

aptitude user's manual


Version 0.2.15.9


Daniel Burrows

<dburrows@debian.org>

Copyright  2004 Daniel Burrows

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., 59 Temple
Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 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

              Getting aptitude from Subversion



  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 UI


              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

              Managing automatically installed packages


        Search Patterns

        Customizing aptitude


              Customizing the Package List

              Customizing keybindings

              Customizing colors

              Customizing the display layout

              Configuration file reference

              Themes


        Playing Minesweeper


  3. aptitude FAQ

  4. Credits

  I. aptitude command-line reference


        aptitude - high-level interface to the package manager


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 Search menu

  2.5. Commands available in the Options menu

  2.6. Commands available in the Views menu

  2.7. Commands available in the Help menu

  2.8. Values of the ``current state'' flag

  2.9. Values of the ``action'' flag

  2.10. Customizable colors in aptitude


Introduction

Table of Contents



  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

        Getting aptitude from Subversion



  ``Master, does Emacs possess the Buddha nature?'' the novice asked.   

  ``I don't see why not,'' replied the master. ``It's got bloody well
  everything else.'' Several years later, the novice suddenly achieved
  enlightenment.

                                                           -- John Fouhy


Hello, and welcome to the aptitude user's manual! This introductory section
explains what aptitude is and how to get your hands on it; for information on
actually using it, please proceed to Chapter 1, Getting_Started.


What is this aptitude thing, anyway?

aptitude is a featureful package manager for Debian GNU/Linux systems, based on
the renowned apt package management infrastructure. aptitude provides the
functionality of dselect and apt-get, as well as many additional features not
found in either program.


What is a package manager?

A package_manager keeps track of what software is installed on your computer,
and allows you to easily install new software, upgrade software to newer
versions, or remove software that you previously installed. As the name
suggests, package managers deal with packages: collections of files that are
bundled together and can be installed and removed as a group.

Often, a package is just a particular program. For instance, the instant
messaging client gaim is contained in the Debian package of the same name. On
the other hand, it is common for programs to consist of several interrelated
packages. For instance, the gimp image editor consists not only of the gimp
package, but also of the gimp-data package; in addition, several optional add-on
packages (containing esoteric data, documentation, and so on) are also
available. It is also possible for several small, related programs to be
contained in a single package: for instance, the fileutils package contains
several common Unix commands, such as ls, cp, etc.

Some packages require other packages in order to function. In Debian, packages
can depend upon, recommend, suggest, or conflict with other packages.


* If a package A depends upon another package B, then B is required for A to
  operate properly. For instance, the gimp package depends upon the gimp-data
  package in order to ensure that the GIMP graphics editor can access its
  critical data files.

* If a package A recommends another package B, then B provides important
  additional functionality to A that will be desired in most circumstances. For
  instance, the mozilla-browser package recommends the mozilla-psm package,
  which adds support for secure data transfers to the Mozilla Web browser. While
  mozilla-psm is not strictly required for Mozilla to function, most users will
  want Mozilla to support the secure transmission of confidential data (such as
  credit card numbers).

* If a package A suggests another package B, then package B provides
  functionality that may enhance A, but is not needed in most cases. For
  instance, the kmail package suggests the gnupg package, which contains
  encryption software that can be used by KMail.

* If a package A conflicts with another package B, then the two packages cannot
  be installed at the same time. For instance, fb-music-hi conflicts with fb-
  music-low because they provide alternate sets of music for the game Frozen
  Bubble.


The job of a package manager is to present an interface which assists the user
in managing the collection of packages installed on his or her system. aptitude
provides such an interface by building on the apt package management system.


What is the apt system?

Being able to install and remove packages is great, but the basic software for
doing this (known as dpkg) does exactly that and nothing more. This is fine if
you download one or two packages by hand, but quickly becomes cumbersome when
you are trying to manage a large number of packages. Furthermore, if your shiny
new package requires software you haven't yet installed, you have to download
the newly required software by hand. And if you later decide to remove the no-
longer-shiny package, these extra packages will linger on your system, consuming
hard drive space, unless you manually remove them.

Obviously, all of this manual labor is a tedious chore, and so most package
management systems come with software which takes care of some or all of it for
you. apt is a common base on which to build these programs: in addition to
aptitude, programs such as synaptic and apt-watch make use of apt.

apt works by keeping a list of the packages that can be downloaded from Debian
on your computer. This list is used to find packages that need to be upgraded
and to install new packages. apt can also solve many dependency problems
automatically: for instance, when you choose to install a package, it will find
any additional required packages and install those as well.

When working with a package manager based on apt, such as aptitude, you will
typically perform three basic tasks: you will update the list of packages that
are available by downloading new lists from the Debian servers, you will select
which packages should be installed, upgraded, or removed, and finally, you will
commit your selections by actually performing the installations, removals, etc.

apt-based package managers read the list of ``sources'' -- repositories of
Debian packages -- from the file /etc/apt/sources.list. The format and contents
of this file are beyond the scope of this document, but are described in the
manual page sources.list(5).


 How can I get aptitude?

In case you are reading this manual but aptitude is not yet installed on your
system, this section explains how to correct this unfortunate situation. Most
people should head straight for the section on binary packages.


Pre-built aptitude packages, or, ``What 99% of Users Should Do''

Pre-built, or ``binary'' packages are the easiest and most common way to install
aptitude. You should only attempt a source install if binary packages are not
available for some reason, or if you have unusual needs that are not met by
binary packages.

If you are using a Debian system, execute the following command as root: apt-get
install aptitude. If you are not using a Debian system, your system provider
might have created a pre-built package of aptitude; if you are not sure, you can
contact them for further suggestions.


Building aptitude from source code

You also can build aptitude from source; however, this is probably not a useful
exercise unless apt is already available on your system. If it is, you can
install aptitude from source with the following steps:


  1. Install the following pieces of software:


     * A C++ compiler, such as g++.

     * The development files for apt, typically available in a package with a
       name like libapt-pkg-dev.

     * The libsigc++ library, available from http://libsigc.sourceforge.net.

     * Last but not least, download the most recent aptitude source code,
       available from http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/aptitude.
       (scroll to the bottom of the page and download the ``.orig.tar.gz'' file)



Once all the required components are available, open a terminal and execute the
command tar zxf aptitude-0.2.15.9.tar.gz to unpack the source code. Once the
source code is unpacked, type cd aptitude-0.2.15.9 && ./configure && make to
compile aptitude. If this succeeds, make sure you are the root user (by using
su, for instance), then type make install to install aptitude on your computer.
Once aptitude is successfully installed, typing aptitude at a command prompt
should start the program.


Getting aptitude from Subversion

If you want to test the latest bleeding-edge source code or to otherwise help
aptitude development, you can download unreleased aptitude source code using
Subversion. Install Subversion (available from http://subversion.tigris.org) and
execute the command svn checkout svn://svn.debian.org/aptitude/trunk/aptitude to
retrieve the most recent source code. Once the source code is available on your
computer, you can cd into it and type svn update to update it with any changes
made to the central repository.

To build aptitude from the Subversion repository, you must have the programs
autoconf and automake installed. Type ./autogen.sh to generate the files needed
to compile aptitude, then execute make and make install.


