doc/apt-cache.8.yo

   1 mailto(apt@packages.debian.org)
   2 manpage(apt-cache)(8)(4 Dec 1998)(apt)()
   3 manpagename(apt-cache)(APT package handling utility -- cache manipulator)
   4
   5 manpagesynopsis()
   6 apt-cache command [argument ...]
   7
   8 manpagedescription()
   9 bf(apt-cache) performs a variety of operations on APT's package cache.
  10 bf(apt-cache) is seldom called directly; instead its operations are
  11 performed automatically by the other bf(apt) utilities.
  12
  13 em(command) is one of:
  14 itemize(
  15   it() add file1 [file2] [...]
  16   it() gencaches
  17   it() showpkg package1 [package2] [...]
  18   it() stats
  19   it() dump
  20   it() dumpavail
  21   it() unmet
  22   it() check
  23   it() search
  24   it() show
  25   it() showpkg
  26   it() depends
  27   it() pkgnames
  28   it() dotty
  29 )
  30
  31 Unless the -h, or --help option is given one of the above commands
  32 must be present.
  33
  34 startdit()
  35 dit(bf(add))
  36 bf(add) adds the names package index files to the package cache.
  37
  38 dit(bf(gencaches))
  39 bf(gencaches) performs the same opration as bf(apt-get check). It builds
  40 the source and package caches from thes sources in bf(/etc/apt/sources.list)
  41 and from bf(/var/lib/dpkg/status).
  42
  43 dit(bf(showpkg))
  44 bf(showpkg) displays information about the packages listed on the
  45 command line. Remaining arguments are package names. The available versions
  46 and reverse dependencies of each package listed are listed, as well as
  47 forward dependencies for each version. Forward (normal) dependencies
  48 are those packages upon which the package in question depends; reverse
  49 dependencies are those packages that depend upon the package in
  50 question. Thus, forward dependencies must be satisfied for a package,
  51 but reverse dependencies need not be.
  52 For instance, bf(apt-cache showpkg libreadline2) would produce output similar
  53 to the following:
  54
  55 verb(
  56 Package: libreadline2
  57
  58 Versions:
  59
  60 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/debian.midco.net_debian_dists_slink_main_binary-i386_Packages),
  61
  62 Reverse Depends:
  63
  64   libreadlineg2,libreadline2
  65
  66   libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
  67 Dependencies:
  68
  69 2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null)) ldso (2 1.9.0-1)
  70
  71 Provides:
  72
  73 2.1-12 -
  74
  75 Reverse Provides:
  76 )
  77
  78 Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-8, depends on libc5,
  79 ncurses3.0, and ldso, which must be installed for libreadline2 to work. In
  80 turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on libreadline2. If
  81 libreadline2 is installed, libc5, ncurses3.0, and ldso must also be
  82 installed; libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev do not have to be
  83 installed. For the specific meaning of the remainder of the output it
  84 is best to consult the apt source code.
  85
  86 dit(bf(stats))
  87 bf(stats) displays some statistics about bf(cache).
  88 No further arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:
  89 itemize(
  90    it() bf(Total package names) is the number of package names found in the cache.
  91
  92    it() bf(Normal packages) is the number of regular, ordinary package names; these
  93    are packages that bear a one-to-one correspondence between their names and
  94    the names used by other packages for them in dependencies. The majority of
  95    packages fall into this category.
  96
  97    it() bf(Pure virtual packages) is the number of packages that exist only as
  98    a virtual package name; that is, packages only "provide" the virtual
  99    package name, and no package actually uses the name. For instance,
 100    "mail-transport-agent" in the Debian GNU/Linux system is a pure virtual
 101    package; several packages provide "mail-transport-agent", but there is no
 102    package named "mail-transport-agent".
 103
 104    it() bf(Single virtual packages) is the number of packages with only one
 105    package providing a particular virtual package. For example, in the
 106    Debian GNU/Linux system, "X11-text-viewer" is a virtual package, but only
 107    one package, xless, provides "X11-text-viewer".
 108
 109    it() bf(Mixed virtual packages) is the number of packages that either provide
 110    a particular virtual package or have the virtual package name as the
 111    package name. For instance, in the Debian GNU/Linux system, e2fsprogs is
 112    both an actual package, and provided by the e2compr package.
 113
 114    it() bf(Missing) is the number of package names that were referenced in a
 115    dependency but were not provided by any package. Missing packages may be
 116    in evidence if a full distribution is not accesssed, or if a package
 117    (real or virtual) has been dropped from the distribution.
 118
 119    it() bf(Total distinct) versions is the number of package versions found in
 120    the cache; this value is therefore at least equal to the number of total
 121    package names. If more than one distribution (both "stable" and "unstable",
 122    for instance), is being accessed, this value can be considerably larger
 123    than the number of total package names.
 124
 125    it() bf(Total dependencies) is the number of dependency relationships claimed
 126    by all of the packages in the cache.
 127 )
 128
 129 dit(bf(dump))
 130 bf(dump) shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is primarily
 131 for debugging.
 132
 133 dit(bf(dumpavail))
 134 bf(dumpavail) prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable for use
 135 with bf(dpkg) and is used by the bf(dselect) method.
