noble (8) apt-get.8.gz

Provided by: apt_2.7.14build2_amd64 bug

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       apt-get is the command-line tool for handling packages, and may be considered the user's "back-end" to
       other tools using the APT library. Several "front-end" interfaces exist, such as aptitude(8), synaptic(8)
       and wajig(1).

       Unless the -h, or --help option is given, one of the commands below must be present.

       update
           update is used to resynchronize the package index files from their sources. The indexes of available
           packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. For example, when using
           a Debian archive, this command retrieves and scans the Packages.gz files, so that information about
           new and updated packages is available. An update should always be performed before an upgrade or
           dist-upgrade. Please be aware that the overall progress meter will be incorrect as the size of the
           package files cannot be known in advance.

       upgrade
           upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from
           the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently installed with new versions
           available are retrieved and upgraded; under no circumstances are currently installed packages
           removed, or packages not already installed retrieved and installed. New versions of currently
           installed packages that cannot be upgraded without changing the install status of another package
           will be left at their current version. An update must be performed first so that apt-get knows that
           new versions of packages are available.

           When a package is supplied as an argument, the package will be installed prior to the upgrade action.

       dist-upgrade
           dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also intelligently handles changing
           dependencies with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it
           will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense of less important ones if
           necessary. The dist-upgrade command may therefore remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list
           file contains a list of locations from which to retrieve desired package files. See also
           apt_preferences(5) for a mechanism for overriding the general settings for individual packages.

           When a package is supplied as an argument, the package will be installed prior to the upgrade action.

       dselect-upgrade
           dselect-upgrade is used in conjunction with the traditional Debian packaging front-end, dselect(1).
           dselect-upgrade follows the changes made by dselect(1) to the Status field of available packages, and
           performs the actions necessary to realize that state (for instance, the removal of old and the
           installation of new packages).

       install
           install is followed by one or more packages desired for installation or upgrading. Each package is a
           package name, not a fully qualified filename (for instance, in a Debian system, apt-utils would be
           the argument provided, not apt-utils_2.7.14_amd64.deb). All packages required by the package(s)
           specified for installation will also be retrieved and installed. The /etc/apt/sources.list file is
           used to locate the desired packages. If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with no intervening
           space), the identified package will be removed if it is installed. Similarly a plus sign can be used
           to designate a package to install. These latter features may be used to override decisions made by
           apt-get's conflict resolution system.

           A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by following the package name with
           an equals and the version of the package to select. This will cause that version to be located and
           selected for install. Alternatively a specific distribution can be selected by following the package
           name with a slash and the version of the distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing,
           unstable).

           Both of the version selection mechanisms can downgrade packages and must be used with care.

           This is also the target to use if you want to upgrade one or more already-installed packages without
           upgrading every package you have on your system. Unlike the "upgrade" target, which installs the
           newest version of all currently installed packages, "install" will install the newest version of only
           the package(s) specified. Simply provide the name of the package(s) you wish to upgrade, and if a
           newer version is available, it (and its dependencies, as described above) will be downloaded and
           installed.

           Finally, the apt_preferences(5) mechanism allows you to create an alternative installation policy for
           individual packages.

           If no package matches the given expression and the expression contains one of '.', '?' or '*' then it
           is assumed to be a POSIX regular expression, and it is applied to all package names in the database.
           Any matches are then installed (or removed). Note that matching is done by substring so 'lo.*'
           matches 'how-lo' and 'lowest'. If this is undesired, anchor the regular expression with a '^' or '$'
           character, or create a more specific regular expression.

           Fallback to regular expressions is deprecated in APT 2.0, has been removed in apt(8), except for
           anchored expressions, and will be removed from apt-get(8) in a future version. Use apt-patterns(7)
           instead.

       reinstall
           reinstall is an alias for install --reinstall.

       remove
           remove is identical to install except that packages are removed instead of installed. Note that
           removing a package leaves its configuration files on the system. If a plus sign is appended to the
           package name (with no intervening space), the identified package will be installed instead of
           removed.

       purge
           purge is identical to remove except that packages are removed and purged (any configuration files are
           deleted too).

       source
           source causes apt-get to fetch source packages. APT will examine the available packages to decide
           which source package to fetch. It will then find and download into the current directory the newest
           available version of that source package while respecting the default release, set with the option
           APT::Default-Release, the -t option or per package with the pkg/release syntax, if possible.

