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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
]>
<refentry>
<refentryinfo>
&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
&apt-author.team;
&apt-email;
&apt-product;
<!-- The last update date -->
<date>2019-08-15T00:00:00Z</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>apt-patterns</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<!-- Man page title -->
<refnamediv>
<refname>apt-patterns</refname>
<refpurpose>Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1><title>Description</title>
<para>
Starting with version 2.0, <command>APT</command> provides support for
patterns, which can be used to query the apt cache for packages.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Logic patterns</title>
<para>
These patterns provide the basic means to combine other patterns into
more complex expressions, as well as <code>?true</code> and <code>?false</code>
patterns.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where all specified patterns match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?false</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects nothing.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?not(PATTERN)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where at least one of the specified patterns match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?true</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects all objects.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Package patterns</title>
<para>
These patterns select specific packages.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?architecture(WILDCARD)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages matching the specified architecture, which may contain wildcards using any.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?name(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages where the name matches the given regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>Examples</title>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>Migrating from aptitude</title>
<para>
Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but with some tweaks:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Only long forms — the ones starting with ? — are supported</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening parenthesis after a term, it is always assumed to be the beginning of an argument list.
</para>
<para>
In aptitude, a syntactic form <code>"?foo(bar)"</code> could mean <code>"?and(?foo,bar)"</code> if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this will cause an error.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Not all patterns are supported.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Some additional patterns are available, for example, for finding gstreamer codecs.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Escaping terms with <code>~</code> is not supported.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A trailing comma is allowed in argument lists</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>See Also</title>
<para>
&apt-get;, &apt;
</para>
</refsect1>
&manbugs;
&manauthor;
</refentry>
|
