Provided by: apt_2.4.13_amd64 
NAME
apt - command-line interface
SYNOPSIS
apt [-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}}
DESCRIPTION
apt 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
removal 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, reinstall, 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 appending 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
(bullseye, bookworm, 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.
satisfy (apt-get(8))
satisfy satisfies dependency strings, as used in Build-Depends. It also handles conflicts, by
prefixing an argument with "Conflicts: ".
Example: apt satisfy "foo, bar (>= 1.0)" "Conflicts: baz, fuzz"
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
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 text editor 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 ALSO
apt-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.
DIAGNOSTICS
apt 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