jammy (8) apt-get.8.gz

Provided by: apt_2.4.5_amd64 bug

NAME

     apt-get - APT package handling utility -- command-line interface

SYNOPSIS

     apt-get [-asqdyfmubV] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release]
             [-a=architecture] {update | upgrade | dselect-upgrade | dist-upgrade |
             install pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  | remove pkg...  |
             purge pkg...  | source pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
             build-dep pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
             download pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  | check | clean |
             autoclean | autoremove | {-v | --version} | {-h | --help}}

DESCRIPTION

     apt-get is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be considered the user's
     "back-end" to other tools using the APT library. Several "front-end" interfaces exist,
     such as aptitude(8), synaptic(8) and wajig(1).
     Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below must be present.
     update
         update is used to resynchronize the package index files from their sources. The
         indexes of available packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in
         /etc/apt/sources.list. For example, when using a Debian archive, this command
         retrieves and scans the Packages.gz files, so that information about new and updated
         packages is available. An update should always be performed before an upgrade or
         dist-upgrade. Please be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the
         size of the package files cannot be known in advance.
     upgrade
         upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on
         the system from the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently
         installed with new versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no
         circumstances are currently installed packages removed, or packages 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 performed first so that apt-get knows that
         new versions of packages are available.
     dist-upgrade
         dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently
         handles changing dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart"
         conflict resolution system, and it will attempt to upgrade the most important packages
         at the expense of less important ones if necessary. The dist-upgrade command may
         therefore remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a list of
         locations from which to retrieve desired package files. See also apt_preferences(5)
         for a mechanism for overriding the general settings for individual packages.
     dselect-upgrade
         dselect-upgrade is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging
         front-end, dselect(1).  dselect-upgrade follows the changes made by dselect(1) to the
         Status field of available packages, and performs the actions necessary to realize that
         state (for instance, the removal of old and the installation of new packages).
     install
         install is followed by one or more packages desired for installation or upgrading.
         Each package is a package name, not a fully qualified filename (for instance, in a
         Debian system, apt-utils would be the argument provided, not
         apt-utils_2.4.5_amd64.deb). All packages required by the package(s) specified for
         installation will also be retrieved and installed. The /etc/apt/sources.list file is
         used to locate 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 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 (stable, testing, unstable).
         Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must be used with
         care.
         This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or more already-installed
         packages without upgrading every package you have on your system. Unlike the "upgrade"
         target, which installs the newest version of all currently installed packages,
         "install" will install the newest version of only the package(s) specified. Simply
         provide the name of the package(s) you wish to upgrade, and if a newer version is
         available, it (and its dependencies, as described above) will be downloaded and
         installed.
         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
         specific regular expression.
         Fallback to regular expressions is deprecated in APT 2.0, has been removed in apt(8),
         except for anchored expressions, and will be removed from apt-get(8) in a future
         version. Use apt-patterns(5) instead.
     reinstall
         reinstall is an alias for install --reinstall.
     remove
         remove is identical to install except that packages are removed instead of installed.
         Note that removing a package leaves its configuration files on the system. If a plus
         sign is appended to the package name (with no intervening space), the identified
         package will be installed instead of removed.
     purge
         purge is identical to remove except that packages are removed and purged (any
         configuration files are deleted too).
     source
         source 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 newest available version of that source package while
         respecting the default release, set with the option APT::Default-Release, the -t
         option or per package with the pkg/release syntax, if possible.
         The arguments are interpreted as binary and source package names. See the
         --only-source option if you want to change that.
         Source packages are tracked separately from binary packages via deb-src lines in the
         sources.list(5) file. This means that you will need to add such a line for each
         repository you want to get sources from; otherwise you will probably get either the
         wrong (too old/too new) source versions or none at all.
         If the --compile option is specified then the package will be compiled to a binary
         .deb using dpkg-buildpackage for the architecture as defined by the
         --host-architecture option. If --download-only is specified then the source package
         will not be unpacked.
         A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing 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 installed and tracked in the dpkg database like
         binary packages; they are simply downloaded to the current directory, like source
         tarballs.
     build-dep
         build-dep causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an attempt to satisfy the build
         dependencies for a source package. By default the dependencies are satisfied to build
         the package natively. If desired a host-architecture can be specified with the
         --host-architecture option instead.
         The arguments are interpreted as binary or source package names. See the --only-source
         option if you want to change that.
     satisfy
         satisfy causes apt-get to satisfy the given dependency strings. The dependency strings
         may have build profiles and architecture restriction list as in build dependencies.
         They may optionally be prefixed with "Conflicts: " to unsatisfy the dependency string.
         Multiple strings of the same type can be specified.
         Example: apt-get satisfy "foo" "Conflicts: bar" "baz (>> 1.0) | bar (= 2.0), moo"
         The legacy operator '</>' is not supported, use '<=/>=' instead.
     check
         check is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks for broken
         dependencies.
     download
         download will download the given binary package into the current directory.
     clean
         clean clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. It removes
         everything but the lock file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and
         /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/.
     autoclean (and the auto-clean alias since 1.1)
         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 without
         it growing out of control. The configuration option APT::Clean-Installed will prevent
         installed packages from being erased if it is set to off.
     autoremove (and the auto-remove alias since 1.1)
         autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy
         dependencies for other packages and are now no longer needed.
     changelog
         changelog tries to download the changelog of a package and displays it through
         sensible-pager. By default it displays the changelog for the version that is
         installed. However, you can specify the same options as for the install command.
     indextargets
         Displays by default a deb822 formatted listing of information about all data files
         (aka index targets) apt-get update would download. Supports a --format option to
         modify the output format as well as accepts lines of the default output to filter the
         records by. The command is mainly used as an interface for external tools working with
         APT to get information as well as filenames for downloaded files so they can use them
         as well instead of downloading them again on their own. Detailed documentation is
         omitted here and can instead be found in the file
         /usr/share/doc/apt/acquire-additional-files.md.gz shipped by the apt-doc package.

