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+<!-- -*- mode: sgml; mode: fold -*- -->
+<!doctype refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
+
+<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
+%aptent;
+
+]>
+
+<refentry>
+ &apt-docinfo;
+
+ <refmeta>
+ <refentrytitle>apt-cache</>
+ <manvolnum>8</>
+ </refmeta>
+
+ <!-- Man page title -->
+ <refnamediv>
+ <refname>apt-cache</>
+ <refpurpose>APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator</>
+ </refnamediv>
+
+ <!-- Arguments -->
+ <refsynopsisdiv>
+ <cmdsynopsis>
+ <command>apt-config</>
+ <arg><option>-hvs</></arg>
+ <arg><option>-o=<replaceable/config string/</></arg>
+ <arg><option>-c=<replaceable/file/</></arg>
+ <group choice=req>
+ <arg>add <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>file</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>gencaches</>
+ <arg>showpkg <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>stats</>
+ <arg>dump</>
+ <arg>dumpavail</>
+ <arg>unmet</>
+ <arg>search <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>regex</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>show <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>showpkg <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>depends <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>pkgnames <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>prefix</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ <arg>dotty <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>pkg</replaceable></arg></arg>
+ </group>
+ </cmdsynopsis>
+ </refsynopsisdiv>
+
+ <RefSect1><Title>Description</>
+ <para>
+ <command/apt-cache/ performs a variety of operations on APT's package
+ cache. <command/apt-cache/ does not manipulate the state of the system
+ but does provide operations to search and generate interesting output
+ from the package metadata.
+
+ <para>
+ Unless the <option/-h/, or <option/--help/ option is given one of the
+ above commands must be present.
+
+ <VariableList>
+ <VarListEntry><Term>add</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/add/ adds the names package index files to the package cache.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>gencaches</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/gencaches/ performs the same opration as
+ <command/apt-get check/. It builds the source and package caches from
+ the sources in &sources-list; and from <filename>/var/lib/dpkg/status</>.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>showpkg</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/showpkg/ displays information about the packages listed on the
+ command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available
+ versions and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as
+ well as forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal)
+ dependencies are those packages upon which the package in question
+ depends; reverse dependencies are those packages that depend upon the
+ package in question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a
+ package, but reverse dependencies need not be.
+ For instance, <command>apt-cache showpkg libreadline2</> would produce
+ output similar to the following:
+
+<informalexample><programlisting>
+Package: libreadline2
+Versions: 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
+Reverse Depends:
+ libreadlineg2,libreadline2
+ libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
+Dependencies:
+2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
+Provides:
+2.1-12 -
+Reverse Provides:
+</programlisting></informalexample>
+
+ <para>
+ Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-8, depends on libc5,
+ ncurses3.0, and ldso, which must be installed for libreadline2 to work.
+ In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
+ libreadline2 is installed, libc5, ncurses3.0, and ldso must also be
+ installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
+ installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
+ is best to consult the apt source code.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>stats</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/stats/ displays some statistics about the cache.
+ No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Total package names/ is the number of package names found
+ in the cache.
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Normal packages/ is the number of regular, ordinary package
+ names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between
+ their names and the names used by other packages for them in
+ dependencies. The majority of packages fall into this category.
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Pure virtual packages/ is the number of packages that exist
+ only as a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the
+ virtual package name, and no package actually uses the name. For
+ instance, "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a
+ pure virtual package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent",
+ but there is no package named "mail-transport-agent".
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Single virtual packages/ is the number of packages with only
+ one package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in the
+ Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but
+ only one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Mixed virtual packages/ is the number of packages that either
+ provide a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name
+ as the package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system,
+ debconf is both an actual package, and provided by the debconf-tiny
+ package.
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Missing/ is the number of package names that were referenced in
+ a dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may
+ be in evidence if a full distribution is not accesssed, or if a package
+ (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution. Usually they
+ are referenced from Conflicts statements.
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Total distinct/ versions is the number of package versions
+ found in the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the
+ number of total package names. If more than one distribution (both
+ "stable" and "unstable", for instance), is being accessed, this value
+ can be considerably larger than the number of total package names.
