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APT-CACHE(8)			      APT			  APT-CACHE(8)

NAME
       apt-cache - query the APT cache

SYNOPSIS
       apt-cache [-agipns] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] {gencaches |
		 showpkg pkg...	 | showsrc pkg...  | stats | dump | dumpavail
		 | unmet | search regex...  |
		 show pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...	|
		 depends pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
		 rdepends pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
		 pkgnames [prefix]  |
		 dotty pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...	 |
		 xvcg pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...	|
		 policy [pkg...]  | madison pkg...  | {-v | --version} |
		 {-h | --help}}

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.

       gencaches
	   gencaches creates APT's package cache. This is done implicitly by
	   all commands needing this cache if it is missing or outdated.

       showpkg pkg...
	   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
	   (and ldso) must also be installed; libreadlineg2 and
	   libreadline2-altdev do not have to be installed. For the specific
	   meaning of the remainder of the output it is best to consult the
	   apt source code.

       stats
	   stats displays some statistics about the cache. No further
	   arguments are expected. Statistics reported are:

	   ·   Total package names is the number of package names found in the
	       cache.

	   ·   Normal packages is the number of regular, ordinary package
	       names; these are packages that bear a one-to-one 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 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 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
	       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 an 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 is
	       being accessed (for instance, "stable" and "unstable"), 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...
	   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 package.

       dump
	   dump shows a short listing of every package in the cache. It is
	   primarily for debugging.

       dumpavail
	   dumpavail prints out an available list to stdout. This is suitable
	   for use with dpkg(1) and is used by the dselect(1) method.

       unmet
	   unmet displays a summary of all unmet dependencies in the package
	   cache.

       show pkg...
	   show performs a function similar to dpkg --print-avail; it displays
	   the package records for the named packages.

       search regex...
	   search performs a full text search on all available package lists
	   for the POSIX regex pattern given, see regex(7). 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, including virtual package names. 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...
	   depends shows a listing of each dependency a package has and all
	   the possible other packages that can fulfill that dependency.

       rdepends pkg...
	   rdepends shows a listing of each reverse dependency a package has.

       pkgnames [prefix]
	   This command prints the name of each package APT knows. 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.

	   Note that a package which APT knows of is not necessarily available
	   to download, installable or installed, e.g. virtual packages are
	   also listed in the generated list.

       dotty pkg...
	   dotty takes a list of packages on the command line and generates
	   output suitable for use by dotty from the GraphViz[1] 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 virtual packages are triangles, mixed virtual packages
	   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.

       xvcg pkg...
	   The same as dotty, only for xvcg from the VCG tool[2].

       policy [pkg...]
	   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...
	   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 for the architecture for which APT has retrieved
	   package lists (APT::Architecture).

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.

       -p, --pkg-cache
	   Select the file to store the package cache. The package cache is
	   the primary cache used by all operations. Configuration Item:
	   Dir::Cache::pkgcache.

       -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 and depends.
	   Causes only Depends and Pre-Depends relations to be printed.
	   Configuration Item: APT::Cache::Important.

       --no-pre-depends, --no-depends, --no-recommends, --no-suggests,
       --no-conflicts, --no-breaks, --no-replaces, --no-enhances
	   Per default the depends and rdepends print all dependencies. This
	   can be tweaked with these flags which will omit the specified
	   dependency type. Configuration Item: APT::Cache::ShowDependencyType
	   e.g.	 APT::Cache::ShowRecommends.

       -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 be 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.

       -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. If configuration settings need to be set before
	   the default configuration files are parsed specify a file with the
	   APT_CONFIG environment variable. See apt.conf(5) for syntax
	   information.

       -o, --option
	   Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitrary
	   configuration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar.	 -o and
	   --option can be used multiple times to set different options.

FILES
       /etc/apt/sources.list
	   Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item:
	   Dir::Etc::SourceList.

       /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
	   File fragments for locations to fetch packages from. Configuration
	   Item: Dir::Etc::SourceParts.

       /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 (partial will be implicitly appended)

SEE ALSO
       apt.conf(5), sources.list(5), apt-get(8)

DIAGNOSTICS
       apt-cache returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.

BUGS
       APT bug page[3]. 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

       APT team

NOTES
	1. GraphViz
	   http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/

	2. VCG tool
	   http://rw4.cs.uni-sb.de/users/sander/html/gsvcg1.html

	3. APT bug page
	   http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt

APT 1.0.1ubuntu2		 09 June 2012			  APT-CACHE(8)
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