 [Warning]  Warning

            The aptitude Subversion repository is an active development tree; it
            will change as bugs are fixed and features are added, and there is
            absolutely no guarantee that it will even compile, let alone run
            properly! Bug reports are welcome, but be aware that you use
            development code entirely at your own risk![1]




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1]Of course, all free software is used at your own risk, but the risk involved
in using an active development tree is much higher.


Chapter 1. Getting Started

Table of Contents



  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


  A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.  

                                                      -- Lao Tsu


aptitude is a sizable program with many features, and it can be a bit
overwhelming for new users to get acquainted with it. This chapter does not
exhaustively describe the features of aptitude (see Chapter 2, aptitude
Reference_Guide for that), but it does provide a walk-through of the basic and
most commonly used features of the program.


Using aptitude

This section describes how to use the visual interface of aptitude. For
information on using aptitude's command-line interface, see the section called
``Using aptitude from the command line''.


aptitude Basics

To run aptitude, open your favorite text terminal, and at the command line,
type:


foobar$ aptitude


Once the cache is loaded (this may take some time on slower machines), the main
aptitude screen should appear:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks






These packages are currently installed on your computer.









As you can see, the main screen of aptitude is divided into several regions. The
blue line at the top of the terminal is the menu bar, and the blue lines below
it are informational messages describing some important commands. The black
space that follows is the list of all available packages, in which some groups
of packages are listed. The currently selected group (``Upgradable Packages'')
is highlighted, and its description is shown in the lower black space.

As the top line of the screen suggests, you can access aptitude's menus by
pressing F10; you can also click the mouse on a menu title if your system
supports it. Pressing F10 will open the Actions menu:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
+-------------------------+  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
|Install/remove packages g|
|Update package list     u|
|Forget new packages     f|
|Clean package cache      |eated Packages
|Clean obsolete files     |
|Mark Upgradable         U|
|Play Minesweeper         |
|Become root              |
+-------------------------+
|Quit                    Q|
+-------------------------+
These packages are currently installed on your computer.









Perform all pending installs and removals


Use the arrow keys and Enter to select menu items (or, if your system supports
it, click on them with a mouse); to close the menu without selecting anything,
press F10 again. The currently highlighted menu item is explained at the bottom
of the screen. If a menu item can be activated using a keyboard shortcut, the
shortcut is displayed in the menu: for instance, the command ``Update package
list'' can be activated by pressing u.

At any time, you can press ? to display an on-line reference to the available
keyboard shortcuts.


Navigating the aptitude package list

The list of packages is the primary interface to aptitude. When aptitude starts,
the list is organized into a number of groups, as can be seen in the following
screen shot:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks






These packages are currently installed on your computer.










 [Note]  Note

         Empty groups of packages are automatically hidden by aptitude, so you
         may see more or less groups than appear in this screen shot.


In the screen shot above, the first group (``Installed Packages'') is
highlighted to indicate that it is currently selected. You can move the
selection up and down with the arrow keys; note that the description below the
package list changes as you do so. To ``expand'' a group, press Enter while the
group is selected:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
  --- admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
  --- base - The Debian base system
  --- devel - Utilities and programs for software development
  --- doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation
  --- editors - Text editors and word processors
  --- electronics - Programs for working with circuits and electronics
  --- games - Games, toys, and fun programs
  --- gnome - The GNOME Desktop System
  --- graphics - Utilities to create, view, and edit graphics files

These packages are currently installed on your computer.









As you can see, the ``Installed Packages'' group has been expanded to reveal its
contents: it contains a number of subgroups, loosely defined by what types of
software they contain. Expanding the ``admin'' section by selecting it and
pressing Enter, we see:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
  --\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
    --- main - The main Debian archive
  --- base - The Debian base system
  --- devel - Utilities and programs for software development
  --- doc - Documentation and specialized programs for viewing documentation
  --- editors - Text editors and word processors
  --- electronics - Programs for working with circuits and electronics
  --- games - Games, toys, and fun programs
  --- gnome - The GNOME Desktop System

Packages in the 'admin' section allow you to perform administrative tasks such
as installing software, managing users, configuring and monitoring your system,
examining network traffic, and so on.







The ``admin'' group contains a single subgroup, the ``main'' Debian archive.
Expanding this group reveals some packages!


 [Tip]  Tip

        To save time, you can use the [ key to expand all the subgroups of a
        group at once. Selecting ``Installed Packages'' and pressing [ would
        have immediately revealed the packages in the screenshot below.



 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
  --\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive
i     acpid                                                1.0.3-19   1.0.3-19
i     alien                                                8.44       8.44
i     anacron                                              2.3-9      2.3-9
i     apt-show-versions                                    0.07       0.07
i A   apt-utils                                            0.5.25     0.5.25
i     apt-watch                                            0.3.2-2    0.3.2-2
i     aptitude                                             0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2

The Debian distribution consists of packages from the 'main' section. Every
package in 'main' is Free Software.

For more information about what Debian considers to be Free Software, see
http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines





In addition to the arrow keys, you can move the selection through the package
list a page of information at a time using the Page Up and Page Down keys.


Finding packages by name

To quickly find a package whose name you know, press / to open a search dialog:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
i     frozen-bubble                                        1.0.0-5    1.0.0-5
i A   frozen-bubble-data                                   1.0.0-5    1.0.0-5
i     geekcode                                             1.7.3-1    1.7.3-1
i     gfpoken                                              0.25-3     0.25-3
i     ggz-gnome-client                                     0.0.7-2    0.0.7-2
i     ggz-gtk-client                                       0.0.7-1    0.0.7-1
i     ggz-gtk-game-data                                    0.0.7-2    0.0.7-2
i +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
i |Search for:                                                               |
i |froz                                                                      |
Po|                             [ Ok ]                             [ Cancel ]|
Fr+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
attempt to shoot bubbles into groups of the same color to cause them to pop. It
features 100 single-player levels, a two-player mode, music and striking
graphics.

This game is widely rumored to be responsible for delaying the Woody release.

URL: http://www.frozen-bubble.org/


As you can see in the above screen shot, a search for froz finds the frozen-
bubble package. Using aptitude's powerful search language, described in the
section called ``Search Patterns'', it is possible to find packages based on
many complex criteria.


 [Tip]  Tip

        You can repeat the last search by pressing n or \ after closing the
        search window.


Sometimes it is useful to hide all packages except those which meet some
particular criterion. To do this, press l:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks


  +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |Enter the new package tree limit:                                         |
  |apti                                                                      |
  |                             [ Ok ]                             [ Cancel ]|
Th+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ a









This dialog works exactly like the search dialog, except that instead of
highlighting the next package that matches what you typed into the dialog box,
it hides all packages which don't match. For instance, typing apti into this
dialog box and pressing Enter will hide all packages except those whose names
contain ``apti'':


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--\ Installed Packages
  --\ admin - Administrative utilities (install software, manage users, etc)
    --\ main - The main Debian archive
i     aptitude                                             0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2
i A   synaptic                                             0.51-1     0.51-1
  --\ x11 - The X window system and related software
    --\ main - The main Debian archive
i     xfree86-driver-synaptics                             0.13.3-1   0.13.3-1
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Virtual Packages

These packages are currently installed on your computer.










Managing packages

Now that you can move about the list of packages, it's time to start using
aptitude to install and remove packages. In this section you will learn how to
flag packages for installation, deletion, and upgrade.


