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|
<refentry>
<refentryinfo>
<!--
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<author>
<personname>
<firstname>Daniel</firstname>
<surname>Burrows</surname>
</personname>
<email>dburrows@debian.org</email>
</author>
-->
<legalnotice>
<para>
This manual page is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
later version.
</para>
<para>
This manual page is distributed in the hope that it will
be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
for more details.
</para>
<para>
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
</para>
</legalnotice>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>&aptitude;</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>&aptitude;</refname>
<refpurpose>high-level interface to the package manager</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='opt' rep='repeat'><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'>autoclean</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>clean</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>forget-new</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>keep-all</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>update</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>safe-upgrade</arg>
</group>
</cmdsynopsis>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='opt' rep='repeat'><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'>changelog</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>full-upgrade</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>download</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>forbid-version</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>hold</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>install</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>keep-all</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>markauto</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>purge</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>reinstall</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>remove</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>show</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>unhold</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>unmarkauto</arg>
</group>
<arg choice='plain' rep='repeat'><replaceable>packages</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='opt' rep='repeat'><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
<arg choice='plain'>search</arg>
<arg choice='plain' rep='repeat'><replaceable>patterns</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='opt' rep='repeat'><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
<group choice='req'>
<arg choice='plain'>why</arg>
<arg choice='plain'>why-not</arg>
</group>
<arg choice='plain' rep='repeat'><replaceable>patterns</replaceable></arg>
<arg choice='plain'><replaceable>package</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='opt'>-S <replaceable>fname</replaceable></arg>
<group choice='opt'><arg choice='plain'>-u</arg> <arg
choice='plain'>-i</arg></group>
</cmdsynopsis>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>aptitude</command>
<arg choice='plain'>help</arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>
&aptitude; is a text-based interface to the Debian GNU/Linux
package system.
</para>
<para>
It allows the user to view the list of packages and to
perform package management tasks such as installing,
upgrading, and removing packages. Actions may be performed
from a visual interface or from the command-line.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Command-Line Actions</title>
<para>
The first argument which does not begin with a hyphen (<quote><literal>-</literal></quote>)
is considered to be an action that the program should
perform. If an action is not specified on the command-line,
&aptitude; will start up in visual mode.
</para>
<para>
The following actions are available:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry id='cmdlineInstall'>
<term><literal>install</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Install one or more packages. The packages should be
listed after the <quote>install</quote> command; if a
package name contains a tilde character
(<quote><literal>~</literal></quote>), it will be
treated as a search pattern and every package matching
the pattern will be installed (see the section <link
linkend='secSearchPatterns'><quote>Search
Patterns</quote></link> in the &aptitude; reference
manual).
</para>
<para>
To select a particular version of the package, append <quote><literal>=<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal></quote>
to the package name: for instance, <quote><literal>aptitude install
apt=0.3.1</literal></quote>. Similarly, to select a
package from a particular archive, append <quote><literal>/<replaceable>archive</replaceable></literal></quote>
to the package name: for instance, <quote><literal>aptitude install
apt/experimental</literal></quote>.
</para>
<para id='parOverrideSpecifiers'>
Not every package listed on the command line has to be
installed; you can tell &aptitude; to do something
different with a package by appending an <quote>override
specifier</quote> to the name of the package. For
example, <literal>aptitude remove wesnoth+</literal> will
install <literal>wesnoth</literal>, not remove it. The
following override specifiers are available:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>+</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Install <replaceable>package</replaceable>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>+M</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Install <replaceable>package</replaceable> and
immediately mark it as <link
linkend='secAutoInstall'>automatically
installed</link> (note that if nothing depends on
<replaceable>package</replaceable>, this will cause
it to be immediately removed).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>-</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Remove <replaceable>package</replaceable>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>_</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Purge <replaceable>package</replaceable>: remove it
and all its associated configuration and data files.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>=</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Place <replaceable>package</replaceable> on hold:
cancel any active installation, upgrade, or removal,
and prevent this package from being automatically
upgraded in the future.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>:</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Keep <replaceable>package</replaceable> at its
current version: cancel any installation, removal,
or upgrade. Unlike <quote>hold</quote> (above) this
does not prevent automatic upgrades in the future.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>&M</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Mark <replaceable>package</replaceable> as having
been <link linkend='secAutoInstall'>automatically installed</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable>package</replaceable><literal>&m</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Mark <replaceable>package</replaceable> as having
been <link linkend='secAutoInstall'>manually installed</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
As a special case, <quote><literal>install</literal></quote> with no
arguments will act on any stored/pending actions.