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>
+ <literal/Total dependencies/ is the number of dependency relationships
+ claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>dump</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/dump/ shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
+ primarily for debugging.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>dumpavail</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/dumpavail/ prints out an available list to stdout. This is
+ suitable for use with &dpkg; and is used by the &dselect; method.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>unmet</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/unmet/ displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the
+ package cache.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>show</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/show/ performs a function similar to
+ <command>dpkg --print-avail</>, it displays the package records for the
+ named packages.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>search</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/search/ performs a full text search on all available package
+ files for the regex pattern given. It searchs the package names and the
+ descriptions for an occurance of the string and prints out the package
+ name and the short description. If <option/--full/ is given then output
+ identical to <literal/show/ is produced for each matched package and
+ if <option/--names-only/ is given then the long description is not
+ searched, only the package name is.
+ <para>
+ Seperate arguments can be used to specified multiple search patterns that
+ are or'd together.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>depends</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/depends/ shows a listing of each dependency a package has
+ and all the possible other packages that can fullfill that dependency.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>pkgnames</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ This command prints the name of each package in the system. The optional
+ argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output is suitable
+ for use in a shell tab complete function and the output is generated
+ extremly quickly. This command is best used with the
+ <option/--generate/ option.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><Term>dotty</Term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ <literal/dotty/ takes a list of packages on the command line and
+ gernerates output suitable for use by dotty from the
+ <ulink url="http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/">GraphVis</>
+ package. The result will be a set of nodes and edges representing the
+ relationships between the packages. By default the given packages will
+ trace out all dependent packages which can produce a very large graph.
+ This can be turned off by setting the
+ <literal>APT::Cache::GivenOnly</> option.
+
+ <para>
+ The resulting nodes will have several shapse, normal packages are boxes,
+ pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
+ hexagons are missing packages. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped
+ [leaf packages], blue lines are prre-depends, green lines are conflicts.
+
+ <para>
+ Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
+ </VarListEntry>
+ </VariableList>
+ </RefSect1>
+
+ <RefSect1><Title>Options</>
+ &apt-cmdblurb;
+
+ <VariableList>
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-p/</><term><option/--pkg-cache/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the
+ primary cache used by all operations.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::pkgcache/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-s/</><term><option/--src-cache/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
+ <literal/gencaches/ and it stores a parsed version of the package
+ information from remote sources. When building the package cache the
+ source cache is used to advoid reparsing all of the package files.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-q/</><term><option/--quiet/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
+ More qs will produce more quite up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
+ <option/-q=#/ to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/quiet/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-i/</><term><option/--important/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Print only important deps; for use with unmet causes only Depends and
+ Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::Important/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-f/</><term><option/--full/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Print full package records when searching.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::ShowFull/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-a/</><term><option/--all-versions/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Print full records for all available versions, this is only applicable to
+ the show command.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::AllVersions/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/-g/</><term><option/--generate/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use the cache
+ as it is. This is the default, to turn it off use <option/--no-generate/.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::Generate/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/--names-only/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Only search on the package names, not the long description.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::NamesOnly/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/--all-names/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Make <literal/pkgnames/ print all names, including virtual packages
+ and missing dependencies.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::AllNames/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><option/--recurse/</>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ Make <literal/depends/ recursive so that all packages mentioned are
+ printed once.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/APT::Cache::RecruseDepends/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ &apt-commonoptions;
+
+ </VariableList>
+ </RefSect1>
+
+ <RefSect1><Title>Files</>
+ <variablelist>
+ <VarListEntry><term><filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</></term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ locations to fetch packages from.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::Etc::SourceList/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/</></term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
+ &sources-list;
+ Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/.
+ </VarListEntry>
+
+ <VarListEntry><term><filename>&statedir;/lists/partial/</></term>
+ <ListItem><Para>
+ storage area for state information in transit.
+ Configuration Item: <literal/Dir::State::Lists/ (implicit partial).
+ </VarListEntry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </RefSect1>
+
+ <RefSect1><Title>See Also</>
+ <para>
+ &apt-conf;, &sources-list;, &apt-get;
+ </RefSect1>
+
+ <RefSect1><Title>Diagnostics</>
+ <para>
+ <command/apt-cache/ returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
+ </RefSect1>
+
+ &manbugs;
+ &manauthor;
+
+</refentry>