| Current File : //usr/share/aptitude/README |
aptitude user's manual
Version 0.8.13
Daniel Burrows
Main author of the document. <dburrows@debian.org>
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo
Main maintainer after Daniel Burrows, documentation about new features,
corrections and formatting. <mafm@debian.org>
Copyright © 2004-2011, 2012-2016 Daniel Burrows, Manuel A. Fernandez
Montecelo
This manual 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.
This manual 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.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this manual; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51
Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Table of Contents
Introduction
What is this aptitude thing, anyway?
What is a package manager?
What is the apt system?
How can I get aptitude?
Pre-built aptitude packages, or, “what 99% of users should do”
Building aptitude from source code
Tracking and participating in aptitude development
1. Getting started
Using aptitude
aptitude basics
Navigating the aptitude package list
Finding packages by name
Managing packages
Updating the package list and installing packages
Using aptitude from the command line
2. aptitude reference guide
The aptitude terminal user interface
Using the menus
Menu commands
Working with multiple views
Becoming root
Managing packages
Managing the package list
Accessing package information
Modifying package states
Downloading, installing, and removing packages
Understanding and managing package trust
Managing automatically installed packages
Resolving package dependencies
Dependency resolution in aptitude
Immediate dependency resolution
Resolving Dependencies Interactively
Costs in the interactive dependency resolver
Configuring the interactive dependency resolver
Search patterns
Searching for strings
Shorthand for search terms
Searches and versions
Explicit search targets
Search term reference
Customizing aptitude
Customizing the package list
Customizing keybindings
Customizing text colors and styles
Customizing the display layout
Configuration file reference
Themes
Playing Minesweeper
3. aptitude frequently asked questions
4. Credits
I. Command-line reference
aptitude — high-level interface to the package manager
aptitude-create-state-bundle — bundle the current aptitude state
aptitude-run-state-bundle — unpack an aptitude state bundle and invoke
aptitude on it
List of Figures
2.1. Commands available in the Actions menu
2.2. Commands available in the Undo menu
2.3. Commands available in the Package menu
2.4. Commands available in the Resolver menu
2.5. Commands available in the Search menu
2.6. Commands available in the Options menu
2.7. Commands available in the Views menu
2.8. Commands available in the Help menu
2.9. Values of the “current state” flag
2.10. Values of the “action” flag
2.11. Syntax of compound cost components
2.12. Safety cost levels
2.13. Syntax of the ?for term
2.14. Customizable styles in aptitude
List of Tables
2.1. Basic cost components
2.2. Default safety cost levels
2.3. Quick guide to search terms
List of Examples
2.1. Sample resolver costs
2.2. Use of the ?= term.
2.3. Use of the ?bind term
2.4. Use of the ?exact-name term
2.5. Use of the ?for term
2.6. Use of the ?term-prefix term
2.7. Grouping policy firstchar or firstchar(binary)
2.8. Grouping policy firstchar(source)
2.9. Use of pattern to group packages by their maintainer
2.10. Use of pattern with some packages placed at the top level
2.11. Use of the pattern grouping policy with sub-policies
12. Usage of --show-summary
Introduction
Table of Contents
What is this aptitude thing, anyway?
What is a package manager?
What is the apt system?
How can I get aptitude?
Pre-built aptitude packages, or, “what 99% of users should do”
Building aptitude from source code
Tracking and participating in aptitude development
“Master, does Emacs possess the Buddha nature?” the novice asked.
“I don't see why not,” replied the master. “It's got bloody well
everything else.” Several years later, the novice suddenly achieved
enlightenment.
-- John Fouhy
Hello, and welcome to the aptitude user's manual! This introductory
section explains what aptitude is and how to get your hands on it; for
information on actually using it, please proceed to Chapter 1, Getting
started.
What is this aptitude thing, anyway?
aptitude is a featureful package manager for Debian GNU/Linux systems,
based on the renowned apt package management infrastructure. aptitude
provides the functionality of dselect and apt-get, as well as many
additional features not found in either program.
What is a package manager?
A package manager keeps track of what software is installed on your
computer, and allows you to easily install new software, upgrade software
to newer versions, or remove software that you previously installed. As
the name suggests, package managers deal with packages: collections of
files that are bundled together and can be installed and removed as a
group.
Often, a package is just a particular program. For instance, the instant
messaging client gaim is contained in the Debian package of the same name.
On the other hand, it is common for programs to consist of several
interrelated packages. For instance, the gimp image editor consists not
only of the gimp package, but also of the gimp-data package; in addition,
several optional add-on packages (containing esoteric data, documentation,
and so on) are also available. It is also possible for several small,
related programs to be contained in a single package: for instance, the
fileutils package contains several common Unix commands, such as ls, cp,
etc.
Some packages require other packages in order to function. In Debian,
packages can depend upon, recommend, suggest, break, or conflict with
other packages.
• If a package A depends upon another package B, then B is required for
A to operate properly. For instance, the gimp package depends upon the
gimp-data package in order to ensure that the GIMP graphics editor can
access its critical data files.
• If a package A recommends another package B, then B provides important
additional functionality to A that will be desired in most
circumstances. For instance, the mozilla-browser package recommends
the mozilla-psm package, which adds support for secure data transfers
to the Mozilla Web browser. While mozilla-psm is not strictly required
for Mozilla to function, most users will want Mozilla to support the
secure transmission of confidential data (such as credit card
numbers).
• If a package A suggests another package B, then package B provides
functionality that may enhance A, but is not needed in most cases. For
instance, the kmail package suggests the gnupg package, which contains
encryption software that can be used by KMail.
• If a package A conflicts with another package B, then the two packages
cannot be installed at the same time. For instance, fb-music-hi
conflicts with fb-music-low because they provide alternate sets of
music for the game Frozen Bubble.
The job of a package manager is to present an interface which assists the
user in managing the collection of packages installed on his or her
system. aptitude provides such an interface by building on the apt package
management system.
What is the apt system?
Being able to install and remove packages is great, but the basic software
for doing this (known as dpkg) does exactly that and nothing more. This is
fine if you download one or two packages by hand, but quickly becomes
cumbersome when you are trying to manage a large number of packages.
Furthermore, if your shiny new package requires software you haven't yet
installed, you have to download the newly required software by hand. And
if you later decide to remove the no-longer-shiny package, these extra
packages will linger on your system, consuming hard drive space, unless
you manually remove them.
Obviously, all of this manual labor is a tedious chore, and so most
package management systems come with software which takes care of some or
all of it for you. apt is a common base on which to build these programs:
in addition to aptitude, programs such as synaptic and apt-watch make use
of apt.
apt works by keeping a list of the packages that can be downloaded from
Debian on your computer. This list is used to find packages that need to
be upgraded and to install new packages. apt can also solve many
dependency problems automatically: for instance, when you choose to
install a package, it will find any additional required packages and
install those as well.
When working with a package manager based on apt, such as aptitude, you
will typically perform three basic tasks: you will update the list of
packages that are available by downloading new lists from the Debian
servers, you will select which packages should be installed, upgraded, or
removed, and finally, you will commit your selections by actually
performing the installations, removals, etc.
apt-based package managers read the list of “sources” -- repositories of
Debian packages -- from the file /etc/apt/sources.list. The format and
contents of this file are beyond the scope of this document, but are
described in the manual page sources.list(5).
How can I get aptitude?
In case you are reading this manual but aptitude is not yet installed on
your system, this section explains how to correct this unfortunate
situation. Most people should head straight for the section on binary
packages.
Pre-built aptitude packages, or, “what 99% of users should do”
Pre-built, or “binary” packages are the easiest and most common way to
install aptitude. You should only attempt a source install if binary
packages are not available for some reason, or if you have unusual needs
that are not met by binary packages.
If you are using a Debian system, execute the following command as root:
apt-get install aptitude. If you are not using a Debian system, your
system provider might have created a pre-built package of aptitude; if you
are not sure, you can contact them for further suggestions.
Building aptitude from source code
You also can build aptitude from source; however, this is probably not a
useful exercise unless apt is already available on your system. If it is,
you can install aptitude from source with the following steps:
1. Install the following pieces of software:
• A C++ compiler, such as g++.
• The development files for apt, typically available in a package
with a name like libapt-pkg-dev.
• The libsigc++-2.0 library, available in the package
libsigc++-2.0-dev or from http://libsigc.sourceforge.net.
• The cwidget library, available in the package libcwidget-dev or
from http://cwidget.alioth.debian.org.
• The gettext program, which should be included with your Linux
distribution.
• A make tool, such as GNU make.
2. Last but not least, download the most recent aptitude source code,
available from http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/aptitude.
(scroll to the bottom of the page and download the “.orig.tar.gz”
file)
Once all the required components are available, open a terminal and
execute the command tar zxf aptitude-0.8.13.tar.gz to unpack the source
code. Once the source code is unpacked, type cd aptitude-0.8.13 &&
./configure && make to compile aptitude. If this succeeds, make sure you
are the root user (by using su, for instance), then type make install to
install aptitude on your computer. Once aptitude is successfully
installed, typing aptitude at a command prompt should start the program.
Tracking and participating in aptitude development
Getting the aptitude development source tree
If you want to test the latest bleeding-edge source code for aptitude, you
can download unreleased aptitude source code using Git. Install Git
(available from http://git-scm.com/) and execute the command git clone
git://anonscm.debian.org/aptitude/aptitude.git to retrieve the most recent
source code.
[Warning] Warning
The aptitude Git repository is an active development tree; it
will change as bugs are fixed and features are added, and there
is absolutely no guarantee that it will even compile, let alone
run properly! Bug reports are welcome, but be aware that you use
development code entirely at your own risk!^[1]
Mailing list
The primary mailing list for aptitude development is
<aptitude-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>. Archives of the list are located
at http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/aptitude-devel/. To subscribe,
visit the Web page
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/aptitude-devel.
Submitting patches
Ideally, patches should be submitted to the aptitude mailing list,
<aptitude-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org>. But if you prefer sending them
by private email, you may email them to <aptitude@packages.debian.org> or
<dburrows@debian.org>. A brief description of the motivation behind your
patch, and an explanation of how it works, are greatly appreciated.
Tracking changes to the aptitude source tree
The aptitude source tree is regularly updated with new features, bugfixes,
and new bugs. Once the source code is available on your computer (see the
previous section), you can cd into it and type git pull to update it with
any changes made to the main repository.
To automatically receive notifications when changes are made to the
aptitude codebase, subscribe to the Atom feed available at
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=aptitude/aptitude.git;a=atom or RSS
feed available at
http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=aptitude/aptitude.git;a=rss.
Building aptitude from the development tree
To build aptitude from the Git repository, you must have the programs
autoconf and automake installed. Type sh ./autogen.sh && ./configure to
generate the files needed to compile aptitude, then execute make and make
install.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
^[1] Of course, all free software is used at your own risk, but the risk
involved in using an active development tree is much higher.
Chapter 1. Getting started
Table of Contents
Using aptitude
aptitude basics
Navigating the aptitude package list
Finding packages by name
Managing packages
Updating the package list and installing packages
Using aptitude from the command line
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
-- Lao Tsu
aptitude is a sizeable program with many features, and it can be a bit
overwhelming for new users to get acquainted with it. This chapter does
not exhaustively describe the features of aptitude (see Chapter 2,
aptitude reference guide for that), but it does provide a walk-through of
the basic and most commonly used features of the program.
Using aptitude
This section describes how to use the visual interface of aptitude. For
information on using aptitude's command-line interface, see the section
called “Using aptitude from the command line”.
aptitude basics
To run aptitude, open your favorite text terminal, and at the command
line, type:
foobar$ aptitude
Once the cache is loaded (this may take some time on slower machines), the
main aptitude screen should appear:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks
These packages are currently installed on your computer.
As you can see, the main screen of aptitude is divided into several
regions. The blue line at the top of the terminal is the menu bar, and the
blue lines below it are informational messages describing some important
commands. The black space that follows is the list of all available
packages, in which some groups of packages are listed. The currently
selected group (“Installed Packages”) is highlighted, and its description
is shown in the lower black space.
As the top line of the screen suggests, you can access aptitude's menus by
pressing Control+t (also valid: Control+Space and F10); you can also click
the mouse on a menu title if your system supports it. Pressing Control+t
will open the Actions menu:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
+-------------------------+ u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
|Install/remove packages g|
|Update package list u|
|Forget new packages f|
|Clean package cache |eated Packages
|Clean obsolete files |
|Mark Upgradable U|
|Play Minesweeper |
|Become root |
+-------------------------+
|Quit Q|
+-------------------------+
These packages are currently installed on your computer.
Perform all pending installs and removals
Use the arrow keys and Enter to select menu items (or, if your system
supports it, click on them with a mouse); to close the menu without
selecting anything, press Control+t again. The currently highlighted menu
item is explained at the bottom of the screen. If a menu item can be
activated using a keyboard shortcut, the shortcut is displayed in the
menu: for instance, the command “Update package list” can be activated by
pressing u.
At any time, you can press ? to display an on-line reference to the
available keyboard shortcuts.
Navigating the aptitude package list
The list of packages is the primary interface to aptitude. When aptitude
starts, the list is organized into a number of groups, as can be seen in
the following screen shot:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks
These packages are currently installed on your computer.
[Note] Note
Empty groups of packages are automatically hidden by aptitude, so
you may see more or less groups than appear in this screen shot.
In the screen shot above, the first group (“Installed Packages”) is
highlighted to indicate that it is currently selected. You can move the
selection up and down with the arrow keys; note that the description below
the package list changes as you do so. To “expand” a group, press Enter
while the group is selected:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
--- admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
--- base - The Debian base system
--- devel - Utilities and programs for software development
--- doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation
--- editors - Text editors and word processors
--- electronics - Programs for working with circuits and electronics
--- games - Games, toys, and fun programs
--- gnome - The GNOME Desktop System
--- graphics - Utilities to create, view, and edit graphics files
These packages are currently installed on your computer.
As you can see, the “Installed Packages” group has been expanded to reveal
its contents: it contains a number of subgroups, loosely defined by what
types of software they contain. Expanding the “admin” section by selecting
it and pressing Enter, we see:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
--\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
--- main - The main Debian archive
--- base - The Debian base system
--- devel - Utilities and programs for software development
--- doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation
--- editors - Text editors and word processors
--- electronics - Programs for working with circuits and electronics
--- games - Games, toys, and fun programs
--- gnome - The GNOME Desktop System
Packages in the 'admin' section allow you to perform administrative tasks such
as installing software, managing users, configuring and monitoring your system,
examining network traffic, and so on.
The “admin” group contains a single subgroup, the “main” Debian archive.
Expanding this group reveals some packages!
[Tip] Tip
To save time, you can use the [ key to expand all the subgroups of a
group at once. Selecting “Installed Packages” and pressing [ would
have immediately revealed the packages in the screenshot below.
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
--\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
--\ main - The main Debian archive
i acpid 1.0.3-19 1.0.3-19
i alien 8.44 8.44
i anacron 2.3-9 2.3-9
i apt-show-versions 0.07 0.07
i A apt-utils 0.5.25 0.5.25
i apt-watch 0.3.2-2 0.3.2-2
i aptitude 0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2
The Debian distribution consists of packages from the 'main' section. Every
package in 'main' is Free Software.
For more information about what Debian considers to be Free Software, see
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines
In addition to the arrow keys, you can move the selection through the
package list by a page of information at a time using the Page Up and Page
Down keys.
[Tip] Tip
When there is more information in the lower half of the display than
fits into the available space, the a and z keys can be used to
scroll through it.
Finding packages by name
To quickly find a package whose name you know, press / to open a search
dialog:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
i frozen-bubble 1.0.0-5 1.0.0-5
i A frozen-bubble-data 1.0.0-5 1.0.0-5
i geekcode 1.7.3-1 1.7.3-1
i gfpoken 0.25-3 0.25-3
i ggz-gnome-client 0.0.7-2 0.0.7-2
i ggz-gtk-client 0.0.7-1 0.0.7-1
i ggz-gtk-game-data 0.0.7-2 0.0.7-2
i +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
i |Search for: |
i |froz |
Po| [ Ok ] [ Cancel ]|
Fr+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
attempt to shoot bubbles into groups of the same color to cause them to pop. It
features 100 single-player levels, a two-player mode, music and striking
graphics.
This game is widely rumored to be responsible for delaying the Woody release.
URL: http://www.frozen-bubble.org/
As you can see in the above screen shot, a search for froz finds the
frozen-bubble package. Using aptitude's powerful search language,
described in the section called “Search patterns”, it is possible to find
packages based on many complex criteria.
[Tip] Tip
You can search backwards in the package list by pressing \, and you
can repeat the last search by pressing n after closing the search
window.
Sometimes it is useful to hide all packages except those which meet some
particular criterion. To do this, press l:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Enter the new package tree limit: |
|apti |
| [ Ok ] [ Cancel ]|
Th+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ a
This dialog works exactly like the search dialog, except that instead of
highlighting the next package that matches what you typed into the dialog
box, it hides all packages which don't match. For instance, typing apti
into this dialog box and pressing Enter will hide all packages except
those whose names contain “apti”:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
--\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
--\ main - The main Debian archive
i aptitude 0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2
i A synaptic 0.51-1 0.51-1
--\ x11 - The X window system and related software
--\ main - The main Debian archive
i xfree86-driver-synaptics 0.13.3-1 0.13.3-1
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Virtual Packages
These packages are currently installed on your computer.
Managing packages
Now that you can move about the list of packages, it's time to start using
aptitude to install and remove packages. In this section you will learn
how to flag packages for installation, deletion, and upgrade.
[Tip] Tip
You can only change your system's setup as the root user. If you
want to experiment with aptitude, you can safely run it as any user
other than root without damaging your system in any way. aptitude
will tell you when you try to do something that only root can do,
and if you want to continue, you must type root's password.
All changes to a package are performed by first highlighting it in the
package list, then pressing a key corresponding to the action which should
be performed. The basic action keys ^[2] are + to install or upgrade a
package, - to remove a package, and = to prevent a package from being
automatically upgraded (this is known as holding the package). These
actions are not performed immediately; aptitude will simply update the
package list to show the change that has been requested.
For instance, in the screen shot below, the kaffeine-mozilla package was
selected and + was pushed. The package is now highlighted in green and the
letter “i” has appeared to the left of its name, to indicate that it will
be installed; in addition, an estimate of the amount of space that the
package will use is displayed.
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1 Will use 2925kB of disk space DL Size: 1375kB
--\ kde - The KDE Desktop System
--\ main - The main Debian archive
p bibletime-i18n <none> 1.4.1-1
p education-desktop-kde <none> 0.771
p junior-kde <none> 1.4
piA kaffeine +2843kB <none> 0.4.3-1
pi kaffeine-mozilla +81.9kB <none> 0.4.3-1
p karamba <none> 0.17-5
p kde-devel <none> 4:3.1.2
p kde-devel-extras <none> 4:3.1.2
The K Desktop Environment (development files)
A metapackage containing dependencies for the core development suite of KDE
including kdesdk, qt3-designer, and all core KDE -dev packages.
[Tip] Tip
At any time, you can use Undo → Undo (Control+u) to “undo” any
change to one or more packages. This is very useful if an action has
unforeseen consequences and you want to “take it back”.
In addition to actions that affect individual packages, another important
action is available: typing U will attempt to upgrade any packages that
can be upgraded. You should use this command on a regular basis to keep
your system up-to-date.
Managing broken packages
Sometimes, changing a package's state will cause dependency relationships
to become unfulfilled; packages with unfulfilled dependencies are said to
be broken. aptitude will warn you when this happens, and explain why it
occured. For instance, here is what happens if I attempt to remove
sound-juicer:
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.3.3 #Broken: 1 Will free 48.6MB of disk space
i A nautilus 2.10.1-4 2.10.1-4
i nautilus-cd-burner 2.10.2-1.1 2.10.2-1.1
i A nautilus-data 2.10.1-4 2.10.1-4
i netspeed 0.12.1-1 0.12.1-1
i A oaf 0.6.10-3 0.6.10-3
i pybliographer 1.2.6.2-1 1.2.6.2-1
i rhythmbox 0.8.8-13 0.8.8-13
i shermans-aquarium 3.0.1-1 3.0.1-1
idA sound-juicer -1733kB 2.10.1-3 2.10.1-3
GNOME 2 CD Ripper
sound-juicer will be removed.
The following packages depend on sound-juicer and will be broken by its
removal:
* gnome-desktop-environment depends on sound-juicer
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
As you can see, aptitude displays three indicators that something has gone
wrong: first, the number of broken packages is displayed in the upper blue
area; second, the lower half of the display changes to describe broken
packages that are related to the currently highlighted package; third, a
bar appears at the bottom of the screen with a suggestion on how to solve
the problem. To quickly find broken packages in the package list, you can
press b or search for ?broken.
[Note] Note
The text [1(1)/...] indicates the progress of aptitude's dependency
resolver. The first number is the solution that you have currently
selected, and the second one is the number of solutions that
aptitude has already generated. The presence of the text “...”
indicates that there may be additional solutions beyond the ones
generated; if aptitude knew for certain that it had generated the
only possible solution, this indicator would read [1/1].
To see more information about how aptitude thinks you can solve this
problem, press e. A screen similar to the following will appear:
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.10-1 (unstable, now)]
sound-juicer [2.10.1-2 (now)]
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
From here, you can see more solutions by pressing . or return to solutions
that you previously examined by pressing ,. To apply the current solution
and return to the package list, press !. For instance, pressing . while
the above screen is displayed results in the following solution being
presented:
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now)]
--\ Downgrade the following packages:
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.11-1 unstable, now -> 0.8.8-3 testing]
[2(2)/...] Suggest 1 keep,1 downgrade
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
In addition to the basic solution navigation commands, you can press r to
“reject” actions of which you disapprove. For instance, the first solution
will cancel the removal of sound-juicer -- the very action we were trying
to perform! By pressing r on the item corresponding to this action, we can
tell aptitude that it should not cancel the removal of sound-juicer in
this way.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.11-1 (unstable, now)]
R sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now)]
GNOME 2 CD Ripper
gnome-desktop-environment depends upon sound-juicer
--\ The following actions will resolve this dependency:
-> Remove gnome-desktop-environment [1:2.10.2.3 (unstable, testing, now)]
R -> Cancel the removal of sound-juicer
-> Downgrade sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now) -> 0.6.1-2 (testing)]
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
As you can see, the list item corresponding to keeping sound-juicer at its
current version has turned red and been marked with an “R”, indicating
that it has been rejected. Solutions that you generate in the future (that
is, any solution that you have not yet viewed) will not include this
action, although solutions that were already generated and contain this
action will be available.
[Note] Note
In the above screen image, a description of sound-juicer is
displayed in the middle of the screen; below it, you can see the
dependency that caused sound-juicer to be kept at its current
version, along with all the ways to resolve this dependency that
aptitude knows about.
For instance, if this rejection is imposed immediately after attempting to
remove sound-juicer, pressing . retrieves the following solution, skipping
the solution that cancels the installation of sound-juicer and downgrades
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Remove the following packages:
gnome-desktop-environment [1:2.10.2.3 (unstable, testing, now)]
[2(2)/...] Suggest 1 removal
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
Rejections are only applied to newly generated solutions: that is,
solutions that are generated when you press . while viewing the last
generated solution. Previously generated solutions can still contain
rejections. You can cancel a rejection at any time by once again selecting
the rejected action and pressing r; this will permit solutions containing
the action to be generated again, including any solutions that were
previously “skipped”.
The opposite of rejecting an action is approving it. To approve an action,
just select it and press a; this forces the problem resolver to choose the
action whenever possible^[3]. Approved actions will turn green and will be
marked with “A”, as in the following screenshot:
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Remove the following packages:
A gnome-desktop-environment [1:2.10.2.3 (unstable, testing, now)]
[2(2)/...] Suggest 1 removal
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
[Important] Important
If you do not resolve any broken dependencies, aptitude will
automatically implement its current suggestion when you commit
your selections by pressing g. However, it is hard to
automatically solve dependency problems, and you may not be
happy with the results, so it is generally better to look at
what aptitude plans to do before committing your selections.
Updating the package list and installing packages
At this point, you know enough about aptitude to actually make
modifications to your system.
You should periodically update your list of available packages from the
Debian servers, to keep track of new packages and new versions of
packages. To do this, press u. At any time during the download, you can
press q to abort it.
Once you have fresh lists of packages, you can choose the packages to
upgrade, install, or remove as described in the previous section. To
review the actions you have requested, press g once. When installing the
kaffeine-mozilla package (from the previous example), the following screen
appears:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1 Will use 2925kB of disk space DL Size: 1375kB
--\ Packages being automatically installed to satisfy dependencies
piA kaffeine +2843kB <none> 0.4.3-1
--\ Packages to be installed
pi kaffeine-mozilla +81.9kB <none> 0.4.3-1
These packages are being installed because they are required by another package
you have chosen for installation.
If you select a package, an explanation of its current state will appear in this
space.
As you can see, aptitude automatically decided to install kaffeine for me
because kaffeine-mozilla requires it. At this point, I have the choice of
either continuing with the installation by pressing g, or aborting it by
pressing q.
Using aptitude from the command line
In addition to its “visual” interface described in the previous section,
aptitude can be used to manage packages directly from the command-line in
the same way that you would use apt-get. This section covers the most
common aptitude command-line actions; for more information, see the
aptitude command-line reference.
In general, a command-line invocation of aptitude will look like this:
aptitude action [arguments...]
action tells aptitude what action it is to take; the remaining arguments
are used in an option-specific fashion. Typically they will consist of
package names and command-line switches^[4].
The most important actions are:
aptitude update
This command updates the package lists, as if you had entered the visual
interface and pressed u.
aptitude safe-upgrade
This command will upgrade as many packages as it can upgrade without
removing existing packages.
It is sometimes necessary to remove one package in order to upgrade
another; this command is not able to upgrade packages in such situations.
Use the full-upgrade command to upgrade those packages as well.
aptitude full-upgrade
Like safe-upgrade, this command will attempt to upgrade packages, but it
is more aggressive about solving dependency problems: it will install and
remove packages until all dependencies are satisfied. Because of the
nature of this command, it is possible that it will do undesirable things,
and so you should be careful when using it.
[Note] Note
For historical reasons, this command was originally named
dist-upgrade, and that name is still recognized by aptitude.
aptitude [ install | remove | purge ] pkg1 [pkg2...]
These commands install, remove, or purge^[5] the specified packages.
“Installing” a package which is already installed but can be upgraded will
cause it to be upgraded.
aptitude search pattern1 [pattern2...]
This command searches for packages whose name contains any of the given
patterns, printing the result to the terminal. In addition to just being a
string of text, each pattern can be a search pattern as described in the
section called “Search patterns”. ^[6] For instance, “aptitude search
gnome kde” will list all packages whose name contains either “gnome” or
“kde”.
aptitude show pkg1 [pkg2...]
Prints information about each pkg to the terminal.
