APT-GET(8) apt-get APT-GET(8)NAME
apt-get - APT package handling utility - command-line interface
SYNOPSIS
apt-get [options] [-o config=string] [-c=cfgfile] command [pkg]
DESCRIPTION
apt-get is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be con‐
sidered the user's "back-end" to other tools using the APT library.
Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as synaptic and aptitude.
COMMANDS
Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below
must be present.
update Used to re-synchronize the package index files from their
sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the
location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list(5). An update
should always be performed before an upgrade or dist-upgrade.
upgrade
Used to install the newest versions of all packages currently
installed on the system from the sources enumerated in
/etc/apt/sources.list(5). Packages currently installed with new
versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circum‐
stances are currently installed packages removed, nor are pack‐
ages that are not already installed retrieved and installed.
New versions of currently installed packages that cannot be
upgraded without changing the install status of another package
will be left at their current version. An update must be per‐
formed first so that apt-get knows that new versions of packages
are available.
dist-upgrade
In addition to performing the function of upgrade, this option
also intelligently handles changing dependencies with new ver‐
sions of packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution
system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important pack‐
ages at the expense of less important ones, if necessary.
The /etc/apt/sources.list(5) file contains a list of locations
from which to retrieve desired package files. See also
apt_preferences(5) for a mechanism for over-riding the general
settings for individual packages.
install pkg(s)
This option is followed by one or more packages desired for
installation. Each package is a package name, not a fully qual‐
ified filename (for instance, in a Fedora Core system, glibc
would be the argument provided, not glibc-2.4.8.i686.rpm).
All packages required by the package(s) specified for installa‐
tion will also be retrieved and installed. The
/etc/apt/sources.list(5) file is used to locate the repositories
for the desired packages. If a hyphen (-) is appended to the
package name (with no intervening space), the identified package
will be removed if it is currently installed. Similarly a plus
sign (+) can be used to designate a package to install. These
latter features may be used to override decisions made by apt-
get's conflict resolution system.
A specific version of a package can be selected for installation
by following the package name with an equals (=) and the version
of the package to select. This will cause that version to be
located and selected for install. Alternatively, a specific
distribution can be selected by following the package name with
a slash (/) and the version of the distribution or the Archive
name (i.e. stable, testing, unstable).
Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages
and must be used with care.
Finally, the apt_preferences(5) mechanism allows you to create
an alternative installation policy for individual packages.
If no package matches the given expression and the expression
contains one of ".", "?" or "*" then it is assumed to be a POSIX
regular expression, and it is applied to all package names in
the database. Any matches are then installed (or removed).
Note that matching is done by substring so "lo.*" matches "how-
lo" and "lowest". If this is undesired, anchor the regular
expression with a "^" or "$" character, or create a more spe‐
cific regular expression.
remove pkg(s)
Identical to install except that packages are removed instead of
installed. If a plus sign (+) is appended to the package name
(with no intervening space), the identified package will be
installed instead of removed.
source source_pkg
Causes apt-get to fetch source packages. APT will examine the
available packages to decide which source package to fetch. It
will then find and download into the current directory the new‐
est available version of that source package. Source packages
are tracked separately from binary packages via rpm-src type
lines in the sources.list(5) file. This probably will mean that
you will not get the same source as the package you have
installed, or could install. If the --compile options is speci‐
fied then the package will be compiled to a binary using rpm‐
build, if --download-only is specified then the source package
will not be unpacked.
A specific source version can be retrieved by following the
source name with an equals (=) and then the version to fetch,
similar to the mechanism used for the package files. This
enables exact matching of the source package name and version,
implicitly enabling the APT::Get::Only-Source option.
Note that source packages are not tracked like binary packages,
they exist only in the current directory and are similar to
downloading source tar balls.
build-dep source_pkg
Causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an attempt to sat‐
isfy the build dependencies for a source package.
check Diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks for
broken dependencies.
clean Clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. It
removes everything but the lock file from /var/cache/apt/ar‐
chives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/.
autoclean
Like clean, autoclean clears out the local repository of
retrieved package files. The difference is that it only removes
package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely
useless. This allows a cache to be maintained over a long
period of time without it growing out of control. The configu‐
ration option APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed pack‐
ages from being erased if it is set to off.
OPTIONS
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 -f-,
--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.
-d, --download-only
Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or
installed.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Download-Only.
-f, --fix-broken
Fix. Attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in
place. This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any
packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. Any pack‐
age(s) that are specified must completely correct the problem.
This option is sometimes necessary when running APT for the
first time; APT itself does not allow broken package dependen‐
cies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual
intervention. Use of this option together with -m may produce
an error in some situations.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Fix-Broken.
-m, --ignore-missing, --fix-missing
Ignore missing packages. If packages cannot be retrieved or
fail the integrity check after retrieval (corrupted package
files), hold back those packages and handle the result. Use of
this option together with -f may produce an error in some situa‐
tions. If a package is selected for installation (particularly
if it is mentioned on the command-line) and it could not be
downloaded then it will be silently held back.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Fix-Missing.