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.
  1. -no-install-recommends

Do not consider recommended packages as a dependency for installing. Configuration

         Item: APT::Install-Recommends.
  1. -install-suggests

Consider suggested packages as a dependency for installing. Configuration Item:

         APT::Install-Suggests.
  1. d, –download-only

Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed.

         Configuration Item: APT::Get::Download-Only.
  1. 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. If packages are specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The
         option is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT itself does not
         allow broken package dependencies to exist on a system. It is possible that a system's
         dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which
         usually means using dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages). Use of
         this option together with -m may produce an error in some situations. Configuration
         Item: APT::Get::Fix-Broken.
  1. 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 situations.
         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.
  1. -no-download

Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with –ignore-missing to force APT

         to use only the .debs it has already downloaded. Configuration Item:
         APT::Get::Download.
  1. q, –quiet

Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators. More q's

         will produce more quiet up to a maximum of 2. 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 decide to do something you did not expect. Configuration Item: quiet.
  1. s, –simulate, –just-print, –dry-run, –recon, –no-act

No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur based on the current system

         state but do not actually change the system. Locking will be disabled
         (Debug::NoLocking) so the system state could change while apt-get is running.
         Simulations can also be executed by non-root users which might not have read access to
         all apt configuration distorting the simulation. A notice expressing this warning is
         also shown by default for non-root users (APT::Get::Show-User-Simulation-Note).
         Configuration Item: APT::Get::Simulate.
         Simulated runs print out a series of lines, each representing a dpkg operation:
         configure (Conf), remove (Remv) or unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken
         packages, and empty square brackets indicate breaks that are of no consequence (rare).
  1. 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,
         trying to install an unauthenticated package or removing an essential package occurs
         then apt-get will abort. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Assume-Yes.
  1. -assume-no

Automatic “no” to all prompts. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Assume-No.

  1. -no-show-upgraded

Do not show a list of all packages that are to be upgraded. Configuration Item:

         APT::Get::Show-Upgraded.
  1. V, –verbose-versions

Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages. Configuration Item:

         APT::Get::Show-Versions.
  1. a, –host-architecture

This option controls the architecture packages are built for by apt-get source

  1. -compile and how cross-builddependencies are satisfied. By default is it not set

which means that the host architecture is the same as the build architecture (which is

         defined by APT::Architecture). Configuration Item: APT::Get::Host-Architecture.
  1. P, –build-profiles

This option controls the activated build profiles for which a source package is built

         by apt-get source --compile and how build dependencies are satisfied. By default no
         build profile is active. More than one build profile can be activated at a time by
         concatenating them with a comma. Configuration Item: APT::Build-Profiles.
  1. b, –compile, –build

Compile source packages after downloading them. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Compile.

  1. -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.
  1. -with-new-pkgs

Allow installing new packages when used in conjunction with upgrade. This is useful if

         the update of an installed package requires new dependencies to be installed. Instead
         of holding the package back upgrade will upgrade the package and install the new
         dependencies. Note that upgrade with this option will never remove packages, only
         allow adding new ones. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Upgrade-Allow-New.
  1. -no-upgrade

Do not upgrade packages; when used in conjunction with install, no-upgrade will

         prevent packages on the command line from being upgraded if they are already
         installed. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Upgrade.
  1. -only-upgrade

Do not install new packages; when used in conjunction with install, only-upgrade will

         install upgrades for already installed packages only and ignore requests to install
         new packages. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Only-Upgrade.
  1. -allow-downgrades

This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is

         doing downgrades. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using it
         can potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item: APT::Get::allow-downgrades.
         Introduced in APT 1.1.
  1. -allow-remove-essential

Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without

         prompting if it is removing essentials. It should not be used except in very special
         situations. Using it can potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item:
         APT::Get::allow-remove-essential. Introduced in APT 1.1.
  1. -allow-change-held-packages

Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without

         prompting if it is changing held packages. It should not be used except in very
         special situations. Using it can potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item:
         APT::Get::allow-change-held-packages. Introduced in APT 1.1.
  1. -force-yes

Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without

         prompting if it is doing something potentially harmful. It should not be used except
         in very special situations. Using force-yes can potentially destroy your system!
         Configuration Item: APT::Get::force-yes. This is deprecated and replaced by
         --allow-unauthenticated , --allow-downgrades , --allow-remove-essential ,
         --allow-change-held-packages in 1.1.
  1. -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 commands. When used with the update command the
         MD5 and size are not included, and it is up to the user to decompress any compressed
         files. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Print-URIs.
  1. -purge

Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed. An asterisk (“*”) will

         be displayed next to packages which are scheduled to be purged.  remove --purge is
         equivalent to the purge command. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Purge.
  1. -reinstall

Re-install packages that are already installed and at the newest version.

         Configuration Item: APT::Get::ReInstall.
  1. -list-cleanup

This option is on by default; use –no-list-cleanup to turn it off. When it is 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 sources list. Configuration Item: APT::Get::List-Cleanup.
  1. 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. This overrides the general
         settings in /etc/apt/preferences. Specifically pinned packages are not affected by the
         value of this option. 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*',
         -t unstable or -t sid. Configuration Item: APT::Default-Release; see also the
         apt_preferences(5) manual page.
  1. -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: APT::Get::Trivial-Only.
  1. -mark-auto

After successful installation, mark all freshly installed packages as automatically

         installed, which will cause each of the packages to be removed when no more manually
         installed packages depend on this package. This is equally to running apt-mark auto
         for all installed packages. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Mark-Auto.
  1. -no-remove

If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without prompting.

         Configuration Item: APT::Get::Remove.
  1. -auto-remove, –autoremove

If the command is either install or remove, then this option acts like running the

         autoremove command, removing unused dependency packages. Configuration Item:
         APT::Get::AutomaticRemove.
  1. -only-source

Only has meaning for the source and build-dep commands. Indicates that the given

         source names are not to be mapped through the binary table. This means that if this
         option is specified, these commands 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.
  1. -diff-only, –dsc-only, –tar-only

Download only the diff, dsc, or tar file of a source archive. Configuration Item:

         APT::Get::Diff-Only, APT::Get::Dsc-Only, and APT::Get::Tar-Only.
  1. -arch-only

Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies. Configuration Item:

         APT::Get::Arch-Only.
  1. -indep-only

Only process architecture-independent build-dependencies. Configuration Item:

         APT::Get::Indep-Only.
  1. -allow-unauthenticated

Ignore if packages can't be authenticated and don't prompt about it. This can be

         useful while working with local repositories, but is a huge security risk if data
         authenticity isn't ensured in another way by the user itself. The usage of the Trusted
         option for sources.list(5) entries should usually be preferred over this global
         override. Configuration Item: APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated.
  1. -no-allow-insecure-repositories

Forbid the update command to acquire unverifiable data from configured sources. APT

         will fail at the update command for repositories without valid cryptographically
         signatures. See also apt-secure(8) for details on the concept and the implications.
         Configuration Item: Acquire::AllowInsecureRepositories.
  1. -allow-releaseinfo-change

Allow the update command to continue downloading data from a repository which changed

         its information of the release contained in the repository indicating e.g a new major
         release. APT will fail at the update command for such repositories until the change is
         confirmed to ensure the user is prepared for the change. See also apt-secure(8) for
         details on the concept and configuration.
         Specialist options (--allow-releaseinfo-change-field) exist to allow changes only for
         certain fields like origin, label, codename, suite, version and defaultpin. See also
         apt_preferences(5). Configuration Item: Acquire::AllowReleaseInfoChange.
  1. -show-progress

Show user friendly progress information in the terminal window when packages are

         installed, upgraded or removed. For a machine parsable version of this data see
         README.progress-reporting in the apt doc directory. Configuration Items:
         Dpkg::Progress and Dpkg::Progress-Fancy.
  1. -with-source filename

Adds the given file as a source for metadata. Can be repeated to add multiple files.

         See --with-source description in apt-cache(8) for further details.
  1. eany, –error-on=any

Fail the update command if any error occured, even a transient one.

  1. h, –help

Show a short usage summary.

  1. v, –version

Show the program version.

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
     /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 "pinning", i.e. a preference
         to get certain packages from a separate source or from a different version of a
         distribution. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Preferences.
     /etc/apt/preferences.d/
         File fragments for the version preferences. Configuration Item:
         Dir::Etc::PreferencesParts.
     /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
         (partial will be implicitly appended)
     /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-cache(8), apt-cdrom(8), dpkg(1), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5), apt-config(8), apt-
     secure(8), The APT User's guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/, apt_preferences(5), the APT
     Howto.

DIAGNOSTICS

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

BUGS

     APT bug page[1]. 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. APT bug page
         http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt