Provided by: apt_2.9.16_amd64 
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_2.9.16_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.
--no-list-columns
Display package lists without arranging them in columns. By default, package lists are
printed in the style of the "ls" command. Configuration Item: APT::Get::List-Columns.
--comment
Add the given value to the Comment: field in history.log Configuration Item:
APT::History::Comment.
-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.
--audit
Show audit (and notice) messages. This overrides the quiet option, but only for notice
messages, not progress ones.
-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.
--no-color, --color
Turn colors on or off. Colors are on by default on supported terminals for apt(8) and
can also be disabled using the NO_COLOR or APT_NO_COLOR environment variables, or
further configured by the APT::Color configuration option and scope, see apt.conf(5)
for information on that.
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