 136
 137 dit(bf(unmet))
 138 bf(unmet) displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package cache.
 139
 140 dit(bf(check))
 141 bf(check) is a random function for testing certain aspects of the cache.
 142 Do not use it.
 143
 144 dit(bf(showpkg))
 145 bf(showpkg) displays a listing of the given package cache structure and some
 146 related information about it. The list is meant primarily for debugging.
 147
 148 dit(bf(show))
 149 bf(show) performs a function similar to dpkg --print-avail, it displays
 150 the package records for the named packages.
 151
 152 dit(bf(search))
 153 bf(search) performs a full text search on all available package files for
 154 the pattern given. It searchs the package names and the descriptions for
 155 an occurance of the string and prints out the package name and the short
 156 description. If --full is given then output identical to bf(show) is produced
 157 for each matched package and if --names-only is given then the long
 158 description is not searched, only the package name is.
 159
 160 dit(bf(depends))
 161 bf(depends) shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all
 162 the possible other packages that can fullfill that dependency.
 163
 164 dit(bf(pkgnames))
 165 This command prints the name of each package in the system. The optional
 166 argument is a prefix match to filter the name list. The output is suitable
 167 for use in a shell tab complete function and the output is generated extremly
 168 quickly. This command is best used with the bf(--no-generate) option.
 169
 170 dit(bf(dotty))
 171 bf(dotty) Takes a list of packages on the command line and gernerates output
 172 suitable for use by dotty from the GraphVis
 173 (http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/) package. The result will be
 174 a set of nodes and edges representing the relationships between the
 175 packages. By default the given packages will trace out all dependent packages
 176 which can produce a very large graph. This can be turned off by setting the
 177 APT::Cache::GivenOnly option.
 178
 179 The resulting nodes will have several shapse, normal packages are boxes,
 180 pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
 181 hexagons are missing packages. Orange boxes mean recursion was stopped
 182 [leaf packages], blue lines are prre-depends, green lines are conflicts.
 183
 184 Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
 185
 186 enddit()
 187
 188 manpageoptions()
 189 All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the
 190 descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean
 191 options you can override the config file by using something like bf(-f-),
 192 bf(--no-f), bf(-f=no) or several other variations.
 193
 194 startdit()
 195 dit(bf(-h, --help))
 196 Show a short usage summary.
 197
 198 dit(bf(-v, --version))
 199 Show the program verison.
 200
 201 dit(bf(-p --pkg-cache))
 202 Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is the primary
 203 cache used by all operations.
 204 Configuration Item: bf(Dir::Cache::pkgcache).
 205
 206 dit(bf(-s --src-cache))
 207 Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only by
 208 bf(gencaches) and it stores a parsed version of the package information from
 209 remote sources. When building the package cache the source cache is used
 210 to advoid reparsing all of the package files.
 211 Configuration Item: bf(Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache).
 212
 213 dit(bf(-q, --quiet))
 214 Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators.
 215 More qs will produce more quite up to a maximum of 2. You can also use
 216 bf(-q=#) to set the quiet level, overriding the configuration file.
 217 Configuration Item: bf(quiet).
 218
 219 dit(bf(-i --important))
 220 Print only important deps; for use with unmet causes only em(Depends) and
 221 em(Pre-Depends) relations to be printed.
 222 Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::Important).
 223
 224 dit(bf(-f --full))
 225 Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::ShowFull).
 226
 227 dit(bf(-a --all-versions))
 228 Print full records for all available versions, this is only applicable to the
 229 show command. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::AllVersions)
 230
 231 dit(bf(-g --no-generate))
 232 Do not perform automatic package cache regeneration, use the cache as it is.
 233 Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::NoGenerate).
 234
 235 dit(bf(--names-only))
 236 Only search on the package names, not the long description.
 237 Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::NamesOnly).
 238
 239 dit(bf(--all-names))
 240 Make bf(pkgnames) print all names, including virtual packages and missing
 241 dependencies. Configuration Item: bf(APT::Cache::AllNames).
 242
 243 dit(bf(-c, --config-file))
 244 Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. bf(apt-get) will
 245 read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. See
 246 bf(apt.conf(5)) for syntax information.
 247
 248 dit(bf(-o, --option))
 249 Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitary configuration option.
 250 The syntax is
 251 verb(-o Foo::Bar=bar)
 252 enddit()
 253
 254 manpagefiles()
 255 itemize(
 256   it() /etc/apt/sources.list
 257   locations to fetch packages from
 258
 259   it() /var/state/apt/lists/
 260   storage area for state information for each package resource specified in
 261
 262   it() /var/state/apt/lists/partial/
 263   storage area for state information in transit
 264 )
 265
 266 manpageseealso()
 267 apt-get(8),
 268 sources.list(5),
 269 apt.conf(5)
 270
 271 manpagediagnostics()
 272 apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
 273
 274 manpagebugs()
 275 See http://bugs.debian.org/apt.  If you wish to report a
 276 bug in bf(apt-cache), please see bf(/usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt)
 277 or the bf(bug(1)) command.
 278
 279 manpageauthor()
 280 apt-get was written by the APT team <apt@packages.debian.org>.