The commands that install, upgrade, and remove packages all accept the
parameter -s, which stands for “simulate”. When -s is passed on the
command line, the program performs all the actions it would normally
perform, but does not actually download or install/remove any files.
aptitude will sometimes present a prompt like this:
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
space-orbit-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
space-orbit space-orbit-common
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
In addition to the obvious options of “Yes” and “No”, a number of commands
are available which can be used to change the information displayed at the
prompt, or to specify further actions. For instance, typing s will display
or hide information about how much space each package will use:
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] s
Size changes will be shown.
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
space-orbit-common <+8020kB>
The following NEW packages will be installed:
space-orbit <+393kB> space-orbit-common <+8020kB>
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Similarly, typing d will display information about automatically installed
or removed packages:
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
space-orbit-common (D: space-orbit)
The following NEW packages will be installed:
space-orbit space-orbit-common
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.
This shows that space-orbit-common is being installed because space-orbit
depends on it. You can see the entire list of possible entries by entering
? at the prompt.
If your request violates dependencies in a way that cannot be trivially
resolved, aptitude will ask you what to do:
The following packages are BROKEN:
libsdl1.2debian
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libsdl1.2debian-alsa
.
.
.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
Install the following packages:
libsdl1.2debian-all [1.2.12-1 (unstable)]
Score is 41
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
Typing y (or simply pressing enter) will accept the proposed solution.
Typing n will display the “next best” solution:
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] n
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
Install the following packages:
libsdl1.2debian-esd [1.2.12-1 (unstable)]
Score is 19
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]
As with the main command-line prompt, you can perform a number of
additional actions, including manually altering the states of packages,
from the dependency resolution prompt. Type ? to see a complete list.
Typing q will abort the automatic resolver and allow you to resolve the
dependencies manually:
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] q
aptitude failed to find a solution to these dependencies. You can solve them yourself by hand or type 'n' to quit.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libsdl1.2debian: Depends: libsdl1.2debian-alsa (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-all (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-esd (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-arts (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-oss (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-nas (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable or
libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio (= 1.2.12-1) but it is not installable
Resolve these dependencies by hand? [N/+/-/_/:/?]
You can use any of the package manipulation commands to resolve the broken
dependencies (type ? for a full list of the available commands). Type n or
press enter to quit aptitude:
Resolve these dependencies by hand? [N/+/-/_/:/?] n
Abort.
For complete documentation of the command-line features of aptitude, see
Command-line reference.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
^[2] You can also change packages using the Package menu; see the section
called “The Package menu” for details.
^[3] Approving an action is slightly different from requiring all
solutions to contain the action; what it means is that given a choice
between an approved action and a non-approved action, the resolver will
always pick the approved action. If there are several possible approved
actions, all of them will be candidates to be placed into the solution.
^[4] A “switch” is a letter preceded by a hyphen: for instance, “-a”,
“-v”, etc.
^[5] Purging a package removes the package, as well as all its
configuration files.
^[6] In fact, the same is true of the commands that take packages as
arguments, such as install or show.
Chapter 2. aptitude reference guide
Table of Contents
The aptitude terminal user interface
Using the menus
Menu commands
Working with multiple views
Becoming root
Managing packages
Managing the package list
Accessing package information
Modifying package states
Downloading, installing, and removing packages
Understanding and managing package trust
Managing automatically installed packages
Resolving package dependencies
Dependency resolution in aptitude
Immediate dependency resolution
Resolving Dependencies Interactively
Costs in the interactive dependency resolver
Configuring the interactive dependency resolver
Search patterns
Searching for strings
Shorthand for search terms
Searches and versions
Explicit search targets
Search term reference
Customizing aptitude
Customizing the package list
Customizing keybindings
Customizing text colors and styles
Customizing the display layout
Configuration file reference
Themes
Playing Minesweeper
The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please
your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you
come to the end: then stop.'
-- Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
aptitude is a large program with many features, and it is sometimes
difficult to remember how to do something, or even to remember whether
that something is even possible. Indeed, many feature requests received by
the author describe features which are already present but are difficult
to find.^[7]
In an attempt to combat this obscurity, this reference guide describes
every feature and configuration parameter of aptitude. For a more gentle
guide to the important features of aptitude, see Chapter 1, Getting
started.
[Note] Note
aptitude's behavior and appearance can be configured in a number of
ways. This manual describes how the program works with the default
settings; descriptions of how various settings affect behavior are
given in the section called “Customizing aptitude”.
The aptitude terminal user interface
This section describes the parts of the terminal-based user interface of
aptitude that do not deal with managing packages.
Using the menus
The menu bar at the top of the screen lists the most important commands in
aptitude. To activate the menu bar, press Control+t (also valid:
Control+Space and F10); you can then navigate it using the arrow keys and
select a menu item using Enter.
Some menu items also have “hotkeys”: letters or numbers that can be used
to select the item while the menu is active. These hotkeys are displayed
in a brighter shade of white than the rest of the menu.
In addition, some menu items have “shortcuts”: keystrokes that perform the
same action as the menu item while the menu is not active. These
keystrokes are listed on the right-hand side of the menu.
In the remainder of the manual, menu commands will be written like this:
Menu → Item (key). This indicates that you should choose Item from the
Menu menu, and that key is the shortcut for this command.
Menu commands
The Actions menu
Figure 2.1. Commands available in the Actions menu
┌────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ If an installation preview is not │
│ Actions → Install/remove │ visible, display one; otherwise, perform │
│ packages (g) │ an install run as described in the │
│ │ section called “Downloading, installing, │
│ │ and removing packages”. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Update package │ Bring the package list up-to-date. │
│ list (u) │ │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Mark Upgradable │ Flag all upgradable packages, except │
│ (U) │ those which are held or forbidden from │
│ │ upgrading, for upgrade. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Forget new │ Discard all information about what │
│ packages (f) │ packages are “new” (empty the “New │
│ │ Packages” tree). │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Cancel all pending actions from this │
│ │ session (including installations, │
│ Actions → Cancel pending │ removals, upgrades, holds, marking as │
│ actions │ automatically installed...). This is │
│ │ roughly equivalent to restart the │
│ │ program. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Clean package │ Delete all the compressed packages that │
│ cache │ were downloaded by aptitude ^[a]. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Delete any compressed packages that were │
│ │ downloaded by aptitude ^[a] and are no │
│ Actions → Clean obsolete │ longer available. These are presumed to │
│ files │ be packages which are obsolete, and can │
│ │ be deleted to save disk space without │
│ │ requiring an otherwise unnecessary │
│ │ download. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Play a game of Minesweeper, as described │
│ Actions → Play Minesweeper │ in the section called “Playing │
│ │ Minesweeper”. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Become root │ Continue working as the root user; see │
│ │ the section called “Becoming root”. │
├────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Actions → Quit (Q) │ Quit aptitude, saving any changes to │
│ │ package states. │
├────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ^[a] Or any other apt utility. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Undo menu
Figure 2.2. Commands available in the Undo menu
┌─────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├─────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Cancel the effect of the last change to a │
│ Undo → Undo (Control+u) │ package's state, up to the last time │
│ │ aptitude was started, the package list was │
│ │ updated, or an install run was performed. │
└─────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Package menu
Figure 2.3. Commands available in the Package menu
┌───────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package → Install (+) │ Flag the currently selected package for │
│ │ installation. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package → Reinstall │ Flag the currently selected package for │
│ (L) │ reinstallation. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package → Remove (-) │ Flag the currently selected package for │
│ │ removal. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package → Purge (_) │ Flag the currently selected package to be │
│ │ purged. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Cancel any pending installation, upgrade, or │
│ Package → Keep (:) │ removal of the currently selected package, and │
│ │ remove any hold that was set on the package. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Package → Hold (=) │ Hold the currently selected package back. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Mark the currently selected package as an │
│ Package → Mark Auto │ “automatically installed” package. For more │
│ (M) │ information on manually and automatically │
│ │ installed packages, see the section called │
│ │ “Managing automatically installed packages”. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Mark the currently selected package as a │
│ Package → Mark Manual │ “manually installed” package. For more │
│ (m) │ information on manually and automatically │
│ │ installed packages, see the section called │
│ │ “Managing automatically installed packages”. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ If a package that can be upgraded is selected, │
│ Package → Forbid │ forbid it from being upgraded to the currently │
│ Version (F) │ available version. If a version of a package │
│ │ is selected, forbid the package from being │
│ │ upgraded to that version. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Display a screen containing information about │
│ Package → Information │ the currently selected package, such as the │
│ (enter) │ packages it depends upon, the packages which │
│ │ depend upon it, and its available versions. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ When browsing the package list, cycles through │
│ │ the information that can be displayed in the │
│ │ information area (the lower half of the │
│ Package → Cycle │ display). The information area can display the │
│ Information (i) │ long description of the selected package (its │
│ │ default behavior), a summary of the │
│ │ dependencies related to the package, or an │
│ │ analysis of which other packages require or │
│ │ suggest the selected package. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Display the currently selected package's │
│ package → Changelog │ Debian changelog. To see the changelog of a │
│ (C) │ particular version, select that version and │
│ │ execute this command. │
└───────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Resolver menu
Figure 2.4. Commands available in the Resolver menu
┌───────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ Display a detailed description of the problem │
│ Examine │ resolver's current suggestion (see the section called │
│ Solution (e) │ “Resolving Dependencies Interactively”). │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ Carry out the actions that the problem resolver is │
│ Apply │ currently suggesting. │
│ Solution (!) │ │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ │
│ Next Solution │ Select the problem resolver's next suggestion. │
│ (.) │ │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ │
│ Previous │ Select the problem resolver's previous suggestion. │
│ Solution (,) │ │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ │
│ First │ Select the problem resolver's first suggestion. │
│ Solution (<) │ │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ Select the problem resolver's most recently generated │
│ Last Solution │ solution (see the section called “Resolving │
│ (>) │ Dependencies Interactively”). │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ When examining a solution, toggle whether the │
│ Resolver → │ currently selected action is rejected and move to the │
│ Toggle │ next action (see the section called “Resolving │
│ Rejected (r) │ Dependencies Interactively”). If the action is │
│ │ currently approved, its approval will be cancelled. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ When examining a solution, toggle whether the │
│ Resolver → │ currently selected action is approved and move to the │
│ Toggle │ next action (see the section called “Resolving │
│ Approved (a) │ Dependencies Interactively”). If the action is │
│ │ currently rejected, its rejection will be cancelled. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Resolver → │ When examining a solution, view detailed information │
│ View Target │ about the package which is affected by the currently │
│ (Enter) │ selected action (see the section called “Resolving │
│ │ Dependencies Interactively”). │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Reject (as if with Resolver → Toggle Rejected (r)) all │
│ Resolver → │ actions that would break a hold on a package or │
│ Reject │ install a forbidden version. These actions are │
│ Breaking │ rejected by default unless │
│ Holds │ Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds is set to │
│ │ true, but this menu item allows you to reject them │
│ │ manually at any time. │
└───────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Search menu
Figure 2.5. Commands available in the Search menu
┌──────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Find the next package in the package list │
│ Search → Find (/) │ that matches a search pattern (see the │
│ │ section called “Search patterns”). │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Search → Find Backwards │ Find the previous package in the package │
│ (\) │ list that matches a search pattern (see the │
│ │ section called “Search patterns”). │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Search → Find Again (n) │ Repeat the last Find command. │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Repeat the last Find command, but in the │
│ Search → Find Again │ opposite direction. If the last Find │
│ Backwards (N) │ command was Find Backwards, this will │
│ │ perform a forwards search, and vice versa. │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Filter the current package list by removing │
│ Search → Limit Display │ any packages which do not match a search │
│ (l) │ pattern (see the section called “Search │
│ │ patterns”). │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Search → Un-Limit │ Un-filter the current package list (all │
│ Display │ packages will be shown). │
├──────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Search → Find Broken (b) │ Find the next broken package. This is │
│ │ equivalent to searching for ?broken. │
└──────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Options menu
Figure 2.6. Commands available in the Options menu
┌───────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Open a new top-level view in which you can │
│ │ modify aptitude's settings. Configuration │
│ │ options are displayed in a tree similar to the │
│ Options → Preferences │ tree of packages; to enable or disable an │
│ │ option, select it and press Space or Enter. │
│ │ Configuration options are saved to │
│ │ ~/.aptitude/config immediately upon being │
│ │ selected. │
├───────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Options → Revert │ Reset all options to their default values. │
│ options │ │
└───────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Views menu
[Note] Note
For an overview of how views work, see the section called “Working
with multiple views”.
Figure 2.7. Commands available in the Views menu
┌─────────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Views → Next (F6) │ Change to the next active view. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Views → Prev (F7) │ Change to the previous active view. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Views → Close (q) │ Close the current view. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Views → New Package View │ Create a new view of the package list. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Create a view that displays packages │
│ Views → Audit │ which are not installed, and which a │
│ Recommendations │ package installed on your system │
│ │ Recommends. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Views → New Flat Package │ Create a new view of the package list in │
│ List │ which packages are not categorized. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Create a new view of the package list in │
│ Views → New Debtags Browser │ which packages are categorized according │
│ │ to their debtags entries. │
├─────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ A number of additional menu items │
│ │ appear; these correspond to the │
│ Additional items │ currently active views. To switch │
│ │ directly to a view, select it from the │
│ │ menu. │
└─────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘
The Help menu
Figure 2.8. Commands available in the Help menu
┌──────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → About │ Display some copyright information. │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → Help (?) │ Display the on-line help page. │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → User's Manual │ Display the User's Manual (this document). │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → FAQ │ Display the aptitude FAQ. │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → ChangeLog │ Display a history of the major changes made to │
│ │ aptitude. │
├──────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Help → License │ Display the terms under which you may copy, │
│ │ modify, and distribute aptitude. │
└──────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Working with multiple views
aptitude allows you to work with several “views” at once. A “view”
(sometimes called a “screen”) is simply something that can appear in the
area of the screen below the menu bar. The most common view is the package
list, but download views are also common.
When several views are open at once, a bar listing all the active views
will appear at the top of the screen. For instance, if I examine apt by
pressing Enter, then examine libc6, the screen will look something like
this:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages apt info libc6 info
aptitude 0.3.1
i A --\ libc6 2.3.2.ds1- 2.3.2.ds1-
Description: GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone data
Contains the standard libraries that are used by nearly all programs on the
system. This package includes shared versions of the standard C library and
the standard math library, as well as many others. Timezone data is also
included.
Priority: required
Section: base
Maintainer: GNU Libc Maintainers <debian-glibc@lists.debian.org>
Compressed size: 4901k
Uncompressed size: 15.9M
Source Package: glibc
--\ Depends
--- libdb1-compat
--\ Suggests
--- locales
--- glibc-doc
--\ Conflicts
GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone data
You can close the current view using Views → Close (q). To switch to the
next or previous view, use Views → Next (F6) and Views → Prev (F7), or
click on the view's name at the top of the screen; you can also find a
list of all active views in the Views menu.
As shown above, some commands (for instance, viewing information about a
package) will create new views automatically; you can also explicitly
create a new view using Views → New Package View.
Becoming root
Some actions, such as updating the package lists, can only be performed as
root. If you are not root and you try to update the package lists,
aptitude will ask if you want to become root:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Updating the package lists requires administrative privileges, which |
|you currently do not have. Would you like to change to the root account?|
| |
| [ Become root ] [ Don't become root ] |
Th+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
If you select “Become root”, aptitude will prompt you for root's password;
when you have correctly entered it, aptitude will perform the action that
required root privileges. You will still be root after the action
completes.
You can switch to the root account at any time using the command Actions →
Become root. Any changes you have made to package states will be preserved
(but will not be saved until you quit aptitude).
By default, aptitude will use the command su to gain root privileges. If
you would like it to use some other command (such as sudo), set the
configuration option Aptitude::Get-Root-Command.
Managing packages
This section describes how to manipulate the list of packages, how to
install new packages on your system, and how to remove old packages.
Managing the package list
To keep the list of packages up-to-date, it is recommended that you
periodically update it. You can do this using the Actions → Update package
list (u) command.
Accessing package information
Information about packages is presented in several locations in aptitude:
the package list gives a quick overview of the state of each package, and
additional views providing detailed information about a package are also
available.
The package list
The package list displays an “at-a-glance” synopsis of a package's state.
For instance, the package webmin might have the following synopsis:
piAU webmin +5837kB <none> 1.160-2
The four characters on the left-hand side of the synopsis show that the
package is not installed (“p”), that it is going to be installed (“i”),
that it was automatically chosen to be installed (“A”), and that it is
untrusted (“U”). On the right-hand side of the synopsis, the current
version and the most recent available version are displayed, along with an
indication of how much space will be used by the upgrade.
[Tip] Tip
You can customize how package synopses are displayed; see the
section called “Customizing how packages are displayed” for details.
The four status flags on the left-hand side of the screen give the basic
information about a package's state. The first character is the package's
current state. The second character is the action which will be taken on
the package. The third character indicates whether the package was
automatically installed (see the section called “Managing automatically
installed packages”), and the fourth character indicates whether the
package is trusted (see the section called “Understanding and managing
package trust”).
The possible values of the “current state” flag are given in Figure 2.9,
“Values of the “current state” flag” and the possible values of the
“action” flag are given in Figure 2.10, “Values of the “action” flag”.
Figure 2.9. Values of the “current state” flag
i - the package is installed and all its dependencies are satisfied.
c - the package was removed, but its configuration files are still
present.
p - the package and all its configuration files were removed, or the
package was never installed.
v - the package is virtual.
B - the package has broken dependencies.
u - the package has been unpacked but not configured.
C - half-configured: the package's configuration was interrupted.
H - half-installed: the package's installation was interrupted.
W - triggers-awaited: the package awaits trigger processing by another
package.
T - triggers-pending: The package has had an update triggered due to
changes in another package.
Figure 2.10. Values of the “action” flag
i - the package will be installed.
u - the package will be upgraded.
w - the package will be downgraded.
d - the package will be deleted: it will be removed, but its configuration
files will remain on the system.
p - the package will be purged: it and its configuration files will be
removed.
the package will be held back: it will be kept at its current version,
h - even if a newer version becomes available, until the hold is
cancelled.
F - An upgrade of the package has been forbidden.
r - the package will be reinstalled.
the package is “broken”: some of its dependencies will not be
B - satisfied. aptitude will not allow you to install, remove, or upgrade
anything while you have broken packages.
In addition, aptitude will use colors to indicate package state if your
terminal supports it. State distinctions are mainly displayed using the
background color:
Black
The package cannot be upgraded (or is not going to be installed), and it
has no dependency problems. If the package is installed, its name will be
highlighted.
Green
The package is going to be installed.
Blue
The package is currently installed, and it will be upgraded.
Brown
The package is currently installed, and it will be downgraded.
Magenta
The package is currently installed, but it will be removed.
White
The package is currently installed, and it is “held” at its current
version: automatic upgrades will ignore it.
Red
This package is broken: some of its dependencies will not be satisfied.
Finally, the lower half of the screen displays the long description.
aptitude will attempt to detect whether the package is involved in a
dependency problem; if so, information regarding the dependency problem
will be displayed here. To cycle between dependency information and the
package description, press i.
Detailed package information
Pressing Enter while a package is highlighted will display the package
information screen:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
i A --\ apt 0.5.25 0.5.25
Description: Advanced front-end for dpkg
This is Debian's next generation front-end for the dpkg package manager. It
provides the apt-get utility and APT dselect method that provides a simpler,
safer way to install and upgrade packages.
APT features complete installation ordering, multiple source capability and
several other unique features, see the Users Guide in apt-doc.
Essential: yes
Priority: important
Section: base
Maintainer: APT Development Team <deity@lists.debian.org>
Compressed size: 970k
Uncompressed size: 2961k
Source Package: apt
--\ Depends
--- libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4)
--- libgcc1 (>= 1:3.3.3-1)
--- libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.3-1)
--\ Suggests
--- aptitude | synaptic | gnome-apt | wajig
--- dpkg-dev
--\ apt-doc (UNSATISFIED)
p 0.6.25
p 0.5.25
--\ Replaces
--- libapt-pkg-doc (< 0.3.7)
--- libapt-pkg-dev (< 0.3.7)
--- Package names provided by apt
--- Packages which depend on apt
--\ Versions
p A 0.6.25
i A 0.5.25
This display can be navigated in a manner similar to the package list: for
instance, in the screenshot above, I expanded the dependency on apt-doc,
revealing the available versions of apt-doc which will fulfill the
dependency. These versions can be manipulated in the same way that
packages can: for instance, to install version 0.5.25 of apt-doc, you
would highlight it and press +.
[Tip] Tip
To quickly satisfy a dependency, select the dependency and press +;
aptitude will attempt to automatically satisfy it.
In addition to the dependencies of a package, you can view the package
names that it Provides, the packages which depend upon it, and the
available versions of the package (including any other packages that
Provide it).
As usual, you can dismiss this screen and return to the main view by
pressing q. For convenience, a few other information screens (which only
display some commonly-used information, hiding the rest) are available:
press v to view the versions of a package, d to view the dependencies of a
package, and r to view the “reverse dependencies” of a package (packages
which depend upon it).
Modifying package states
The following commands are available to modify the states of packages.
Commands take effect the next time you perform an install run; until you
do, all of these commands can be reversed using Undo → Undo (Control+u).
To apply a command to a package, simply select the package in a package
list and issue the command. These commands can also be applied to groups
of packages by selecting the group header (for instance, “Upgradable
Packages”) and issuing the command.
┌────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Description │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Flag the current package for installation. │
│ │ │
│ Install: Package → │ If the package is not installed, it will be │
│ Install (+) │ installed. If it is already installed, it │
│ │ will be upgraded if possible and any sticky │
│ │ upgrade prevention that is in effect (eg, │
│ │ Hold) will be cancelled. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Flag the currently selected package for │
│ Remove: Package → │ removal. │
│ Remove (-) │ │
│ │ If the package is installed, it will be │
│ │ removed. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Flag the current package to be purged. │
│ │ │
│ Purge: Package → Purge │ If the package is installed, it will be │
│ (_) │ removed. Furthermore, even if it is removed, │
│ │ any remaining files (such as configuration │
│ │ files) related to the package will be removed │
│ │ from the system. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Flag the current package to be kept at its │
│ │ current version. │
│ Keep: Package → Keep │ │
│ (:) │ Any action that was to be performed on the │
│ │ package -- installation, removal, or upgrade │
│ │ -- is cancelled, and any persistent hold that │
│ │ was set on the package is removed. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Set a persistent hold on the package. │
│ │ │
│ │ As with Keep, any action that was to be │
│ Hold: Package → Hold │ performed on the package is cancelled. In │
│ (=) │ addition, the package will not be │
│ │ automatically upgraded ^[a] until the hold is │
│ │ removed. You may cancel a hold by issuing the │
│ │ Install command. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ The package will not be automatically │
│ │ upgraded^[a] to the version it would │
│ │ currently be upgraded to. If it was going to │
│ │ be upgraded, the upgrade will be cancelled. │
│ │ │
│ │ If you issue this command on a particular │
│ Package → Forbid │ version of a package, the package will not be │
│ Version (F) │ upgraded to the selected version. Note that │
│ │ only one version can be forbidden at once. │
│ │ │
│ │ This functionality is largely provided as a │
│ │ convenience for users of the “unstable” │
│ │ distribution, so they can avoid known-bad │
│ │ versions of packages. │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Flag the current package for reinstallation. │
│ │ │
│ │ Note that the reinstallation will not be │
│ Reinstall: Package → │ saved when you quit aptitude or perform an │
│ Reinstall (L) │ install run, for technical reasons │
│ │ (essentially, the underlying software layers │
│ │ (dpkg and apt) do not provide any way to find │
│ │ out whether a reinstallation was successful │
│ │ or not). │
├────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Sets whether the package is treated as having │
│ Package → Mark Auto │ been automatically installed; automatically │
│ (M), Package → Mark │ installed packages will be removed when no │
│ Manual (m) │ other package requires them. For more │
│ │ information, see the section called “Managing │
│ │ automatically installed packages”. │
├────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ^[a] That is, it will be unaffected by Actions → Mark Upgradable (U) │
│ or the full-upgrade or safe-upgrade command-line actions. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
In addition to these commands that affect the selected package, there are
two commands that affect large numbers of packages at once regardless of
what is selected. Actions → Forget new packages (f) clears the “new”
status of all packages in the package list, and Actions → Mark Upgradable
(U) flags every package which can be upgraded for upgrade, except for
packages that are held back or would be upgraded to a forbidden version.
[Note] Note
All changes to package states are saved when you quit aptitude,
update the package list, or perform an install run. If you do not
wish to save your changes, you can always abort aptitude by
pressing Ctrl-C.
Downloading, installing, and removing packages
Changing package states as described in the previous section does not
actually affect what is installed on your system. Thus, you can adjust the
state of packages without affecting your system until you are happy with
what you see; once you are, you can “commit” the changes by actually
installing and removing packages.^[8]
To commit your changes, use the Actions → Install/remove packages (g)
command. Selecting this command will display a preview screen describing
the changes that will be performed. This screen is just a package list,
and you can manipulate the packages (for instance, cancelling unwanted
removals) in the same way that you could in the main list.
When you are done, use Views → Close (q) to cancel the installation, or
use Actions → Install/remove packages (g) to proceed. aptitude will
download any files that need to be downloaded, then prompt you to continue
with the installation. When you select “Continue”, the installations and
removals will commence.
Packages that are downloaded by aptitude are placed in a cache directory
(typically /var/cache/apt/archives). Normally, they are just left in this
directory ad infinitum. To delete all the files in this directory, use
Actions → Clean package cache; to delete only files which cannot be
downloaded again (ie, obsolete packages), use Actions → Clean obsolete
files.
Understanding and managing package trust
apt's ability to access multiple package sources leads to a potential
security vulnerability. Suppose you add an archive of packages published
by Joe Random Hacker to your sources.list file in order to install Joe's
gargleblast package. It is possible, however, that -- unbeknownst to you
-- Joe's archive also contains his own “customized” versions of packages
such as libc6 and ssh...versions that steal your private information or
open backdoors on your system! If these packages have higher version
numbers than the legitimate Debian packages, apt will blithely install
them on your system during your next upgrade, allowing Joe to do his dirty
work undetected. Joe could also break into your mirror of the Debian
archives and replace the legitimate software with his doctored version.
Luckily, newer versions of apt and aptitude, such as the version
documented in this manual, have built-in safeguards to help defeat this
type of attack. apt uses strong security mechanisms based on the popular
GPG encryption software to verify that the packages being distributed from
the official Debian mirrors are the same packages that were uploaded by
the Debian developers. aptitude will then warn you if you attempt to
install a package from a non-Debian source, or if you attempt to upgrade a
package that was installed from a Debian source to a version that came
from a non-Debian source.
[Warning] Warning
The security mechanisms in apt provide a near-perfect guarantee
that the contents of your archive mirror are identical to the
contents of the master Debian archive. However, they are not a
panacea: for instance, there are many ways that a tampered
package could theoretically find its way into the master Debian
archive.
Ensuring that you only install software from a trusted source
will give you an important degree of protection against
malicious packages, but it cannot eliminate all the risks
inherent in installing software.