           The arguments are interpreted as binary and source package names. See the --only-source option if you
           want to change that.

           Source packages are tracked separately from binary packages via deb-src lines in the sources.list(5)
           file. This means that you will need to add such a line for each repository you want to get sources
           from; otherwise you will probably get either the wrong (too old/too new) source versions or none at
           all.

           If the --compile option is specified then the package will be compiled to a binary .deb using
           dpkg-buildpackage for the architecture as defined by the --host-architecture option. If
           --download-only is specified then the source package will not be unpacked.

           A specific source version can be retrieved by postfixing the source name with an equals and then the
           version to fetch, similar to the mechanism used for the package files. This enables exact matching of
           the source package name and version, implicitly enabling the APT::Get::Only-Source option.

           Note that source packages are not installed and tracked in the dpkg database like binary packages;
           they are simply downloaded to the current directory, like source tarballs.

       build-dep
           build-dep causes apt-get to install/remove packages in an attempt to satisfy the build dependencies
           for a source package. By default the dependencies are satisfied to build the package natively. If
           desired a host-architecture can be specified with the --host-architecture option instead.

           The arguments are interpreted as binary or source package names. See the --only-source option if you
           want to change that.

       satisfy
           satisfy causes apt-get to satisfy the given dependency strings. The dependency strings may have build
           profiles and architecture restriction list as in build dependencies. They may optionally be prefixed
           with "Conflicts: " to unsatisfy the dependency string. Multiple strings of the same type can be
           specified.

           Example: apt-get satisfy "foo" "Conflicts: bar" "baz (>> 1.0) | bar (= 2.0), moo"

           The legacy operator '</>' is not supported, use '<=/>=' instead.

       check
           check is a diagnostic tool; it updates the package cache and checks for broken dependencies.

       download
           download will download the given binary package into the current directory. The authenticity of the
           package data is ensured as usual.

       clean
           clean clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. It removes everything but the lock
           file from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/.

       autoclean (and the auto-clean alias since 1.1)
           Like clean, autoclean clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. The difference is
           that it only removes package files that can no longer be downloaded, and are largely useless. This
           allows a cache to be maintained over a long period without it growing out of control. The
           configuration option APT::Clean-Installed will prevent installed packages from being erased if it is
           set to off.

       distclean (and the dist-clean alias)
           distclean removes all files under /var/lib/apt/lists except Release, Release.gpg, and InRelease. It
           can be used for example, when finalizing images distributed to users. The release files are kept for
           security reasons, to prevent various types of attacks.

       autoremove (and the auto-remove alias since 1.1)
           autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically installed to satisfy dependencies for
           other packages and are now no longer needed.

       autopurge
           Like autoremove, but autopurge also removes configuration files. This is a shortcut for autoremove
           --purge.

       changelog
           changelog tries to download the changelog of a package and displays it through sensible-pager. By
           default it displays the changelog for the version that is installed. However, you can specify the
           same options as for the install command.

       indextargets
           Displays by default a deb822 formatted listing of information about all data files (aka index
           targets) apt-get update would download. Supports a --format option to modify the output format as
           well as accepts lines of the default output to filter the records by. The command is mainly used as
           an interface for external tools working with APT to get information as well as filenames for
           downloaded files so they can use them as well instead of downloading them again on their own.
           Detailed documentation is omitted here and can instead be found in the file
           /usr/share/doc/apt/acquire-additional-files.md.gz shipped by the apt-doc package.

OPTIONS

       All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the descriptions indicate the
       configuration option to set. For boolean options you can override the config file by using something like
       -f-,--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.

       --no-install-recommends
           Do not consider recommended packages as a dependency for installing. Configuration Item:
           APT::Install-Recommends.