 [Tip]  Tip

        You can only change your system's setup as the root user. If you want to
        experiment with aptitude, you can safely run it as any user other than
        root without damaging your system in any way. aptitude will tell you
        when you try to do something that only root can do, and if you want to
        continue, you must type root's password.


All changes to a package are performed by first highlighting it in the package
list, then pressing a key corresponding to the action which should be performed.
The basic action keys [2] are + to install or upgrade a package, - to remove a
package, and = to prevent a package from being automatically upgraded (this is
known as holding the package). These actions are not performed immediately;
aptitude will simply update the package list to show the change that has been
requested.

For instance, in the screen shot below, the kaffeine package was selected and +
was pushed. The package is now highlighted in green and the letter ``i'' has
appeared to the left of its name, to indicate that it will be installed; in
addition, an estimate of the amount of space that the package will use is
displayed.


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1                  Will use 2925kB of disk space  DL Size:
1375kB
  --\ kde - The KDE Desktop System
    --\ main - The main Debian archive
p     bibletime-i18n                                        <none>     1.4.1-1
p     education-desktop-kde                                 <none>     0.771
p     junior-kde                                            <none>     1.4
piA   kaffeine                                      +2843kB <none>     0.4.3-1
pi    kaffeine-mozilla                              +81.9kB <none>     0.4.3-1
p     karamba                                               <none>     0.17-5
p     kde-devel                                             <none>     4:3.1.2

p     kde-devel-extras                                      <none>     4:3.1.2
The K Desktop Environment (development files)
A metapackage containing dependencies for the core development suite of KDE
including kdesdk, qt3-designer, and all core KDE -dev packages.









 [Tip]  Tip

        At any time, you can use Undo->Undo (Control+u) to ``undo'' any change
        to one or more packages. This is very useful if an action has unforseen
        consequences and you want to ``take it back''.


In addition to actions that affect individual packages, another important action
is available: typing U will attempt to upgrade any packages that can be
upgraded. You should use this command on a regular basis to keep your system up-
to-date.

Sometimes, changing a package's state will cause dependency relationships to
become unfulfilled; packages with unfulfilled dependencies are said to be
broken. aptitude will warn you when this happens, and explain why it occured.
For instance, here is what happens if you attempt to remove libpopt0:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1    #Broken: 103 Will free 446kB of disk space
idA   libpopt0                                             1.7-4      1.7-4
i A   libstdc++5                                           1:3.3.4-2  1:3.3.4-2
i     libwrap0                                             7.6.dbs-4  7.6.dbs-4
i     locales                                              2.3.2.ds1- 2.3.2.ds1-
i     login                                                1:4.0.3-28 1:4.0.3-28
i     makedev                                              2.3.1-70   2.3.1-70
i     mawk                                                 1.3.3-11   1.3.3-11
i     mbr                                                  1.1.5-2    1.1.5-2
i     modconf                                              0.2.45.1   0.2.45.1
i     modutils                                             2.4.26-1   2.4.26-1
lib for parsing cmdline parameters
libpopt0 will be removed.                                                      #
This will free 446kB of disk space.


The following packages depend on libpopt0 and will be broken by its removal:


  * abiword-gnome depends on libpopt0 (>= 1.7)
  * alleyoop depends on libpopt0 (>= 1.7)
  * apt-watch depends on libpopt0 (>= 1.7)


As you can see, aptitude displays two indicators that something has gone wrong:
first, the number of broken packages is displayed in the upper blue area;
second, the lower half of the display changes to describe broken packages that
are related to the currently highlighted package. To quickly find broken
packages in the package list, you can search for ~b.


 [Tip]  Tip

        When there is more information in the lower half of the display than
        fits into the available space, the a and z keys can be used to scroll
        through it.


If you do not resolve the situation on your own, aptitude will try to fix things
for you when you commit your selections. However, it is hard to automatically
solve dependency problems, and you may not be happy with the results, so it is
generally better to solve problems such as this before committing your
selections.


Updating the package list and installing packages

At this point, you know enough about aptitude to actually make modifications to
your system.

You should periodically update your list of available packages from the Debian
servers, to keep track of new packages and new versions of packages. To do this,
press u. At any time during the download, you can press q to abort it.

Once you have fresh lists of packages, you can choose the packages to upgrade,
install, or remove as described in the previous section. To review the actions
you have requested, press g once. When installing the kaffeine-mozilla package
(from the previous example), the following screen appears:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1                  Will use 2925kB of disk space  DL Size:
1375kB
--\ Packages being automatically installed to satisfy dependencies

piA kaffeine                                        +2843kB <none>     0.4.3-1
--\ Packages to be installed
pi  kaffeine-mozilla                                +81.9kB <none>     0.4.3-1







These packages are being installed because they are required by another package
you have chosen for installation.

If you select a package, an explanation of its current state will appear in this
space.





As you can see, aptitude automatically decided to install libgtop2 for me
because bubblemon requires it. At this point, I have the choice of either
continuing with the installation by pressing g, or aborting it by pressing q.


Using aptitude from the command line

In addition to its ``visual'' interface described in the previous section,
aptitude can be used to manage packages directly from the command-line in the
same way that you would use apt-get. This section covers the most common
aptitude command-line actions; for more information, see the aptitude command-
line reference.

In general, a command-line invocation of aptitude will look like this:

aptitude action [arguments...]

action tells aptitude what action it is to take; the remaining arguments are
used in an option-specific fashion. Typically they will consist of package names
and command-line switches[3].

The most important actions are:



  aptitude update

      This command updates the package lists, as if you had entered the visual
      interface and pressed u.


  aptitude upgrade

      This command will upgrade as many packages as possible. If there are
      dependency problems, it will avoid upgrading packages (rather than, for
      instance, removing them).


  aptitude dist-upgrade

      This command will also attempt to upgrade packages, but it is more
      aggressive about solving dependency problems: it will install and remove
      packages until all dependencies are satisfied. Because of the nature of
      this command, it is possible that it will do undesirable things, and so
      you should be careful when using it.


  aptitude [ install | remove | purge ] pkg1 [pkg2...]

      These commands install, remove, or purge[4] the specified packages.
      ``Installing'' a package which is already installed but can be upgraded
      will cause it to be upgraded.


  aptitude search pattern1 [pattern2...]

      This command searches for packages whose name contains any of the given
      patterns, printing the result to the terminal. In addition to just being a
      string of text, each pattern can be a search pattern as described in the
      section called ``Search Patterns''. [5]


  aptitude show pkg1 [pkg2...]

      Prints information about each pkg to the terminal.


The commands that install, upgrade, and remove packages all accept the parameter
``-s'', which stands for ``simulate''. When ``-s'' is passed on the command
line, the program performs all the actions it would normally perform, but does
not actually download or install/remove any files.

aptitude will sometimes present a prompt like this:


The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  space-orbit-common
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  space-orbit space-orbit-common
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.

Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]


In addition to the obvious options of ``Yes'' and ``No'', a number of commands
are available which can be used to change the information displayed at the
prompt, or to specify further actions. For instance, typing ``s'' will display
or hide information about how much space each package will use:


Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] s

Size changes will be shown.

The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  space-orbit-common <+8020kB>
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  space-orbit <+393kB> space-orbit-common <+8020kB>
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]


Similarly, typing ``d'' will display information about automatically installed
or removed packages:


The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  space-orbit-common (D: space-orbit)
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  space-orbit space-orbit-common
0 packages upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3200kB of archives. After unpacking 8413kB will be used.