Understanding trust
apt allows the administrator of an archive to provide a signature of the
archive's index. This signature, which (for all practical purposes) cannot
be forged, indicates that the package files listed in the index are the
same files that the administrator intended to place in the archive: ie,
that the contents of the archive have not been tampered with since it was
created.^[9] The signature can be validated by checking that it
corresponds to the administrator's public key. The public key of the
Debian archive is distributed with apt, typically on your Debian CD.
When aptitude downloads an archive index, it will check whether the index
is properly signed. If it is unsigned, aptitude will not trust package
files from that archive. (see below for information on what this means) If
it has a signature but the signature is incorrect or cannot be verified, a
warning will be printed and aptitude will refuse to trust packages from
that archive.
Later, when you perform an install run, aptitude will check whether the
packages are from trusted sources. If an untrusted package is being
installed, or a package is being upgraded from a trusted to an untrusted
version, a warning will be displayed and you will have the opportunity to
abort the download:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.3.0 Will use 831kB of disk space DL Size: 30.4MB
--\ Packages to be upgraded
iu U wesnoth -98.3kB 0.8.7-1 0.8.8-1.0w
iuAU wesnoth-data +930kB 0.8.7-1 0.8.8-1.0w
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|WARNING: untrusted versions of the following packages will be installed! #|
| #|
|Untrusted packages could compromise your system's security. You should only #|
|proceed with the installation if you are certain that this is what you want #|
|to do. #|
| #|
| * wesnoth [version 0.8.8-1.0wesnoth.org] #|
| * wesnoth-data [version 0.8.8-1.0wesnoth.org] #|
| * wesnoth-music [version 0.8.8-1.0wesnoth.org] #|
| [ Really Continue ] [ Abort Installation ] |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
#
#
#
#
#
#
Trusting additional keys
You might find it useful to allow apt to trust additional archives,
besides the main Debian archive. For each archive that you want to trust,
you will have to acquire the public key that is used to sign the archive's
package index. This is typically a text file whose name ends in .asc; it
might be provided by the site administrator or downloadable from a public
keyserver. For more information on what public keys are and how to get
them, see the GPG web page.
The list of keys that apt will trust is stored in the keyring file
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg. Once you have the GPG key, you can add it to this
file by executing the command gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg --import newkey.asc. aptitude will then trust any
archive that is signed with the key contained in newkey.asc.
[Warning] Warning
Once an archive's key has been added to the APT keyring, it will
be trusted just as much as the main Debian mirrors themselves!
You should only do this if you are very confident that the key
you are adding is correct and that the person who holds the key
is trustworthy and competent.
Managing automatically installed packages
To install one package, it is often necessary to install several others
(to fulfill its dependencies). For instance, if you wish to install the
clanbomber package, you must also install the package libclanlib2. If you
remove clanbomber again, you probably no longer need the libclanlib2
package; aptitude will attempt to detect this and automatically remove the
libclanlib2 package.
It works like this: when you install a package, aptitude will
automatically install any other packages on which it depends. These
packages are marked as having been “automatically installed”; aptitude
will monitor them and remove them when they are no longer depended upon by
any manually installed package ^[10] . They will appear in the preview as
“packages being removed because they are no longer used.”
As with any automatic process, there is a potential for things to go
haywire. For instance, even if a package was automatically installed to
start with, it might turn out to be useful in its own right. You can
cancel the “automatic” flag at any time by pressing m; if the package is
already being removed, you can use Package → Install (+) to cancel the
removal and clear the “automatic” flag.
Resolving package dependencies
Dependency resolution in aptitude
There are two main dependency resolution algorithms in aptitude.
The first is an algorithm that is also used by programs such as apt-get
and synaptic; I will call it “immediate resolution”. It is invoked
whenever you select a package for installation interactively, and
immediately after one or more packages are marked for installation at the
command-line. Immediate resolution is fast and will solve most dependency
problems, but it is sometimes unable to find any solution.
The second algorithm, which I will call “interactive resolution”, is
invoked when packages have broken dependencies even after immediate
resolution^[11]. It can resolve more dependencies, it allows you to review
a solution before applying it, and it allows you to provide feedback to
the resolver, guiding it towards a better solution.
Immediate dependency resolution
Whenever you choose to install or upgrade a package in aptitude, aptitude
makes an immediate attempt to resolve any of its dependencies that are not
fulfilled. For each unsatisfied dependency (either a “Depends”, a
“Recommends”, or a “Conflicts”), it performs the following steps:
1. If the dependency is a recommendation, aptitude tries to guess whether
it is a “new” recommendation or a “previously satisfied”
recommendation. aptitude considers a recommendation to be “new” if the
package declaring the recommendation is not currently installed, or if
its installed version does not recommend a package of the same name.
On the other hand, a recommendation is “previously satisfied” if the
package declaring the recommendation is installed, the currently
installed version recommends a package of the same name, and that
recommendation is currently fulfilled.
For example: suppose that version 1.0 of prog recommends version 4.0
of libcool1, but version 2.0 of prog recommends version 5.0 of
libcool1, and also recommends apache. If you choose to upgrade prog
from version 1.0 to version 2.0, the recommendation of apache will be
considered to be “new” because version 1.0 of prog did not recommend
apache. On the other hand, the recommendation of libcool1 is not
“new”, because version 1.0 of prog recommended libcool1, even though
it recommended a different version. However, if libcool1 is installed,
then that recommendation will be considered to be “previously
satisfied”.
If the configuration option APT::Install-Recommends is true, aptitude
will always attempt to fulfill “new” and “previously satisfied”
recommendations; all others will be ignored by immediate resolution.
If that option is false, immediate dependency resolution will ignore
all recommendations.
2. If the dependency is on several packages combined with OR, examine
each of the alternatives in the order that they are given. For
instance, if a package depends on “exim | mail-transport-agent”,
aptitude will first process exim, then mail-transport-agent.
3. For each alternative, attempt to resolve it. If the dependency is a
conflict, remove the current alternative if it is installed (and for
an unversioned conflict, also remove any package providing the target
of the conflict). Otherwise, install the candidate version of the
current alternative if it satisfies the dependency. If not, or if
there is no candidate version (for instance, because the current
alternative is a virtual package), and if the dependency is
unversioned, attempt to install the highest-priority package^[12]
whose candidate version provides the target of the current
alternative.
For instance, say we are attempting to resolve “Depends: exim |
mail-transport-agent”. aptitude will first attempt to install the
package exim. If exim is not available, aptitude will then attempt to
install the highest-priority package whose candidate version provides
exim. If there is no such package, aptitude will install the
highest-priority package whose candidate version provides the virtual
package mail-transport-agent. On the other hand, suppose that the
dependency is “Depends: exim (>= 2.0.0) | mail-transport-agent”, but
only version 1.0 of exim is available. In this case, aptitude will not
install exim (because the version does not match), nor will it attempt
to install packages providing exim (because virtual packages cannot
match a dependency with a version restriction). Thus, aptitude will
fall back to installing the highest-priority package whose candidate
version provides mail-transport-agent.
4. If a package was installed by the previous step, resolve its
dependencies using this algorithm, then stop.
While this technique very often solves all the outstanding package
dependencies, it can fail in a number of common circumstances.
• Conflicts are resolved by removing the package that is the target of
the conflict. But now other packages that depend on this package have
unresolved dependencies; the immediate resolver makes no attempt to
fix them.
• A dependency might not be satisfiable due to version restrictions and
due to the limitation that only candidate versions are considered. For
instance, say that versions 1.0 and 2.0 of fileutils are available,
that the candidate version is 1.0, and that the package octopus
declares a dependency “Depends: fileutils (>= 2.0)”. Immediate
resolution is unable to resolve this dependency: it will never
consider version 2.0 of the package, since that is not the candidate
version.
The interactive dependency resolver can solve these situations and more.
When there are broken dependencies left over, or when immediate dependency
resolution is disabled, the interactive resolver will automatically start
searching for a solution. The next section describes how to use the
interactive dependency resolver.
Resolving Dependencies Interactively
If a dependency problem arises that cannot be handled using the immediate
dependency resolver, aptitude can assist you in resolving it. As soon as a
problem occurs, a red bar will appear at the bottom of the screen with a
summary of aptitude's suggestion about how to fix it. For instance, in the
following screenshot, aptitude is indicating that it can resolve the
situation by keeping two packages at their current versions.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.3.3 #Broken: 1 Will free 48.6MB of disk space
i A nautilus 2.10.1-4 2.10.1-4
i nautilus-cd-burner 2.10.2-1.1 2.10.2-1.1
i A nautilus-data 2.10.1-4 2.10.1-4
i netspeed 0.12.1-1 0.12.1-1
i A oaf 0.6.10-3 0.6.10-3
i pybliographer 1.2.6.2-1 1.2.6.2-1
i rhythmbox 0.8.8-13 0.8.8-13
i shermans-aquarium 3.0.1-1 3.0.1-1
idA sound-juicer -1733kB 2.10.1-3 2.10.1-3
GNOME 2 CD Ripper
sound-juicer will be removed.
The following packages depend on sound-juicer and will be broken by its
removal:
* gnome-desktop-environment depends on sound-juicer
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
As indicated at the bottom of the screen, you can view additional
solutions by pressing . and ,, apply the current solution by pressing !,
and examine the solution in more detail by pressing e. When you examine
the current solution, a screen similar to the following will appear:
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.10-1 (unstable, now)]
sound-juicer [2.10.1-2 (now)]
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
You can access information about the package affected by an action by
simply pressing Enter while the package is highlighted. For a more
detailed explanation of why aptitude made a particular decision, you can
highlight the element in the list. When you do so, the lower half of the
screen will display the dependency which was resolved by aptitude's
choice, along with every way in which this dependency could have been
resolved.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.11-1 (unstable, now)]
sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now)]
cdparanoia plugin for GStreamer
sound-juicer depends upon gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia
--\ The following actions will resolve this dependency:
-> Downgrade sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now) -> 0.6.1-2 (testing)]
-> Remove sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now)]
-> Cancel the removal of gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia
-> Downgrade gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.11-1 (unstable, now) -> 0.8.8-3 (tes
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
You can guide the dependency resolver to a solution of which you approve
by approving or rejecting the individual actions of a solution. If you
approve an action, the resolver will choose it whenever possible, ignoring
alternatives (when there are several approved alternatives, any one of
them could be chosen). On the other hand, if you reject an action, the
resolver will never choose that action.
To reject an action, highlight it and press r; the rejection can be
cancelled by pressing r again. Similarly, select an action and press a to
approve it; press a again to restore its original state. You can undo
either action by using Undo → Undo (Control+u) while the resolver screen
is active. If you cancel a rejection or an approval, any solutions that
were ignored will be available the next time that you generate a new
solution.
[Note] Note
By default, the resolver rejects actions that change the state of
held packages, or that install forbidden versions of packages. You
can override these rejections, thus allowing the hold or forbidding
to be automatically overridden, in the same way that you would
override any other rejection. Setting the configuration option
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds to true will disable
this behavior, meaning that the resolver will always break holds
(albeit at a penalty, see
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::BreakHoldScore).
Rejected actions are colored red and marked with an “R”, while approved
actions are colored green and marked with an “A”. You can see this in the
following screenshot, where the action “keep gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia at
its current version” has been rejected, and the action “keep sound-juicer
at its current version” has been approved.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ Keep the following packages at their current version:
R gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia [0.8.11-1 (unstable, now)]
A sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now)]
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
Rejections and approvals only affect newly generated solutions. You can
tell when a new solution will be generated by examining the indicator in
the lower left hand corner of the screen: if there is a number in
parentheses, it is the number of solutions that have been generated. Thus,
when the number outside the parentheses and the number inside are
identical (as above), pressing . will generate a new solution. If there is
no number in parentheses (for instance, the indicator reads [1/5]), then
there are no more solutions to generate. At any time, you can select the
last generated solution by pressing >, and the first generated solution by
pressing <.
[Important] Important
The state of the problem resolver is discarded when you modify
the state of any package. If you mark a package for
installation, for upgrade, for removal, etc, the resolver will
forget all of your rejections and approvals, as well as all
the solutions that have been generated so far.
In addition to selecting actions in the list at the top of the screen, you
can also select them using the list in the bottom half. To access this
list, either click in it using the mouse or press Tab. Finally, to see the
decisions that the problem resolver took arranged in order, press o. This
will give a list of the dependencies that were resolved and the action
taken to resolve them, as in the following screenshot.
Actions Undo Package Resolver Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Packages Resolve Dependencies
--\ gnome-desktop-environment depends upon sound-juicer
-> Cancel the removal of sound-juicer
--\ sound-juicer depends upon gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia
-> Cancel the removal of gstreamer0.8-cdparanoia
GNOME 2 CD Ripper
gnome-desktop-environment depends upon sound-juicer
--\ The following actions will resolve this dependency:
-> Remove gnome-desktop-environment [1:2.10.2.3 (unstable, testing, now)]
-> Cancel the removal of sound-juicer
-> Downgrade sound-juicer [2.10.1-3 (unstable, now) -> 0.6.1-2 (testing)]
[1(1)/...] Suggest 2 keeps
e: Examine !: Apply .: Next ,: Previous
You can leave this display mode by pressing o again.
Costs in the interactive dependency resolver
Costs and cost components
The cost of a solution produced by the interactive dependency resolver is
a value that aptitude uses to determine how “bad” that solution is.
Solutions that are “better” are always displayed before solutions that are
“worse”. The cost of solutions is defined in the configuration option
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::SolutionCost.
Some typical costs are shown in Example 2.1, “Sample resolver costs”.
Example 2.1. Sample resolver costs
The default cost, sorting solutions by their safety cost, then by their
apt pin priority:
safety, priority
Remove as few packages as possible, then cancel as few actions as
possible:
removals, canceled-actions
Sort solutions by the number of packages they remove plus twice the number
of actions they cancel.
removals + 2 * canceled-actions
As can be seen from the above examples, a cost is not necessarily a single
number. In fact, a cost consists of one or more cost components, each of
which is a number associated with the solution. When sorting solutions,
the resolver examines cost components in order, proceeding to later
components only if the earlier ones are equal. For instance, in the cost
“removals, canceled-actions”, solutions with fewer removals always appear
before solutions with more removals, regardless of how many canceled
actions they have. However, solutions with the same number of removals are
sorted so that solutions with fewer canceled actions appear first.
Cost components come in two flavors: basic cost components and compound
cost components.
Basic components simply name some property of the solution, such as
“upgrades” or “removals”. A list of built-in basic components provided by
aptitude can be found in Table 2.1, “Basic cost components”. You can also
create your own cost components using the add-to-cost-component and
raise-cost-component hints; see the section called “Configuring resolver
hints” for details.
Each basic component is either a counter or a level. Counters count how
many of a solution's actions meet some condition (such as removing
packages or installing new packages), while levels associate a number with
each action and compute the highest number associated with any action in
the solution.
Table 2.1. Basic cost components
┌────────────────────┬───────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name │ Type │ Description │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │Counts the number of holds that the solution breaks, │
│broken-holds │Counter│if the resolver is allowed to break holds │
│ │ │(Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds). │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │Counts the number of pending actions that the │
│canceled-actions │Counter│solution cancels (keeping packages at their current │
│ │ │version). │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│installs │Counter│Counts the number of packages that the solution │
│ │ │installs. │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│non-default-versions│Counter│Counts the number of versions that the solution │
│ │ │installs or upgrades from non-default sources. │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │A value that increases as the apt pin priority of a │
│priority │Level │version decreases. Specifically, this is computed by │
│ │ │negating the pin priority (so, e.g., if the pin │
│ │ │priority is 500, this component will compute -500). │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│removals │Counter│Counts the number of packages that the solution │
│ │ │removes. │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│removals-of-manual │Counter│Counts the number of manually installed packages that│
│ │ │the solution removes. │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │A broad heuristic that increases as actions become │
│safety │Level │less “safe”; see the section called “Safety costs” │
│ │ │for details. │
├────────────────────┼───────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│upgrades │Counter│Counts the number of packages that the solution │
│ │ │upgrades. │
└────────────────────┴───────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Compound components are built by combining the values of basic components.
For instance, removals + canceled-actions adds the components removal and
canceled-actions, resulting in a component that counts the number of
removals and canceled actions. Compound components combine counters by
adding them together and levels by taking their maximum value, as shown in
Figure 2.11, “Syntax of compound cost components”.
[Note] Note
It is an error to add two levels, or to take the maximum of two
counters, or to combine levels and counters in any way. For
instance, the costs removals + safety and max(upgrades, installs)
will be treated as errors and ignored by the resolver.^[13]
Figure 2.11. Syntax of compound cost components
Add two or more basic costs:
[scale1]*cost1 + [scale2]*cost2 + ...
Take the maximum value of two or more basic costs:
max([scale1]*cost1, [scale2]*cost2, ...)
Note that each individual basic component can be multiplied by a scaling
factor before it is combined with other components. This can be used to
control the trade-offs that the resolver makes between costs. For
instance, a cost of 2*removals + 3*upgrades says that three removals are
exactly as “bad” as two upgrades. Solutions that contain four removals and
one upgrade will be considered equivalent to solutions containing one
removal and three upgrades, since both have a cost of eleven.
Safety costs
Figure 2.12. Safety cost levels
Safety cost levels
[Safety cost levels diagram]
The safety cost component is a heuristic estimate of how “safe” or
“unsafe” a solution is. Safety costs can be thought of as a way of
dividing solutions into several numbered “levels”, where “less safe”
levels are given higher numbers. Figure 2.12, “Safety cost levels” shows
how this works with aptitude's default settings.
[Tip] Tip
Safety cost levels are just one way to control the order in which
dependency solutions are returned. See the section called “Costs in
the interactive dependency resolver” for a full description of how
to change the order in which aptitude sorts solutions.
By default, aptitude initializes the resolver with a “reasonable” set of
safety cost levels. They are:
Table 2.2. Default safety cost levels
┌──────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Cost │ Description │ Configuration option │
│level │ │ │
├──────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │Solutions that include only “safe” actions │ │
│10,000│(installing the default target for a package │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Safe-Level, │
│ │or keeping a package at its current version) │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Level │
│ │and package removals. │ │
├──────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │The solution that cancels all the user's │ │
│ │actions. It used to be higher than │ │
│10,000│Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Level, but │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Keep-All-Level │
│ │removing packages was ranked higher than │ │
│ │keeping the same packages, even if the package│ │
│ │was to be upgraded. │ │
├──────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│40,000│Solutions that break holds set by the user or │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Break-Hold-Level │
│ │install forbidden versions. │ │
├──────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │Solutions that install packages from │ │
│50,000│non-default versions (such as “experimental”, │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Non-Default-Level │
│ │for instance). │ │
├──────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│60,000│Solutions that remove Essential packages. │Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Essential-Level│
└──────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If a solution qualifies for several safety cost levels, it will be placed
in the highest one, that is, the one that appears last. For example, a
solution that upgrades one package to its default version and breaks a
hold on a second package will be placed at level 40,000. You can adjust
the levels of individual versions using resolver hints; see the section
called “Configuring resolver hints” for details. The default levels are
illustrated in Figure 2.12, “Safety cost levels”.
Besides numbers you can also use the keywords “maximum” and “minimum” for
cost levels. They refer to the maximal respective minimal integer value
possible on the hardware architecture of your system.
Configuring the interactive dependency resolver
Configuring resolver hints
To improve the quality of the dependency solutions that you receive, you
can provide hints to the interactive dependency resolver. These hints can
alter the priorities of the resolver, biasing it more strongly in favor of
one version or package, or they can be used to “pre-load” the resolver
with rejections and approvals, as if you had entered the resolver and
manually rejected or approved various versions.
Hints are stored in the apt configuration file, /etc/apt/apt.conf, in the
configuration group “Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Hints” (see the section
called “Configuration file reference” for details on the configuration
file).
Each resolver hint consists of an action, a target, and an optional
version. A hint is written like this: "action target [version]". To apply
a resolver hint, aptitude locates one or more packages using the value of
target, chooses one or more versions of those packages using the value of
version, and finally performs the given action.
The action field of a resolver hint may be one of the following:
1. “approve”: Approve the version, as if the command Resolver → Toggle
Approved (a) had been invoked on it.
2. “reject”: Reject the version, as if the command Resolver → Toggle
Rejected (r) had been invoked on it.
3. “discard”: Discard every solution containing the version. Differs from
“reject” in that it is not visible to the user and cannot be modified
interactively.
4. “increase-safety-cost-to number”: increase the safety cost of any
solution that contains the version to number; if its safety cost is
already higher than number, this hint has no effect. The safety cost
can be used (and is used by default) to control the order in which
solutions appear; see the section called “Costs and cost components”
and the section called “Safety costs” for details.
Several special cost levels can be chosen by name:
a. conflict, discard: instead of changing the safety cost, discard
solutions containing the version as if the “discard” hint had
been applied.
b. maximum: the highest safety cost.
c. minimum: the lowest safety cost. All searches start at this cost,
so “increasing” a version to this cost has no effect. However,
this value can also be used when adjusting the predefined cost
levels: for instance, setting
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Level to “minimum” will cause
removed packages to have no effect on the safety cost of a
solution.
[Note] Note
The increase-safety-cost-to hint is applied in addition to any
default safety cost that is due to the selected action. For
instance, a hint that increases the safety cost of “install hal
from experimental” to 15,000 will have no effect, because that
action already has a safety cost of 50,000 (assuming that this
version of hal is not the default candidate version).
5. “number”: add the given number to the version's score, biasing the
resolver in favor of it or (with a negative number) away from it. For
instance, the hint 200 emacs adds 200 to the score of emacs, whereas
the hint -10 emacs subtracts 10 from its score.
If target field of a resolver hint contains a question mark (“?”) or tilde
(“~”), it is considered to be a search pattern and all matching package
versions are considered. Otherwise, it is considered to be the name of a
package to select. So the target “g++” will select only the g++ package,
but the target “?section(non-free)” will select any package in the
non-free section. See the section called “Search patterns” for more
information on search patterns.
If the version field is not present, then all versions of the package are
affected by the hint. Otherwise, it may have any of the following forms:
1. “/archive”: the hint only affects versions that are available in the
given archive.
2. “<version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
less than version.
3. “<=version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
less than or equal to version.
4. “=version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
version.
5. “<>version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
not version.
6. “>=version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
greater than or equal to version.
7. “>version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
greater than version.
8. “:UNINST”: instead of affecting any of the versions of target, the
hint affects the decision to remove target. For instance,
“Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Hints { "reject aptitude :UNINST"; };”
will prevent the resolver from attempting to remove aptitude.
9. “version”: the hint only affects versions whose version number is
version.
Search patterns
When you search for a package or set a display limit in aptitude, the
string you enter is known as a “search pattern”. While the most basic
usage of search patterns is to match packages by name, aptitude allows you
to create much more complex searches. In addition to the visual interface,
some command-line operations can use search patterns; see Command-line
reference for details.
A search pattern consists of one or more conditions (sometimes known as
“terms”); packages match the pattern if they match all of its terms. Terms
generally start with a question mark (“?”), followed by the name of the
match term, which describes the search that the term performs: for
instance, the term ?name matches package names, while the term ?version
matches package versions. Finally, any additional parameters to the search
term are placed in parentheses (see the documentation of individual terms
for details of what each term's parameters mean).
[Note] Note
Text with no leading “?” also forms a search pattern: aptitude will
treat each word (or quoted string) as the argument to a ?name
pattern, which searches for a package whose name matches the text
when the text is interpreted as a regular expression.
[Warning] Warning
The behavior of aptitude when given a search pattern without a
leading “?” (or “~”) is provided as a convenience for
interactive use and will change in future releases; scripts that
invoke aptitude should explicitly name the search strategy they
want to use. That is, scripts should search for “?name(coq)”
rather than “coq”).
Searching for strings
Many search terms take a string as a parameter and match it against one or
more fields of a package. Strings can be entered either with or without
double quotes (“"”), so “?name(scorch)” and “?name("scorch")” will perform
the same search. If you enter a search string using double quotes, you can
include a literal double-quote in the search string by placing a backslash
(“\”) immediately before it: for instance, “?description("\"easy\"")” will
match any package whose description contains the string “"easy"”.
If you enter a “bare” string, one not surrounded by double quotes, then
aptitude will consider the string to have “ended” when it encounters the
closing parenthesis or the comma before a second argument to the search
term. ^[14] To remove the special meaning of these characters, place a
tilde (“~”) directly before them. For instance, “?description(etc))” is a
syntax error, because the first “)” ends the ?description term, and the
second “)” does not correspond to any “(”. In contrast,
“?description(etc~))” matches any package whose description contains the
text “etc)”. There are additional considerations if you are using the
shorthand notation for a term; see the section called “Shorthand for
search terms” for details.
Most textual searches (for package names, descriptions, etc) are performed
using case-insensitive regular expressions. A regular expression will
match against a field if any portion of the field matches the expression;
for instance, “ogg[0-9]” will match “libogg5”, “ogg123”, and “theogg4u”.
Some characters have a special meaning within regular expressions ^[15] ,
so if you want to match them in searches you need to backslash-escape
them: for instance, to find “g++”, you should use the pattern “g\+\+”.
The characters “!” and “|” have special meanings within search patterns.
In order to include these characters in an unquoted string, you can place
a tilde (“~”) directly before them. For instance, to match packages whose
description contains either “grand” or “oblique”, use the pattern
“?description(grand~|oblique)”. However, you will probably find it more
convenient to simply use a quoted string in these cases:
“?description("grand|oblique")”.
Shorthand for search terms
Some search terms can be written using “short” forms, which consist of a
tilde (“~”) followed by a single character that identifies the term, and
finally the arguments (if any) to the term. For instance, the short form
of ?name(aptitude) is ~n aptitude.
When writing a term using its short form, tilde characters and
“whitespace” -- that is, space characters, tabs, and so on -- will break
the term off and start a new term. For instance, “~mDaniel Burrows” will
match any package whose maintainer field contains “Daniel” and whose name
contains “Burrows”, while “~i~napt” matches installed packages whose name
contains apt. To include whitespace characters in the search expression,
you can either place a tilde in front of it (as in Daniel~ Burrows) or
place quotation marks around it (as in "Debian Project" or even Debian"
"Project). Inside a quoted string, the backslash character (“\”) can be
used to cancel the special meaning of the quotation mark: for instance,
~d"\"email" will match any package whose description contains a quotation
mark followed immediately by email. ^[16]
[Note] Note
Question marks (“?”) will not end the short form of a term, even if
they are followed by the name of a search term. For instance,
“~napt?priority(required)” will match all packages whose name
matches the regular expression “apt?priority(required)”. To combine
a short query term with a search term specified by name, add one or
more spaces between the two terms, as in
“~napt ?priority(required)”, or place quotation marks around the
text (if any) following the short form of a term, as in
“~n"apt"?priority(required)”.
Table 2.3, “Quick guide to search terms” lists the short form of each
search term.
Searches and versions
By default, a pattern matches a package if any version of the package
matches the pattern. However, some patterns will restrict their
sub-patterns to only match against some versions of a package. For
instance, the search term ?depends(pattern) will select any package that
depends on a package matching pattern. However, pattern will only be
checked against the versions of the package that actually satisfy a
dependency. This means that if foo depends on bar (>= 3.0) and versions
2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 of bar are available, then in the search pattern
?depends(?version(2\.0)), only versions 3.0 and 4.0 will be tested against
?version(2\.0), and hence foo will not be found by this search.