       --install-suggests
           Consider suggested packages as a dependency for installing. Configuration Item:
           APT::Install-Suggests.

       -d, --download-only
           Download only; package files are only retrieved, not unpacked or installed. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Download-Only.

       -f, --fix-broken
           Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place. This option, when used with
           install/remove, can omit any packages to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are
           specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option is sometimes necessary when
           running APT for the first time; APT itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a
           system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be so corrupt as to require manual
           intervention (which usually means using dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages).
           Use of this option together with -m may produce an error in some situations. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Fix-Broken.

       -m, --ignore-missing, --fix-missing
           Ignore missing packages; if packages cannot be retrieved or fail the integrity check after retrieval
           (corrupted package files), hold back those packages and handle the result. Use of this option
           together with -f may produce an error in some situations. If a package is selected for installation
           (particularly if it is mentioned on the command line) and it could not be downloaded then it will be
           silently held back. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Fix-Missing.

       --no-download
           Disables downloading of packages. This is best used with --ignore-missing to force APT to use only
           the .debs it has already downloaded. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Download.

       -q, --quiet
           Quiet; produces output suitable for logging, omitting progress indicators. More q's will produce more
           quiet up to a maximum of 2. You can also use -q=# to set the quiet level, overriding the
           configuration file. Note that quiet level 2 implies -y; you should never use -qq without a no-action
           modifier such as -d, --print-uris or -s as APT may decide to do something you did not expect.
           Configuration Item: quiet.

       -s, --simulate, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon, --no-act
           No action; perform a simulation of events that would occur based on the current system state but do
           not actually change the system. Locking will be disabled (Debug::NoLocking) so the system state could
           change while apt-get is running. Simulations can also be executed by non-root users which might not
           have read access to all apt configuration distorting the simulation. A notice expressing this warning
           is also shown by default for non-root users (APT::Get::Show-User-Simulation-Note). Configuration
           Item: APT::Get::Simulate.

           Simulated runs print out a series of lines, each representing a dpkg operation: configure (Conf),
           remove (Remv) or unpack (Inst). Square brackets indicate broken packages, and empty square brackets
           indicate breaks that are of no consequence (rare).

       -y, --yes, --assume-yes
           Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to all prompts and run non-interactively. If an
           undesirable situation, such as changing a held package, trying to install an unauthenticated package
           or removing an essential package occurs then apt-get will abort. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Assume-Yes.

       --assume-no
           Automatic "no" to all prompts. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Assume-No.

       --no-show-upgraded
           Do not show a list of all packages that are to be upgraded. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Show-Upgraded.

       -V, --verbose-versions
           Show full versions for upgraded and installed packages. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Show-Versions.

       -a, --host-architecture
           This option controls the architecture packages are built for by apt-get source --compile and how
           cross-builddependencies are satisfied. By default is it not set which means that the host
           architecture is the same as the build architecture (which is defined by APT::Architecture).
           Configuration Item: APT::Get::Host-Architecture.

       -P, --build-profiles
           This option controls the activated build profiles for which a source package is built by apt-get
           source --compile and how build dependencies are satisfied. By default no build profile is active.
           More than one build profile can be activated at a time by concatenating them with a comma.
           Configuration Item: APT::Build-Profiles.

       -b, --compile, --build
           Compile source packages after downloading them. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Compile.

       --ignore-hold
           Ignore package holds; this causes apt-get to ignore a hold placed on a package. This may be useful in
           conjunction with dist-upgrade to override a large number of undesired holds. Configuration Item:
           APT::Ignore-Hold.

       --with-new-pkgs
           Allow installing new packages when used in conjunction with upgrade. This is useful if the update of
           an installed package requires new dependencies to be installed. Instead of holding the package back
           upgrade will upgrade the package and install the new dependencies. Note that upgrade with this option
           will never remove packages, only allow adding new ones. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Upgrade-Allow-New.

       --no-upgrade
           Do not upgrade packages; when used in conjunction with install, no-upgrade will prevent packages on
           the command line from being upgraded if they are already installed. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Upgrade.