</para>
<note>
<para>
Once you enter <userinput>Y</userinput> at the final
confirmation prompt, the
<quote><literal>install</literal></quote> command will
modify &aptitude;'s stored information about what
actions to perform. Therefore, if you issue (e.g.) the
command <quote><literal>aptitude install foo
bar</literal></quote> and then abort the installation
once &aptitude; has started downloading and installing
packages, you will need to run <quote><literal>aptitude
remove foo bar</literal></quote> to cancel that order.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>remove</literal>, <literal>purge</literal>, <literal>hold</literal>, <literal>unhold</literal>, <literal>keep</literal>, <literal>reinstall</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
These commands are the same as
<quote><literal>install</literal></quote>, but apply the
named action to all packages given on the command line for
which it is not <link
linkend='parOverrideSpecifiers'>overridden</link>. The
difference between <literal>hold</literal> and
<literal>keep</literal> is that <literal>hold</literal>
will cause a package to be ignored by future
<literal>safe-upgrade</literal> or <literal>full-upgrade</literal> commands, while
<literal>keep</literal> merely cancels any scheduled
actions on the package. <literal>unhold</literal> will
allow a package to be upgraded by future
<literal>safe-upgrade</literal> or <literal>full-upgrade</literal> commands, without otherwise
altering its state.
</para>
<para>
For instance, <quote><literal>aptitude remove
'~ndeity'</literal></quote> will remove all packages
whose name contains <quote><literal>deity</literal></quote>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>markauto</literal>, <literal>unmarkauto</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Mark packages as automatically installed or manually
installed, respectively. Packages are specified in
exactly the same way as for the <quote><literal>install</literal></quote> command.
For instance, <quote><literal>aptitude markauto
'~slibs'</literal></quote> will mark all packages in
the <quote><literal>libs</literal></quote> section as
having been automatically installed.
</para>
<para>
For more information on automatically installed
packages, see the section <quote><link
linkend='secAutoInstall'>Managing Automatically
Installed Packages</link></quote> in the &aptitude;
reference manual.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>forbid-version</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Forbid a package from being upgraded to a particular
version. This will prevent aptitude from
automatically upgrading to this version, but will
allow automatic upgrades to future versions. By
default, aptitude will select the version to which the
package would normally be upgraded; you may override
this selection by appending <quote><literal>=<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal></quote>
to the package name: for instance, <quote><literal>aptitude forbid-version
vim=1.2.3.broken-4</literal></quote>.
</para>
<para>
This command is useful for avoiding broken versions of
packages without having to set and clear manual holds.
If you decide you really want the forbidden version
after all, the <quote><literal>install</literal></quote> command will
remove the ban.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>update</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Updates the list of available packages from the &apt;
sources (this is equivalent to <quote><literal>apt-get
update</literal></quote>)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>safe-upgrade</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent
version. Installed packages will not be removed
unless they are unused (see the section <quote><link
linkend='secAutoInstall'>Managing Automatically
Installed Packages</link></quote> in the &aptitude;
reference manual); packages which are not currently
installed will not be installed.