It matters which versions are checked because, as in the example above,
some patterns will match one version but not another. For instance, the
pattern ?installed will only match the version of the package (if any)
that is currently installed. Similarly, the pattern
?maintainer(maintainer) will only match versions that have the given
maintainer. Normally all versions of a package have the same maintainer,
but this is not always the case; in fact, any search pattern that examines
the fields of a package (other than its name, of course) will behave this
way, because all the fields of a package can change between versions.
To test a pattern against all the versions of a package, even if the
pattern would normally be tested against only some of the versions, use
the ?widen term. For instance, ?depends(?widen(?version(2\.0))) will match
any package A that depends on a package B, where B has a version matching
2.0, regardless of whether that version actually satisfies A's dependency.
On the other hand, the ?narrow term restricts the versions that its
sub-pattern is matched against: ?narrow(?installed,
?depends(?version(ubuntu))) will match any package whose installed version
has a dependency that can be satisfied by a package whose version string
contains “ubuntu”.
[Note] Note
There is a subtle, but important, distinction between matching a
pattern against a package, and matching it against all the versions
of that package. When a pattern is matched against a package, each
of its terms is matched against the package, and so each term will
match if any version of the package matches. In contrast, when a
pattern is matched against each version of a package, it will
successfully match if it matches when all its terms are matched
against the same version of the package.
For example: suppose that version 3.0-1 of the package aardvark is
installed, but that version 4.0-1 is available. Then the search
expression ?version(4\.0-1)?installed matches aardvark, because
?version(4\.0-1) matches against version 4.0-1 of aardvark, while
?installed matches against version 3.0-1. On the other hand, this
expression does not match against all the versions of aardvark,
because no single version is installed and also has a version
number of 4.0-1.
Explicit search targets
Some particularly complex searches can be expressed in aptitude using
explicit targets. In normal search expressions, there is no way to refer
to the package or version that is currently being tested. For instance,
suppose that you want to search for all packages P that depend on a second
package Q such that Q recommends P. Clearly you need to start out with a
?depends(...) term. But the term filling in the ... needs to somehow
select packages that are identical to the one being matched against
?depends. When describing the goal above, I dealt with this by giving the
packages names, calling them P and Q; terms with explicit targets do
exactly the same thing. ^[17]
An explicit target is introduced by the ?for term:
Figure 2.13. Syntax of the ?for term
?for variable: pattern
This behaves exactly like pattern, but variable can be used within pattern
to refer to the package or version that pattern is being matched against.
You can use variable in two ways:
1. The term ?= will match exactly the package or version indicated by the
given variable. Specifically: if the corresponding ?for term is
limited to a particular version, then ?= will match either that
version (if ?= is limited) or the whole package; otherwise it will
match any version of the package.
See Example 2.2, “ Use of the ?= term. ” for an example of how to use
?=.
2. The term ?bind(variable, pattern) will match any package or version if
the value of variable matches against pattern.
For ?-style terms, a shorthand form is available. The expression
?bind(variable, ?term[(args)]) can be replaced by
?variable:term(args).
See Example 2.3, “Use of the ?bind term” for an example of how to use
?bind.
Search term reference
Table 2.3, “Quick guide to search terms” provides a brief summary of all
the search terms provided by aptitude. A full description of each term can
be found below.
Table 2.3. Quick guide to search terms
┌────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│ Long form │ Short form │ Description │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select the package│
│ │ │bound to variable;│
│?=variable │ │see the section │
│ │ │called “Explicit │
│ │ │search targets”. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select any package│
│?not(pattern) │!pattern │that does not │
│ │ │match pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that have been │
│?action(action) │~aaction │marked for the │
│ │ │given action │
│ │ │(e.g., “install” │
│ │ │or “upgrade”). │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?all-versions(pattern) │ │whose versions all│
│ │ │match pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select any package│
│?and(pattern1, pattern2) │pattern1 pattern2 │that matches both │
│ │ │pattern1 and │
│ │ │pattern2. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?any-version(pattern) │ │for which at least│
│ │ │one version │
│ │ │matches pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │for the given │
│ │ │architecture (such│
│?architecture(architecture) │~rarchitecture │as “amd64”, or │
│ │ │“all”). Special │
│ │ │values: native and│
│ │ │foreign. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?archive(archive) │~Aarchive │from the given │
│ │ │archive (such as │
│ │ │“unstable”). │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?automatic │~M │that were │
│ │ │automatically │
│ │ │installed. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Selects anything │
│ │ │if variable │
│?bind(variable, pattern) │?variable:term-name[(args)] │matches pattern; │
│ │ │see the section │
│ │ │called “Explicit │
│ │ │search targets”. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?broken │~b │that have a broken│
│ │ │dependency. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select package │
│?broken-depType │~BdepType │that have a broken│
│ │ │dependency of the │
│ │ │given depType. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that have a broken│
│?broken-depType(pattern) │~DB[depType:]pattern │dependency of the │
│ │ │given depType │
│ │ │matching pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that a package │
│?broken-reverse-depType(pattern)│~RBdepType:pattern │matching pattern │
│ │ │declares a broken │
│ │ │dependency of type│
│ │ │depType. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?conflicts(pattern) │~Cpattern │that conflict with│
│ │ │a package matching│
│ │ │pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?config-files │~c │that were removed │
│ │ │but not purged. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Match packages │
│ │ │that declare a │
│?depType(pattern) │~D[depType:]pattern │dependency of type│
│ │ │depType on a │
│ │ │package matching │
│ │ │pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?description(description) │~ddescription │whose description │
│ │ │matches │
│ │ │description. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select essential │
│ │ │packages, those │
│?essential │~E │with Essential: │
│ │ │yes in their │
│ │ │control files. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?exact-name(name) │ │Select packages │
│ │ │named name. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?false │~F │Select no │
│ │ │packages. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that match pattern│
│ │ │with variable │
│ │ │bound to the │
│?for variable: pattern │ │package being │
│ │ │matched; see the │
│ │ │section called │
│ │ │“Explicit search │
│ │ │targets”. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that are not │
│?garbage │~g │required by any │
│ │ │manually installed│
│ │ │package. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?installed │~i │Select installed │
│ │ │packages. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?maintainer(maintainer) │~mmaintainer │maintained by │
│ │ │maintainer. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │with a multi-arch │
│ │ │capability of │
│?multiarch(multiarch) │ │multiarch (that │
│ │ │is, either │
│ │ │“foreign”, “same”,│
│ │ │“allowed”, or │
│ │ │“none”). │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │for which a single│
│?narrow(filter, pattern) │~S filter pattern │version matches │
│ │ │both filter and │
│ │ │pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?name(name) │~nname, name │with the given │
│ │ │name. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?new │~N │Select new │
│ │ │packages. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Match installed │
│?obsolete │~o │packages that │
│ │ │cannot be │
│ │ │downloaded. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?or(pattern1, pattern2) │pattern1 | pattern2 │that match │
│ │ │pattern1, │
│ │ │pattern2, or both.│
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?origin(origin) │~Oorigin │with the given │
│ │ │origin. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?provides(pattern) │~Ppattern │that provide a │
│ │ │package matching │
│ │ │pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?priority(priority) │~ppriority │with the given │
│ │ │priority. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that are the │
│ │ │targets of a │
│?reverse-depType(pattern) │~R[depType:]pattern │dependency of type│
│ │ │depType declared │
│ │ │by a package │
│ │ │matching pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that are the │
│ │ │targets of a │
│?reverse-broken-depType(pattern)│~RBdepType:pattern │broken dependency │
│ │ │of type depType │
│ │ │declared by a │
│ │ │package matching │
│ │ │pattern. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?section(section) │~ssection │Select packages in│
│ │ │the given section.│
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │whose source │
│?source-package(name) │~ename │package name │
│ │ │matches the │
│ │ │regular expression│
│ │ │name. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │whose source │
│?source-version(version) │ │version matches │
│ │ │the regular │
│ │ │expression │
│ │ │version. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?tag(tag) │~Gtag │that have the │
│ │ │given debtags tag.│
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Full-text search │
│?term(keyword) │ │for packages that │
│ │ │contain the given │
│ │ │keyword. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Full-text search │
│ │ │for packages that │
│?term-prefix(keyword) │ │contain a keyword │
│ │ │that begins with │
│ │ │the given keyword.│
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?true │~T │Select all │
│ │ │packages. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?task(task) │~ttask │that are in the │
│ │ │given task. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│?upgradable │~U │that are installed│
│ │ │and can be │
│ │ │upgraded. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │that are marked │
│?user-tag │ │with a user-tag │
│ │ │matching the │
│ │ │regular expression│
│ │ │user-tag. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select packages │
│ │ │whose version │
│ │ │matches version │
│?version(version) │~Vversion │(special values: │
│ │ │CURRENT, │
│ │ │CANDIDATE, and │
│ │ │TARGET). │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│?virtual │~v │Select virtual │
│ │ │packages. │
├────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│ │ │Select versions │
│ │ │for which pattern │
│ │ │matches any │
│ │ │version of the │
│?widen(pattern) │~Wpattern │corresponding │
│ │ │package, │
│ │ │discarding local │
│ │ │version │
│ │ │restrictions. │
└────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘
name
Matches packages whose names match the regular expression name. This is
the “default” search mode and is used for patterns that don't start with
~.
[Note] Note
To match packages whose names contain several different substrings,
use the ?name term (described below); for instance,
“?name(apti)?name(tude)” will match any package whose name contains
both “apti” and “tude”.
?=variable
Matches packages that correspond to the value of variable, which must be
bound by an enclosing ?for. For instance, ?for x: ?depends( ?recommends(
?=x ) ) will match any package x that depends on a package which
recommends x.
For instance, the following search expression matches packages that
conflict with themselves:
Example 2.2. Use of the ?= term.
?for x: ?conflicts(?=x)
See the section called “Explicit search targets” for more information.
?not(pattern), !pattern
Matches packages which do not match the pattern pattern. For instance,
“?not(?broken)” selects packages that are not “broken”.
[Note] Note
To include a “!” in a search string, it must be “escaped” by
placing a tilde (“~”) in front of it; otherwise, aptitude will
consider it to be part of a ?not term. For instance, to select
packages whose description contains “extra!”, use
“?description(extra~!)”.
?and(pattern1, pattern2), pattern1 pattern2
Matches packages that match both pattern1 and pattern2.
?or(pattern1, pattern2), pattern1 | pattern2
Matches packages that match either pattern1 or pattern2.
[Note] Note
To use the character “|” in a regular expression, it must be
“escaped” to prevent aptitude from creating an OR term from it:
“~|”.
(pattern)
Matches pattern. For instance, “opengl (perl|python)” matches any package
whose name contains opengl, and also contains either perl or python.
?action(action), ~aaction
Matches packages upon which the given action is going to be performed.
action can be “install”, “upgrade”, “downgrade”, “remove”, “purge”, “hold”
(tests whether a package has been placed on hold), or “keep” (tests
whether a package will be unchanged).
[Note] Note
Note that this only tests whether an action is actually queued up
to be performed on a package, not whether it could be performed.
Thus, for instance, ?action(upgrade) matches exactly those packages
that you have already decided to upgrade, not packages which could
be upgraded in the future (for that, use ?upgradable).
?all-versions(pattern)
Matches any package whose versions all match the given expression. Each
version of a package will be separately tested against pattern, and the
package will match if all of its versions match. Packages without
versions, such as virtual packages, will always be matched by this search
term.
This term may not be used in a context in which the versions to match
against have already been narrowed, such as within ?depends or ?narrow.
However, it may always be used within ?widen.
?any-version(pattern)
Matches a package if any one of its versions matches the enclosed pattern.
This is the dual to ?all-versions.
This term may not be used in a context in which the versions to match
against have already been narrowed, such as within ?depends or ?narrow.
However, it may always be used within ?widen.
[Note] Note
This term is closely related to ?narrow. In fact,
?any-version(pattern1 pattern2) is exactly the same as
?narrow(pattern1, pattern2).
[Note] Note
To be precise, as with any other pattern, it is not packages but
versions of the packages which are matched. For “aptitude search”
and other uses it does not make much difference, but “aptitude
versions” will only show the versions that match, not all versions
of the package for which any version matches. For that, use an
enclosing ?widen.
?architecture(architecture-spec), ~rarchitecture-spec
Matches package versions for the given architecture-spec. For instance,
“?architecture(amd64)” matches amd64 packages, while “?architecture(all)”
matches arch-independent packages.
It also accepts the special values native and foreign, and architecture
wildcards (e.g. linux-any or any-amd64), as specified in Policy (“11.1
Architecture specification strings”).
?archive(archive), ~Aarchive
Matches package versions which are available from an archive that matches
the regular expression archive. For instance, “?archive(testing)” matches
any package available from the testing archive.
?automatic, ~M
Matches packages which were automatically installed.
?bind(variable, pattern), ?variable:term-name[(args)]
Matches any package or version if the given pattern matches the package or
version bound to variable, which must be defined in an enclosing ?for.
Example 2.3. Use of the ?bind term
?for x: ?depends(?depends(?for z: ?bind(x, ?depends(?=z))))
?for x: ?depends(?depends(?for z: ?x:depends(?=z)))
The two search patterns in the above example both match any package x such
that x depends on a package y which in turn depends on a package z such
that x also depends directly on z. The first pattern uses ?bind directly,
while the second one uses an equivalent shorthand syntax.
See the section called “Explicit search targets” for more information.
?broken, ~b
Matches packages that are “broken”: they have an unfulfilled dependency,
predependency, breaks, or conflict.
?broken-depType, ~BdepType
Matches packages which have an unfulfilled (“broken”) dependency of the
given depType. depType can be “depends”, “predepends”, “recommends”,
“suggests”, “breaks”, “conflicts”, or “replaces”.
?broken-depType(pattern), ~DB[depType:]pattern
Matches packages with an unsatisfied dependency of type depType on a
package matching pattern. depType may be any one of the dependency types
listed in the documentation of ?broken-depType.
?conflicts(pattern), ~Cpattern
Matches packages which conflict with a package matching the given pattern.
For instance, “?conflicts(?maintainer(dburrows@debian.org))” matches any
package which conflicts with a package I maintain.
?config-files, ~c
Matches packages which have been removed, but whose configuration files
remain on the system (ie, they were removed but not purged).
?depType(pattern), ~D[depType:]pattern
depType may be any one of the dependency types given in the documentation
of ?broken-depType, as well as provides: for instance, ?depends(libpng3)
will match any package that depends on libpng3. If the short form (~D) is
used and depType is not present, it defaults to depends.
If depType is “provides”, matches packages that provide a package matching
pattern (the equivalent of ?provides). Otherwise, matches packages which
declare a dependency of type depType upon a package version which matches
pattern.
?description(description), ~ddescription
Matches packages whose description matches the regular expression
description.
?essential, ~E
Matches Essential packages.
?exact-name(name)
Matches packages named name. This is similar to ?name, but the name must
match exactly. For instance, the following pattern will match only the
package apt; with ?name, it would also match aptitude, uvccapture, etc.
Example 2.4. Use of the ?exact-name term
?exact-name(apt)
?false, ~F
This term does not match any package. ^[18]
?for variable: pattern
Matches pattern, but the given variable may be used inside pattern to
refer to the package or package version this term to.
You can use variable in two ways. To apply a ?-style term to the variable,
write ?variable:term-name(args); for instance, ?x:depends(apt). In
addition, the term ?=variable will select any package or version that
matches the value of the given variable.
For instance, the following term will match any package x that both
depends and recommends a second package y.
Example 2.5. Use of the ?for term
?for x: ?depends( ?for y: ?x:recommends( ?=y ) )
See the section called “Explicit search targets” for more information.
?garbage, ~g
Matches packages which are not installed, or which were automatically
installed and are not depended upon by any installed package.
?installed, ~i
Matches package versions which are currently installed.
Since all versions are tested by default, this normally matches packages
which are currently installed.
?maintainer(maintainer), ~mmaintainer
Matches packages whose Maintainer field matches the regular expression
maintainer. For instance, “?maintainer(joeyh)” will find all packages
maintained by Joey Hess.
?multiarch(multiarch)
Matches packages with the multi-arch capability specified by multiarch.
For instance, “?multiarch(foreign)” will find all packages which can
satisfy dependencies of packages for another architecture.
“?multiarch(none)” will select packages with no multi-arch capability.
?narrow(filter, pattern), ~S filter pattern
This term “narrows” the search to package versions matching filter. In
particular, it matches any package version which matches both filter and
pattern. The string value of the match is the string value of pattern.
?name(name), ~nname
Matches packages whose name matches the regular expression name. For
instance, most of the packages that match “?name(^lib)” are libraries of
one sort or another.
?new, ~N
Matches packages which are “new”: that is, they have been added to the
archive since the last time the list of packages was cleared using Actions
→ Forget new packages (f) or the command-line action forget-new.
?obsolete, ~o
This term matches any installed package which is not available in any
version from any archive. These packages appear as “Obsolete or Locally
Installed” in the visual interface.
?origin(origin), ~Oorigin
Matches package versions whose origin matches the regular expression
origin. For instance, “!?origin(debian)” will find any unofficial packages
on your system (packages not from the Debian archive).
?provides(pattern), ~Ppattern
Matches package versions which provide a package that matches the pattern.
For instance, “?provides(mail-transport-agent)” will match all the
packages that provide “mail-transport-agent”.
?priority(priority), ~ppriority
Matches packages whose priority is priority; priority must be extra,
important, optional, required, or standard. For instance,
“?priority(required)” matches packages whose priority is “required”.
?reverse-depType(pattern), ~R[depType:]pattern
depType may be either “provides” or one of the dependency types given in
the documentation of ?broken-depType. If depType is not present, it
defaults to depends.
If depType is “provides”, matches packages whose name is provided by a
package version matching pattern. Otherwise, matches packages which a
package version matching pattern declares a dependency of type depType
upon.
?reverse-broken-depType(pattern), ?broken-reverse-depType(pattern),
~RB[depType:]pattern
depType may be either “provides” or one of the dependency types given in
the documentation of ?broken-depType. If depType is not present, it
defaults to depends.
Matches packages which a package version matching pattern declares an
unsatisfied dependency of type depType upon.
?section(section), ~ssection
Matches packages whose section matches the regular expression section.
?source-package(name), ~ename
Matches packages whose source package name matches the regular expression
name.
?source-version(version)
Matches packages whose source version matches the regular expression
version.
?tag(tag), ~Gtag
Matches packages whose Tag field matches the regular expression tag. For
instance, the pattern ?tag(game::strategy) would match strategy games.
For more information on tags and debtags, see
http://debtags.alioth.debian.org.
?task(task), ~ttask
Matches packages that appear in a task whose name matches the regular
expression task.
?term(keyword)
This term performs a full-text search for keyword in the apt package
cache. When used with “aptitude search”, Search → Limit Display (l) in the
curses front-end, or typed into a package search box in the GTK+
front-end, this term will allow aptitude to accelerate the search using a
Xapian index.
?term-prefix(keyword)
This term performs a full-text search for any keyword beginning with
keyword in the apt package cache. When used with “aptitude search”, Search
→ Limit Display (l) in the curses front-end, or typed into a package
search box in the GTK+ front-end, this term will allow aptitude to
accelerate the search using a Xapian index.
This is similar to ?term, but matches extensions of the keyword. For
instance, the following search pattern will match any package indexed
under the keywords hour, hourglass, hourly, and so on:
Example 2.6. Use of the ?term-prefix term
?term-prefix(hour)
?true, ~T
This term matches any package. For instance, “?installed?provides(?true)”
matches installed packages which provide any package.
?upgradable, ~U
This term matches any installed package which can be upgraded.
[Note] Note
Note that this only tests whether there are upgrades available for
a package, not whether an upgrade could be performed (with actions
such as safe-upgrade or full-upgrade).
For instance, there can be upgrades available for several packages,
but maybe the upgraded versions of a subset conflict with each
other, so they cannot be co-installed or not all of them upgraded
at the same time.
?user-tag(tag)
This term matches any package that is marked with a user-tag matching the
regular expression tag.
?version(version), ~Vversion
Matches any package version whose version number matches the regular
expression version, with the exceptions noted below. For instance,
“?version(debian)” matches packages whose version contains “debian”.
The following values of version are treated specially. To search for
version numbers containing these values, preface the value with a
backslash; for instance, to find packages whose version number contains
CURRENT, search for \CURRENT.
• CURRENT matches the currently installed version of a package, if any.
• CANDIDATE matches the version, if any, of the package that will be
installed if you press + on the package or run aptitude install on it.
• TARGET matches the version of a package that is currently targeted for
installation, if any.
?virtual, ~v
Matches any package which is purely virtual: that is, its name is provided
by a package, but no package of that name exists. For instance,
“?virtual?reverse-provides(?installed)” matches virtual packages which are
provided by any installed package.
?widen(pattern), ~Wpattern
“Widens” the match: if the versions to match against have been limited by
an enclosing term (such as ?depends), these limits are dropped. Thus,
?widen(pattern) matches a package version if pattern matches any version
of that package.
Customizing aptitude
Customizing the package list
The package list can be heavily customized: how packages are displayed,
how the package hierarchy is formed, how packages are sorted, and even how
the display is organized are all open to change.
Customizing how packages are displayed
This section describes how to configure the contents and format of the
package list, status line, and header line, as well as the output of
aptitude search.
The format of each of these locations is defined by a “format string”. A
format string is a string of text containing %-escapes such as %p, %S, and
so on. The resulting output is created by taking the text and replacing
the %-escapes according to their meanings (given below).
A %-escape can either have a fixed size, in which case it is always
replaced by the same amount of text (with extra space characters added to
fill it out as necessary), or it can be “expandable”, meaning that it
takes up the space that is not claimed by fixed-size columns. If there are
several expandable columns, the extra space is divided evenly between
them.
All %-escapes come with a default size and/or expandability. The size of a
%-escape can be changed by writing it between the % and the character
identifying the escape; for instance, %20V generates the candidate version
of the package, 20 characters wide. Placing a question mark (?) between
the % and the character identifying the escape causes the column's “basic”
width to vary depending on its content. Note that the resulting columns
might not line up vertically!
If you want a particular %-escape to be expandable, even though it
normally has a fixed width, place a pound sign (ie, “#”) immediately after
it. For instance, to display the candidate version of a package, no matter
how long it is, use the format string %V#. You can also place # after
something that is not a %-escape; aptitude will “expand” the text
preceding the # by inserting extra spaces after it.
In summary, the syntax of a %-escape is:
%[width][?]code[#]
The configuration variables Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format,
Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format, and
Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format define the default formats the package
list, the header at the top of the package list, and the status line below
the package list respectively. To change how the results of an aptitude
search command are displayed, use the -F option.
The following %-escapes are available in format strings:
[Note] Note
Some of the descriptions below refer to “the package”. In the GUI,
this is either the package being displayed or the currently
selected package; in the command-line search, this is the package
being displayed.
Escape Name Default size Expandable Description
This is not really an
escape; it simply inserts
%% Literal % 1 No a percent sign into the
output at the point at
which it occurs.
In some circumstances, a
display format string
will have “parameters”:
for instance, in the
command-line search, the
%#number Parameter Variable No groups matched by the
Replacement search are used as
parameters when
displaying the result.
This format code will be
replaced by the parameter
indicated by number.
A single-character flag
summarizing any action to
%a Action Flag 1 No be performed on the
package, as described in
Figure 2.10, “Values of
the “action” flag”.
A somewhat more verbose
%A Action 10 No description of the action
to be performed on the
package.
If there are no broken
packages, produces
nothing. Otherwise,
%B Broken Count 12 No produces a string such as
“Broken: 10” describing
the number of broken
packages.
A single-character flag
summarizing the current
%c Current State 1 No state of the package, as
Flag described in Figure 2.9,
“Values of the “current
state” flag”.
A more verbose
%C Current State 11 No description of the
current state of the
package.
%d Description 40 Yes The package's short
description.
The size of the package
%D Package Size 8 No file containing the
package.
Outputs the string of the
%E Architecture 10 No architecture, for example
“amd64”.
Outputs the source
%e Source 30 No package, for example
“aptitude” for
“aptitude-doc-en”.
The name of the computer
%H Hostname 15 No on which aptitude is
running.
Displays the highest
priority assigned to a
package version; for
%i Pin priority 4 No packages, displays the
priority of the version
which will be forced to
be installed (if any).
The (estimated) amount of
%I Installed Size 8 No space the package takes
up on disk.
%m Maintainer 30 Yes The maintainer of the
package.
If the package is
%M Automatic Flag 1 No automatically installed,
outputs “A”; otherwise,
outputs nothing.
The length Outputs the version of
%n Program Version of “0.8.13”. No aptitude that is running,
currently “0.8.13”.
The length Outputs the name of the
%N Program Name of the name. No program; usually
“aptitude”.
If no packages are going
to be installed, outputs
nothing. Otherwise,
outputs a string
describing the total size
%o Download Size 17 No of all the package files
which will be installed
(an estimate of how much
needs to be downloaded);
for instance, “DL size:
1000B”.
Outputs a string of the
origin of the package,
%O Origin 30 No for example
“Debian:unstable
[amd64]”.
Outputs the name of the
package. When a package
is displayed in a tree
%p Package Name 30 Yes context, the name of the
package will be indented,
if possible, according to
its depth in the tree.
%P Priority 9 No Outputs the priority of
the package.
Outputs the approximate
%r Reverse Depends 2 No number of installed
Count packages which depend
upon the package.
Outputs an abbreviated
Abbreviated description of the
%R Priority 3 No package's priority: for
instance, “Important”
becomes “Imp”.
%s Section 10 No Outputs the section of
the package.
If the package is
%S Trust Status 1 No untrusted, displays the
letter "U".
%t Archive 10 Yes The archive in which the
package is found.
Outputs “*” if the
package is tagged,
%T Tagged (and 30 No nothing otherwise.^[19]
user-tags)
This field also includes
user-tags.
If the scheduled actions
will alter the amount of
Disk Usage space used on the disk,
%u Change 30 No outputs a description of
the change in disk space;
for instance, “Will use
100MB of disk space.”
Outputs the currently
installed version of the
%v Current Version 14 No package, or <none> if the
package is not currently
installed.
Outputs the version of
the package which would
Candidate be installed if Package →
%V Version 14 No Install (+) were issued
on the package, or <none>
if the package is not
currently available.
Outputs how much
additional space will be
%Z Size Change 9 No used or how much space
will be freed by
installing, upgrading, or
removing a package.
Customizing the package hierarchy
The package hierarchy is generated by a grouping policy: rules describing
how the hierarchy should be built. The grouping policy describes a
“pipeline” of rules; each rule can discard packages, create
sub-hierarchies in which packages reside, or otherwise manipulate the
tree. The configuration items Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping and
Aptitude::UI::Default-Preview-Grouping set the grouping policies for newly
created package lists and preview screens, respectively. You can set the
grouping policy for the current package list by pressing G.
