1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
|
mailto(apt@packages.debian.org)
manpage(apt-cache)(8)(4 Dec 1998)(apt)()
manpagename(apt-cache)(APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator)
manpagesynopsis()
apt-cache command [argument ...]
manpagedescription()
bf(apt-cache) performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
bf(apt-cache) is seldom called directly; instead its operations are
performed automatically by the other bf(apt) utilities.
em(command) is one of:
itemize(
it() add file1 [file2] [...]
it() gencaches
it() showpkg package1 [package2] [...]
it() stats
it() dump
it() dumpavail
it() unmet
it() check
it() search
it() show
it() showpkg
it() depends
it() pkgnames
it() dotty
)
Unless the -h, or --help option is given one of the above commands
must be present.
startdit()
dit(bf(add))
bf(add) adds the names package index files to the package cache.
dit(bf(gencaches))
bf(gencaches) performs the same opration as bf(apt-get check). It builds
the source and package caches from thes sources in bf(/etc/apt/sources.list)
and from bf(/var/lib/dpkg/status).
dit(bf(showpkg))
bf(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, bf(apt-cache showpkg libreadline2) would produce output similar
to the following:
verb(
Package: libreadline2
Versions:
2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/debian.midco.net_debian_dists_slink_main_binary-i386_Packages),
Reverse Depends:
libreadlineg2,libreadline2
libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
Dependencies:
2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null)) ldso (2 1.9.0-1)
Provides:
2.1-12 -
Reverse Provides:
)
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.
dit(bf(stats))
bf(stats) displays some statistics about bf(cache).
No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
itemize(
it() bf(Total package names) is the number of package names found in the cache.
it() bf(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.
it() bf(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".
it() bf(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".
it() bf(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, e2fsprogs is
both an actual package, and provided by the e2compr package.
it() bf(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.
it() bf(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.
it() bf(Total dependencies) is the number of dependency relationships claimed
by all of the packages in the cache.
)
dit(bf(dump))
bf(dump) shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is primarily
for debugging.
dit(bf(dumpavail))
bf(dumpavail) prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable for use
with bf(dpkg) and is used by the bf(dselect) method.
dit(bf(unmet))
bf(unmet) displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package cache.
dit(bf(check))
bf(check) is a random function for testing certain aspects of the cache.
Do not use it.
dit(bf(showpkg))
bf(showpkg) displays a listing of the given package cache structure and some
related information about it. The list is meant primarily for debugging.
dit(bf(show))
bf(show) performs a function similar to dpkg --print-avail, it displays
the package records for the named packages.
dit(bf(search))
bf(search) performs a full text search on all available package files for
the 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 --full is given then output identical to bf(show) is produced
for each matched package and if --names-only is given then the long
description is not searched, only the package name is.
dit(bf(depends))
bf(depends) shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all
the possible other packages that can fullfill that dependency.
dit(bf(pkgnames))
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 bf(--no-generate) option.
dit(bf(dotty))
bf(dotty) Takes a list of packages on the command line and gernerates output
suitable for use by dotty from the GraphVis
(http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/) 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
APT::Cache::GivenOnly option.
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.
Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
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(-p --pkg-cache))
Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the primary
cache used by all operations.
Configuration Item: bf(Dir::Cache::pkgcache).
dit(bf(-s --src-cache))
Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
bf(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: bf(Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache).
dit(bf(-q, --quiet))
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
bf(-q=#) to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
Configuration Item: bf(quiet).
dit(bf(-i --important))
Print only important deps; for use with unmet causes only em(Depends) and
em(Pre-Depends) relations to be printed.
Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::Important).
dit(bf(-f --full))
Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::ShowFull).
dit(bf(-a --all-versions))
Print full records for all available versions, this is only applicable to the
show command. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::AllVersions)
dit(bf(-g --no-generate))
Do not perform automatic package cache regeneration, use the cache as it is.
Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::NoGenerate).
dit(bf(--names-only))
Only search on the package names, not the long description.
Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::NamesOnly).
dit(bf(--all-names))
Make bf(pkgnames) print all names, including virtual packages and missing
dependencies. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::AllNames).
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()
manpagefiles()
itemize(
it() /etc/apt/sources.list
locations to fetch packages from
it() /var/state/apt/lists/
storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
it() /var/state/apt/lists/partial/
storage area for state information in transit
)
manpageseealso()
apt-get(8),
sources.list(5),
apt.conf(5)
manpagediagnostics()
apt-cache 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-cache), 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>.
|
