mailto(apt@packages.debian.org)
manpage(apt-config)(8)(14 Feb 1999)(apt)()
manpagename(apt-config)(APT Configuration Query program)

manpagesynopsis()
apt-config command

manpagedescription()
bf(apt-config) is an internal program used by various portions of the APT
suite to provide consistent configurability. It accesses the main configuarion
file /etc/apt/apt.conf in a manner that is easy to use by scripted
applications.

em(command) is one of:
itemize(
  it() shell
)

Unless the -h, or --help option is given one of the above commands
must be present.

startdit()
dit(bf(shell))
bf(shell) is used to access the configuration information from a shell script.
It is given pairs of arguments, the first being a shell variable and the
second the configuration value to query. As output it lists a series of shell
assignments commands for each present value. In a shell script it should be
used like:

verb(
OPTS="-f"

RES=`apt-config shell OPTS MyApp::Options`

eval $RES
)

This will set the shell environment variable $OPTS to the value of
MyApp::Options with a default of -f.

If the configuration item to retrieve is prefixed with a / then it will
be retrieved using filename mode which prepends base paths.

enddit()

manpageoptions()
All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the
descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
options you can override the config file by using something like bf(-f-),
bf(--no-f), bf(-f=no) or several other variations.

startdit()
dit(bf(-h, --help))
Show a short usage summary.

dit(bf(-v, --version))
Show the program verison.

dit(bf(-c, --config-file))
Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. bf(apt-get) will
read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. See
bf(apt.conf(5)) for syntax information.

dit(bf(-o, --option))
Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option.
The syntax is 
verb(-o Foo::Bar=bar)
enddit()

manpageseealso()
apt.conf(5)

manpagediagnostics()
apt-config returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.

manpagebugs()
See http://bugs.debian.org/apt.  If you wish to report a
bug in bf(apt-config), please see bf(/usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt)
or the bf(bug(1)) command.

manpageauthor()
apt-get was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.