The grouping policy is described by a comma-separated list of rules:
rule1,rule2,.... Each rule consists of the name of the rule, possibly
followed by arguments: for instance, versions or section(subdir). Whether
arguments are required and how many arguments are required (or allowed)
depends on the type of rule.
Rules can be non-terminal or terminal. A non-terminal rule will process a
package by generating some part of the hierarchy, then passing the package
on to a later rule. A terminal rule, on the other hand, will also generate
part of the tree (typically items corresponding to the package), but does
not pass its package to a later rule. If no terminal rule is specified,
aptitude will use the default rule, which is to create the standard
“package items”.
action
Groups packages according to the action scheduled on them; packages that
are not upgradable and will be unchanged are ignored. This is the grouping
that is used in preview trees.
architecture
Groups packages according to their architecture.
deps
This is a terminal rule.
Creates standard package items which can be expanded to reveal the
dependencies of the package.
filter(pattern)
Include only packages for which at least one version matches pattern.
If pattern is “missing”, no packages are discarded. This is a backwards
compatibility feature and may be removed in the future.
firstchar[(mode)]
Groups packages based on the first character of their name.
To be precise, it is not always the first letter -- for packages starting
with lib* the name of the group is liba, libb, ... like in Debian FTPs.
mode can be one of the following:
binary
Group based on the binary package name. This is the default if no mode is
specified.
Example 2.7. Grouping policy firstchar or firstchar(binary)
With the source package dpkg as an example, the binary packages dselect,
dpkg and dpkg-dev would be grouped under d, while libdpkg-dev and
libdpkg-perl would be added to the libd group.
source
Group based on the source package name.
This is useful for example when browsing packages coming from the same
source package (source grouping policy) within large collections
(examples: all installed packages, all upgradable packages, all packages
from "main" section), to add an intermediate grouping step. In this way,
one can for example emulate the hierarchy of FTPs (try grouping:
"section(topdir),firstchar(source),source").
Example 2.8. Grouping policy firstchar(source)
Again, with the source package dpkg as an example, all the binary packages
dselect, dpkg, dpkg-dev, libdpkg-dev and libdpkg-perl would be grouped
under d.
pattern(pattern [=> title] [{ policy }] [, ...])
A customizable grouping policy. Each version of every package is matched
against the given patterns. The first match found is used to assign a
title to the package; packages are then grouped by their title. Strings of
the form \N that occur in title will be replaced by the Nth result of the
match. If title is not present, it is assumed to be \1. Note that packages
which do not match any patterns will not appear in the tree at all.
Example 2.9. Use of pattern to group packages by their maintainer
pattern(?maintainer() => \1)
The example above will group packages according to their Maintainer field.
The policy pattern(?maintainer()) will do the same thing, as the absent
title defaults to \1.
Instead of => title, an entry may end with ||. This indicates that
packages matching the corresponding pattern will be inserted into the tree
at the same level as the pattern grouping, rather than being placed in
subtrees.
Example 2.10. Use of pattern with some packages placed at the top level
pattern(?action(remove) => Packages Being Removed, ?true ||)
The example above will place packages that are being removed into a
subtree, and place all the other packages at the current level, grouped
according to the policies that follow pattern.
By default, all the packages that match each pattern are grouped according
to the rules that follow the pattern policy. To specify a different policy
for some packages, write the policy in braces ({}) after the title of the
group, after the ||, or after the pattern if neither is present. For
instance:
Example 2.11. Use of the pattern grouping policy with sub-policies
pattern(?action(remove) => Packages Being Removed {}, ?action(install) =>
Packages Being Installed, ?true || {status})
The policy in the above example has the following effects:
• Packages that are being removed are placed into a subtree labeled
“Packages Being Removed”; the grouping policy for this subtree is
empty, so the packages are placed into a flat list.
• Packages that are being installed are placed into a subtree labeled
Packages Being Installed and grouped according to the policies that
follow pattern.
• All remaining packages are placed at the top level of the tree,
grouped according to their status.
See the section called “Search patterns” for more information on the
format of pattern.
priority
Groups packages according to their priority.
section[(mode[,passthrough])]
Groups packages according to their Section field.
mode can be one of the following:
none
Group based on the whole Section field, so categories like
“non-free/games” will be created. This is the default if no mode is
specified.
topdir
Group based on the part of the Section field before the first / character;
if this part of the Section is not recognized, or if there is no /, the
first entry in the list Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections will be used
instead.
subdir
Group based on the part of the Section field after the first / character,
if it is contained in the list Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections. If not,
or if there is no /, group based on the entire Section field instead.
subdirs
Group based on the part of the Section field after the first / character,
if the portion of the field preceding it is contained in the list
Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections; if not, or if there is no /, the entire
field will be used. If there are multiple / characters in the portion of
the field that is used, a hierarchy of groups will be formed. For
instance, if “games” is not a member of Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections,
then a package with a section of “games/arcade” will be placed under the
top-level heading “games”, in a sub-tree named “arcade”.
If passthrough is present, packages which for some reason lack a true
Section (for instance, virtual packages) will be passed directly to the
next level of grouping without first being placed in sub-categories.
status
Groups packages into the following categories:
• Security Updates
• Upgradable
• New
• Installed
• Not Installed
• Obsolete and Locally Created
• Virtual
source
Groups packages according to their source package name.
tag[(facet)]
Groups packages according to the Tag information stored in the Debian
package files. If facet is provided, then only tags corresponding to that
facet will be displayed, and packages lacking this facet will be hidden;
otherwise, all packages will be displayed at least once (with tagless
packages listed separately from packages that have tags).
For more information on debtags, see http://debtags.alioth.debian.org.
task
Creates a tree called “Tasks” which contains the available tasks
(information on tasks is read from debian-tasks.desc in the package
tasksel). The rule following task will create its categories as siblings
of Tasks.
versions
This is a terminal rule.
Creates standard package items which can be expanded to reveal the
versions of the package.
Customizing how packages are sorted
By default, packages in the package list or in the output of aptitude
search are sorted by name. However, it is often useful to sort them
according to different criteria (for instance, package size), and aptitude
allows you to do just that by modifying the sorting policy.
Like the grouping policy described in the previous section, the sorting
policy is a comma-separated list. Each item in the list is the name of a
sorting rule; if packages are “equal” according to the first rule, the
second rule is used to sort them, and so on. Placing a tilde character (~)
in front of a rule reverses the usual meaning of that rule. For instance,
priority,~name will sort packages by priority, but packages with the same
priority will be placed in reverse order according to name.
To change the sorting policy for an active package list, press S. To
change the default sorting for all package lists, set the configuration
option Aptitude::UI::Default-Sorting. To change the sorting policy for
aptitude search, use the --sort command-line option.
The available rules are:
installsize
Sorts packages by the estimated amount of size they require when
installed.
installsizechange
Sorts packages by the change in the installed size (estimated amount of
size required when installed), comparing the current version (if
installed) and the candidate version to be installed, upgraded or removed.
debsize
Sorts packages by the size of the package.
name
Sorts packages by name.
priority
Sorts packages by priority.
version
Sorts packages according to their version number.
Customizing keybindings
The keys used to activate commands in aptitude can be customized in the
configuration file. Every command has an associated configuration variable
under Aptitude::UI::Keybindings; to change the keystroke bound to a
command, just set the corresponding variable to the keystroke. For
instance, to make the key s perform a search, set
Aptitude::UI::Keybindings::Search to “s”. You can require the Control key
to be pressed by placing “C-” in front of the key: for instance, using
“C-s” instead of “s” would bind Search to Control+s instead of s. Finally,
you can bind a command to several keys at once using a comma-separated
list: for instance, using “s,C-s” would cause both s and Control+s to
perform a search.
The following commands can be bound to keys by setting the variable
Aptitude::UI::Keybindings::command, where command is the name of the
command to be bound:
┌────────────────────────┬─────────────────────┬─────────────────────────┐
│ Command │ Default │ Description │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ If packages are broken │
│ │ │ and aptitude has │
│ ApplySolution │ ! │ suggested a solution to │
│ │ │ the problem, │
│ │ │ immediately apply the │
│ │ │ solution. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Move to the beginning │
│ │ │ of the current display: │
│ Begin │ home,C-a │ to the top of a list, │
│ │ │ or to the left of a │
│ │ │ text entry field. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Cancels the current │
│ │ │ interaction: for │
│ Cancel │ C-g,escape,C-[ │ instance, discards a │
│ │ │ dialog box or │
│ │ │ deactivates the menu. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Displays the │
│ │ │ changelog.Debian of the │
│ Changelog │ C │ currently selected │
│ │ │ package or package │
│ │ │ version. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Changes the grouping │
│ ChangePkgTreeGrouping │ G │ policy of the currently │
│ │ │ active package list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Changes the limit of │
│ ChangePkgTreeLimit │ l │ the currently active │
│ │ │ package list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Changes the sorting │
│ ChangePkgTreeSorting │ S │ policy of the currently │
│ │ │ active package list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Marks the currently │
│ ClearAuto │ m │ selected package as │
│ │ │ having been manually │
│ │ │ installed. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Collapses the selected │
│ CollapseAll │ ] │ tree and all its │
│ │ │ children in a │
│ │ │ hierarchical list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Collapses the selected │
│ CollapseTree │ left │ tree in a hierarchical │
│ │ │ list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In dialog boxes, this │
│ │ │ is equivalent to │
│ │ │ pressing “Ok”; when │
│ Confirm │ enter │ interacting with a │
│ │ │ status-line multiple │
│ │ │ choice question, it │
│ │ │ chooses the default │
│ │ │ option. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Switches the keyboard │
│ Cycle │ tab │ focus to the next │
│ │ │ “widget”. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ CycleNext │ f6 │ Switches to the next │
│ │ │ active view. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Cycles through │
│ CycleOrder │ o │ predefined arrangements │
│ │ │ of the display. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ CyclePrev │ f7 │ Switches to the │
│ │ │ previous active view. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Deletes all text │
│ DelBOL │ C-u │ between the cursor and │
│ │ │ the beginning of the │
│ │ │ line. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Deletes the previous │
│ DelBack │ backspace,C-h │ character when entering │
│ │ │ text. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Deletes all text from │
│ DelEOL │ C-k │ the cursor to the end │
│ │ │ of the line. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Deletes the character │
│ DelForward │ delete,C-d │ under the cursor when │
│ │ │ entering text. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Displays the │
│ Dependencies │ d │ dependencies of the │
│ │ │ currently selected │
│ │ │ package. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ When browsing the │
│ │ │ package list, cycles │
│ DescriptionCycle │ i │ through the available │
│ │ │ views in the │
│ │ │ information area. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ When browsing the │
│ DescriptionDown │ z │ package list, scrolls │
│ │ │ the information area │
│ │ │ down one line. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ When browsing the │
│ DescriptionUp │ a │ package list, scrolls │
│ │ │ the information area up │
│ │ │ one line. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ If not in a preview │
│ │ │ screen, display the │
│ DoInstallRun │ g │ preview screen ^[a]; if │
│ │ │ in a preview screen, │
│ │ │ perform an install run. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves down: for │
│ │ │ instance, scrolls a │
│ Down │ down,j │ text display down or │
│ │ │ selects the next item │
│ │ │ in a list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ If packages are broken, │
│ │ │ writes the current │
│ DumpResolver │ * │ state of the │
│ │ │ problem-resolver to a │
│ │ │ file (for debugging │
│ │ │ purposes). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Move to the end of the │
│ │ │ current display: to the │
│ End │ end,C-e │ bottom of a list, or to │
│ │ │ the right of a text │
│ │ │ entry field. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ If some packages are │
│ │ │ broken and aptitude has │
│ │ │ suggested a solution, │
│ ExamineSolution │ e │ display a dialog box │
│ │ │ with a detailed │
│ │ │ description of the │
│ │ │ proposed solution. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Expands the selected │
│ ExpandAll │ [ │ tree and all its │
│ │ │ children in a │
│ │ │ hierarchical list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Expands the selected │
│ ExpandTree │ right │ tree in a hierarchical │
│ │ │ list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Select the first │
│ FirstSolution │ < │ solution produced by │
│ │ │ the problem resolver. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Forbids a package from │
│ │ │ being upgraded to the │
│ ForbidUpgrade │ F │ currently available │
│ │ │ version (or a │
│ │ │ particular version). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Discards all │
│ │ │ information about which │
│ ForgetNewPackages │ f │ packages are “new” │
│ │ │ (causes the list of │
│ │ │ “new” packages to │
│ │ │ become empty). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Help │ ? │ Displays the on-line │
│ │ │ help screen. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a line editor with │
│ HistoryNext │ down,C-n │ history, moves forwards │
│ │ │ in the history. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a line editor with │
│ HistoryPrev │ up,C-p │ history, moves │
│ │ │ backwards in the │
│ │ │ history. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Hold │ = │ Places a package on │
│ │ │ hold. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Install │ + │ Flags a package for │
│ │ │ installation. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Marks a single package │
│ │ │ for installation; all │
│ InstallSingle │ I │ other packages are kept │
│ │ │ at their current │
│ │ │ version. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Cancels all │
│ Keep │ : │ installation or removal │
│ │ │ requests and all holds │
│ │ │ for a package. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Select the last │
│ LastSolution │ < │ solution produced by │
│ │ │ the problem resolver. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves left: for │
│ │ │ instance, moves one │
│ Left │ left,h │ menu to the left in the │
│ │ │ menu bar, or moves the │
│ │ │ cursor to the left when │
│ │ │ editing text. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a hierarchical list, │
│ │ │ selects the next │
│ │ │ sibling of the │
│ LevelDown │ J │ currently selected item │
│ │ │ (the next item at the │
│ │ │ same level with the │
│ │ │ same parent). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a hierarchical list, │
│ │ │ selects the previous │
│ │ │ sibling of the │
│ LevelUp │ K │ currently selected item │
│ │ │ (the previous item at │
│ │ │ the same level with the │
│ │ │ same parent). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Attempts to upgrade all │
│ │ │ packages which are not │
│ MarkUpgradable │ U │ held back or forbidden │
│ │ │ from upgrading. It also │
│ │ │ installs new Essential │
│ │ │ or Required packages. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In Minesweeper, places │
│ MineFlagSquare │ f │ or removes a flag on a │
│ │ │ square. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ MineLoadGame │ L │ Loads a Minesweeper │
│ │ │ game. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ MineSaveGame │ S │ Saves a Minesweeper │
│ │ │ game. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Sweeps around the │
│ MineSweepSquare │ No binding │ current square in │
│ │ │ Minesweeper. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ MineUncoverSquare │ No binding │ Uncovers the current │
│ │ │ square in Minesweeper │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Uncovers the current │
│ │ │ square in Minesweeper │
│ MineUncoverSweepSquare │ enter │ if it is covered; │
│ │ │ otherwise, sweeps │
│ │ │ around it. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves the current │
│ NextPage │ pagedown,C-f │ display one page │
│ │ │ forward. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Advance the dependency │
│ NextSolution │ . │ resolver to the next │
│ │ │ solution. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ This key will select │
│ No │ n^[b] │ the “no” button in │
│ │ │ yes/no dialog boxes. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Selects the parent of │
│ │ │ the selected item in a │
│ │ ^, left (in package │ hierarchical list. left │
│ Parent │ items) │ is used only in package │
│ │ │ items (rows) when │
│ │ │ showing trees of │
│ │ │ packages. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves the current │
│ PrevPage │ pageup,C-b │ display one page │
│ │ │ backward. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Return the dependency │
│ PrevSolution │ , │ resolver to the │
│ │ │ previous solution. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Flags the currently │
│ Purge │ _ │ selected package to be │
│ │ │ purged. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Activates the currently │
│ PushButton │ space,enter │ selected button, or │
│ │ │ toggles a checkbox. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Quit │ q │ Close the current view. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ QuitProgram │ Q │ Quit the entire │
│ │ │ program. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Reject all resolver │
│ │ │ actions that would │
│ RejectBreakHolds │ │ break a hold; │
│ │ │ equivalent to Resolver │
│ │ │ → Reject Breaking │
│ │ │ Holds. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Refresh │ C-l │ Redraws the screen from │
│ │ │ scratch. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ Remove │ - │ Flags a package for │
│ │ │ removal. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Flags the currently │
│ ReInstall │ L │ selected package to be │
│ │ │ reinstalled. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Repeats the last │
│ RepeatSearchBack │ N │ search, but searches in │
│ │ │ the opposite direction. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ ReSearch │ n │ Repeats the last │
│ │ │ search. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Displays packages which │
│ ReverseDependencies │ r │ depend upon the │
│ │ │ currently selected │
│ │ │ package. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves right: for │
│ │ │ instance, moves one │
│ Right │ right,l │ menu to the right in │
│ │ │ the menu bar, or moves │
│ │ │ the cursor to the right │
│ │ │ when editing text. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Activate the “search” │
│ Search │ / │ function of the │
│ │ │ currently active │
│ │ │ interface element. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Activate the “search │
│ SearchBack │ \ │ backwards” function of │
│ │ │ the currently active │
│ │ │ interface element. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a package tree, │
│ SearchBroken │ b │ search for the next │
│ │ │ broken package. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Marks the current │
│ SetAuto │ M │ package as having been │
│ │ │ automatically │
│ │ │ installed. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ In a package list, │
│ ShowHideDescription │ D │ toggles whether the │
│ │ │ information area is │
│ │ │ visible. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ When viewing a │
│ │ │ solution, marks the │
│ │ │ currently selected │
│ SolutionActionApprove │ a │ action as "approved" │
│ │ │ (it will be included in │
│ │ │ future solutions │
│ │ │ whenever possible). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ When viewing a │
│ │ │ solution, marks the │
│ SolutionActionReject │ r │ currently selected │
│ │ │ action as "rejected" │
│ │ │ (future solutions will │
│ │ │ not contain it). │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Expands or collapses │
│ ToggleExpanded │ enter │ the currently selected │
│ │ │ tree in a hierarchical │
│ │ │ list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Activates or │
│ ToggleMenuActive │ C-m,f10,C-space │ deactivates the main │
│ │ │ menu. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Cancels the last │
│ │ │ action, up to when │
│ │ │ aptitude was started OR │
│ Undo │ C-_,C-u │ the last time you │
│ │ │ update the package │
│ │ │ lists or installed │
│ │ │ packages. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Moves up: for instance, │
│ │ │ scrolls a text display │
│ Up │ up,k │ up or selects the │
│ │ │ previous item in a │
│ │ │ list. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Updates the list of │
│ UpdatePackageList │ u │ packages by fetching │
│ │ │ new lists from the │
│ │ │ Internet if necessary. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ Displays the available │
│ Versions │ v │ versions of the │
│ │ │ currently selected │
│ │ │ package. │
├────────────────────────┼─────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┤
│ │ │ This key will select │
│ Yes │ y ^[b] │ the “Yes” button in │
│ │ │ yes/no dialog boxes. │
├────────────────────────┴─────────────────────┴─────────────────────────┤
│ ^[a] unless Aptitude::Display-Planned-Action is false. │
│ │
│ ^[b] This default may be different in different locales. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
In addition to letter keys, number keys, and punctuation, the following
“special” keys can be bound:
┌──────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Key name │ Description │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ a1 │ The A1 key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ a3 │ The A3 key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ b2 │ The B2 key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ backspace │ The Backspace key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ backtab │ The back-tab key │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ begin │ The Begin key (not Home) │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ break │ The “break” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ c1 │ The C1 key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ c3 │ The C3 key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ cancel │ The Cancel key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ create │ The Create key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ comma │ Comma (,) -- note that because commas are used to │
│ │ list keys, this is the only way to bind to a comma. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ command │ The Command key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ copy │ The Copy key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ delete │ The Delete key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ delete_line │ The “delete line” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ down │ The “down” arrow key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ end │ The End key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ entry │ The Enter key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ exit │ The Exit key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ f1, f2, ..., f10 │ The F1 through F10 keys. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ find │ The Find key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ home │ The Home key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ insert │ The Insert key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ insert_exit │ The “insert exit” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ clear │ The “clear” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ clear_eol │ The “clear to end of line” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ clear_eos │ The “clear to end of screen” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ insert_line │ The “insert line” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ left │ The “left” arrow key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ mark │ The Mark key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ message │ The Message key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ move │ The Move key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ next │ The Next key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ open │ The Open key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ previous │ The Previous key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ print │ The Print key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ redo │ The Redo key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ reference │ The Reference key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ refresh │ The Refresh key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ replace │ The Replace key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ restart │ The Restart key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ resume │ The Resume key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ return │ The Return key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ right │ The “right” arrow key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ save │ The Save key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ scrollf │ The “scroll forward” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ scrollr │ The “scroll backwards” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ select │ The Select key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ suspend │ The Suspend key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ pagedown │ The “Page Down” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ pageup │ The “Page Up” key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ space │ The Space key │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ tab │ The Tab key │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ undo │ The Undo key. │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ up │ The “up” arrow key. │
└──────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
In addition to binding keys globally, it is possible to change key
bindings for one particular part (or domain) of aptitude: for instance, to
make Tab the equivalent of the right arrow key in menu bars, set
Aptitude::UI::Keybindings::Menubar::Right to “tab,right”. The following
domains are available:
┌───────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Domain │ Description │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ EditLine │ Used by line-editing widgets, such as the entry field │
│ │ in a “search” dialog. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Menu │ Used by drop-down menus. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Menubar │ Used by the menu bar at the top of the screen. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Minesweeper │ Used by the Minesweeper mode. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Used by the multiple-choice prompts that appear if you │
│ MinibufChoice │ have chosen to have some prompts appear in the status │
│ │ line. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Pager │ Used when displaying a file on disk (for instance, the │
│ │ help text). │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ Used by packages, trees of packages, package versions, │
│ PkgNode │ and package dependencies when they appear in package │
│ │ lists. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ PkgTree │ Used by package lists. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Table │ Used by tables of widgets (for instance, dialog │
│ │ boxes). │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TextLayout │ Used by formatted text displays, such as package │
│ │ descriptions. │
├───────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Tree │ Used by all tree displays (including package lists, │
│ │ for which it can be overridden by PkgTree). │
└───────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Customizing text colors and styles
The colors and visual styles used by aptitude to display text can be
extensively customized. Each visual element has an associated “style”,
which describes the particular colors and visual attributes that will be
used to display that element. Styles take the form of a list of color and
attribute settings. This list is not necessarily exhaustive; if some
colors or attributes are not explicitly specified, their values will be
taken from the surrounding visual context. In fact, most visual elements
have an “empty” style by default.
You can change the contents of a style by creating a configuration group
of the same name in the apt or aptitude configuration file. For instance,
the “MenuBorder” style is used to draw the visual border around drop-down
menus. By default, this border is drawn bold and white-on-blue. Placing
the following text in the configuration file would change it to
white-on-cyan:
Aptitude::UI::Styles {
MenuBorder {fg white; bg cyan; set bold;};
};
As you can see, a style's configuration group consists of a sequence of
instructions. The general classes of instructions are:
fg color
Sets the text foreground to the given color. See below for a list of the
colors known to aptitude.
bg color
Sets the text background to the given color. See below for a list of the
colors known to aptitude.
set attribute
Enables the given text attribute. See below for a list of the text
attributes known to aptitude.
clear attribute
Disables the given text attribute. See below for a list of the text
attributes known to aptitude.
flip attribute
Toggles the given text attribute: if it is enabled in the surrounding
element, it will be disabled, and vice versa. See below for a list of the
text attributes known to aptitude.
The colors that aptitude recognizes are black, blue, cyan, green, magenta,
red, white, and yellow ^[20]. In addition, you may specify default in
place of a background color to use the default terminal background (this
could be the default color, an image file, or even “transparent”). The
styles that aptitude recognizes are:
blink
Enables blinking text.
bold
Makes the foreground color of the text (or the background if reverse video
is enabled) brighter.
dim
May cause text to be extra-dim on some terminals. No effect has been
observed on common Linux terminals.
reverse
Swaps the foreground and background colors. Many visual elements flip this
attribute to perform common highlighting tasks.
standout
This enables “the best highlighting mode of the terminal”. In xterms it is
similar, but not idential to, reverse video; behavior on other terminals
may vary.
underline
Enables underlined text.
You can select several attributes at once by separating them with commas;
for instance, set bold,standout;.
[Note] Note
As hinted at above, the interpretation of both styles and text
attributes is highly terminal-dependent. You may need to experiment
a bit to find out exactly what some settings do on your terminal.
The following styles can be customized in aptitude:
Figure 2.14. Customizable styles in aptitude
┌──────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
│ Style │ Default │ Description │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│Bullet │fg yellow; set │The style of the bullets in │
│ │bold; │bulleted lists. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of newer versions of │
│ │ │the package in the changelog │
│ │ │view. Note that aptitude will │
│ChangelogNewerVersion │set bold; │only highlight newer versions of │
│ │ │the package if you have the │
│ │ │package │
│ │ │libparse-debianchangelog-perl │
│ │ │installed. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│Default │fg white; bg │The basic style of the screen. │
│ │black; │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│DepBroken │fg black; bg │The style of unfulfilled │
│ │red; │dependencies. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│DisabledMenuEntry │fg black; bg │The style of menu entries that │
│ │blue; set dim; │are disabled and cannot be used. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style used to indicate that a│
│DownloadHit │fg black; bg │file was “hit”: i.e., it has not │
│ │green; │changed since the last time it │
│ │ │was downloaded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│DownloadProgress │fg blue; bg │The style of the progress │
│ │yellow; │indicator for a download. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg white; bg │The style of line editors (for │
│EditLine │black; clear │instance, the entry in the │
│ │reverse; │“Search” dialog). │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│Error │fg white; bg │The style of error messages. │
│ │red; set bold; │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│Header │fg white; bg │The style of screen headers. │
│ │blue; set bold;│ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg white; bg │The style of the currently │
│HighlightedMenuBar │blue; set │selected menu name in the menu │
│ │bold,reverse; │bar. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg white; bg │The style of the currently │
│HighlightedMenuEntry │blue; set │selected choice in a menu. │
│ │bold,reverse; │ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MediaChange │fg yellow; bg │The style of the dialog used to │
│ │red; set bold; │ask the user to insert a new CD. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MenuBar │fg white; bg │The style of the menu bar. │
│ │blue; set bold;│ │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MenuBorder │fg white; bg │The style of the borders that │
│ │blue; set bold;│surround a drop-down menu. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MenuEntry │fg white; bg │The style of each entry in a │
│ │blue; │drop-down menu. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MineBomb │fg red; set │The style of bombs in │
│ │bold; │Minesweeper. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MineBorder │set bold; │The style of the border drawn │
│ │ │around a Minesweeper board. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MineFlag │fg red; set │The style of flags in │
│ │bold; │Minesweeper. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of the number N in │
│MineNumberN │Various │Minesweeper; N may range from 0 │
│ │ │to 8. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg white; bg │The color used to display “tabs” │
│MultiplexTab │blue; │other than the currently selected│
│ │ │one. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│MultiplexTabHighlighted │fg blue; bg │The color used to display the │
│ │white; │currently selected “tab”. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg red; flip │The style of packages in the │
│PkgBroken │reverse; │package list which have │
│ │ │unfulfilled dependencies. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgBrokenHighlighted │fg red; │in the package list which have │
│ │ │unfulfilled dependencies. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of packages which are │
│PkgNotInstalled │ │not currently installed and will │
│ │ │not be installed. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgNotInstalledHighlighted│ │which are not currently installed│
│ │ │and will not be installed. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of packages which are │
│PkgIsInstalled │set bold; │currently installed and for which│
│ │ │no actions are scheduled. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgIsInstalledHighlighted │set bold; flip │which are currently installed and│
│ │reverse; │for which no actions are │
│ │ │scheduled. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of packages in the │
│PkgToDowngrade │set bold; │package list which will be │
│ │ │downgraded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │set bold; flip │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgToDowngradeHighlighted │reverse │in the package list which will be│
│ │ │downgraded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│PkgToHold │fg white; flip │The style of packages in the │
│ │reverse; │package list which are on hold. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgToHoldHighlighted │fg white; │in the package list which are on │
│ │ │hold. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of packages in the │
│PkgToInstall │fg green; flip │package list which are being │
│ │reverse; │installed (not upgraded) or │
│ │ │reinstalled. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgToInstallHighlighted │fg green; │in the package list which are │
│ │ │being installed (not upgraded) or│
│ │ │reinstalled. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg magenta; │The style of packages in the │
│PkgToRemove │flip reverse; │package list which will be │
│ │ │removed or purged. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgToRemoveHighlighted │fg magenta; │in the package list which will be│
│ │ │removed or purged. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg cyan; flip │The style of packages in the │
│PkgToUpgrade │reverse; │package list which will be │
│ │ │upgraded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of highlighted packages│
│PkgToUpgradeHighlighted │fg cyan; │in the package list which will be│
│ │ │upgraded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │The style of progress indicators │
│Progress │fg blue; bg │such as the one that appears │
│ │yellow; │while the package cache is being │
│ │ │loaded. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│SolutionActionApproved │bg green; │The style of approved actions in │
│ │ │a solution. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│SolutionActionRejected │bg red; │The style of rejected actions in │
│ │ │a solution. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│Status │fg white; bg │The style of status lines at the │
│ │blue; set bold;│bottom of the screen. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│TreeBackground │ │The basic color of all visual │
│ │ │lists and trees. │
├──────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │fg red; bg │The color used to display │
│TrustWarning │black; set │warnings about package trust. │
│ │bold; │ │
└──────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
Customizing the display layout
It is possible to rearrange the aptitude package list by making suitable
modifications to the configuration file.
