       -i, --important
228           Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet and depends.
229           Causes only Depends and Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
230           Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Important.
231
232       --no-pre-depends, --no-depends, --no-recommends, --no-suggests,
233       --no-conflicts, --no-breaks, --no-replaces, --no-enhances
234           Per default the depends and rdepends print all dependencies. This
235           can be tweaked with these flags which will omit the specified
236           dependency type. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::ShowDependencyType
237           e.g.  APT::Cache::ShowRecommends.
238
239       --implicit
240           Per default depends and rdepends print only dependencies explicitly
241           expressed in the metadata. With this flag it will also show
242           dependencies implicitly added based on the encountered data. A
243           Conflicts: foo e.g. expresses implicitly that this package also
244           conflicts with the package foo from any other architecture.
245           Configuration Item: APT::Cache::ShowImplicit.
246
247       -f, --full
248           Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item:
249           APT::Cache::ShowFull.
250
251       -a, --all-versions
252           Print full records for all available versions. This is the default;
253           to turn it off, use --no-all-versions. If --no-all-versions is
254           specified, only the candidate version will be displayed (the one
255           which would be selected for installation). This option is only
256           applicable to the show command. Configuration Item:
257           APT::Cache::AllVersions.
258
259       -g, --generate
260           Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use the
261           cache as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use
262           --no-generate. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Generate.
263
264       --names-only, -n
265           Only search on the package and provided package names, not the long
266           descriptions. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::NamesOnly.
267
268       --all-names
269           Make pkgnames print all names, including virtual packages and
270           missing dependencies. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllNames.
271
272       --recurse
273           Make depends and rdepends recursive so that all packages mentioned
274           are printed once. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::RecurseDepends.
275
276       --installed
277           Limit the output of depends and rdepends to packages which are
278           currently installed. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Installed.
279
280       --with-source filename
281           Adds the given file as a source for metadata. Can be repeated to
282           add multiple files. Supported are currently *.deb, *.dsc,
283           *.changes, Sources and Packages files as well as source package
284           directories. Files are matched based on their name only, not their
285           content!
286
287           Sources and Packages can be compressed in any format apt supports
288           as long as they have the correct extension. If you need to store
289           multiple of these files in one directory you can prefix a name of
290           your choice with the last character being an underscore ("_").
291           Example: my.example_Packages.xz
292
293           Note that these sources are treated as trusted (see apt-secure(8)).
294           Configuration Item: APT::Sources::With.
295
296       -h, --help
297           Show a short usage summary.
298
299       -v, --version
300           Show the program version.
301
302       -c, --config-file
303           Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. The
304           program will read the default configuration file and then this
305           configuration file. If configuration settings need to be set before
306           the default configuration files are parsed specify a file with the
307           APT_CONFIG environment variable. See apt.conf(5) for syntax
308           information.
309
310       -o, --option
311           Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitrary
312           configuration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar.  -o and
313           --option can be used multiple times to set different options.
314

FILES

316       /etc/apt/sources.list
317           Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item:
318           Dir::Etc::SourceList.
319
320       /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
321           File fragments for locations to fetch packages from. Configuration
322           Item: Dir::Etc::SourceParts.
323
324       /var/lib/apt/lists/
325           Storage area for state information for each package resource
326           specified in sources.list(5) Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists.
327
328       /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/
329           Storage area for state information in transit. Configuration Item:
330           Dir::State::Lists (partial will be implicitly appended)
331

SEE ALSO

333       apt.conf(5), sources.list(5), apt-get(8)
334

DIAGNOSTICS

336       apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
337

BUGS

339       APT bug page[3]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
340       /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
341

AUTHORS

343       Jason Gunthorpe
344
345       APT team
346

NOTES

348        1. GraphViz
349           http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/
350
351        2. VCG tool
352           http://rw4.cs.uni-sb.de/users/sander/html/gsvcg1.html
353
354        3. APT bug page
355           http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
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357
358
359APT 2.3.5                        04 April 2019                    APT-CACHE(8)
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