</para>
<para>
It is sometimes necessary to remove or install one
package in order to upgrade another; this command is not
able to upgrade packages in such situations. Use the
<link
linkend='manpageFullUpgrade'><literal>full-upgrade</literal></link>
command to upgrade as many packages as possible.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id='manpageFullUpgrade'>
<term><literal>full-upgrade</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version,
removing or installing packages as necessary. This
command is less conservative than
<literal>safe-upgrade</literal> and thus more likely to
perform unwanted actions. However, it is capable of
upgrading packages that <literal>safe-upgrade</literal> cannot
upgrade.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This command was originally named
<literal>dist-upgrade</literal> for historical reasons,
and &aptitude; still recognizes
<literal>dist-upgrade</literal> as a synonym for
<literal>full-upgrade</literal>.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id='manpageKeepAll'>
<term><literal>keep-all</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Cancels all scheduled actions on all packages; any
packages whose sticky state indicates an installation,
removal, or upgrade will have this sticky state cleared.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>forget-new</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Forgets all internal information about what packages
are <quote>new</quote> (equivalent to pressing <quote><keycap>f</keycap></quote> when in visual
mode).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>search</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Searches for packages matching one of the patterns
supplied on the command line. All packages which
match any of the given patterns will be displayed; for
instance, <quote><literal>aptitude search
'~N' edit</literal></quote> will list all <quote>new</quote> packages and all packages whose name contains <quote>edit</quote>. For more information on
search patterns, see the section <quote><link
linkend='secSearchPatterns'>Search
Patterns</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference
manual.
</para>
<para>
Unless you pass the <link
linkend='cmdlineOptionFormat'><literal>-F</literal></link> option, the output of
<literal>aptitude search</literal> will look something
like this:
</para>
<screen>i apt - Advanced front-end for dpkg
pi apt-build - frontend to apt to build, optimize and in
cp apt-file - APT package searching utility -- command-
ihA raptor-utils - Raptor RDF Parser utilities</screen>
<para>
Each search result is listed on a separate line. The
first character of each line indicates the current state
of the package: the most common states are
<literal>p</literal>, meaning that no trace of the package
exists on the system, <literal>c</literal>, meaning that
the package was deleted but its configuration files remain
on the system, <literal>i</literal>, meaning that the
package is installed, and <literal>v</literal>, meaning
that the package is virtual. The second character
indicates the stored action (if any; otherwise a blank
space is displayed) to be performed on the package, with
the most common actions being <literal>i</literal>,
meaning that the package will be installed,
<literal>d</literal>, meaning that the package will be
deleted, and <literal>p</literal>, meaning that the
package and its configuration files will be removed. If
the third character is <literal>A</literal>, the package
was automatically installed.
</para>
<para>
For a complete list of the possible state and action
flags, see the section <quote><link
linkend='secAccessingPackageInformation'>Accessing Package
Information</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference
guide.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>show</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Displays detailed information about one or more
packages, listed following the search command. If a
package name contains a tilde character
(<quote><literal>~</literal></quote>), it will be
treated as a search pattern and all matching packages
will be displayed (see the section <quote><link
linkend='secSearchPatterns'>Search
Patterns</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference
manual).
</para>
<para>
If the verbosity level is 1 or greater (i.e., at least one <literal>-v</literal>
is present on the command-line), information about all
versions of the package is displayed. Otherwise, information about
the <quote>candidate version</quote> (the version
that <quote><literal>aptitude install</literal></quote>
would download) is displayed.
</para>
<para>
You can display information about a different version of
the package by appending
<literal>=<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> to
the package name; you can display the version from a
particular archive by appending
<literal>/<replaceable>archive</replaceable></literal> to
the package name. If either of these is present, then
only the version you request will be displayed, regardless
of the verbosity level.
</para>
<para>
If the verbosity level is 1 or greater, the package's
architecture, compressed size, filename, and md5sum fields
will be displayed. If the verbosity level is 2 or
greater, the select version or versions will be displayed
once for each archive in which they are found.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>why</literal>, <literal>why-not</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Explains the reason that a particular package can or
cannot be installed on the system.