Display elements
The layout is stored in the configuration group
Aptitude::UI::Default-Package-View, and consists of a list of display
elements:
Name Type {
Row row;
Column column;
Width width;
Height height;
additional options...
};
This creates a display element named Name; the type of element created is
determined by Type. The Row, Column, Width, and Height options must be
present; they determine where the display element is placed. (see below
for a detailed explanation of how display elements are arranged)
For examples of how to change the display layout, see the theme
definitions in the file /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults.
The following types of display elements are available:
Description
This display element will contain the “information area” (typically a
description of the currently selected package).
The option PopUpDownKey gives the name of a keyboard command which will
cause the display element to be shown or hidden. For instance, setting
this to ShowHideDescription will give the current display element the same
behavior as the default information area. The option PopUpDownLinked gives
the name of another display element; the current element will be shown or
hidden whenever the other element is.
MainWidget
This is a placeholder for the “main” display element: typically this is
the list of packages. A display layout must contain exactly one MainWidget
element: no more, no less.
Static
A region of the screen which displays some text, possibly containing
formatting codes as described in the section called “Customizing how
packages are displayed”. The text to display can be given in the Columns
option, or it can be stored in another configuration variable specified by
the ColumnsCfg option. The color of the text is determined by the color
named by the Color option.
Static items can be displayed and hidden in the same way as Description
items, using the PopUpDownKey and PopUpDownLinked options.
Placement of display elements
The display elements are arranged in a “table”. The upper-left corner of
an element is in the cell given by its Row and Column options (typically
starting from row 0 and column 0, but this is not required). The width of
an element in cells is given by its Width option, and its height is given
by its Height option.
Once the display elements are arranged and have been given an initial
amount of space on the screen, there is likely to be space left over. If
there is extra vertical space, each row containing a display element whose
RowExpand option is true will be allocated a share of the extra space;
similarly, if there is extra horizontal space, each column containing a
display element whose ColExpand option is true will be allocated a share
of the extra space.
In the event that there is not enough space, every row and column whose
widgets all have their RowShrink or ColShrink options set to true will be
shrunk. If this is not enough, all rows and columns are shrunk to fit into
the available space.
If a display element is not expanded, but its row or column is, its
alignment is determined by the RowAlign and ColAlign options. Setting them
to Left, Right, Top, Bottom, or Center will tell aptitude where to place
the element within the row or column.
For instance, the following configuration group creates a static element
named “Header”, which is three cells wide and will expand horizontally but
not vertically. It has the same color as other header lines and uses the
standard display format for header lines:
Header Static {
Row 0;
Column 0;
Width 3;
Height 1;
ColExpand true;
ColAlign Center;
RowAlign Center;
Color ScreenHeaderColor;
ColumnsCfg HEADER;
};
Display layout option reference
The following options are available for display elements:
ColAlign alignment;
alignment must be either Left, Right, or Center. If the row containing the
current display element is wider than the element itself and ColExpand is
false, the element will be placed within the row according to the value of
alignment.
If this option is not present, it defaults to Left.
ColExpand true|false;
If this option is set to true, the column containing this display element
will be allocated a share of any extra horizontal space that is available.
If this option is not present, it defaults to false.
Color colorname;
This option applies to Static elements. colorname is the name of a color
(for instance, ScreenStatusColor) which should be used as the “default”
color for this display element.
If this option is not present, it defaults to DefaultWidgetBackground.
ColShrink true|false;
If this option is set to true on each element in a column and there is not
enough horizontal space, the column will be shrunk as necessary to fit the
available space. Note that a column may be shrunk even if ColShrink is
false; it simply indicates that aptitude should try shrinking a particular
column before shrinking other columns.
If this option is not present, it defaults to false.
Column column;
Specifies the leftmost column containing this display element.
Columns format;
This option applies to Static display elements for which the ColumnsCfg
option is not set. It sets the displayed contents of the status item; it
is a format string as described in the section called “Customizing how
packages are displayed”.
ColumnsCfg HEADER|STATUS|name;
This option applies to Static display elements. It sets the display format
of the current element to the value of another configuration variable: if
it is HEADER or STATUS, the options Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format
and Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format, repectively, are used; otherwise,
the option name is used.
If this option is not present, the value of the Columns option is used to
control the contents of the static item.
Height height;
Specifies the height of the current display element.
PopUpDownKey command;
This option applies to Description and Static display elements.
command is the name of a keyboard command (for instance,
ShowHideDescription). When this key is pressed, the display element will
be hidden if it is visible, and displayed if it is hidden.
PopUpDownLinked element;
This option applies to Description and Static display elements.
element is the name of a display element. When element is displayed, the
current element will also be displayed; when element is hidden, the
current element will also be hidden.
Row row;
Specifies the uppermost row containing this display element.
RowAlign alignment;
alignment must be either Top, Bottom, or Center. If the row containing the
current display element is taller than the element itself and RowExpand is
false, the element will be placed within the row according to the value of
alignment.
If this option is not present, it defaults to Top.
RowExpand true|false;
If this option is set to true, the row containing this display element
will be allocated a share of any extra vertical space that is available.
If this option is not present, it defaults to false.
RowShrink true|false;
If this option is set to true on each element in a row and there is not
enough vertical space, the row will be shrunk as necessary to fit the
available space. Note that a row may be shrunk even if RowShrink is false;
it simply indicates that aptitude should try shrinking a particular row
before shrinking other rows.
If this option is not present, it defaults to false.
Visible true|false;
If set to false, this display element will initially be hidden. Presumably
only useful in conjunction with PopUpDownKey and/or PopUpDownLinked.
If this option is not present, it defaults to true.
Width width;
Specifies the width of the current display element.
Configuration file reference
Configuration file format
In its basic form, aptitude's configuration file is a list of options and
their values. Each line of the file should have the form “Option Value;”:
for instance, the following line in the configuration file sets the option
Aptitude::Theme to “Dselect”.
Aptitude::Theme "Dselect";
An option can “contain” other options if they are written in curly braces
between the option and the semicolon following it, like this:
Aptitude::UI {
Package-Status-Format "";
Package-Display-Format "";
};
An option that contains other options is sometimes called a group. In
fact, the double colons that appear in option names are actually a
shorthand way of indicating containment: the option
Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping is contained in the group Aptitude::UI,
which itself is contained in the group Aptitude. Thus, if you wanted to,
you could set this option to "" as follows:
Aptitude {
UI {
Default-Grouping "";
};
};
For more information on the format of the configuration file, see the
manual page apt.conf(5).
Locations of configuration files
aptitude's configuration is read from the following sources, in order:
1. Configuration file options specified on the command-line.
2. The user's configuration file, ~/.aptitude/config. This file is
overwritten when the user modifies settings in the Options menu.
3. The system configuration file, /etc/apt/apt.conf.
4. The system configuration fragment files, /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/*.
5. The file specified by the APT_CONFIG environment variable (if any).
6. Default values stored in /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults.
7. Default values built into aptitude.
When an option is being checked, these sources are searched in order, and
the first one that provides a value for the option is used. For instance,
setting an option in /etc/apt/apt.conf will override aptitude's defaults
for that option, but will not override user settings in
~/.aptitude/config.
Available configuration options
The following configuration options are used by aptitude. Note that these
are not the only available configuration options; options used by the
underlying apt system are not listed here. See the manual pages apt(8) and
apt.conf(5) for information on apt options.
Option: APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, then aptitude will not consider
packages to be unused (and thus will not automatically remove them) as
long as any installed package recommends them, even if
APT::Install-Recommends is false. For more information, see the section
called “Managing automatically installed packages”.
Option: APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, then aptitude will not consider
packages to be unused (and thus will not automatically remove them) as
long as any installed package suggests them. For more information, see the
section called “Managing automatically installed packages”.
Option: APT::Get::List-Cleanup
Default: true
Description: A synonym for APT::List-Cleanup. If either of these options
is set to false, aptitude will not delete old package list files after
downloading a new set of package lists.
Option: APT::List-Cleanup
Default: true
Description: A synonym for APT::Get::List-Cleanup. If either of these
options is set to false, aptitude will not delete old package list files
after downloading a new set of package lists.
Option: APT::Install-Recommends
Default: true
Description: If this option is true and Aptitude::Auto-Install is true,
then whenever you mark a package for installation, aptitude will also mark
the packages it recommends for installation. Furthermore, if this option
is true, aptitude will not consider packages to be unused (and thus will
not automatically remove them) as long as any installed package reommends
them. For more information, see the section called “Managing automatically
installed packages” and the section called “Immediate dependency
resolution”.
Option: Aptitude::Allow-Null-Upgrade
Default: false
Description: Normally, if you try to start an install run when no actions
will be performed, aptitude will print a warning and return to the package
list. If this option is true, aptitude will continue to the preview screen
whenever there are upgradable packages, rather than displaying a reminder
about the Actions → Mark Upgradable (U) command.
Option: Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude's command-line actions will
always use a “safe” dependency resolver, as if --safe-resolver had been
passed on the command line.
Option: Aptitude::Autoclean-After-Update
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clean up obsolete files
(see Actions → Clean obsolete files) every time you update the package
list. This option is similar to Aptitude::Clean-After-Install.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Fix-Broken
Default: true
Description: If this option is false, aptitude will ask for permission
before attempting to fix any broken packages.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Install
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically attempt
to fulfill the dependencies of a package when you mark a package to be
installed or upgraded.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Install-Remove-Ok
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically remove
conflicting packages when you mark a package to be installed or upgraded.
Normally these conflicts are flagged and you must handle them manually.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Upgrade
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically flag all
upgradable packages for upgrade when the program starts, as if you had
issued the command Actions → Mark Upgradable (U).
Option: Aptitude::Clean-After-Install
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clean up all files in
the package cache directory (see Actions → Clean package cache) after
successful installation of packages (or similar operations). This option
is similar to Aptitude::Autoclean-After-Update.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-Prompt
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this is set, aptitude will always
prompt before starting to install or remove packages, even if the prompt
would normally be skipped. This is equivalent to the -P command-line
option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-Yes
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
act as if the user had answered “yes” to every prompt, causing most
prompts to be skipped. This is equivalent to the -y command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Disable-Columns
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, the results of command-line
searches (performed via aptitude search) will not be formatted into
fixed-width columns or truncated to the screen width. This is equivalent
to the --disable-columns command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-Only
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
download package files but not install them. This is equivalent to the -d
command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
be more aggressive when attempting to fix the dependencies of broken
packages. This is equivalent to the -f command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Group-By
Default: Set to auto, none, package, or source-package to control whether
and how the output of aptitude versions is grouped. Equivalent to the
command-line option --group-by (see its documentation for more description
of what the values mean).
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Ignore-Trust-Violations
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, causes aptitude to ignore the
installation of untrusted packages. This is a synonym for
APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p# - %d#
Description: This is a format string, as described in the section called
“Customizing how packages are displayed”, which is used to display the
results of a command-line search. This is equivalent to the -F
command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Width
Default:
Description: This option gives the width in characters for which
command-line search results should be formatted. If it is empty (the
default; ie, ""), search results will be formatted for the current
terminal size, or for an 80-column display if the terminal size cannot be
determined.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Progress::Percent-On-Right
Default: false
Description: This option controls whether command-line progress indicators
display the percentage on the left-hand side of the screen, in the same
style as apt-get, or on the right-hand side (the default). This option
does not affect download progress indicators.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Progress::Retain-Completed
Default: false
Description: If this value is false, then command-line progress indicators
will be deleted and overwritten once the task they represent is completed.
If it is true, then they will be left on the terminal. This option does
not affect download progress indicators.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Request-Strictness
Default: 10000
Description: When run in command-line mode, if dependency problems are
encountered, aptitude will add this value to the problem resolver score of
each action that you explicitly request.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Debug
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
print extremely verbose information while attempting to resolve broken
dependencies. As the name suggests, this option is primarily meant to aid
in debugging the problem resolver.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Dump
Default:
Description: In command-line mode, if it is necessary to resolve broken
dependencies and this option is set to the name of a writable file, the
resolver state will be dumped to this file before any calculations are
undertaken.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Show-Steps
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, then a dependency solution will be
displayed as a sequence of resolutions of individual dependencies; for
instance, “wesnoth depends upon wesnoth-data (= 1.2.4-1) -> installing
wesnoth-data 1.2.4-1 (unstable)”. To toggle between the two display modes,
press o at the prompt “Accept this solution?”.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
display a brief summary of the dependencies (if any) relating to a
package's state. This is equivalent to the -D command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-Changes
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
display the expected change in the amount of space used by each package.
This is equivalent to the -Z command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Summary
Default: no-summary
Description: This option sets the default value of the command-line
argument --show-summary. See the documentation of --show-summary for a
list of the allowed values of this option and their meanings.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Versions
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
display the version of a package that is being installed or removed. This
is equivalent to the -V command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Why
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
display the manually installed packages that require each automatically
installed package, or the manually installed packages that cause a
conflict with each automatically removed package. This is equivalent to
the -W command-line option and displays the same information you can
access via aptitude why or by pressing i in a package list.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Version-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p# %t %i
Description: This is a format string, as described in the section called
“Customizing how packages are displayed”, which is used to display the
output of aptitude versions. This is equivalent to the -F command-line
option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Show-Package-Names
Default: Set to always, auto, or never to control when package names are
displayed in the output of aptitude versions. Equivalent to the
command-line option --show-package-names (see its documentation for more
description of what the values mean).
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::Show-Resolver-Actions
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, then when the “safe” dependency
resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or because the
command-line action is safe-upgrade, it will display a summary of the
actions taken by the resolver before showing the installation preview.
Equivalent to the command-line option --show-resolver-actions.
Option: Aptitude::Screenshot::IncrementalLoadLimit
Default: 16384
Description: The minimum size in bytes at which aptitude will begin to
display screenshots incrementally. Below this size, screenshots will not
appear until they are fully downloaded.
Option: Aptitude::Screenshot::Cache-Max
Default: 4194304
Description: The maximum number of bytes of screenshot data that aptitude
will store in memory for screenshots that are not currently being
displayed. The default is four megabytes.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Simulate
Default: false
Description: This option is deprecated; use Aptitude::Simulate instead. In
command-line mode, causes aptitude to just display the actions that would
be performed (rather than actually performing them); in the visual
interface, causes aptitude to start in read-only mode regardless of
whether you are root or not. This is equivalent to the -s command-line
option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose
Default: 0
Description: This controls how verbose the command-line mode of aptitude
is. Every occurrence of the -v command-line option adds 1 to this value.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Visual-Preview
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will enter its visual
interface to display the preview of an installation run and to download
packages.
Option: Aptitude::Delete-Unused
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, automatically installed packages
which are no longer required will be automatically removed. For more
information, see the section called “Managing automatically installed
packages”.
Option: Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern
Default:
Description: Deprecated alias for Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern. If
Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern is unset or set to an empty string, the
value of this configuration option will override it. Otherwise,
Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern is ignored.
Option: Aptitude::Display-Planned-Action
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a preview
screen before actually carrying out the actions you have requested.
Option: Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Install
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new
packages whenever you install, upgrade, or remove packages, as if you had
issued the command Actions → Forget new packages (f).
Option: Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Update
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new
packages whenever the package list is updated, as if you had issued the
command Actions → Forget new packages (f).
Option: Aptitude::Get-Root-Command
Default: su:/bin/su
Description: This option sets the external command that aptitude will use
to switch to the root user (see the section called “Becoming root”). It
has the form protocol:command. protocol must be either su or sudo; it
determines how aptitude invokes the program when it wants to gain root
privileges. If protocol is su, then “command -c arguments” is used to
become root; otherwise, aptitude uses “command arguments”. The first word
in command is the name of the program that should be invoked; remaining
words are treated as arguments to that program.
Option: Aptitude::Ignore-Old-Tmp
Default: false
Description: Old versions of aptitude created a directory ~/.aptitude/.tmp
which is no longer necessary. If the directory exists and
Aptitude::Ignore-Old-Tmp is true, aptitude will ask you whether to remove
this directory. This option is automatically set to true after you reply.
On the other hand, if the directory does not exist, this option is set to
false so that you will be notified if it reappears.
Option: Aptitude::Ignore-Recommends-Important
Default: false
Description: In previous versions of aptitude, the setting
Aptitude::Recommends-Important caused recommendations to be installed
automatically, the same way that APT::Install-Recommends does today. If
this option is set to false and Aptitude::Recommends-Important is also set
to false, aptitude will set APT::Install-Recommends to false and set
Aptitude::Ignore-Recommends-Important to true on startup.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Recommends
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use
APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant instead. Setting this option to true
has the same effect as setting APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant to
true.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Suggests
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use
APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant instead. Setting this option to true
has the same effect as setting APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant to true.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern
Default:
Description: If Aptitude::Delete-Unused is true, only unused packages
which do not match this pattern (see the section called “Search patterns”)
will be removed. If this option is set to an empty string (the default),
all unused packages will be removed.
Option: Aptitude::LockFile
Default: /var/lock/aptitude
Description: A file that will be fcntl-locked to ensure that at most one
aptitude process can modify the cache at once. In normal circumstances,
you should never need to modify this; it may be useful for debugging.
Note: if aptitude complains that it cannot acquire a lock, this is not
because the lock file needs to be deleted. fcntl locks are managed by the
kernel and will be destroyed when the program holding them terminates;
failure to acquire the lock means that another running program is using
it!
Option: Aptitude::Localize-Log
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, aptitude will use the user's
locale for messages and dates in the log file; otherwise it is written in
the "classic" locale, to avoid having the log file written in different
languages (depending on the locales of the users running the program).
Option: Aptitude::Log
Default: /var/log/aptitude
Description: If this is set to a nonempty string, aptitude will log the
package installations, removals, and upgrades that it performs. If the
value of Aptitude::Log begins with a pipe character (ie, “|”), the
remainder of its value is used as the name of a command into which the log
will be piped: for instance, |mail -s 'Aptitude install run' root will
cause the log to be emailed to root. To log to multiple files or commands,
you may set this option to a list of log targets.
Option: Aptitude::Logging::File
Default:
Description: If this is set to a nonempty string, aptitude will write
logging messages to it; setting it to “-” causes logging messages to be
printed to standard output. This differs from the setting Aptitude::Log:
that file is used to log installations and removals, whereas this file is
used to log program events, errors, and debugging messages (if enabled).
This option is equivalent to the command-line argument --log-file. See
also Aptitude::Logging::Levels.
Option: Aptitude::Logging::Levels
Default: (empty)
Description: This option is a group whose members control which log
messages are written. Each entry is either “level”, to set the global log
level (the log level of the root logger) to the given level, or
“category:level”, where category is the category of messages to modify
(such as aptitude.resolver.hints.match) and level is the lowest log level
of messages in that category that should be displayed. Valid log levels
are “fatal”, “error”, “warn”, “info”, “debug”, and “trace”. The
command-line option --log-level can be used to set or override any log
level.
Option: Aptitude::Parse-Description-Bullets
Default: true
Description: If this option is enabled, aptitude will attempt to
automatically detect bulleted lists in package descriptions. This will
generally improve how descriptions are displayed, but it is not entirely
backwards-compatible; some descriptions might be formatted less
attractively when this option is true than when it is false.
Option: Aptitude::Pkg-Display-Limit
Default:
Description: The default filter applied to the package list; see the
section called “Search patterns” for details about its format.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, the problem resolver will
consider breaking package holds or installing forbidden versions in order
to resolve a dependency. If it is set to false, these actions will be
rejected by default, although you can always enable them manually (see the
section called “Resolving Dependencies Interactively”).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::BreakHoldScore
Default: -300
Description: How much to reward or penalize solutions that change the
state of a held package or install a forbidden version. Note that unless
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds is set to true, the resolver
will never break a hold or install a forbidden version unless it has
explicit permission from the user.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Break-Hold-Level
Default: 50000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that break a hold set by
the user (by upgrading a held package or by installing a forbidden version
of a package). See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of
safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::BrokenScore
Default: -100
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on
the number of dependencies they break. For each dependency broken by a
possible solution, this many points are added to its score; typically this
should be a negative value.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::CancelRemovalScore
Default: -300
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to not
remove or purge a package requested to be removed or purged.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::DefaultResolutionScore
Default: 400
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on
how many “default” resolutions for currently unsatisfied dependencies they
install. The default resolution is the resolution that “apt-get install”
or the “immediate dependency resolver” would pick. The score is only
applied for dependencies and recommendations whose targets are not
currently installed.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Discard-Null-Solution
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will never suggest
cancelling all of your proposed actions in order to resolve a dependency
problem.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::EssentialRemoveScore
Default: -100000
Description: How much to reward or penalize solutions that remove an
Essential package.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Essential-Level
Default: 60000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that remove an Essential
package. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety
costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ExtraScore
Default: 0
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is “extra” will have
this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::FullReplacementScore
Default: 500
Description: Removing a package and installing another package that fully
replaces it (i.e., conflicts with it, replaces it, and provides it) is
assigned this score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::FutureHorizon
Default: 50
Description: How many “steps” the resolver should run after finding the
first solution. Although aptitude attempts to generate better solutions
before worse solutions, sometimes it is unable to do so; this setting
causes the resolver to briefly continue searching for a better solution
before displaying its results, rather than stopping immediately after it
finds the first solution.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Hints
Default: (empty)
Description: This option is a group whose members are used to configure
the problem resolver. Each item in the group is a string describing an
action that should be applied to one or more packages. The syntax for each
hint, and the effect that hints have, may be found in the section called
“Configuring resolver hints”.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ImportantScore
Default: 4
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is “important” will
have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Infinity
Default: 1000000
Description: A “maximum” score for potential solutions. If a set of
actions has a score worse than -Infinity, it will be discarded
immediately.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::InstallScore
Default: -20
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to
installing a package, if the package is not already going to be installed.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Keep-All-Level
Default: 10000
Description: The safety cost assigned to the single solution that cancels
all of the actions selected by the user. See the section called “Safety
costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::KeepScore
Default: 0
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to keeping a
package in its current state, if that package is not already going to be
kept in its current state.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::NonDefaultScore
Default: -40
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to
installing a non-default version of the package (one that is not the
current version and not the “candidate version”).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Non-Default-Level
Default: 50000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that install non-default
versions of a package. For instance, if version 5 of a package is
installed, versions 6, 7, and 8 are available, and version 7 is the
default version, then versions 6 and 8 will be given a safety cost that is
at least this high. See the section called “Safety costs” for a
description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::OptionalScore
Default: 1
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is “optional” will
have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::PreserveAutoScore
Default: 0
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to
preserving automatic installations or removals.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::PreserveManualScore
Default: 20
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to
preserving explicit user selections.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::RemoveObsoleteScore
Default: 310
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to removing
an obsolete package (if it is not already marked for removal). It should
at least counter RemoveScore, because it will still be applied.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::RemoveScore
Default: -300
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to removing
a package (if it is not already marked for removal).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Level
Default: 10000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that remove a package.
See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::RequiredScore
Default: 8
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is “required” will
have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ResolutionScore
Default: 50
Description: In addition to all other scoring factors, proposed solutions
that actually resolve all unsatisfied dependencies are awarded this many
extra points.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Safe-Level
Default: 10000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that install the default
version of a package, upgrade a package to its default version, or cancel
installing or upgrading a package. Solutions assigned this cost could be
generated by aptitude safe-upgrade. See the section called “Safety costs”
for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::SolutionCost
Default: safety,priority
Description: Describes how to determine the cost of a solution. See the
section called “Costs in the interactive dependency resolver” for a
description of what solution costs are, what they do, and the syntax used
to specify them. If the cost cannot be parsed, an error is issued and the
default cost is used instead.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StandardScore
Default: 2
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is “standard” will
have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepLimit
Default: 5000
Description: The maximum number of “steps” which should be performed by
the problem resolver on each attempt to find a solution to a dependency
problem. Decreasing this number will make aptitude “give up” sooner;
increasing it will permit the search for a solution to consume much more
time and memory before it is aborted. Setting StepLimit to 0 will disable
the problem resolver entirely. The default value is large enough to
accomodate commonly encountered situations, while preventing aptitude from
“blowing up” if an overly complicated problem is encountered. (note: this
applies only to command-line searches; in the visual interface, the
resolver will continue working until it reaches a solution)
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepScore
Default: -10
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on
their length. For each action performed by a solution, these many points
are added to its score. The larger this value is, the more the resolver
tends to stick with its first choice rather than considering alternatives;
this will cause it to produce a solution more quickly, but the solution
might be of slightly lower quality than it would otherwise be.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-Directory
Default:
Description: If this value is set, then each time the problem resolver
produces a solution, a stripped-down version of the package state
sufficient to reproduce that solution is written to the given file. If
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-File is also set, the same information
will also be written to the trace file. Trace directories are more
transparent than trace files, and are more suitable for, e.g., including
in source trees as test cases.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-File
Default:
Description: If this value is set, then each time the problem resolver
produces a solution, a stripped-down version of the package state
sufficient to reproduce that solution is written to the given file. If
Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-Directory is also set, the same
information will also be written to the trace directory. A trace file is
simply a compressed archive of a trace directory; it will take less space
than the trace directory and is suitable for transmission over a network.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UndoFullReplacementScore
Default: -500
Description: Installing a package and removing another package that fully
replaces it (i.e., conflicts with it, replaces it, and provides it) is
assigned this score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UnfixedSoftScore
Default: -200
Description: How much to reward or penalize leaving a Recommends
relationship unresolved. This should typically be less than RemoveScore,
or aptitude will tend to remove packages rather than leaving their
Recommendations unfixed. See the section called “Resolving Dependencies
Interactively” for details.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UpgradeScore
Default: 30
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to upgrading
(or downgrading) a package to its candidate version, if the package was
not already going to be upgraded.
