diff options
| author | David Kalnischkies <david@kalnischkies.de> | 2015-10-27 09:57:26 +0100 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | David Kalnischkies <david@kalnischkies.de> | 2015-11-04 18:04:05 +0100 |
| commit | 8561c2fedae26aecd8ba758a5e7ef686ba1243f3 (patch) | |
| tree | 2dd8bd0c15f75064f2a4f8d7bd4bd9e30b307998 /doc/apt-cache.8.xml | |
| parent | c094c868786f70bef8a00625fd62be1fa404b220 (diff) | |
revamp all tools help messages
The general idea is: A small paragraph on the tool itself as a
description, a list of the most used (!= all) commands available in the
tool, a remark where to find more information on the tool and its
commands (aka: in the manpage) and finally a common block referring to
even more manpages. In exchange options are completely omitted from the
output as well as deprecated or obscure commands. (Better) Information
about them is available in the manpages anyway and the few options which
were listed before were also the least interesting ones (-o -c -q and co
are hardly of interest for someone totally new looking to find info by
asking for help and anyone with a bit of experience doesn't need this
short list. Those would need a list of options applying to the command
they call, but they are too numerous and command specific to list them
sanely in this context.
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/apt-cache.8.xml')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/apt-cache.8.xml | 14 |
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/apt-cache.8.xml b/doc/apt-cache.8.xml index b649149af..a76eb1000 100644 --- a/doc/apt-cache.8.xml +++ b/doc/apt-cache.8.xml @@ -32,10 +32,16 @@ &synopsis-command-apt-cache; <refsect1><title>Description</title> - <para><command>apt-cache</command> performs a variety of operations on APT's package - cache. <command>apt-cache</command> does not manipulate the state of the system - but does provide operations to search and generate interesting output - from the package metadata.</para> + <para> + <command>apt-cache</command> performs a variety of operations on APT's + package cache. <command>apt-cache</command> does not manipulate the + state of the system but does provide operations to search and generate + interesting output from the package metadata. The metadata is acquired + and updated via the 'update' command of e.g. <command>apt-get</command>, + so that it can be outdated if the last update is too long ago, but in + exchange <command>apt-cache</command> works independently of the + availability of the configured sources (e.g. offline). + </para> <para>Unless the <option>-h</option>, or <option>--help</option> option is given, one of the commands below must be present.</para> |