</para>
<para>
This command searches for packages that require or
conflict with the given package. The result is a sequence
of dependencies leading to the target package:
</para>
<screen>gnome-desktop-environment Depends gdm (>= 2.18.2)
gdm Depends gnome-session | xterm | x-window-manager | x-terminal-emulator
fvwm Provides x-window-manager</screen>
<para>
For <literal>why</literal>, the last dependency listed
will be a positive dependency (such as Depends or
Recommends), while for <literal>why-not</literal>, the
last dependency (but no other dependency) will be a
conflict.
</para>
<para>
If one or more <replaceable>patterns</replaceable> are
present, then aptitude will begin its search at these
patterns; that is, the first package in the list will be a
package matching the pattern in question. The patterns
are considered to be package names unless they contain a
tilde character (<literal>~</literal>), in which case they
are treated as search patterns (see the section
<quote><link linkend='secSearchPatterns'>Search
Patterns</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference
manual).
</para>
<para>
If no patterns are present, then &aptitude; will find a
dependency chain beginning at a manually installed
package.
</para>
<note>
<para>
<literal>aptitude why</literal> does not perform full
dependency resolution; it only displays direct
relationships between packages. For instance, if A
requires B, C requires D, and B and C conflict,
<quote><literal>aptitude why-not D</literal></quote>
will not produce the answer <quote>A depends on B, B
conflicts with C, and D depends on C</quote>.
</para>
</note>
<para>
By default aptitude outputs only the <quote>most
installed, strongest, tightest, shortest</quote>
dependency chain. That is, it looks for a chain that only
contains packages which are installed or will be
installed; it looks for the strongest possible
dependencies under that restriction; it looks for chains
that avoid ORed dependencies and Provides; and it looks
for the shortest dependency chain meeting those criteria.
These rules are progressively weakened until a match is
found. If the verbosity level is 1 or more, then
<emphasis>all</emphasis> the explanations aptitude can
find will be displayed, in inverse order of relevance.
</para>
<para>
This command returns 0 if successful, 1 if no explanation
could be constructed, and -1 if an error occured.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>clean</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Removes all previously downloaded <literal>.deb</literal> files from the package cache
directory (usually <filename>/var/cache/apt/archives</filename>).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>autoclean</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Removes any cached packages which can no longer be
downloaded. This allows you to prevent a cache from
growing out of control over time without completely
emptying it.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>changelog</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Downloads and displays the Debian changelog for each of
the given source or binary packages.
</para>
<para>
By default, the changelog for the version which would be
installed with <quote><literal>aptitude
install</literal></quote> is downloaded. You can select a
particular version of a package by appending <literal>=<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> to
the package name; you can select the version from a
particular archive by appending <literal>/<replaceable>archive</replaceable></literal> to
the package name.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>download</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Downloads the <literal>.deb</literal> file for the given
package to the current directory.
</para>
<para>
By default, the version which would be installed with
<quote><literal>aptitude install</literal></quote> is
downloaded. You can select a particular version of a
package by appending <literal>=<replaceable>version</replaceable></literal> to
the package name; you can select the version from a
particular archive by appending <literal>/<replaceable>archive</replaceable></literal> to
the package name.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>help</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Displays a brief summary of the available commands and
options.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>
<para>
The following options may be used to modify the behavior of
the actions described above. Note that while all options
will be accepted for all commands, some options don't apply
to particular commands and will be ignored by those
commands.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-D</literal>, <literal>--show-deps</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
For commands that will install or remove packages
(<literal>install</literal>, <literal>full-upgrade</literal>,
etc), show brief explanations of automatic installations
and removals.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Show-Deps'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-d</literal>, <literal>--download-only</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Download packages to the package cache as necessary, but
do not install or remove anything. By default, the
package cache is stored in
<filename>/var/cache/apt/archives</filename>.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link
linkend='configCmdLine-Download-Only'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-Only</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry id='cmdlineOptionFormat'>
<term>
<literal>-F</literal> <replaceable>format</replaceable>, <literal>--display-format</literal> <replaceable>format</replaceable>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify the format which should be used to display
output from the <literal>search</literal> command.
