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>

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