This shows that space-orbit-common is being installed because space-orbit
depends on it. You can see the entire list of possible entries by entering ``?''
at the prompt.

For complete documentation of the command-line features of aptitude, see
aptitude command-line reference.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2] You can also change packages using the Package menu; see the section called
``The Package Menu'' for details.

[3]A ``switch'' is a letter preceded by a hyphen: for instance, ``-a'', ``-v'',
etc.

[4]Purging a package removes the package, as well as all its configuration
files.

[5] In fact, the same is true of the commands that take packages as arguments,
such as install or show.


Chapter 2. aptitude Reference Guide

Table of Contents



  The aptitude UI


        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

        Managing automatically installed packages


  Search Patterns

  Customizing aptitude


        Customizing the Package List

        Customizing keybindings

        Customizing colors

        Customizing the display layout

        Configuration file reference

        Themes


  Playing Minesweeper


  The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your     
  Majesty?' he asked.

  'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to
  the end: then stop.'

                                            -- Lewis Carrol, Alice_in_Wonderland


aptitude is a large program with many features, and it is sometimes difficult to
remember how to do something, or even to remember whether that something is even
possible. Indeed, many feature requests received by the author describe features
which are already present but are difficult to find.

In an attempt to combat this obscurity, this reference guide describes every
feature and configuration parameter of aptitude. For a more gentle guide to the
important features of aptitude, see Chapter 1, Getting_Started.


 [Note]  Note

         aptitude's behavior and appearance can be configured in a number of
         ways. This manual describes how the program works with the default
         settings; descriptions of how various settings affect behavior are
         given in the section called ``Customizing aptitude''.



The aptitude UI

This section describes the parts of the user interface of aptitude that do not
deal with managing packages.


Using the menus

The menu bar at the top of the screen lists the most important commands in
aptitude. To activate the menu bar, press F10; you can then navigate it using
the arrow keys and select a menu item using Enter.

Some menu items also have ``hotkeys'': letters or numbers that can be used to
select the item while the menu is active. These hotkeys are displayed in a
brighter shade of white than the rest of the menu.

In addition, some menu items have ``shortcuts'': keystrokes that perform the
same action as the menu item while the menu is not active. These keystrokes are
listed on the right-hand side of the menu.

In the remainder of the manual, menu commands will be written like this: Menu-
>Item (key). This indicates that you should choose Item from the Menu menu, and
that key is the shortcut for this command.


Menu commands


The Actions Menu

Figure 2.1. Commands available in the Actions menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                             |Description                              |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|                                    |If an installation preview is not        |
|                                    |visible, display one; otherwise, perform |
|Actions->Install/remove packages (g)|an install run as described in the       |
|                                    |section called ``Downloading, installing,|
|                                    |and removing packages''.                 |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|Actions->Update package list (u)    |Bring the package list up-to-date.       |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|                                    |Flag all upgradable packages, except     |
|Actions->Mark Upgradable (U)        |those which are held or forbidden from   |
|                                    |upgrading, for upgrade.                  |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|                                    |Discard all information about what       |
|Actions->Forget new packages (f)    |packages are ``new'' (empty the ``New    |
|                                    |Packages'' tree).                        |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|Actions->Clean package cache        |Delete all the compressed packages that  |
|                                    |were downloaded by aptitude [a].         |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|                                    |Delete any compressed packages that were |
|                                    |downloaded by aptitude [a] and are no    |
|                                    |longer available. These are presumed to  |
|Actions->Clean obsolete files       |be packages which are obsolete, and can  |
|                                    |be deleted to save disk space without    |
|                                    |requiring an otherwise unnecessary       |
|                                    |download.                                |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|                                    |Play a game of Minesweeper, as described |
|Actions->Play Minesweeper           |in the section called ``Playing          |
|                                    |Minesweeper''.                           |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|Actions->Become root                |Continue working as the root user; see   |
|                                    |the section called ``Becoming root''.    |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|Actions->Quit (Q)                   |Quit the program, saving any changes to  |
|                                    |package states.                          |
|____________________________________|_________________________________________|
|[a] Or any other apt utility.                                                 |
|______________________________________________________________________________|


The Undo Menu

Figure 2.2. Commands available in the Undo menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command               |Description                                            |
|______________________|_______________________________________________________|
|                      |Cancel the effect of the last change to a package's    |
|Undo->Undo (Control+u)|state, up to the last time the program was started, the|
|                      |package list was updated, or an install run was        |
|                      |performed.                                             |
|______________________|_______________________________________________________|


The Package Menu

Figure 2.3. Commands available in the Package menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                     |Description                                      |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Package->Install (+)        |Flag the currently selected package for          |
|                            |installation.                                    |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Package->Remove (-)         |Flag the currently selected package for removal. |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Package->Purge (_)          |Flag the currently selected package to be purged.|
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Package->Keep (:)           |Cancel any pending installation, upgrade, or     |
|                            |removal of the currently selected package.       |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Package->Hold (=)           |Hold the currently selected package back.        |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Mark the currently selected package as an        |
|                            |``automatically installed'' package. For more    |
|Package->Mark Auto (M)      |information on manually and automatically        |
|                            |installed packages, see the section called       |
|                            |``Managing automatically installed packages''.   |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Mark the currently selected package as a         |
|                            |``manually installed'' package. For more         |
|Package->Mark Manual (m)    |information on manually and automatically        |
|                            |installed packages, see the section called       |
|                            |``Managing automatically installed packages''.   |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |If a package that can be upgraded is selected,   |
|                            |forbid it from being upgraded to the currently   |
|Package->Forbid Version (F) |available version. If a version of a package is  |
|                            |selected, forbid the package from being upgraded |
|                            |to that version.                                 |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Display a screen containing information about the|
|Package->Information (enter)|currently selected package, such as the packages |
|                            |it depends upon, the packages which depend upon  |
|                            |it, and its available versions.                  |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Display the currently selected package's Debian  |
|package->Changelog (C)      |changelog. To see the changelog of a particular  |
|                            |version, select that version and execute this    |
|                            |command.                                         |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|


The Search Menu

Figure 2.4. Commands available in the Search menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                     |Description                                      |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Search->Find (/)            |Find the first package matching a search pattern |
|                            |(see the section called ``Search Patterns'').    |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Search->Find Again (\)      |Repeat the last Find command.                    |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Filter the current package list by removing any  |
|Search->Limit Display (l)   |packages which do not match a search pattern (see|
|                            |the section called ``Search Patterns'').         |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Search->Un-Limit Display (l)|Un-filter the current package list (all packages |
|                            |will be shown).                                  |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Search->Find Broken (b)     |Find the next broken package. This is equivalent |
|                            |to searching for ~b.                             |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|


The Options Menu

Figure 2.5. Commands available in the Options menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                     |Description                                      |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Display a dialog box in which you can set options|
|Options->UI options         |pertaining to the interface (how messages are    |
|                            |displayed, how packages are organized, etc).     |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Display a dialog box in which you can set options|
|Options->Dependency handling|pertaining to how dependencies are treated: for  |
|                            |instance, whether to automatically installed     |
|                            |packages which are recommended by other packages.|
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|                            |Display a dialog box in which you can set options|
|                            |that don't fit into the previous two categories: |
|Options->Miscellaneous      |for instance, whether packages should be         |
|                            |automatically flagged for upgrade when aptitude  |
|                            |starts.                                          |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|
|Options->Revert options     |Reset all options to their default values.       |
|____________________________|_________________________________________________|


The Views Menu


 [Note]  Note

         For an overview of how views work, see the section called ``Working
         with multiple views''.