For instance, passing <quote><literal>%p %V %v</literal></quote>
for <replaceable>format</replaceable> will display a package's name,
followed by its currently installed version and its
available version (see the section <quote><link linkend='secDisplayFormat'>Customizing how packages are displayed</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference manual for more information).
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Package-Display-Format'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Format</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-f</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Try hard to fix the dependencies of broken packages, even
if it means ignoring the actions requested on the command
line.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration item <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Fix-Broken'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<literal>-h</literal>, <literal>--help</literal>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Display a brief help message. Identical to the <literal>help</literal> action.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>--purge-unused</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Purge packages that are no longer required by any
installed package. This is equivalent to passing
<quote><literal>-o <link linkend='configPurge-Unused'>Aptitude::Purge-Unused=true</link></literal></quote>
as a command-line argument.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-P</literal>, <literal>--prompt</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Always display a prompt, even when no actions other
than those explicitly requested will be performed.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link
linkend='configCmdLine-Always-Prompt'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-Prompt</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-R</literal>, <literal>--without-recommends</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> treat recommendations as
dependencies when installing new packages (this overrides settings in <filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> and <filename>~/.aptitude/config</filename>).
Packages previously installed due to recommendations
will not be removed.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the pair of configuration options <literal><link linkend='configRecommends-Important'>Aptitude::Recommends-Important</link></literal> and <literal><link linkend='configKeep-Recommends'>Aptitude::Keep-Recommends</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-r</literal>, <literal>--with-recommends</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Treat recommendations as dependencies when installing
new packages (this overrides settings in <filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename> and <filename>~/.aptitude/config</filename>).
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configRecommends-Important'>Aptitude::Recommends-Important</link></literal>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-s</literal>, <literal>--simulate</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
In command-line mode, print the actions that would
normally be performed, but don't actually perform them.
This does not require &root; privileges. In the visual
interface, always open the cache in read-only mode
regardless of whether you are &root;.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link
linkend='configSimulate'>Aptitude::Simulate</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>--schedule-only</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
For commands that modify package states, schedule
operations to be performed in the future, but don't
perform them. You can execute scheduled actions by
running <literal>aptitude install</literal> with no
arguments. This is equivalent to making the corresponding
selections in <link linkend='secUsingVisual'>visual
mode</link>, then exiting the program normally.
</para>
<para>
For instance, <literal>aptitude --schedule-only install
evolution</literal> will schedule the
<literal>evolution</literal> package for later
installation.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-t</literal> <replaceable>release</replaceable>, <literal>--target-release</literal> <replaceable>release</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Set the release from which packages should be
installed. For instance, <quote><literal>aptitude -t
experimental ...</literal></quote> will install
packages from the experimental distribution unless you
specify otherwise. For the command-line actions <quote>changelog</quote>, <quote>download</quote>, and <quote>show</quote>,
this is equivalent to appending <literal>/<replaceable>release</replaceable></literal>
to each package named on the command-line; for other commands,
this will affect the default candidate version of packages
according to the rules described in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>apt_preferences</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration item <literal>APT::Default-Release</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-O</literal> <replaceable>order</replaceable>, <literal>--sort</literal> <replaceable>order</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify the order in which output from the <literal>search</literal>
command should be displayed. For instance, passing <quote><literal>installsize</literal></quote>
for <replaceable>order</replaceable> will list packages in
order according to their size when installed (see the section <quote><link linkend='secSortingPolicy'>Customizing how packages are sorted</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference manual for more information).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-o</literal> <replaceable>key</replaceable><literal>=</literal><replaceable>value</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Set a configuration file option directly; for
instance, use <literal>-o
Aptitude::Log=/tmp/my-log</literal> to log &aptitude;'s
actions to <filename>/tmp/my-log</filename>. For more
information on configuration file options, see the
section <quote><link
linkend='secConfigFile'>Configuration file
reference</link></quote> in the &aptitude; reference manual.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-q<optional>=<replaceable>n</replaceable></optional></literal>, <literal>--quiet<optional>=<replaceable>n</replaceable></optional></literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Suppress all incremental progress indicators, thus making
the output loggable. This may be supplied multiple times
to make the program quieter, but unlike &apt-get;,
&aptitude; does not enable <literal>-y</literal> when <literal>-q</literal>
is supplied more than once.
