SYNOPSIS
apt-cache [-hvsn] [-o=config string] [-c=file] {[add file...] |
[gencaches] | [showpkg pkg...] | [showsrc pkg...] | [stats] |
[dump] | [dumpavail] | [unmet] | [search regex] |
[show pkg...] | [depends pkg...] | [rdepends pkg...] |
[pkgnames prefix] | [dotty pkg...] | [policy pkgs...] |
[madison pkgs...]}
DESCRIPTION
apt-cache performs a variety of operations on APT’s package cache.
apt-cache does not manipulate the state of the system but does provide
operations to search and generate interesting output from the package
metadata.
Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below
must be present.
add file(s)
add adds the named package index files to the package cache. This is
for debugging only.
gencaches
gencaches performs the same operation as apt-get check. It builds
the source and package caches from the sources in sources.list(5)
and from /var/lib/dpkg/status.
showpkg pkg(s)
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, apt-cache showpkg libreadline2 would produce output
similar to the following:
Package: libreadline2
Versions: 2.1-12(/var/state/apt/lists/foo_Packages),
Reverse Depends:
libreadlineg2,libreadline2
libreadline2-altdev,libreadline2
Dependencies:
2.1-12 - libc5 (2 5.4.0-0) ncurses3.0 (0 (null))
Provides:
2.1-12 -
Reverse Provides:
Thus it may be seen that libreadline2, version 2.1-12, depends on
libc5 and ncurses3.0 which must be installed for libreadline2 to
work. In turn, libreadlineg2 and libreadline2-altdev depend on
libreadline2. If libreadline2 is installed, libc5 and ncurses3.0
correspondence between their names and the names used by other
packages for them in dependencies. The majority of packages
fall into this category.
· 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".
· 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".
· 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, "debconf" is both an actual package, and
provided by the debconf-tiny package.
· 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
accessed, or if a package (real or virtual) has been dropped
from the distribution. Usually they are referenced from
Conflicts or Breaks statements.
· 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.
· Total dependencies is the number of dependency relationships
claimed by all of the packages in the cache.
showsrc pkg(s)
showsrc displays all the source package records that match the given
package names. All versions are shown, as well as all records that
declare the name to be a Binary.
dump
dump shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
primarily for debugging.
for the regex pattern given. It searches the package names and the
descriptions for an occurrence of the regular expression and prints
out the package name and the short description. If --full is given
then output identical to 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.
Separate arguments can be used to specify multiple search patterns
that are and’ed together.
depends pkg(s)
depends shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all the
possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.
rdepends pkg(s)
rdepends shows a listing of each reverse dependency a package has.
pkgnames [ prefix ]
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 extremely quickly. This command is best used
with the --generate option.
dotty pkg(s)
dotty takes a list of packages on the command line and generates
output suitable for use by dotty from the [1]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; this can produce a very large
graph. To limit the output to only the packages listed on the
command line, set the APT::Cache::GivenOnly option.
The resulting nodes will have several shapes; normal packages are
boxes, pure provides are triangles, mixed provides are diamonds,
missing packages are hexagons. Orange boxes mean recursion was
stopped [leaf packages], blue lines are pre-depends, green lines are
conflicts.
Caution, dotty cannot graph larger sets of packages.
policy [ pkg(s) ]
policy is meant to help debug issues relating to the preferences
file. With no arguments it will print out the priorities of each
source. Otherwise it prints out detailed information about the
priority selection of the named package.
madison /[ pkg(s) ]
apt-cache’s madison command attempts to mimic the output format and
a subset of the functionality of the Debian archive management tool,
madison. It displays available versions of a package in a tabular
format. Unlike the original madison, it can only display information
-s, --src-cache
Select the file to store the source cache. The source is used only
by 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 avoid reparsing all of the package files.
Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache.
-q, --quiet
Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress
indicators. More q’s will produce more quietness up to a maximum of
2. You can also use -q=# to set the quietness level, overriding the
configuration file. Configuration Item: quiet.
-i, --important
Print only important dependencies; for use with unmet. Causes only
Depends and Pre-Depends relations to be printed. Configuration Item:
APT::Cache::Important.
-f, --full
Print full package records when searching. Configuration Item:
APT::Cache::ShowFull.
-a, --all-versions
Print full records for all available versions. This is the default;
to turn it off, use --no-all-versions. If --no-all-versions is
specified, only the candidate version will displayed (the one which
would be selected for installation). This option is only applicable
to the show command. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllVersions.
-g, --generate
Perform automatic package cache regeneration, rather than use the
cache as it is. This is the default; to turn it off, use
--no-generate. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Generate.
--names-only, -n
Only search on the package names, not the long descriptions.
Configuration Item: APT::Cache::NamesOnly.
--all-names
Make pkgnames print all names, including virtual packages and
missing dependencies. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::AllNames.
--recurse
Make depends and rdepends recursive so that all packages mentioned
are printed once. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::RecurseDepends.
--installed
Limit the output of depends and rdepends to packages which are
currently installed. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Installed.
-h, --help
Show a short usage summary.
/etc/apt/sources.list
Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item:
Dir::Etc::SourceList.
/var/lib/apt/lists/
Storage area for state information for each package resource
specified in sources.list(5) Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists.
/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/
Storage area for state information in transit. Configuration Item:
Dir::State::Lists (implicit partial).
SEE ALSO
apt.conf(5), sources.list(5), apt-get(8)
DIAGNOSTICS
apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
BUGS
[2]APT bug page. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
/usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
AUTHORS
Jason Gunthorpe
Author.
APT team
Author.
REFERENCES
1. GraphViz
http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/
2. APT bug page
http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
Linux 29 February 2004 APT-CACHE(8)
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