Figure 2.6. Commands available in the Views menu

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                       |Description                                    |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|Views->Next (F6)              |Change to the next active view.                |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|Views->Prev (F7)              |Change to the previous active view.            |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|Views->Close (q)              |Close the current view.                        |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|Views->New Package View       |Create a new view of the package list.         |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|Views->New Categorical Browser|View the package list, arranged by category.   |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|
|                              |A number of additional menu items appear; these|
|Additional items              |correspond to the currently active views. To   |
|                              |switch directly to a view, select it from the  |
|                              |menu.                                          |
|______________________________|_______________________________________________|


The Help Menu

Figure 2.7. Commands available in the Help menu

 ____________________________________________________________________________
|Command            |Description                                             |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help->About        |Display some copyright information.                     |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help->Help (?)     |Display the on-line help page.                          |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help->User's Manual|Display the User's Manual (this document).              |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help->FAQ          |Display the aptitude FAQ.                               |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help               |Display a history of the major changes made to aptitude.|
|___________________|________________________________________________________|
|Help               |Display the terms under which you may copy, modify, and |
|                   |distribute aptitude.                                    |
|___________________|________________________________________________________|


Working with multiple views

aptitude allows you to work with several ``views'' at once. A ``view''
(sometimes called a ``screen'') is simply something that can appear in the area
of the screen below the menu bar. The most common view is the package list, but
download views are also common.

When several views are open at once, you can close the current view using Views-
>Close (q). To switch to the next or previous view, use Views->Next (F6) and
Views->Prev (F7); you can also find a list of all active views in the Views
menu.

Some commands (for instance, viewing information about a package) will create
new views automatically; you can also explicitly create a new view using Views-
>New Package View or Views->New Categorical Browser.


Becoming root

Some actions, such as updating the package lists, can only be performed as root.
If you are not root and you try to update the package lists, aptitude will ask
if you want to become root:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
--- Installed Packages
--- Not Installed Packages
--- Obsolete and Locally Created Packages
--- Virtual Packages
--- Tasks

  +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |Updating the package lists requires administrative privileges, which     |
  |you currently do not have.  Would you like to change to the root account?|
  |                                                                         |
  |         [ Become root ]                  [ Don't become root ]          |
Th+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+









If you select ``Become root'', aptitude will prompt you for root's password;
when you have correctly entered it, aptitude will perform the action that
required root privileges. You will still be root after the action completes.

You can switch to the root account at any time using the command Actions->Become
root. Any changes you have made to package states will be preserved (but will
not be saved until you quit aptitude).


Managing packages

This section describes how to manipulate the list of packages, how to install
new packages on your system, and how to remove old packages.


Managing the package list

To keep the list of packages up-to-date, it is recommended that you periodically
update it. You can do this using the Actions->Update package list (u) command.


Accessing package information

Information about packages is presented in several locations in aptitude: the
package list gives a quick overview of the state of each package, and additional
views providing detailed information about a package are also available.


The Package List

The package list displays an ``at-a-glance'' synopsis of a package's state. For
instance, the package autobook might have the following synopsis:


iu  autobook                                       +139kB  1.4.1-1    1.4.2-1


The three characters on the left-hand side of the synopsis show that the package
is installed, that it is going to be upgraded, and that it was automatically
installed. On the right-hand side of the synopsis, the current version and the
most recent available version are displayed, along with an indication of how
much space will be used by the upgrade.


 [Tip]  Tip

        You can customize how package synopses are displayed; see the section
        called ``Customizing how packages are displayed'' for details.


The three status flags on the left-hand side of the screen give the basic
information about a package's state. The first character is the package's
current state; the second character is the action which will be taken on the
package; the third character indicates whether the package was automatically
installed (see the section called ``Managing automatically installed
packages'').

The possible values of the ``current state'' flag are given in Figure 2.8,
``Values of the ``current state'' flag'' and the possible values of the
``action'' flag are given in Figure 2.9, ``Values of the ``action'' flag''.

Figure 2.8. Values of the ``current state'' flag


i - the package is installed and all its dependencies are satisfied.

c - the package was removed, but its configuration files are still present.

p - the package and all its configuration files were removed, or the package was
    never installed.

v - the package is virtual.

B - the package has broken dependencies.

u - the package has been unpacked but not configured.

C - half-configured: the package's configuration was interrupted.

H - half-installed: the package's installation was interrupted.


Figure 2.9. Values of the ``action'' flag


i - the package will be installed.

u - the package will be upgraded.

d - the package will be deleted: it will be removed, but its configuration files
    will remain on the system.

p - the package will be purged: it and its configuration files will be removed.

h - the package will be held back: it will be kept at its current version, even
    if a newer version becomes available, until the hold is cancelled.

F - An upgrade of the package has been forbidden.

r - the package will be reinstalled.

    the package is ``broken'': some of its dependencies will not be satisfied.
B - aptitude will not allow you to install, remove, or upgrade anything while
    you have broken packages.


In addition, aptitude will use colors to indicate package state if your terminal
supports it. State distinctions are mainly displayed using the background color:



  Black
      The package cannot be upgraded (or is not going to be installed), and it
      has no dependency problems. If the package is installed, its name will be
      highlighted.


  Green
      The package is going to be installed.


  Blue
      The package is currently installed, and it will be upgraded.


  Magenta
      The package is currently installed, but it will be removed.


  White
      The package is currently installed, and it is ``held'' at its current
      version: automatic upgrades will ignore it.


  Red
      This package is broken: some of its dependencies will not be satisfied.


Finally, the lower half of the screen displays the long description. aptitude
will attempt to detect whether the package is involved in a dependency problem;
if so, information regarding the dependency problem will be displayed here. To
cycle between dependency information and the package description, press i.


Detailed package information

Pressing Enter while a package is highlighted will display the package
information screen:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
aptitude 0.2.14.1
i A --\ apt                                                0.5.25     0.5.25
  Description: Advanced front-end for dpkg
    This is Debian's next generation front-end for the dpkg package manager. It
    provides the apt-get utility and APT dselect method that provides a simpler,
    safer way to install and upgrade packages.

    APT features complete installation ordering, multiple source capability and
    several other unique features, see the Users Guide in apt-doc.
  Essential: yes
  Priority: important
  Section: base
  Maintainer: APT Development Team <deity@lists.debian.org>
  Compressed size: 970k
  Uncompressed size: 2961k
  Source Package: apt
  --\ Depends
    --- libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4)
    --- libgcc1 (>= 1:3.3.3-1)
    --- libstdc++5 (>= 1:3.3.3-1)
  --\ Suggests
    --- aptitude | synaptic | gnome-apt | wajig
    --- dpkg-dev
    --\ apt-doc (UNSATISFIED)
p     0.6.25
p     0.5.25
  --\ Replaces
    --- libapt-pkg-doc (< 0.3.7)
    --- libapt-pkg-dev (< 0.3.7)
  --- Package names provided by apt
  --- Packages which depend on apt
  --\ Versions
p A 0.6.25
i A 0.5.25


This display can be navigated in a manner similar to the package list: for
instance, in the screenshot above, I expanded the dependency on apt-doc,
revealing the available versions of apt-doc which will fulfill the dependency.
These versions can be manipulated in the same way that packages can: for
instance, to install version 0.5.25 of apt-doc, you would highlight it and press
+.