Option: Aptitude::Purge-Unused
Default: false
Description: If this option is true and Aptitude::Delete-Unused is also
true, then packages which are unused will be purged from the system,
removing their configuration files and perhaps other important data. For
more information about which packages are considered to be “unused”, see
the section called “Managing automatically installed packages”. THIS
OPTION CAN CAUSE DATA LOSS! DO NOT ENABLE IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE
DOING!
Option: Aptitude::Recommends-Important
Default: true
Description: This is an obsolete configuration option that has been
superseded by APT::Install-Recommends. On startup, aptitude will copy
Aptitude::Recommends-Important (if it exists) to APT::Install-Recommends
and then clear Aptitude::Recommends-Important in your user configuration
file.
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Installs
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, then when the “safe” dependency
resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or by using the
safe-upgrade command-line action, the resolver will not be allowed to
install packages that are not currently installed.
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Upgrades
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, then when the “safe” dependency
resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or by using the
safe-upgrade command-line action, the resolver will not be allowed to
resolve dependencies by upgrading packages.
Option: Aptitude::Sections::Descriptions
Default: See $prefix/share/aptitude/section-descriptions
Description: This option is a group whose members define the descriptions
displayed for each section when using the “section” package hierarchy
grouping policy. Descriptions are assigned to section trees based on the
last component of the name: for instance, a member of this group named
“games” will be used to describe the Sections “games”, “non-free/games”,
and “non-free/desktop/games”. Within the text of section descriptions, the
string “\n” will be replaced by a line-break, and the string “''” will be
replaced by a double-quote character.
Option: Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections
Default: "main"; "contrib"; "non-free"; "non-US";
Description: A configuration group whose elements are the names of the
top-level archive sections. The “topdir”, “subdir”, and “subdirs” grouping
policies use this list to interpret Section fields: if the first path
element of a package's Section is not contained in this list, or if its
Section has only one element, then the package will be grouped using the
first member of this list as its first path element. For example, if the
first member of Top-Sections is “main”, then a package whose Section is
“games/arcade” will be treated as if its Section field were
“main/games/arcade”.
Option: Aptitude::Simulate
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, causes aptitude to just display the
actions that would be performed (rather than actually performing them); in
the visual interface, causes aptitude to start in read-only mode
regardless of whether you are root or not. This is equivalent to the -s
command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::Spin-Interval
Default: 500
Description: The number of milliseconds to delay in between updating the
“spinner” that appears while the problem resolver is running.
Option: Aptitude::Suggests-Important
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use
APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant instead. Setting this option to true
has the same effect as setting APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant to true.
Option: Aptitude::Suppress-Read-Only-Warning
Default: false
Description: If this option is false, aptitude will display a warning the
first time that you attempt to modify package states while aptitude is in
read-only mode.
Option: Aptitude::Theme
Default:
Description: The theme that aptitude should use; see the section called
“Themes” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::Track-Dselect-State
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will attempt to
detect when a change to a package's state has been made using dselect or
dpkg: for instance, if you remove a package using dpkg, aptitude will not
try to reinstall it. Note that this may be somewhat buggy.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Advance-On-Action
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, changing a package's state
(for instance, marking it for installation) will cause aptitude to advance
the highlight to the next package in the current group.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Auto-Show-Reasons
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to true, selecting a package which is
broken or which appears to be causing other packages to be broken will
cause the information area to automatically display some reasons why the
breakage might be occuring.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping
Default:
filter(missing),status,section(subdirs,passthrough),section(topdir)
Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for package lists. See
the section called “Customizing the package hierarchy” for additional
information on grouping policies.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Package-View
Default:
Description: This option is a group whose members define the default
layout of aptitude's display. See the section called “Customizing the
display layout” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Preview-Grouping
Default: action
Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for preview screens.
See the section called “Customizing the package hierarchy” for additional
information on grouping policies.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Sorting
Default: name
Description: The default sorting policy of package views. See the section
called “Customizing how packages are sorted” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Description-Visible-By-Default
Default: true
Description: When a package list is first displayed, the information area
(which typically contains the long description of the current package)
will be visible if this option is true and hidden if it is false.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Exit-On-Last-Close
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, closing all the active views will
quit aptitude; otherwise, aptitude will not exit until you issue the
command Actions → Quit (Q). See the section called “Working with multiple
views” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Fill-Text
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will format descriptions so
that each line is exactly the width of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Flat-View-As-First-View
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a flat view on
startup instead of the default view.
Option: Aptitude::UI::HelpBar
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, a line of information about important
keystrokes will be displayed at the top of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Incremental-Search
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will perform “incremental”
searches: as you type the search pattern, it will search for the next
package matching what you have typed so far.
Option: Aptitude::UI::InfoAreaTabs
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display tabs at the top
of the information area (the pane at the bottom of the screen) describing
the different modes the area can be set to.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Keybindings
Default:
Description: This is a group whose members define the connections between
keystrokes and commands in aptitude. For more information, see the section
called “Customizing keybindings”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Menubar-Autohide
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, the menu bar will be hidden
while it is not in use.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Download-Bar
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will use a less
obtrusive mechanism to display the progress of downloads: a bar at the
bottom of the screen will appear which displays the current download
status. While the download is active, pressing q will abort it.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Prompts
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, some prompts (such as yes/no and
multiple-choice prompts) will be displayed at the bottom of the screen
instead of in dialog boxes.
Option: Aptitude::UI::New-Package-Commands
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to false, commands such as Package →
Install (+) will have the same deprecated behavior that they did in
antique versions of aptitude.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p %Z %v %V
Description: This option controls the format string used to display
packages in package lists. For more information on format strings, see the
section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format
Default: %N %n @ %H #%B %u %o
Description: This option controls the format string used to display the
header line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the
package list and the menu bar). For more information on format strings,
see the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format
Default: %d
Description: This option controls the format string used to display the
status line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the
package list and the information area). For more information on format
strings, see the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Pause-After-Download
Default: OnlyIfError
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a message after
it finishes downloading packages, asking you if you want to continue with
the installation. If it is OnlyIfError, a message will only be displayed
if a download failed. Otherwise, if the option is set to false, aptitude
will immediately proceed to the next screen after completing a download.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Preview-Limit
Default:
Description: The default filter applied to the preview screen; see the
section called “Search patterns” for details about its format.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Prompt-On-Exit
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a confirmation
prompt before shutting down.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Styles
Default:
Description: This is a configuration group whose contents define what
textual styles aptitude uses to display information. For more information,
see the section called “Customizing text colors and styles”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::ViewTabs
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to false, aptitude will not display
“tabs” describing the currently active views at the top of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::Warn-Not-Root
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will detect when you need
root privileges to do something, and ask you whether you want to switch to
the root account if you aren't root already. See the section called
“Becoming root” for more information.
Option: DebTags::Vocabulary
Default: /usr/share/debtags/vocabulary
Description: The location of the debtags vocabulary file; used to load in
the package tag metadata.
Option: Dir::Aptitude::state
Default: /var/lib/aptitude
Description: The directory in which aptitude's persistent state
information is stored.
Option: Quiet
Default: 0
Description: This controls the quietness of the command-line mode. Setting
it to a higher value will disable more progress indicators.
Themes
A theme in aptitude is simply a collection of settings that “go together”.
Themes work by overriding the default values of options: if an option is
not set in the system configuration file or in your personal configuration
file, aptitude will use the setting from the current theme, if one is
available, before using the standard default value.
A theme is simply a named group under Aptitude::Themes; each configuration
option contained in the group will override the corresponding option in
the global configuration. For instance, if the Dselect theme is selected,
the option Aptitude::Themes::Dselect::Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format
will override the default value of the option
Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format.
To select a theme, set the configuration option Aptitude::Theme to the
name of the theme; for instance,
Aptitude::Theme Vertical-Split;
The following themes are shipped with aptitude in
/usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults:
Dselect
This theme makes aptitude look and behave more like the legacy dselect
package manager:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
--\ Installed Packages
--\ Priority required
--\ base - The Debian base system
c base base-file 3.0.16 3.0.16 Debian base system miscellaneous fil
c base base-pass 3.5.7 3.5.7 Debian base system master password a
c base bash 2.05b-15 2.05b-15 The GNU Bourne Again SHell
c base bsdutils 1:2.12-7 1:2.12-7 Basic utilities from 4.4BSD-Lite
c base coreutils 5.0.91-2 5.0.91-2 The GNU core utilities
c base debianuti 2.8.3 2.8.3 Miscellaneous utilities specific to
c base diff 2.8.1-6 2.8.1-6 File comparison utilities
base-files installed ; none required
This package contains the basic filesystem hierarchy of a Debian system, and
several important miscellaneous files, such as /etc/debian_version,
/etc/host.conf, /etc/issue, /etc/motd, /etc/profile, /etc/nsswitch.conf, and
others, and the text of several common licenses in use on Debian systems.
Vertical-Split
This theme rearranges the display: instead of the current package's
description appearing underneath the package list, it is displayed to the
right of the package list. This theme is useful with very wide terminals,
and perhaps also when editing the built-in hierarchy of packages.
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages Modern computers support the Advanced #
--\ admin - Administrative utilities Configuration and Power Interface
--\ main - The main Debian archive (ACPI) to allow intelligent power
i acpid 1.0.3-19 1.0.3-19 management on your system and to query
i alien 8.44 8.44 battery and configuration status.
i anacron 2.3-9 2.3-9
i apt-show-vers 0.07 0.07 ACPID is a completely flexible, totally
i A apt-utils 0.5.25 0.5.25 extensible daemon for delivering ACPI
i apt-watch 0.3.2-2 0.3.2-2 events. It listens on a file
i aptitude 0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2 (/proc/acpi/event) and when an event
i at 3.1.8-11 3.1.8-11 occurs, executes programs to handle the
i auto-apt 0.3.20 0.3.20 event. The programs it executes are
i cron 3.0pl1-83 3.0pl1-83 configured through a set of
i debconf 1.4.29 1.4.29 configuration files, which can be
i debconf-i18n 1.4.29 1.4.29 dropped into place by packages or by
i A debootstrap 0.2.39 0.2.39 the admin.
i A deborphan 1.7.3 1.7.3
i debtags 0.16 0.16 In order to use this package you need a
i A defoma 0.11.8 0.11.8 recent Kernel (=>2.4.7). This can be
i discover 2.0.4-5 2.0.4-5 one including the patches on
Utilities for using ACPI power management
Playing Minesweeper
In case you get tired of installing and removing packages, aptitude
includes a version of the classic game “Minesweeper”. To start it, select
Actions → Play Minesweeper; the initial Minesweeper board will appear:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper 10/10 mines 13 seconds
+--------+
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+--------+
Within the rectangle that appears on the screen are hidden ten mines. Your
goal is to determine, through intuition, logic, and luck, where those
mines are, without setting any of them off! To do this, you must uncover
all the squares that do not contain mines; in doing so, you will learn
important information regarding which squares do contain mines. Beware,
however: uncovering a square that contains a mine will set it off, ending
your game immediately!
To uncover a square (and find out whether a mine is hidden there), select
the square with the arrow keys and press Enter:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper 10/10 mines 387 seconds
+--------+
| 2......|
| 2111...|
| 1...|
| 1111...|
|11...111|
|...113 |
|1122 |
| |
+--------+
As you can see, some of the hidden (blank) parts of the board have been
revealed in this screenshot. The squares containing a . are squares which
are not next to any mines; the numbers in the remaining squares indicate
how many mines they are next to.
If you think you know where a mine is, you can place a “flag” on it. To do
this, select the suspected square and press f. For instance, in the
screenshot below, I decided that the square on the left-hand side of the
board looked suspicious...
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper 9/10 mines 961 seconds
+--------+
| 2......|
| 2111...|
| 1...|
|F1111...|
|11...111|
|...113 |
|1122 |
| |
+--------+
As you can see, an F appeared in the selected square. It is no longer
possible to uncover this square, even accidentally, until the flag is
removed (by pressing f again). Once you have placed flags on all the mines
that are next to a square (for instance, the squares labelled 1 next to
the flag above), you can “sweep” around the square. This is just a
convenient shortcut to uncover all the squares next to it (except those
containing a flag, of course). For instance, sweeping around the 1 above:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper 9/10 mines 2290 seconds
+--------+
| 2......|
| 2111...|
|221 1...|
|F1111...|
|11...111|
|...113 |
|1122 |
| |
+--------+
Luckily (or was it luck?), my guess about the location of that mine was
correct. If I had been wrong, I would have lost immediately:
Actions Undo Package Search Options Views Help
f10: Menu ?: Help q: Quit u: Update g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper Minesweeper Lost in 2388 seconds
+--------+
|^2......|
|^2111...|
|221^1...|
|^1111...|
|11...111|
|...113^ |
|1122* ^ |
| ^ ^ ^|
+--------+
When you lose, the locations of all the mines are revealed: unexploded
mines are indicated by a caret symbol (^), and the one you “stepped on” is
indicated by an asterisk (*).
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
^[7] I am pleased to say that the number of requests of this sort fell off
precipitously following the initial publication of this Guide. It would be
a happy occurrence if there was a connection between the two events.
^[8] This is sometimes referred to as an “install run”, even though you
might be upgrading or removing packages in addition to installing them.
^[9] As noted above, it does not indicate that the packages in the archive
are secure, or even non-malicious; it merely shows that they are genuine.
^[10] More precisely: they will be removed when there is no path via
Depends, PreDepends, or Recommends to them from a manually installed
package. If APT::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant is true, a Suggests
relationship is also enough to keep a package installed.
^[11] Or when immediate resolution is disabled.
^[12] The package with the highest dpkg priority, not the package with the
highest apt pin priority.
^[13] This limit was imposed because more complex cost structures could
make it difficult to optimize the resolver. Future versions of the program
might remove some of the restrictions if they turn out to be unnecessary.
^[14] aptitude will only treat the comma as special if there is a second
argument, so (for instance) “?name(apt,itude)” searches for the string
“apt,itude” in the Name field of packages.
While this behavior is well-defined, it may be surprising; I recommend
using quoted strings for any pattern that contains characters that could
have a special meaning.
^[15] Characters with a special meaning include: “+”, “-”, “.”, “(”, “)”,
“|”, “[”, “]”, “^”, “$”, and “?”. Note that some of these are also
aptitude metacharacters, so if you want to type (for instance) a literal
“|”, it must be double-escaped: “?description(\~|)” will match packages
whose description contains a vertical bar character (“|”).
^[16] The backslash escapes \\, \n, and \t are also available.
^[17] Astute readers will note that this is essentially a way to
explicitly name the variable in the λ-terms corresponding to the term. A
typical term would have the form “λ x . name-equals(x, pattern)”; giving
this an explicit target makes x visible in the search language.
^[18] This is provided largely for symmetry with ?true.
^[19] Currently tagging is not supported; this escape is for future use.
^[20] On some terminals, a “yellow” background will actually come out
brown.
Chapter 3. aptitude frequently asked questions
“What ... is your name?”
“I am Arthur, King of the Britons.”
“What ... is your quest?”
“I seek the Holy Grail!”
“What ... is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?”
“What do you mean? An African or a European swallow?”
“Huh? I ... I don't kn---AAAAAUUUGGGHH!”
-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
3.1. How can I find exactly one package by name?
3.2. How can I find broken packages?
3.3. I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?
3.1. How can I find exactly one package by name?
As mentioned in the section called “Search patterns”, when you search
for a package by name, the text you enter is actually a regular
expression. Thus, the search pattern “^name$” will match only a
package named name.
For instance, you can find apt (but not aptitude or synaptic) by
entering ^apt$; you can find g++ (but not g++-2.95 or g++-3.0) by
entering ^g\+\+$.
3.2. How can I find broken packages?
Use the command Search → Find Broken (b).
3.3. I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?
Normally, you cannot select text in an xterm while a program running
in that terminal (such as aptitude) is using the mouse. However, you
can override this behavior and perform a selection by holding the
Shift key down while you click on the terminal.
Chapter 4. Credits
No-one remembers the singer. The song remains.
-- Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero
This section commemorates some of the people who have contributed to
aptitude over its lifetime.
[Note] Note
This section is presently rather incomplete and will likely be
updated and expanded as time goes on (in particular, there are many
missing translation credits due to the huge number of sources of
translations ^[21]). If you think you should be on this list,
please email <dburrows@debian.org> with an explanation of why you
think so.
Translations and internationalization
Brazilian translation
Andre Luis Lopes, Gustavo Silva
Chinese translation
Carlos Z.F. Liu
Czech translation
Miroslav Kure
Danish translation
Morten Brix Pedersen, Morten Bo Johansen
Dutch translation
Luk Claes
Finnish translation
Jaakko Kangasharju
French translation
Martin Quinson, Jean-Luc Coulon
German translation
Sebastian Schaffert, Erich Schubert, Sebastian Kapfer, Jens Seidel
Italian translation
Danilo Piazzalunga
Japanese translation
Yasuo Eto, Noritada Kobayashi
Lithuanian translation
Darius ?itkevicius
Polish translation
Michal Politowski
Portuguese translation
Nuno Sénica, Miguel Figueiredo
Norwegian translation
Håvard Korsvoll
Spanish translation
Jordi Malloch, Ruben Porras
Swedish translation
Daniel Nylander
Initial i18n patch
Masato Taruishi
i18n triaging and maintainence
Christian Perrier
Documentation
User's Manual
Daniel Burrows
Programming
Program design and implementation
Daniel Burrows
Support for the dpkg Breaks field
Ian Jackson, Michael Vogt
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
^[21] It should be possible to compile a fairly complete list of i18n
contributors based on the ChangeLog, its references to the Debian bug
tracking system, and the revision history of aptitude, but doing so will
require a large investment of time that is not currently available.
Command-line reference
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Table of Contents
aptitude — high-level interface to the package manager
aptitude-create-state-bundle — bundle the current aptitude state
aptitude-run-state-bundle — unpack an aptitude state bundle and invoke
aptitude on it
Name
aptitude — high-level interface to the package manager
Synopsis
aptitude [options...] { autoclean | clean | forget-new | keep-all | update
}
aptitude [options...] { full-upgrade | safe-upgrade } [packages...]
aptitude [options...] { build-dep | build-depends | changelog | download |
forbid-version | hold | install | markauto | purge | reinstall | remove |
show | showsrc | source | unhold | unmarkauto | versions } packages...
aptitude extract-cache-subset output-directory packages...
aptitude [options...] search patterns...
aptitude [options...] { add-user-tag | remove-user-tag } tag packages...
aptitude [options...] { why | why-not } [patterns...] package
aptitude [-S fname] [ --autoclean-on-startup | --clean-on-startup | -i |
-u ]
aptitude help
Description
aptitude is a text-based interface to the Debian GNU/Linux package system.
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.
Command-line actions
The first argument which does not begin with a hyphen (“-”) 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.
The following actions are available:
install
Install one or more packages. The packages should be listed after the
“install” command; if a package name contains a tilde character (“~”) or a
question mark (“?”), it will be treated as a search pattern and every
package matching the pattern will be installed (see the section “Search
Patterns” in the aptitude reference manual).
To select a particular version of the package, append “=version” to the
package name: for instance, “aptitude install apt=0.3.1”. Similarly, to
select a package from a particular archive, append “/archive” to the
package name: for instance, “aptitude install apt/experimental”. You
cannot specify both an archive and a version for a package.
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
“override specifier” to the name of the package. For example, aptitude
remove wesnoth+ will install wesnoth, not remove it. The following
override specifiers are available:
package+
Install package.
If the package was not installed, it is marked as manually installed, and
the dependencies newly installed are marked with the automatic flag. If
the package or the dependencies were already installed, the automatic flag
is preserved. See the section about automatic installations in the
documentation for more information.
package+M
Install package and immediately mark it as automatically installed (note
that if nothing depends on package, this will cause it to be immediately
removed).
package-
Remove package.
package_
Purge package: remove it and all its associated configuration and data
files.
package=
Place package on hold: cancel any active installation, upgrade, or
removal, and prevent this package from being automatically upgraded in the
future.
package:
Keep package at its current version: cancel any installation, removal, or
upgrade. Unlike “hold” (above) this does not prevent automatic upgrades in
the future.
package&M
Mark package as having been automatically installed.
package&m
Mark package as having been manually installed.
package&BD
Install the build-dependencies of a package.
As a special case, “install” with no arguments will act on any
stored/pending actions.
[Note] Note
Once you enter Y at the final confirmation prompt, the “install”
command will modify aptitude's stored information about what
actions to perform. Therefore, if you issue (e.g.) the command
“aptitude install foo bar” on packages previously uninstalled, and
then the installation fails once aptitude has started downloading
and installing packages, you will need to run “aptitude remove foo
bar” to go back to the previous state (and possibly undo
installations or upgrades to other packages that were affected by
the “install” action).
remove, purge, reinstall
These commands are the same as “install”, but apply the named action to
all packages given on the command line for which it is not overridden.
For instance, “aptitude remove '~ndeity'” will remove all packages whose
name contains “deity”.
build-depends, build-dep
Satisfy the build-dependencies of a package. Each package name may be a
source package, in which case the build dependencies of that source
package are installed; otherwise, binary packages are found in the same
way as for the “install” command, and the build-dependencies of the source
packages that build those binary packages are satisfied.
If the command-line parameter --arch-only is present, only
architecture-dependent build dependencies (i.e., not Build-Depends-Indep
or Build-Conflicts-Indep) will be obeyed.
markauto, unmarkauto
Mark packages as automatically installed or manually installed,
respectively. Packages are specified in exactly the same way as for the
“install” command. For instance, “aptitude markauto '~slibs'” will mark
all packages in the “libs” section as having been automatically installed.
For more information on automatically installed packages, see the section
“Managing Automatically Installed Packages” in the aptitude reference
manual.
hold, unhold, keep
Mark packages to be on hold, remove this property, or set to keep in the
current state. Packages are specified in exactly the same way as for the
“install” command. For instance, “aptitude hold '~e^dpkg$'” will mark all
packages coming from the source package “dpkg” to be on hold.
The difference between hold and keep is that hold will cause a package to
be ignored by future safe-upgrade or full-upgrade commands, while keep
merely cancels any scheduled actions on the package. unhold will allow a
package to be upgraded by future safe-upgrade or full-upgrade commands,
without otherwise altering its state.
keep-all
Cancels all scheduled actions on all packages; any packages whose sticky
state indicates an installation, removal, or upgrade will have this sticky
state cleared.
forget-new
Forgets all internal information about what packages are “new” (equivalent
to pressing “f” when in visual mode).
This command accepts package names or patterns as arguments. If the string
contains a tilde character (“~”) or a question mark (“?”), it will be
treated as a search pattern and every package matching the pattern will be
considered (see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference
manual).
forbid-version
Forbid a package from being upgraded to a particular version, while
allowing automatic upgrades to future versions. This is useful for example
to avoid a known broken version of a package, without having to set and
clear manual holds.
By default, aptitude will select the forbidden version to be the one which
the package would normally be upgraded (the candidate version). This may
be overridden by appending “=version” to the package name: for instance,
“aptitude forbid-version vim=1.2.3.broken-4”.
To revert the action, “aptitude install package” will remove the ban. To
remove the forbidden version without installing the candidate version, the
current version should be appended: “install package=version”.
update
Updates the list of available packages from the apt sources (this is
equivalent to “apt-get update”)
safe-upgrade
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version. Installed
packages will not be removed unless they are unused (see the section
“Managing Automatically Installed Packages” in the aptitude reference
manual). Packages which are not currently installed may be installed to
resolve dependencies unless the --no-new-installs command-line option is
supplied.
If no packages are listed on the command line, aptitude will attempt to
upgrade every package that can be upgraded. Otherwise, aptitude will
attempt to upgrade only the packages which it is instructed to upgrade.
The packages can be extended with suffixes in the same manner as arguments
to aptitude install, so you can also give additional instructions to
aptitude here; for instance, aptitude safe-upgrade bash dash- will attempt
to upgrade the bash package and remove the dash package.
It is sometimes necessary to remove one package in order to upgrade
another; this command is not able to upgrade packages in such situations.
Use the full-upgrade command to upgrade as many packages as possible.
full-upgrade
Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version, removing or
installing packages as necessary. It also installs new Essential or
Required packages. This command is less conservative than safe-upgrade and
thus more likely to perform unwanted actions. However, it is capable of
upgrading packages that safe-upgrade cannot upgrade.
If no packages are listed on the command line, aptitude will attempt to
upgrade every package that can be upgraded. Otherwise, aptitude will
attempt to upgrade only the packages which it is instructed to upgrade.
The packages can be extended with suffixes in the same manner as arguments
to aptitude install, so you can also give additional instructions to
aptitude here; for instance, aptitude full-upgrade bash dash- will attempt
to upgrade the bash package and remove the dash package.
[Note] Note
This command was originally named dist-upgrade for historical
reasons, and aptitude still recognizes dist-upgrade as a synonym
for full-upgrade.
search
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, “aptitude search '~N' edit” will list all “new”
packages and all packages whose name contains “edit”. For more information
on search patterns, see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude
reference manual.
[Note] Note
In the example above, “aptitude search '~N' edit” has two arguments
after search and thus is searching for two patterns: “~N” and
“edit”. As described in the search pattern reference, a single
pattern composed of two sub-patterns separated by a space (such as
“~N edit”) matches only if both patterns match. Thus, the command
“aptitude search '~N edit'” will only show “new” packages whose
name contains “edit”.
Unless you pass the -F option, the output of aptitude search will look
something like this:
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
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 p, meaning that no trace of the package exists on the system,
c, meaning that the package was deleted but its configuration files remain
on the system, i, meaning that the package is installed, and v, 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 i, meaning that the
package will be installed, d, meaning that the package will be deleted,
and p, meaning that the package and its configuration files will be
removed. If the third character is A, the package was automatically
installed.
For a complete list of the possible state and action flags, see the
section “Accessing Package Information” in the aptitude reference guide.
To customize the output of search, see the command-line options -F and
--sort.
show
Displays detailed information about one or more packages. If a package
name contains a tilde character (“~”) or a question mark (“?”), it will be
treated as a search pattern and all matching packages will be displayed
(see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference manual).
If the verbosity level is 1 or greater (i.e., at least one -v is present
on the command-line), information about all versions of the package is
displayed. Otherwise, information about the “candidate version” (the
version that “aptitude install” would download) is displayed.