       --only-upgrade
           Do not install new packages; when used in conjunction with install, only-upgrade will install
           upgrades for already installed packages only and ignore requests to install new packages.
           Configuration Item: APT::Get::Only-Upgrade.

       --allow-downgrades
           This is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is doing
           downgrades. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using it can potentially destroy
           your system! Configuration Item: APT::Get::allow-downgrades. Introduced in APT 1.1.

       --allow-remove-essential
           Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is
           removing essentials. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using it can
           potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item: APT::Get::allow-remove-essential. Introduced in
           APT 1.1.

       --allow-change-held-packages
           Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is
           changing held packages. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using it can
           potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item: APT::Get::allow-change-held-packages. Introduced
           in APT 1.1.

       --force-yes
           Force yes; this is a dangerous option that will cause apt to continue without prompting if it is
           doing something potentially harmful. It should not be used except in very special situations. Using
           force-yes can potentially destroy your system! Configuration Item: APT::Get::force-yes. This is
           deprecated and replaced by --allow-unauthenticated , --allow-downgrades , --allow-remove-essential ,
           --allow-change-held-packages in 1.1.

       --print-uris
           Instead of fetching the files to install their URIs are printed. Each URI will have the path, the
           destination file name, the size and the expected MD5 hash. Note that the file name to write to will
           not always match the file name on the remote site! This also works with the source and update
           commands. When used with the update command the MD5 and size are not included, and it is up to the
           user to decompress any compressed files. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Print-URIs.

       --purge
           Use purge instead of remove for anything that would be removed. An asterisk ("*") will be displayed
           next to packages which are scheduled to be purged.  remove --purge is equivalent to the purge
           command. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Purge.

       --reinstall
           Re-install packages that are already installed and at the newest version. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::ReInstall.

       --list-cleanup
           This option is on by default; use --no-list-cleanup to turn it off. When it is on, apt-get will
           automatically manage the contents of /var/lib/apt/lists to ensure that obsolete files are erased. The
           only reason to turn it off is if you frequently change your sources list. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::List-Cleanup.

       -S, --snapshot
           This option controls the snapshot chosen for archives with Snapshot: enable in the source entry. For
           example, -S 20220102T030405Z selects a snapshot from January 2nd, 2022 at 03:04:05 UTC. Configuration
           Item: APT::Snapshot; see also the sources.list(5) manual page.

       -t, --target-release, --default-release
           This option controls the default input to the policy engine; it creates a default pin at priority 990
           using the specified release string. This overrides the general settings in /etc/apt/preferences.
           Specifically pinned packages are not affected by the value of this option. In short, this option lets
           you have simple control over which distribution packages will be retrieved from. Some common examples
           might be -t '2.1*', -t unstable or -t sid. Configuration Item: APT::Default-Release; see also the
           apt_preferences(5) manual page.

       --trivial-only
           Only perform operations that are 'trivial'. Logically this can be considered related to --assume-yes;
           where --assume-yes will answer yes to any prompt, --trivial-only will answer no. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Trivial-Only.

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

       --no-remove
           If any packages are to be removed apt-get immediately aborts without prompting. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Remove.

       --auto-remove, --autoremove
           If the command is either install or remove, then this option acts like running the autoremove
           command, removing unused dependency packages. Configuration Item: APT::Get::AutomaticRemove.

       --only-source
           Only has meaning for the source and build-dep commands. Indicates that the given source names are not
           to be mapped through the binary table. This means that if this option is specified, these commands
           will only accept source package names as arguments, rather than accepting binary package names and
           looking up the corresponding source package. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Only-Source.

       --diff-only, --dsc-only, --tar-only
           Download only the diff, dsc, or tar file of a source archive. Configuration Item:
           APT::Get::Diff-Only, APT::Get::Dsc-Only, and APT::Get::Tar-Only.

       --arch-only
           Only process architecture-dependent build-dependencies. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Arch-Only.

       --indep-only
           Only process architecture-independent build-dependencies. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Indep-Only.