 [Tip]  Tip

        To quickly satisfy a dependency, select the dependency and press +;
        aptitude will attempt to automatically satisfy it.


In addition to the dependencies of a package, you can view the package names
that it Provides, the packages which depend upon it, and the available versions
of the package (including any other packages that Provide it).

As usual, you can dismiss this screen and return to the main view by pressing q.
For convenience, a few other information screens (which only display some
commonly-used information, hiding the rest) are available: press v to view the
versions of a package, d to view the dependencies of a package, and r to view
the ``reverse dependencies'' of a package (packages which depend upon it).


Modifying package states

The following commands are available to modify the states of packages. Commands
take effect the next time you perform an install run; until you do, all of these
commands can be reversed using Undo->Undo (Control+u).

To apply a command to a package, simply select the package in a package list and
issue the command. These commands can also be applied to groups of packages by
selecting the group header (for instance, ``Upgradable Packages'') and issuing
the command.

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command                              |Description                             |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Flag the current package for            |
|                                     |installation.                           |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |If the package is not installed, it will|
|Install: Package->Install (+)        |be installed. If it is already          |
|                                     |installed, it will be upgraded if       |
|                                     |possible and any sticky upgrade         |
|                                     |prevention that is in effect (eg, Hold) |
|                                     |will be cancelled.                      |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Flag the currently selected package for |
|                                     |removal.                                |
|Remove: Package->Remove (-)          |                                        |
|                                     |If the package is installed, it will be |
|                                     |removed.                                |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Flag the current package to be purged.  |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |If the package is installed, it will be |
|Purge: Package->Purge (_)            |removed. Futhermore, even if it is      |
|                                     |removed, any remaining files (such as   |
|                                     |configuration files) related to the     |
|                                     |package will be removed from the system.|
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Flag the current package to be kept at  |
|                                     |its current version.                    |
|Keep: Package->Keep (:)              |                                        |
|                                     |Any action that was to be performed on  |
|                                     |the package -- installation, removal, or|
|                                     |upgrade -- is cancelled.                |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Set a persistent hold on the package.   |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |As with Keep, any action that was to be |
|Hold: Package->Hold (=)              |performed on the package is cancelled.  |
|                                     |In addition, the package will not be    |
|                                     |automatically upgraded [a] until the    |
|                                     |hold is removed. You may cancel a hold  |
|                                     |by issuing the Install command.         |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |The package will not be automatically   |
|                                     |upgraded[a] to the version it would     |
|                                     |currently be upgraded to. If it was     |
|                                     |going to be upgraded, the upgrade will  |
|                                     |be cancelled.                           |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |If you issue this command on a          |
|Package->Forbid Version (F)          |particular version of a package, the    |
|                                     |package will not be upgraded to the     |
|                                     |selected version. Note that only one    |
|                                     |version can be forbidden at once.       |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |This functionality is largely provided  |
|                                     |as a convenience for users of the       |
|                                     |``unstable'' distribution, so they can  |
|                                     |avoid known-bad versions of packages.   |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Reinstalls the package.                 |
|                                     |                                        |
|                                     |Note that the reinstallation will not be|
|                                     |saved when you quit aptitude or perform |
|Reinstall: press L                   |an install run for technical reasons.   |
|                                     |(essentially, the underlying software   |
|                                     |layers (dpkg and apt) do not provide any|
|                                     |way to find out whether a reinstallation|
|                                     |was successful or not).                 |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|                                     |Sets whether the package is treated as  |
|                                     |having been automatically installed;    |
|Package->Mark Auto (M), Package->Mark|automatically installed packages will be|
|Manual (m)                           |removed when no other package requires  |
|                                     |them. For more information, see the     |
|                                     |section called ``Managing automatically |
|                                     |installed packages''.                   |
|_____________________________________|________________________________________|
|[a] That is, it will be unaffected by Actions->Mark Upgradable (U) or the     |
|dist-upgrade or upgrade command-line actions.                                 |
|______________________________________________________________________________|

In addition to these commands that affect the selected package, there are two
commands that affect large numbers of packages at once regardless of what is
selected. Actions->Forget new packages (f) clears the ``new'' status of all
packages in the package list, and Actions->Mark Upgradable (U) flags every
package which can be upgraded for upgrade, except for packages that are held
back or would be upgraded to a forbidden version.


 [Note]  Note

         All changes to package states are saved when you quit aptitude, update
         the package list, or perform an install run. If you do not wish to save
         your changes, you can always abort aptitude by pressing Ctrl-C.



Downloading, installing, and removing packages

Changing package states as described in the previous section does not actually
affect what is installed on your system. Thus, you can adjust the state of
packages without affecting your system until you are happy with what you see;
once you are, you can ``commit'' the changes by actually installing and removing
packages.[6]

To commit your changes, use the Actions->Install/remove packages (g) command.
Selecting this command will display a preview screen describing the changes that
will be performed. This screen is just a package list, and you can manipulate
the packages (for instance, cancelling unwanted removals) in the same way that
you could in the main list.

When you are done, use Views->Close (q) to cancel the installation, or use
Actions->Install/remove packages (g) to proceed. aptitude will download any
files that need to be downloaded, then prompt you to continue with the
installation. When you select ``Continue'', the installations and removals will
commence.

Packages that are downloaded by aptitude are placed in a cache directory
(typically /var/cache/apt/archives). Normally, they are just left in this
directory ad infinitum. To delete all the files in this directory, use Actions-
>Clean package cache; to delete only files which cannot be downloaded again (ie,
obsolete packages), use Actions->Clean obsolete files.


Managing automatically installed packages

To install one package, it is often necessary to install several others (to
fulfill its dependencies). For instance, if you wish to install the clanbomber
package, you must also install the package libclanlib2. If you remove clanbomber
again, you probably no longer need the libclanlib2 package; aptitude will
attempt to detect this and automatically remove the libclanlib2 package.

It works like this: when you install a package, aptitude will automatically
install any other packages on which it depends. These packages are marked as
having been ``automatically installed''; aptitude will monitor them and remove
them when they are no longer depended upon by any manually installed package [7]
. They will appear in the preview as ``packages being removed because they are
no longer used.''

As with any automatic process, there is a potential for things to go haywire.
For instance, even if a package was automatically installed to start with, it
might turn out to be useful in its own right. You can cancel the ``automatic''
flag at any time by pressing m; if the package is already being removed, you can
use Package->Install (+) to cancel the removal and clear the ``automatic'' flag.


Search Patterns

When you search for a package or set a display limit in aptitude, the string you
enter is known as a ``search pattern''. While the most basic usage of search
patterns is to match packages by name, aptitude allows you to create much more
complex searches.

A search pattern consists of one or more conditions (sometimes known as
``terms''); packages match the pattern if they match all of its terms. Terms
generally start with a tilde character (``~''), followed by a character
identifying the type of term, and then any additional text required by the term.

Most textual searches (for package names, descriptions, etc) are performed using
case-insensitive regular expressions. This means that you must backslash-escape
regular expression metacharacters [8] in searches (for instance, to find
``g++'', you should use the pattern ``g\+\+'').