--no-download
Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with
--ignore-missing to force APT to use only the rpms it has
already downloaded.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Download.
-q, --quiet
Quiet. Produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress
indicators. More q's will produce more quiet up to a maximum of
two. You can also use -q=# to set the quiet level, overriding
the configuration file. Note that quiet level 2 implies -y, you
should never use -qq without a no-action modifier such as -d,
--print-uris or -s as APT may decided to do something you did
not expect.
Configuration Item: quiet.
-s, --simulate, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon, --no-act
No action. Perform a simulation of events that would occur but
do not actually change the system.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Simulate.
Simulate prints out a series of lines, each one representing an
rpm operation: Configure (Conf), Remove (Remv), Unpack (Inst).
Square brackets indicate broken packages with an empty set of
square brackets meaning breaks that are of no consequence
(rare).
-y, --yes, --assume-yes
Automatic yes to prompts. Assume "yes" as answer to all prompts
and run non-interactively. If an undesirable situation, such as
changing a held package or removing an essential package, occurs
then apt-get will abort.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Assume-Yes.
-u, --show-upgraded
Show upgraded packages. Print out a list of all packages that
are to be upgraded.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Show-Upgraded.
-V, --verbose-versions
Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Show-Versions.
-b, --compile, --build
Compile source packages after downloading them.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Compile.
--ignore-hold
Ignore package Holds. This causes apt-get to ignore a hold
placed on a package. This may be useful in conjunction with
dist-upgrade to override a large number of undesired holds.
Configuration Item: APT::Ignore-Hold.
--no-upgrade
Do not upgrade packages. When used in conjunction with install,
no-upgrade will prevent packages listed from being upgraded if
they are already installed.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Upgrade.
--force-yes
Force yes. This is a dangerous option that will cause apt-get
to continue without prompting if it is doing something poten‐
tially harmful. It should not be used except in very special
situations. Using --force-yes can potentially destroy your sys‐
tem!
Configuration Item: APT::Get::force-yes.
--print-uris
Instead of fetching the files to install, their URIs are
printed. Each URI will have the path, the destination file
name, the size and the expected md5 hash. Note that the file
name to write to will not always match the file name on the
remote site! This also works with the source and update com‐
mands. When used with the update command, the MD5 and size are
not included, and it is up to the user to decompress any com‐
pressed files.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Print-URIs.
--reinstall
Re-Install packages that are already installed and at the newest
version.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::ReInstall.
--list-cleanup
This option defaults to on, use --no-list-cleanup to turn it
off. When on, apt-get will automatically manage the contents of
/var/lib/apt/lists to ensure that obsolete files are erased.
The only reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your
source list.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::List-Cleanup.
-t, --target-release, --default-release
This option controls the default input to the policy engine. It
creates a default pin at priority 990 using the specified
release string. The preferences file may further override this
setting. In short, this option lets you have simple control
over which distribution packages will be retrieved from. Some
common examples might be -t '2.1*' or -t unstable.
Configuration Item: APT::Default-Release; see also the apt_pref‐
erences(5) manual page.
--trivial-only
Only perform operations that are "trivial". Logically this can
be considered related to --assume-yes. Where --assume-yes will
answer yes to any prompt, --trivial-only will answer no.
Configuration Item: fIAPT::Get::Trivial-Only.
--no-remove
If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts
without prompting.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Remove.
--only-source
Only has meaning for the source command. Indicates that the
given source names are not to be mapped through the binary ta‐
ble. This means that if this option is specified, the source
command will only accept source package names as arguments,
rather than accepting binary package names and looking up the
corresponding source package.
Configuration Item: APT::Get::Only-Source.
-h, --help
Show a short usage summary.
-v, --version
Show the program version.
-c, --config-file
Configuration File. Specify a configuration file to use. The
program will read the default configuration file and then this
configuration file. See apt.conf(5) for syntax information.
-o, --option
Set a Configuration Option. This will set an arbitrary configu‐
ration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar.
FILES
/etc/apt/sources.list
Locations to fetch packages from.
Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::SourceList.
/etc/apt/apt.conf
APT configuration file.
Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Main.
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/
APT configuration file fragments.
Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Parts.
/etc/apt/preferences
Version preferences file. This is where you would specify "pin‐
ning", i.e. a preference to get certain packages from a sepa‐
rate source or from a different version of a distribution.
Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Preferences.
/var/cache/apt/archives/
Storage area for retrieved package files.
Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::Archives.
/var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
Storage area for package files in transit.
Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::Archives (implicit partial).
/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 ALSOapt-cache(8), apt-cdrom(8), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5),
apt-config(8), apt_preferences(5)DIAGNOSTICS
apt-get returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
BUGS
Reporting bugs in APT-RPM is best done in the APT-RPM mailinglist at
http://apt-rpm.org/mailinglist.shtml.
AUTHOR
Maintainer and contributor information can be found in the credits page
http://apt-rpm.org/about.shtml of APT-RPM.
APT-RPM 14 Jun 2006 APT-GET(8)