       --allow-unauthenticated
           Ignore if packages can't be authenticated and don't prompt about it. This can be useful while working
           with local repositories, but is a huge security risk if data authenticity isn't ensured in another
           way by the user itself. The usage of the Trusted option for sources.list(5) entries should usually be
           preferred over this global override. Configuration Item: APT::Get::AllowUnauthenticated.

       --allow-insecure-repositories
           Allow the update command to acquire unverifiable data from configured sources. APT will otherwise
           fail at the update command for repositories without valid cryptographically signatures. See also apt-
           secure(8) for details on the concept and the implications. Configuration Item:
           Acquire::AllowInsecureRepositories.

       --allow-releaseinfo-change
           Allow the update command to continue downloading data from a repository which changed its information
           of the release contained in the repository indicating e.g a new major release. APT will fail at the
           update command for such repositories until the change is confirmed to ensure the user is prepared for
           the change. See also apt-secure(8) for details on the concept and configuration.

           Specialist options (--allow-releaseinfo-change-field) exist to allow changes only for certain fields
           like origin, label, codename, suite, version and defaultpin. See also apt_preferences(5).
           Configuration Item: Acquire::AllowReleaseInfoChange.

       --show-progress
           Show user friendly progress information in the terminal window when packages are installed, upgraded
           or removed. For a machine parsable version of this data see README.progress-reporting in the apt doc
           directory. Configuration Items: Dpkg::Progress and Dpkg::Progress-Fancy.

       --with-source filename
           Adds the given file as a source for metadata. Can be repeated to add multiple files. See
           --with-source description in apt-cache(8) for further details.

       -eany, --error-on=any
           Fail the update command if any error occured, even a transient one.

       -U, --update
           Run the update command before the specified command. This is supported for commands installing,
           removing, or upgrading packages such as install, remove, safe-upgrade, full-upgrade. This can be
           useful to ensure a command always installs the latest versions, or, in combination with the
           --snapshot option to make sure the snapshot is present when install is being run.

           Caveat: Due to technical limitations, locks are acquired individually for each phase, hence an
           install may fail to acquire locks after successfully executing the update. Until this is resolved,
           this is merely syntactic sugar for apt update && apt install

       -h, --help
           Show a short usage summary.

       -v, --version
           Show the program version.

       -c, --config-file
           Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. The program will read the default
           configuration file and then this configuration file. If configuration settings need to be set before
           the default configuration files are parsed specify a file with the APT_CONFIG environment variable.
           See apt.conf(5) for syntax information.

       -o, --option
           Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitrary configuration option. The syntax is -o
           Foo::Bar=bar.  -o and --option can be used multiple times to set different options.

FILES

       /etc/apt/sources.list
           Locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::SourceList.

       /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
           File fragments for locations to fetch packages from. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::SourceParts.

       /etc/apt/apt.conf
           APT configuration file. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Main.

       /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/
           APT configuration file fragments. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::Parts.

       /etc/apt/preferences
           Version preferences file. This is where you would specify "pinning", i.e. a preference to get certain
           packages from a separate source or from a different version of a distribution. Configuration Item:
           Dir::Etc::Preferences.

       /etc/apt/preferences.d/
           File fragments for the version preferences. Configuration Item: Dir::Etc::PreferencesParts.

       /var/cache/apt/archives/
           Storage area for retrieved package files. Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::Archives.

       /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/
           Storage area for package files in transit. Configuration Item: Dir::Cache::Archives (partial will be
           implicitly appended)

       /var/lib/apt/lists/
           Storage area for state information for each package resource specified in sources.list(5)
           Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists.

       /var/lib/apt/lists/partial/
           Storage area for state information in transit. Configuration Item: Dir::State::Lists (partial will be
           implicitly appended)

SEE ALSO

       apt-cache(8), apt-cdrom(8), dpkg(1), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5), apt-patterns(7), apt-config(8), apt-
       secure(8), The APT User's guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/, apt_preferences(5), the APT Howto.

DIAGNOSTICS

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

BUGS

       APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt
       or the reportbug(1) command.

AUTHORS

       Jason Gunthorpe

       APT team

NOTES

        1. APT bug page
           https://bugs.debian.org/src:apt