The following types of terms are available:



  name
      Matches packages whose names match the regular expression name. This is
      the ``default'' search mode and is used for patterns that don't start with
      ~.


       [Note]  Note

               To match packages whose names contain several different
               substrings, use the ~n matcher (described below); for instance,
               ``~napti~ntude''.



  !term
      Matches packages which do not match the term term. For instance, ``!~b''
      selects packages that are not ``broken''.


       [Note]  Note

               To include a ``!'' in a regular expression, it must be
               ``escaped'' to prevent aptitude from considering it part of a NOT
               term: ``~!''.



  term1 | term2
      Matches packages that match either term1 or term2.


       [Note]  Note

               To use the character ``|'' in a regular expression, it must be
               ``escaped'' to prevent aptitude from creating an OR term from it:
               ``~|''.



  (term)
      Matches term; this is useful to explicitly select the grouping of complex
      expressions. For instance, ``~D(perl|python)'' matches any package that
      depends on a package whose name contains either perl or python.


  ~Aarchive
      Matches packages which are available from an archive that matches the
      regular expression archive. For instance, ``~Atesting'' matches any
      package available from the testing archive.


  ~aaction
      Matches packages on which the given action is going to be performed.
      action can be ``install'', ``upgrade'', ``remove'', ``purge'', or
      ``hold''.


  ~Btype
      Matches packages which have an unfulfilled (``broken'') dependency of the
      given type. type can be ``depends'', ``predepends'', ``recommends'',
      ``suggests'', ``conflicts'', or ``replaces''.


  ~b
      Matches packages that are ``broken'': they have an unfulfilled dependency,
      predependency, or conflict.


  ~Cterm
      Matches packages which conflict with a package matching the given term.
      For instance, ``~C~mdburrows@debian.org'' matches any package which
      conflicts with a package I maintain.


  ~c
      Matches packages which have been removed, but whose configuration files
      remain on the system (ie, they were removed but not purged).


  ~D[type:]term
      type may be either ``provides'' or one of the dependency types given in
      the documentation of ~B.  If type is not present, it defaults to depends.

      If type is ``provides'', matches packages that provide a package matching
      term (the equivalent of ~P). Otherwise, matches packages which declare a
      dependency of type type upon a package which matches term.


  ~ddescription
      Matches packages whose description matches the regular expression
      description.


  ~E
      Matches Essential packages.


  ~F
      This term does not match any package (``F'' stands for ``false''). [9]


  ~g
      Matches packages which are not installed, or which were automatically
      installed and are not depended upon by any installed package.


  ~i
      Matches packages which are currently installed.


  ~M
      Matches packages which were automatically installed.


  ~mmaintainer
      Matches packages whose Maintainer field matches the regular expression
      maintainer. For instance, ``~mjoeyh'' will find all packages maintained by
      Joey Hess.


  ~N
      Matches packages which are ``new''.


  ~nname
      Matches packages whose name matches the regular expression name. For
      instance, most of the packages that match ``~n^lib'' are libraries of one
      sort or another.


  ~Oorigin
      Matches packages whose origin matches the regular expression origin. For
      instance, ``!~Odebian'' will find any unofficial packages on your system
      (packages not from the Debian archive).


  ~Pterm
      Matches packages which provide a package that matches the name. For
      instance, ``~Pmail-transport-agent'' will match all the packages that
      provide ``mail-transport-agent''.


  ~ppriority
      Matches packages whose priority is priority; priority must be extra,
      important, optional, required, or standard. For instance, ``~prequired''
      matches packages whose priority is ``required''.


  ~R[type:]term
      type may be either ``provides'' or one of the dependency types given in
      the documentation of ~B.  If type is not present, it defaults to depends.

      If type is ``provides'', matches packages whose name is provided by a
      package matching term. Otherwise, matches packages which a package
      matching term declares a dependency of type type upon.


  ~ssection
      Matches packages whose section matches the regular expression section.


  ~T
      This term matches any package. For instance, ``~i~P~T'' matches installed
      packages which are provided by any package.


  ~U
      This term matches any installed package which can be upgraded.


  ~Vversion
      Matches any package whose version matches the regular expression version.
      For instance, ``~Vdebian'' matches packages whose version contains
      ``debian''.


       [Note]  Note

               If several versions of the package are available, which version
               is considered depends on context; however, it is usually either
               the current version or the candidate version.



  ~v
      Matches any package which is purely virtual: that is, its name is provided
      by a package or mentioned in a dependency, but no package of that name
      exists. For instance, ``~v!~P~T'' matches packages which are virtual and
      are not provided by any package: ie, packages which are depended upon but
      do not exist.



Customizing aptitude


Customizing the Package List

The package list can be heavily customized: how packages are displayed, how the
package hierarchy is formed, how packages are sorted, and even how the display
is organized are all open to change.


Customizing how packages are displayed

This section describes how to configure the contents and format of the package
list, status line, and header line.

The format of each of these locations is defined by a ``format string''. A
format string is a string of text containing %-escapes such as %p, %S, and so
on. The resulting output is created by taking the text and replacing the %-
escapes according to their meanings (given below).

A %-escape can either have a fixed size, in which case it is always replaced by
the same amount of text (with extra space characters added to fill it out as
necessary), or it can be ``expandable'', meaning that it takes up the space that
is not claimed by fixed-size columns. If there are several expandable columns,
the extra space is divided evenly between them.

All %-escapes come with a default size and/or expandability. The size of a %-
escape can be changed by writing it between the % and the character identifying
the escape; for instance, %20V generates the candidate version of the package,
20 characters wide.

If you want a particular %-escape to be expandable, even though it normally has
a fixed width, place a pound sign (ie, ``#'') immediately after it. For
instance, to display the candidate version of a package, no matter how long it
is, use the format string %V#. You can also place # after something that is not
a %-escape; aptitude will ``expand'' the text preceding the # by inserting extra
spaces after it.

The configuration variables Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format, Aptitude::UI::
Package-Status-Format, and Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format define the
default formats the package list, the header at the top of the package list, and
the status line below the package list respectively.

The following %-escapes are available in format strings:


 [Note]  Note

         Some of the descriptions below refer to ``the package''. In the GUI,
         this is either the package being displayed or the currently selected
         package; in the command-line search, this is the package being
         displayed.



Escape Name                  Default size      Expandable Description

                                                          This is not really an
                                                          escape; it simply
%%     Literal %             1                 No         inserts a percent sign
                                                          into the output at the
                                                          point at which it
                                                          occurs.

                                                          A single-character
                                                          flag summarizing any
                                                          action to be performed
%a     Action Flag           1                 No         on the package, as
                                                          described in
                                                          Figure 2.9, ``Values
                                                          of the ``action''
                                                          flag''.

                                                          A somewhat more
                                                          verbose description of
%A     Action                10                No         the action to be
                                                          performed on the
                                                          package.

                                                          If there are no broken
                                                          packages, produces
                                                          nothing. Otherwise,
%B     Broken Count          12                No         produces a string such
                                                          as ``Broken: 10''
                                                          describing the number
                                                          of broken packages.

                                                          A single-character
                                                          flag summarizing the
                                                          current state of the
%c     Current State Flag    1                 No         package, as described
                                                          in Figure 2.8,
                                                          ``Values of the
                                                          ``current state''
                                                          flag''.