</para>
<para>
The optional <literal>=<replaceable>n</replaceable></literal>
may be used to directly set the amount of quietness (for
instance, to override a setting in <filename>/etc/apt/apt.conf</filename>);
it causes the program to behave as if <literal>-q</literal>
had been passed exactly <replaceable>n</replaceable>
times.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-V</literal>, <literal>--show-versions</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Show which versions of packages will be installed.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Show-Versions'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Versions</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-v</literal>, <literal>--verbose</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Causes some commands (for instance, <literal>show</literal>) to display extra information. This may be supplied multiple times to get more and more information.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Verbose'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>--version</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Display the version of &aptitude; and some information
about how it was compiled.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>--visual-preview</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
When installing or removing packages from the command
line, instead of displaying the usual prompt, start up the
visual interface and display its preview screen.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-w</literal> <replaceable>width</replaceable>, <literal>--width</literal> <replaceable>width</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Specify the display width which should be used for
output from the <literal>search</literal> command (by
default, the terminal width is used).
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Package-Display-Width'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Width</link></literal>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-y</literal>, <literal>--assume-yes</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
When a yes/no prompt would be presented, assume that
the user entered <quote>yes</quote>. In particular,
suppresses the prompt that appears when installing,
upgrading, or removing packages. Prompts for <quote>dangerous</quote> actions, such as removing
essential packages, will still be displayed. This
option overrides <literal>-P</literal>.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Assume-Yes'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-Yes</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-Z</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Show how much disk space will be used or freed by the
individual packages being installed, upgraded, or
removed.
</para>
<para>
This corresponds to the configuration option <literal><link linkend='configCmdLine-Show-Size-Changes'>Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-Changes</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
The following options apply to the visual mode of the
program, but are primarily for internal use; you generally
won't need to use them yourself.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-S</literal> <replaceable>fname</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Loads the extended state information from <replaceable>fname</replaceable> instead of the
standard state file.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-u</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Begins updating the package lists as soon as the
program starts. You cannot use this option and <literal>-i</literal> at the same time.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>-i</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Displays a download preview when the program starts
(equivalent to starting the program and immediately
pressing <quote><keycap>g</keycap></quote>). You
cannot use this option and <quote><literal>-u</literal></quote> at the same time.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Environment</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>HOME</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
If $HOME/.aptitude exists, aptitude will store its
configuration file in $HOME/.aptitude/config. Otherwise, it
will look up the current user's home directory using <citerefentry><refentrytitle>getpwuid</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
and place its configuration file there.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>PAGER</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
If this environment variable is set, &aptitude; will use it
to display changelogs when <quote><literal>aptitude
changelog</literal></quote> is invoked. If not set, it
defaults to <literal>more</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>TMP</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
If <literal>TMPDIR</literal> is unset, &aptitude; will store
its temporary files in <literal>TMP</literal> if that
variable is set. Otherwise, it will store them in
<filename>/tmp</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>TMPDIR</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
&aptitude; will store its temporary files in the directory
indicated by this environment variable. If
<literal>TMPDIR</literal> is not set, then
<literal>TMP</literal> will be used; if
<literal>TMP</literal> is also unset, then &aptitude; will
use <filename>/tmp</filename>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>apt-get</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <citerefentry><refentrytitle>apt</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>, <filename>/usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/<replaceable>lang</replaceable>/index.html</filename> from the package aptitude-doc-<replaceable>lang</replaceable>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>
|