1APT-CACHE(8) APT-CACHE(8)
2
6 apt-cache - APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator
7
9 apt-cache [ -hvsn ] [ -o=config string ] [ -c=file ] { add file ... |
10 gencaches | showpkg pkg ... | showsrc pkg ... | stats | dump |
11 dumpavail | unmet | search regex | show pkg ... | depends pkg ... |
12 whatdepends pkg ... | pkgnames prefix | dotty pkg ... | policy pkgs
13 ... }
14
17 apt-cache performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache. apt-
18 cache does not manipulate the state of the system but does provide
19 operations to search and generate interesting output from the package
20 metadata.
21 Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below
23 must be present.
24 add file(s)
26 add adds the named package index files to the package cache.
27 This is for debugging only.
28 gencaches
30 gencaches performs the same operation as apt-get check. It
31 builds the source and package caches from the sources in
32 sources.list(5) and from /var/lib/dpkg/status.
33 showpkg pkg(s)
35 showpkg displays information about the packages listed on the
36 command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The avail‐
37 able versions and reverse dependencies of each package listed
38 are listed, as well as forward dependencies for each version.
39 Forward (normal) dependencies are those packages upon which the
40 package in question depends; reverse dependencies are those
41 packages that depend upon the package in question. Thus, forward
42 dependencies must be satisfied for a package, but reverse depen‐
43 dencies need not be. For instance, apt-cache showpkg libread‐
44 line2 would produce output similar to the following:
45 Package: libreadline2
48 Versions: 2.1-12(/var/lib/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
49 Reverse Depends:
50 libreadlineg2,libreadline2
51 libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
52 Dependencies:
53 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
54 Provides:
55 2.1-12 -
56 Reverse Provides:
57 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends
59 on libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2
60 to work. In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend
61 on libreadline2. If libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and
62 ncurses3.0 (and ldso) must also be installed; libreadlineg2 and
63 libreadline2-altdev do not have to be installed. For the spe‐
64 cific meaning of the remainder of the output it is best to con‐
65 sult the apt source code.
66 stats stats displays some statistics about the cache. No further
68 arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
69 · Total package names is the number of package names found in
71 the cache.
72 · Normal packages is the number of regular, ordinary package
74 names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one correspon‐
75 dence between their names and the names used by other packages
76 for them in dependencies. The majority of packages fall into
77 this category.
78 · Pure virtual packages is the number of packages that exist
80 only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "pro‐
81 vide" the virtual package name, and no package actually uses
82 the name. For instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian
83 GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual package; several packages
84 provide "mail-transport-agent", but there is no package named
85 "mail-transport-agent".
86 · Single virtual packages is the number of packages with only
88 one package providing a particular virtual package. For exam‐
89 ple, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a
90 virtual package, but only one package, xless, provides
91 "X11-text-viewer".
92 · Mixed virtual packages is the number of packages that either
94 provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual pack‐
95 age name as the package name. For instance, in the Debian
96 GNU/Linux system, "debconf" is both an actual package, and
97 provided by the debconf-tiny package.
98 · Missing is the number of package names that were referenced in
100 a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing
101 packages may be in evidence if a full distribution is not
102 accessed, or if a package (real or virtual) has been dropped
103 from the distribution. Usually they are referenced from Con‐
104 flicts statements.
105 · Total distinct versions is the number of package versions
107 found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to
108 the number of total package names. If more than one distribu‐
109 tion (both "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being
110 accessed, this value can be considerably larger than the num‐
111 ber of total package names.
112 · Total dependencies is the number of dependency relationships
114 claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
115 showsrc pkg(s)
117 showsrc displays all the source package records that match the
118 given package names. All versions are shown, as well as all
119 records that declare the name to be a Binary.
120 dump dump shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
122 primarily for debugging.
123 dumpavail
125 dumpavail prints out an available list to stdout. This is suit‐
126 able for use with dpkg(8) and is used by the dselect(8) method.
127 unmet unmet displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the pack‐
129 age cache.
130 show pkg(s)
132 show performs a function similar to dpkg --print-availi; it dis‐
133 plays the package records for the named packages.
134 search regex [ regex ... ]
136 search performs a full text search on all available package
137 lists for the regex pattern given. It searches the package names
138 and the descriptions for an occurrence of the regular expression
139 and prints out the package name and the short description. If
140 --full is given then output identical to show is produced for
141 each matched package, and if --names-only is given then the long
142 description is not searched, only the package name is.
143 Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search pat‐
145 terns that are and'ed together.
146 depends pkg(s)
148 depends shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all
149 the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.
150 whatdepends pkg(s)
152 whatdepends shows a listing of what depends on a package.
153 pkgnames [ prefix ]
155 This command prints the name of each package in the system. The
156 optional argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The
157 output is suitable for use in a shell tab complete function and
158 the output is generated extremely quickly. This command is best
159 used with the --generate option.
160 dotty pkg(s)
162 dotty takes a list of packages on the command line and generates
163 output suitable for use by dotty from the GraphViz
164 <URL:http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/> package.
165 The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the
166 relationships between the packages. By default the given pack‐
167 ages will trace out all dependent packages; this can produce a
168 very large graph. To limit the output to only the packages
169 listed on the command line, set the APT::Cache::GivenOnly
170 option.
171 The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages
173 are boxes, pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are dia‐
174 monds, missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recur‐
175 sion was stopped [leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends,
176 green lines are conflicts.
177 Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
179 policy [ pkg(s) ]
181 policy is ment to help debug issues relating to the preferences
182 file. With no arguments it will print out the priorities of each
183 source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information about the
184 priority selection of the named package.
185
187 All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the
188 descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
189 options you can override the config file by using something like
190 -f-,--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.
191 -p
193 --pkg-cache
195 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is
196 the primary cache used by all operations. Configuration Item:
197 Dir::Cache::pkgcache.
198 -s
200 --src-cache
202 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used
203 only by gencaches and it stores a parsed version of the package
204 information from remote sources. When building the package cache
205 the source cache is used to advoid reparsing all of the package
206 files. Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache.
207 -q
209 --quiet
211 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress
212 indicators. More q's will produce more quietness up to a maxi‐
213 mum of 2. You can also use -q=# to set the quietness level,
214 overriding the configuration file. Configuration Item: quiet.
215 -i
217 --important
219 Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet. Causes
220 only Depends and Pre-Depends relations to be printed. Configu‐
221 ration Item: APT::Cache::Important.
222 -f
224 --full Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item:
226 APT::Cache::ShowFull.
227 -a
229 --all-versions
231 Print full records for all available versions. This is the
232 default; to turn it off, use --no-all-versions. If --no-all-
233 versions is specified, only the candidate version will displayed
234 (the one which would be selected for installation). This option
235 is only applicable to the show command. Configuration Item:
236 APT::Cache::AllVersions.
237 -g
239 --generate
241 Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use
242 the cache as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use
243 --no-generate. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Generate.
244 --names-only
246 -n Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions.
248 Configuration Item: APT::Cache::NamesOnly.
249 --all-names
251 Make pkgnames print all names, including virtual packages and
252 missing dependencies. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllNames.
253 --recurse
255 Make depends recursive so that all packages mentioned are
256 printed once. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::RecurseDepends.
257 -h
259 --help Show a short usage summary.
261 -v
263 --version
265 Show the program version.
266 -c
268 --config-file
270 Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. The
271 program will read the default configuration file and then this
272 configuration file. See apt.conf(5) for syntax information.
273 -o
275 --option
277 Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitrary configu‐
278 ration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar.
279
281 /etc/apt/sources.list
282 Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item:
283 Dir::Etc::SourceList.
284 /var/lib/apt/lists/
286 Storage area for state information for each package resource
287 specified in sources.list(5) Configuration Item:
288 Dir::State::Lists.
289 /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/
291 Storage area for state information in transit. Configuration
292 Item: Dir::State::Lists (implicit partial).
293
295 apt.conf(5), sources.list(5), apt-get(8)
296
298 apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
299
301 See the APT bug page <URL:http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt>. If you wish
302 to report a bug in APT, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-report‐
303 ing.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
304
306 APT was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.
307 02 August 2007 APT-CACHE(8)