APT(8) APT APT(8)NAMEapt - command-line interface
SYNOPSISapt [-h] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release]
[-a=architecture] {list | search | show | update |
install pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]... |
remove pkg... | upgrade | full-upgrade | edit-sources |
{-v | --version} | {-h | --help}}
DESCRIPTIONapt provides a high-level commandline interface for the package
management system. It is intended as an end user interface and enables
some options better suited for interactive usage by default compared to
more specialized APT tools like apt-get(8) and apt-cache(8).
Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end user interface
and as such only mentions the most used commands and options partly to
not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to avoid
overwhelming readers with a cornucopia of options and details.
update (apt-get(8))
update is used to download package information from all configured
sources. Other commands operate on this data to e.g. perform
package upgrades or search in and display details about all
packages available for installation.
upgrade (apt-get(8))
upgrade is used to install available upgrades of all packages
currently installed on the system from the sources configured via
sources.list(5). New packages will be installed if required to
satisfy dependencies, but existing packages will never be removed.
If an upgrade for a package requires the remove of an installed
package the upgrade for this package isn't performed.
full-upgrade (apt-get(8))
full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade but will remove
currently installed packages if this is needed to upgrade the
system as a whole.
install, remove, purge (apt-get(8))
Performs the requested action on one or more packages specified via
regex(7), glob(7) or exact match. The requested action can be
overridden for specific packages by append a plus (+) to the
package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it.
A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
following the package name with an equals (=) and the version of
the package to select. Alternatively the version from a specific
release can be selected by following the package name with a
forward slash (/) and codename (stretch, buster, sid ...) or suite
name (stable, testing, unstable). This will also select versions
from this release for dependencies of this package if needed to
satisfy the request.
Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually
small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the
remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for
the accidentally removed package will restore its function as
before in that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these
leftovers by calling purge even on already removed packages. Note
that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your
home directory.
autoremove (apt-get(8))
autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically
installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no
longer needed as dependencies changed or the package(s) needing
them were removed in the meantime.
You should check that the list does not include applications you
have grown to like even though they were once installed just as a
dependency of another package. You can mark such a package as
manually installed by using apt-mark(8). Packages which you have
installed explicitly via install are also never proposed for
automatic removal.
search (apt-cache(8))
search can be used to search for the given regex(7)term(s) in the
list of available packages and display matches. This can e.g. be
useful if you are looking for packages having a specific feature.
If you are looking for a package including a specific file try apt-
file(1).
show (apt-cache(8))
Show information about the given package(s) including its
dependencies, installation and download size, sources the package
is available from, the description of the packages content and much
more. It can e.g. be helpful to look at this information before
allowing apt(8) to remove a package or while searching for new
packages to install.
list (work-in-progress)
list is somewhat similar to dpkg-query --list in that it can
display a list of packages satisfying certain criteria. It supports
glob(7) patterns for matching package names as well as options to
list installed (--installed), upgradeable (--upgradeable) or all
available (--all-versions) versions.
edit-sources (work-in-progress)
edit-sources lets you edit your sources.list(5) files in your
preferred texteditor while also providing basic sanity checks.
SCRIPT USAGE AND DIFFERENCES FROM OTHER APT TOOLS
The apt(8) commandline is designed as an end-user tool and it may
change behavior between versions. While it tries not to break backward
compatibility this is not guaranteed either if a change seems
beneficial for interactive use.
All features of apt(8) are available in dedicated APT tools like apt-
get(8) and apt-cache(8) as well. apt(8) just changes the default value
of some options (see apt.conf(5) and specifically the Binary scope). So
you should prefer using these commands (potentially with some
additional options enabled) in your scripts as they keep backward
compatibility as much as possible.
SEE ALSOapt-get(8), apt-cache(8), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5), apt-config(8),
The APT User's guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/, apt_preferences(5),
the APT Howto.
DIAGNOSTICSapt returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.
BUGS
APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
/usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.
AUTHOR
APT team
NOTES
1. APT bug page
http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt
APT 1.6~alpha6 20 October 2015 APT(8)
