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