You can display information about a different version of the package by
appending =version to the package name; you can display the version from a
particular archive or release by appending /archive or /release to the
package name: for instance, /unstable or /sid. If either of these is
present, then only the version you request will be displayed, regardless
of the verbosity level.
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.
showsrc
Displays detailed information about one or more source packages.
This is a thin wrapper over apt(8).
source
Downloads one or more source packages.
This is a thin wrapper over apt(8).
versions
Displays the versions of the packages listed on the command-line.
$ aptitude versions wesnoth
p 1:1.4.5-1 100
p 1:1.6.5-1 unstable 500
p 1:1.7.14-1 experimental 1
Each version is listed on a separate line. The leftmost three characters
indicate the current state, planned state (if any), and whether the
package was automatically installed; for more information on their
meanings, see the documentation of aptitude search. To the right of the
version number you can find the releases from which the version is
available, and the pin priority of the version.
If a package name contains a tilde character (“~”) or a question mark
(“?”), it will be treated as a search pattern and all matching versions
will be displayed (see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude
reference manual). This means that, for instance, aptitude versions '~i'
will display all the versions that are currently installed on the system
and nothing else, not even other versions of the same packages.
$ aptitude versions '~nexim4-daemon-light'
Package exim4-daemon-light:
i 4.71-3 100
p 4.71-4 unstable 500
Package exim4-daemon-light-dbg:
p 4.71-4 unstable 500
If the input is a search pattern, or if more than one package's versions
are to be displayed, aptitude will automatically group the output by
package, as shown above. You can disable this via --group-by=none, in
which case aptitude will display a single list of all the versions that
were found and automatically include the package name in each output line:
$ aptitude versions --group-by=none '~nexim4-daemon-light'
i exim4-daemon-light 4.71-3 100
p exim4-daemon-light 4.71-4 unstable 500
p exim4-daemon-light-dbg 4.71-4 unstable 500
To disable the package name, pass --show-package-names=never:
$ aptitude versions --show-package-names=never --group-by=none '~nexim4-daemon-light'
i 4.71-3 100
p 4.71-4 unstable 500
p 4.71-4 unstable 500
In addition to the above options, the information printed for each version
can be controlled by the command-line option -F. The order in which
versions are displayed can be controlled by the command-line option
--sort. To prevent aptitude from formatting the output into columns, use
--disable-columns.
add-user-tag, remove-user-tag
Adds a user tag to or removes a user tag from the selected group of
packages. If a package name contains a tilde (“~”) or question mark (“?”),
it is treated as a search pattern and the tag is added to or removed from
all the packages that match the pattern (see the section “Search Patterns”
in the aptitude reference manual).
User tags are arbitrary strings associated with a package. They can be
used with the ?user-tag(tag) search term, which will select all the
packages that have a user tag matching tag.
why, why-not
Explains the reason that a particular package should or cannot be
installed on the system.
This command searches for packages that require or conflict with the given
package. It displays a sequence of dependencies leading to the target
package, along with a note indicating the installed state of each package
in the dependency chain:
$ aptitude why kdepim
i nautilus-data Recommends nautilus
i A nautilus Recommends desktop-base (>= 0.2)
i A desktop-base Suggests gnome | kde | xfce4 | wmaker
p kde Depends kdepim (>= 4:3.4.3)
The command why finds a dependency chain that installs the package named
on the command line, as above. Note that the dependency that aptitude
produced in this case is only a suggestion. This is because no package
currently installed on this computer depends on or recommends the kdepim
package; if a stronger dependency were available, aptitude would have
displayed it.
In contrast, why-not finds a dependency chain leading to a conflict with
the target package:
$ aptitude why-not textopo
i ocaml-core Depends ocamlweb
i A ocamlweb Depends tetex-extra | texlive-latex-extra
i A texlive-latex-extra Conflicts textopo
If one or more patterns are present (in addition to the mandatory last
argument, which should be a valid package name), then aptitude will begin
its search at these patterns. That is, the first package in the chain it
prints to explain why package is or is not installed, will be a package
matching the pattern in question. The patterns are considered to be
package names unless they contain a tilde character (“~”) or a question
mark (“?”), in which case they are treated as search patterns (see the
section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference manual).
If no patterns are present, then aptitude will search for dependency
chains beginning at manually installed packages. This effectively shows
the packages that have caused or would cause a given package to be
installed.
[Note] Note
aptitude why 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, “aptitude why-not
D” will not produce the answer “A depends on B, B conflicts with C,
and D depends on C”.
By default aptitude outputs only the “most installed, strongest, tightest,
shortest” 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 all the explanations aptitude
can find will be displayed, in inverse order of relevance. If the
verbosity level is 2 or more, a truly excessive amount of debugging
information will be printed to standard output.
This command returns 0 if successful, 1 if no explanation could be
constructed, and -1 if an error occurred.
clean
Removes all previously downloaded .deb files from the package cache
directory (usually /var/cache/apt/archives).
autoclean
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.
changelog
Downloads and displays the Debian changelog for each of the given source
or binary packages.
By default, the changelog for the version which would be installed with
“aptitude install” is downloaded. You can select a particular version of a
package by appending =version to the package name; you can select the
version from a particular archive or release by appending /archive or
/release to the package name (for instance, /unstable or /sid).
download
Downloads the .deb file for the given package to the current directory.
This is a thin wrapper over apt(8).
extract-cache-subset
Copy the apt configuration directory (/etc/apt) and a subset of the
package database to the specified directory. If no packages are listed,
the entire package database is copied; otherwise only the entries
corresponding to the named packages are copied. Each package name may be a
search pattern, and all the packages matching that pattern will be
selected (see the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference
manual). Any existing package database files in the output directory will
be overwritten.
Dependencies in binary package stanzas will be rewritten to remove
references to packages not in the selected set.
help
Displays a brief summary of the available commands and options.
Options
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.
--add-user-tag tag
For full-upgrade, safe-upgrade, forbid-version, hold, install, keep-all,
markauto, unmarkauto, purge, reinstall, remove, unhold, and unmarkauto:
add the user tag tag to all packages that are installed, removed, or
upgraded by this command as if with the add-user-tag command.
--add-user-tag-to tag,pattern
For full-upgrade, safe-upgrade, forbid-version, hold, install, keep-all,
markauto, unmarkauto, purge, reinstall, remove, unhold, and unmarkauto:
add the user tag tag to all packages that match pattern as if with the
add-user-tag command. The pattern is a search pattern as described in the
section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference manual.
For instance, aptitude safe-upgrade --add-user-tag-to
"new-installs,?action(install)" will add the tag new-installs to all the
packages installed by the safe-upgrade command.
--allow-new-upgrades
When the safe resolver is being used (i.e., --safe-resolver was passed,
the action is safe-upgrade, or Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver is set
to true), allow the dependency resolver to install upgrades for packages
regardless of the value of Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Upgrades.
--allow-new-installs
Allow the safe-upgrade command to install new packages; when the safe
resolver is being used (i.e., --safe-resolver was passed, the action is
safe-upgrade, or Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver is set to true), allow
the dependency resolver to install new packages. This option takes effect
regardless of the value of Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Installs.
--allow-untrusted
Install packages from untrusted sources without prompting. You should only
use this if you know what you are doing, as it could easily compromise
your system's security.
--disable-columns
This option causes aptitude search and aptitude versions to output their
results without any special formatting. In particular: normally aptitude
will add whitespace or truncate search results in an attempt to fit its
results into vertical “columns”. With this flag, each line will be formed
by replacing any format escapes in the format string with the
corresponding text; column widths will be ignored.
For instance, the first few lines of output from “aptitude search -F '%p
%V' --disable-columns libedataserver” might be:
disksearch 1.2.1-3
hp-search-mac 0.1.3
libbsearch-ruby 1.5-5
libbsearch-ruby1.8 1.5-5
libclass-dbi-abstractsearch-perl 0.07-2
libdbix-fulltextsearch-perl 0.73-10
As in the above example, --disable-columns is often useful in combination
with a custom display format set using the command-line option -F.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Disable-Columns.
-D, --show-deps
For commands that will install or remove packages (install, full-upgrade,
etc), show brief explanations of automatic installations and removals.
This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps.
-d, --download-only
Download packages to the package cache as necessary, but do not install or
remove anything. By default, the package cache is stored in
/var/cache/apt/archives.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-Only.
-F format, --display-format format
Specify the format which should be used to display output from the search
and versions commands. For instance, passing “%p %v %V” for format will
display a package's name, followed by its currently installed version and
its candidate version (see the section “Customizing how packages are
displayed” in the aptitude reference manual for more information).
The command-line option --disable-columns is often useful in combination
with -F.
For search, this corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Format; for versions, this corresponds
to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Version-Display-Format.
-f
Try hard to fix the dependencies of broken packages, even if it means
ignoring the actions requested on the command line.
This corresponds to the configuration item Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken.
--full-resolver
When package dependency problems are encountered, use the default “full”
resolver to solve them. Unlike the “safe” resolver activated by
--safe-resolver, the full resolver will happily remove packages to fulfill
dependencies. It can resolve more situations than the safe algorithm, but
its solutions are more likely to be undesirable.
This option can be used to force the use of the full resolver even when
Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver is true.
--group-by grouping-mode
Control how the versions command groups its output. The following values
are recognized:
• archive to group packages by the archive they occur in (“stable”,
“unstable”, etc). If a package occurs in several archives, it will be
displayed in each of them.
• auto to group versions by their package unless there is exactly one
argument and it is not a search pattern.
• none to display all the versions in a single list without any
grouping.
• package to group versions by their package.
• source-package to group versions by their source package.
• source-version to group versions by their source package and source
version.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Group-By.
-h, --help
Display a brief help message. Identical to the help action.
--log-file=file
If file is a nonempty string, log messages will be written to it, except
that if file is “-”, the messages will be written to standard output
instead. If this option appears multiple times, the last occurrence is the
one that will take effect.
This does not affect the log of installations that aptitude has performed
(/var/log/aptitude); the log messages written using this configuration
include internal program events, errors, and debugging messages. See the
command-line option --log-level to get more control over what gets logged.
This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::Logging::File.
--log-level=level, --log-level=category:level
--log-level=level causes aptitude to only log messages whose level is
level or higher. For instance, setting the log level to error will cause
only messages at the log levels error and fatal to be displayed; all
others will be hidden. Valid log levels (in descending order) are off,
fatal, error, warn, info, debug, and trace. The default log level is warn.
--log-level=category:level causes messages in category to only be logged
if their level is level or higher.
--log-level may appear multiple times on the command line; the most
specific setting is the one that takes effect, so if you pass
--log-level=aptitude.resolver:fatal and
--log-level=aptitude.resolver.hints.match:trace, then messages in
aptitude.resolver.hints.parse will only be printed if their level is
fatal, but all messages in aptitude.resolver.hints.match will be printed.
If you set the level of the same category two or more times, the last
setting is the one that will take effect.
This does not affect the log of installations that aptitude has performed
(/var/log/aptitude); the log messages written using this configuration
include internal program events, errors, and debugging messages. See the
command-line option --log-file to change where log messages go.
This corresponds to the configuration group Aptitude::Logging::Levels.
--log-resolver
Set some standard log levels related to the resolver, to produce logging
output suitable for processing with automated tools. This is equivalent to
the command-line options --log-level=aptitude.resolver.search:trace
--log-level=aptitude.resolver.search.tiers:info.
--no-new-installs
Prevent safe-upgrade from installing any new packages; when the safe
resolver is being used (i.e., --safe-resolver was passed or
Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver is set to true), forbid the dependency
resolver from installing new packages. This option takes effect regardless
of the value of Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Installs.
This mimics the historical behavior of apt-get upgrade.
--no-new-upgrades
When the safe resolver is being used (i.e., --safe-resolver was passed or
Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver is set to true), forbid the dependency
resolver from installing upgrades for packages regardless of the value of
Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Upgrades.
--no-show-resolver-actions
Do not display the actions performed by the “safe” resolver, overriding
any configuration option or earlier --show-resolver-actions.
-O order, --sort order
Specify the order in which output from the search and versions commands
should be displayed. For instance, passing “installsize” for order will
list packages in order according to their size when installed (see the
section “Customizing how packages are sorted” in the aptitude reference
manual for more information).
Prepending the order keyword with a tilde character (~) reverses the order
from ascending to descending.
The default sort order is name,version.
-o key=value
Set a configuration file option directly; for instance, use -o
Aptitude::Log=/tmp/my-log to log aptitude's actions to /tmp/my-log. For
more information on configuration file options, see the section
“Configuration file reference” in the aptitude reference manual.
-P, --prompt
Always display a prompt before downloading, installing or removing
packages, even when no actions other than those explicitly requested will
be performed.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-Prompt.
--purge-unused
If Aptitude::Delete-Unused is set to “true” (its default), then in
addition to removing each package that is no longer required by any
installed package, aptitude will also purge them, removing their
configuration files and perhaps other important data. For more information
about which packages are considered to be “unused”, see the section
“Managing Automatically Installed Packages” in the aptitude reference
manual. THIS OPTION CAN CAUSE DATA LOSS! DO NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU KNOW
WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::Purge-Unused.
-q[=n], --quiet[=n]
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 -y when -q is supplied more
than once.
The optional =n may be used to directly set the amount of quietness (for
instance, to override a setting in /etc/apt/apt.conf); it causes the
program to behave as if -q had been passed exactly n times.
-R, --without-recommends
Do not treat recommendations as dependencies when installing new packages
(this overrides settings in /etc/apt/apt.conf and ~/.aptitude/config).
Packages previously installed due to recommendations will not be removed.
This corresponds to the pair of configuration options
APT::Install-Recommends and APT::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant.
-r, --with-recommends
Treat recommendations as dependencies when installing new packages (this
overrides settings in /etc/apt/apt.conf and ~/.aptitude/config).
This corresponds to the configuration option APT::Install-Recommends
--remove-user-tag tag
For full-upgrade, safe-upgrade forbid-version, hold, install, keep-all,
markauto, unmarkauto, purge, reinstall, remove, unhold, and unmarkauto:
remove the user tag tag from all packages that are installed, removed, or
upgraded by this command as if with the add-user-tag command.
--remove-user-tag-from tag,pattern
For full-upgrade, safe-upgrade forbid-version, hold, install, keep-all,
markauto, unmarkauto, purge, reinstall, remove, unhold, and unmarkauto:
remove the user tag tag from all packages that match pattern as if with
the remove-user-tag command. The pattern is a search pattern as described
in the section “Search Patterns” in the aptitude reference manual.
For instance, aptitude safe-upgrade --remove-user-tag-from
"not-upgraded,?action(upgrade)" will remove the not-upgraded tag from all
packages that the safe-upgrade command is able to upgrade.
-s, --simulate
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.
This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::Simulate.
--safe-resolver
When package dependency problems are encountered, use a “safe” algorithm
to solve them. This resolver attempts to preserve as many of your choices
as possible; it will never remove a package or install a version of a
package other than the package's default candidate version. It is the same
algorithm used in safe-upgrade; indeed, aptitude --safe-resolver
full-upgrade is equivalent to aptitude safe-upgrade. Because safe-upgrade
always uses the safe resolver, it does not accept the --safe-resolver
flag.
This option is equivalent to setting the configuration variable
Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver to true.
--schedule-only
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 aptitude install with no arguments. This is equivalent
to making the corresponding selections in visual mode, then exiting the
program normally.
For instance, aptitude --schedule-only install evolution will schedule the
evolution package for later installation.
--show-package-names when
Controls when the versions command shows package names. The following
settings are allowed:
• always: display package names every time that aptitude versions runs.
• auto: display package names when aptitude versions runs if the output
is not grouped by package, and either there is a pattern-matching
argument or there is more than one argument.
• never: never display package names in the output of aptitude versions.
This option corresponds to the configuration item
Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Show-Package-Names.
--show-resolver-actions
Display the actions performed by the “safe” resolver and by safe-upgrade.
When executing the command safe-upgrade or when the option --safe-resolver
is present, aptitude will display a summary of the actions performed by
the resolver before printing the installation preview. This is equivalent
to the configuration option
Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::Show-Resolver-Actions.
--show-summary[=MODE]
Changes the behavior of “aptitude why” to summarize each dependency chain
that it outputs, rather than displaying it in long form. If this option is
present and MODE is not “no-summary”, chains that contain Suggests
dependencies will not be displayed: combine --show-summary with -v to see
a summary of all the reasons for the target package to be installed.
MODE can be any one of the following:
1. no-summary: don't show a summary (the default behavior if
--show-summary is not present).
2. first-package: display the first package in each chain. This is the
default value of MODE if it is not present.
3. first-package-and-type: display the first package in each chain, along
with the strength of the weakest dependency in the chain.
4. all-packages: briefly display each chain of dependencies leading to
the target package.
5. all-packages-with-dep-versions: briefly display each chain of
dependencies leading to the target package, including the target
version of each dependency.
This option corresponds to the configuration item
Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Summary; if --show-summary is present on the
command-line, it will override Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Summary.
Example 12. Usage of --show-summary
--show-summary used with -v to display all the reasons a package is
installed:
$ aptitude -v --show-summary why foomatic-db
Packages requiring foomatic-db:
cupsys-driver-gutenprint
foomatic-db-engine
foomatic-db-gutenprint
foomatic-db-hpijs
foomatic-filters-ppds
foomatic-gui
kde
printconf
wine
$ aptitude -v --show-summary=first-package-and-type why foomatic-db
Packages requiring foomatic-db:
[Depends] cupsys-driver-gutenprint
[Depends] foomatic-db-engine
[Depends] foomatic-db-gutenprint
[Depends] foomatic-db-hpijs
[Depends] foomatic-filters-ppds
[Depends] foomatic-gui
[Depends] kde
[Depends] printconf
[Depends] wine
$ aptitude -v --show-summary=all-packages why foomatic-db
Packages requiring foomatic-db:
cupsys-driver-gutenprint D: cups-driver-gutenprint D: cups R: foomatic-filters R: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
foomatic-filters-ppds D: foomatic-filters R: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
kde D: kdeadmin R: system-config-printer-kde D: system-config-printer R: hal-cups-utils D: cups R: foomatic-filters R: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
wine D: libwine-print D: cups-bsd R: cups R: foomatic-filters R: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
foomatic-db-gutenprint D: foomatic-db
foomatic-db-hpijs D: foomatic-db
foomatic-gui D: python-foomatic D: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
printconf D: foomatic-db
$ aptitude -v --show-summary=all-packages-with-dep-versions why foomatic-db
Packages requiring foomatic-db:
cupsys-driver-gutenprint D: cups-driver-gutenprint (>= 5.0.2-4) D: cups (>= 1.3.0) R: foomatic-filters (>= 4.0) R: foomatic-db-engine (>= 4.0) D: foomatic-db (>= 20090301)
foomatic-filters-ppds D: foomatic-filters R: foomatic-db-engine (>= 4.0) D: foomatic-db (>= 20090301)
kde D: kdeadmin (>= 4:3.5.5) R: system-config-printer-kde (>= 4:4.2.2-1) D: system-config-printer (>= 1.0.0) R: hal-cups-utils D: cups R: foomatic-filters (>= 4.0) R: foomatic-db-engine (>= 4.0) D: foomatic-db (>= 20090301)
wine D: libwine-print (= 1.1.15-1) D: cups-bsd R: cups R: foomatic-filters (>= 4.0) R: foomatic-db-engine (>= 4.0) D: foomatic-db (>= 20090301)
foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db
foomatic-db-gutenprint D: foomatic-db
foomatic-db-hpijs D: foomatic-db
foomatic-gui D: python-foomatic (>= 0.7.9.2) D: foomatic-db-engine D: foomatic-db (>= 20090301)
printconf D: foomatic-db
--show-summary used to list a chain on one line:
$ aptitude --show-summary=all-packages why aptitude-gtk libglib2.0-data
Packages requiring libglib2.0-data:
aptitude-gtk D: libglib2.0-0 R: libglib2.0-data
-t release, --target-release release
Set the release from which packages should be installed. For instance,
“aptitude -t experimental ...” will install packages from the experimental
distribution unless you specify otherwise.
This will affect the default candidate version of packages according to
the rules described in apt_preferences(5).
This corresponds to the configuration item APT::Default-Release.
-V, --show-versions
Show which versions of packages will be installed.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Versions.
-v, --verbose
Causes some commands (for instance, show) to display extra information.
This may be supplied multiple times to get more and more information.
This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose.
--version
Display the version of aptitude and some information about how it was
compiled.
--visual-preview
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.
-W, --show-why
In the preview displayed before packages are installed or removed, show
which manually installed package requires each automatically installed
package. For instance:
$ aptitude --show-why install mediawiki
...
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libapache2-mod-php5{a} (for mediawiki) mediawiki php5{a} (for mediawiki)
php5-cli{a} (for mediawiki) php5-common{a} (for mediawiki)
php5-mysql{a} (for mediawiki)
When combined with -v or a non-zero value for Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose,
this displays the entire chain of dependencies that lead each package to
be installed. For instance:
$ aptitude -v --show-why install libdb4.2-dev
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libdb4.2{a} (libdb4.2-dev D: libdb4.2) libdb4.2-dev
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libdb4.4-dev{a} (libdb4.2-dev C: libdb-dev P<- libdb-dev)
This option will also describe why packages are being removed, as shown
above. In this example, libdb4.2-dev conflicts with libdb-dev, which is
provided by libdb-dev.
This argument corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Why and displays the same information that is
computed by aptitude why and aptitude why-not.
-w width, --width width
Specify the display width which should be used for output from the search
and versions commands (in the command line).
By default and when the output is seen directly in a terminal, the
terminal width is used. When the output is redirected or piped, a very
large "unlimited" line width is used, and this option is ignored.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Width
-y, --assume-yes
When a yes/no prompt would be presented, assume that the user entered
“yes”. In particular, suppresses the prompt that appears when installing,
upgrading, or removing packages. Prompts for “dangerous” actions, such as
removing essential packages, will still be displayed. This option
overrides -P.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-Yes.
-Z
Show how much disk space will be used or freed by the individual packages
being installed, upgraded, or removed.
This corresponds to the configuration option
Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-Changes.
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.
--autoclean-on-startup
Deletes old downloaded files when the program starts (equivalent to
starting the program and immediately selecting Actions → Clean obsolete
files). You cannot use this option and “--clean-on-startup”, “-i”, or “-u”
at the same time.
--clean-on-startup
Cleans the package cache when the program starts (equivalent to starting
the program and immediately selecting Actions → Clean package cache). You
cannot use this option and “--autoclean-on-startup”, “-i”, or “-u” at the
same time.
-i
Displays a download preview when the program starts (equivalent to
starting the program and immediately pressing “g”). You cannot use this
option and “--autoclean-on-startup”, “--clean-on-startup”, or “-u” at the
same time.
-S fname
Loads the extended state information from fname instead of the standard
state file.
-u
Begins updating the package lists as soon as the program starts. You
cannot use this option and “--autoclean-on-startup”, “--clean-on-startup”,
or “-i” at the same time.
Environment
HOME
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 getpwuid(2) and place its configuration file there.
PAGER
If this environment variable is set, aptitude will use it to display
changelogs when “aptitude changelog” is invoked. If not set, it defaults
to more.
TMP
If TMPDIR is unset, aptitude will store its temporary files in TMP if that
variable is set. Otherwise, it will store them in /tmp.
TMPDIR
aptitude will store its temporary files in the directory indicated by this
environment variable. If TMPDIR is not set, then TMP will be used; if TMP
is also unset, then aptitude will use /tmp.
Files
/var/lib/aptitude/pkgstates
The file in which stored package states and some package flags are stored.
/etc/apt/apt.conf, /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/*, ~/.aptitude/config
The configuration files for aptitude. ~/.aptitude/config overrides
/etc/apt/apt.conf. See apt.conf(5) for documentation of the format and
contents of these files.
See also
apt-get(8), apt(8), /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/lang/index.html from the
package aptitude-doc-lang
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Name
aptitude-create-state-bundle — bundle the current aptitude state
Synopsis
aptitude-create-state-bundle [options...] output-file
Description
[Note] Note
This command is mostly for internal use and bug reporting in
exceptional cases, it is not intended for end-users under normal
circumstances.
aptitude-create-state-bundle produces a compressed archive storing the
files that are required to replicate the current package archive state.
The following files and directories are included in the bundle:
• $HOME/.aptitude
• /var/lib/aptitude
• /var/lib/apt
• /var/cache/apt/*.bin
• /etc/apt
• /var/lib/dpkg/status
The output of this program can be used as an argument to
aptitude-run-state-bundle(1).
Options
--force-bzip2
Override the autodetection of which compression algorithm to use. By
default, aptitude-create-state-bundle uses bzip2(1) if it is available,
and gzip(1) otherwise. Passing this option forces the use of bzip2 even if
it doesn't appear to be available.
--force-gzip
Override the autodetection of which compression algorithm to use. By
default, aptitude-create-state-bundle uses bzip2(1) if it is available,
and gzip(1) otherwise. Passing this option forces the use of gzip even if
bzip2 is available.
--help
Print a brief usage message, then exit.
--print-inputs
Instead of creating a bundle, display a list of the files and directories
that the program would include if it generated a bundle.
File format
The bundle file is simply a tar(1) file compressed with bzip2(1) or
gzip(1), with each of the input directory trees rooted at “.”.
See also
aptitude-run-state-bundle(1), aptitude(8), apt(8)
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Name
aptitude-run-state-bundle — unpack an aptitude state bundle and invoke
aptitude on it
Synopsis
aptitude-run-state-bundle [options...] input-file [ program
[arguments...]]
Description
[Note] Note
This command is mostly for internal use and bug reporting in
exceptional cases, it is not intended for end-users under normal
circumstances.
aptitude-run-state-bundle unpacks the given aptitude state bundle created
by aptitude-create-state-bundle(1) to a temporary directory, invokes
program on it with the supplied arguments, and removes the temporary
directory afterwards. If program is not supplied, it defaults to
aptitude(8).
Options
The following options may occur on the command-line before the input file.
Options following the input file are presumed to be arguments to aptitude.
--append-args
Place the options that give the location of the state bundle at the end of
the command line when invoking program, rather than at the beginning (the
default is to place options at the beginning).
--help
Display a brief usage summary.
--prepend-args
Place the options that give the location of the state bundle at the
beginning of the command line when invoking program, overriding any
previous --append-args (the default is to place options at the beginning).
--no-clean
Do not remove the unpacked state directory after running aptitude. You
might want to use this if, for instance, you are debugging a problem that
appears when aptitude's state file is modified. When aptitude finishes
running, the name of the state directory will be printed so that you can
access it in the future.
This option is enabled automatically by --statedir.
--really-clean
Delete the state directory after running aptitude, even if --no-clean or
--statedir was supplied.
--statedir
Instead of treating the input file as a state bundle, treat it as an
unpacked state bundle. For instance, you can use this to access the state
directory that was created by a prior run with --no-clean.
--unpack
Unpack the input file to a temporary directory, but don't actually run
aptitude.
See also
aptitude-create-state-bundle(1), aptitude(8), apt(8)