                                                          A more verbose
%C     Current State         11                No         description of the
                                                          current state of the
                                                          package.

%d     Description           40                Yes        The package's short
                                                          description.

                                                          The size of the
%D     Package Size          6                 No         package file
                                                          containing the
                                                          package.

                                                          The name of the
%H     Hostname              15                No         computer on which
                                                          aptitude is running.

                                                          Displays the highest
                                                          priority assigned to a
                                                          package version; for
%i     Pin priority          4                 No         packages, displays the
                                                          priority of the
                                                          version which will be
                                                          forced to be installed
                                                          (if any).

                                                          The (estimated) amount
%I     Installed Size        6                 No         of space the package
                                                          takes up on disk.

%m     Maintainer            30                Yes        The maintainer of the
                                                          package.

                                                          If the package is
                                                          automatically
%M     Automatic Flag        1                 No         installed, outputs
                                                          ``A''; otherwise,
                                                          outputs nothing.

                             The length of                Outputs the version of
%n     Program Version       ``0.2.15.9''.     No         the program, currently
                                                          ``0.2.15.9''.

                             The length of the            Outputs the program
%N     Program Name          program name.     No         name; usually
                                                          ``aptitude''.

                                                          If no packages are
                                                          going to be installed,
                                                          outputs nothing.
                                                          Otherwise, outputs a
                                                          string describing the
                                                          total size of all the
%o     Download Size         15                No         package files which
                                                          will be installed (an
                                                          estimate of how much
                                                          needs to be
                                                          downloaded); for
                                                          instance, ``DL size:
                                                          1000B''.

                                                          Outputs the name of
                                                          the package. When a
                                                          package is displayed
%p     Package Name          30                Yes        in a tree context, the
                                                          name of the package
                                                          will be indented, if
                                                          possible, according to
                                                          its depth in the tree.

%P     Priority              9                 No         Outputs the priority
                                                          of the package.

                                                          Outputs the
                                                          approximate number of
%r     Reverse Depends Count 2                 No         installed packages
                                                          which depend upon the
                                                          package.

                                                          Outputs an abbreviated
                                                          description of the
%R     Abbreviated Priorty   3                 No         package's priority:
                                                          for instance,
                                                          ``Important'' becomes
                                                          ``Imp''.

%s     Section               10                No         Outputs the section of
                                                          the package.

%t     Archive               10                Yes        The archive in which
                                                          the package is found.

                                                          Outputs ``*'' if the
%T     Tagged                1                 No         package is tagged,
                                                          nothing otherwise.[10]

                                                          If the scheduled
                                                          actions will alter the
                                                          amount of space used
                                                          on the disk, outputs a
%u     Disk Usage Change     30                No         description of the
                                                          change in disk space;
                                                          for instance, ``Will
                                                          use 100M of disk
                                                          space.''

                                                          Outputs the currently
                                                          installed version of
%v     Current Version       10                No         the package, or <none>
                                                          if the package is not
                                                          currently installed.

                                                          Outputs the version of
                                                          the package which
                                                          would be installed if
%V     Candidate Version     10                No         Package->Install (+)
                                                          were issued on the
                                                          package, or <none> if
                                                          the package is not
                                                          currently installed.

                                                          Outputs how much
                                                          additional space will
%Z     Size Change           7                 No         be used or how much
                                                          space will be freed by
                                                          installing, upgrading,
                                                          or removing a package.



Customizing the package hierarchy

The package hierarchy is generated by a grouping_policy: rules describing how
the hierarchy should be built. The grouping policy describes a ``pipeline'' of
rules; each rule can discard packages, create sub-hierarchies in which packages
reside, or otherwise manipulate the tree. The configuration items Aptitude::UI::
Default-Grouping and Aptitude::UI::Default-Preview-Grouping set the grouping
policies for newly created package lists and preview screens, respectively. You
can set the grouping policy for the current package list by pressing G.

The grouping policy is described by a comma-separated list of rules:
rule1,rule2,.... Each rule consists of the name of the rule, possibly followed
by arguments: for instance, versions or section(subdir). Whether arguments are
required and how many arguments are required (or allowed) depends on the type of
rule.

Rules can be non-terminal or terminal. A non-terminal rule will process a
package by generating some part of the hierarchy, then passing the package on to
a later rule. A terminal rule, on the other hand, will also generate part of the
tree (typically items corresponding to the package), but does not pass its
package to a later rule. If no terminal rule is specified, aptitude will use the
default rule, which is to create the standard ``package items''.




  action


      Groups packages according to the action scheduled on them; packages that
      are not upgradable and will be unchanged are ignored. This is the grouping
      that is used in preview trees.



  deps


      This is a terminal rule.

      Creates standard package items which can be expanded to reveal the
      dependencies of the package.



  filter(missing)


      Discards packages that exist only due to dependencies: ie, packages that
      are not installed, are not provided by any package, and are virtual.



  firstchar


      Groups packages based on the first character of their name.



  hier


      Groups packages according to an extra data file describing a ``hierarchy''
      of packages.



  priority


      Groups packages according to their priority.



  section[(mode[,passthrough])]


      Groups packages according to their Section field.

      mode can be one of the following:



        none
            Group based on the whole Section field, so categories like ``non-
            free/games'' will be created.


        topdir
            Group based on the part of the Section field before the ``/''; if
            there is no /, main will be used instead.


        subdir
            Group based on the part of the Section field after the ``/''; if
            there is no /, the entire field will be used.


      If passthrough is present, packages which for some reason lack a true
      Section (for instance, virtual packages) will be passed directly to the
      next level of grouping without first being placed in sub-categories.



  status


      Groups packages into the following categories:


      * Installed

      * Not Installed

      * Security Updates

      * Upgradable

      * Obsolete

      * Virtual




  task


      Creates a tree called ``Tasks'' which contains the available tasks
      (information on tasks is read from debian-tasks.desc in the package
      tasksel). The rule following task will create its categories as siblings
      of Tasks.



  versions


      This is a terminal rule.

      Creates standard package items which can be expanded to reveal the
      versions of the package.



Customizing how packages are sorted

By default, packages in the package list are sorted by name. However, it is
often useful to sort them according to different criteria (for instance, package
size), and aptitude allows you to do just that by modifying the sorting_policy.

Like the grouping policy described in the previous section, the sorting policy
is a comma-separated list. Each item in the list is the name of a sorting rule;
if packages are ``equal'' according to the first rule, the second rule is used
to sort them, and so on. Placing a tilde character (~) in front of a rule
reverses the usual meaning of that rule. For instance, priority,~name will sort
packages by priority, but packages with the same priority will be placed in
reverse order according to name.

To change the sorting policy for an active package list, press S.

The available rules are:



  installsize
      Sorts packages by the estimated amount of size they require when
      installed.


  name
      Sorts packages by name.


  priority
      Sorts packages by priority.



Customizing keybindings

The keys used to activate commands in aptitude can be customized in the
configuration file. Every command has an associated configuration variable under
Aptitude::UI::Keybindings; to change the keystroke bound to a command, just set
the corresponding variable to the keystroke. For instance, to make the key s
perform a search, set Aptitude::UI::Keybindings::Search to ``s''. You can
require the Control key to be pressed by placing ``C-'' in front of the key: for
instance, using ``C-s'' instead of ``s'' would bind Search to Control+s instead
of s. Finally, you can bind a command to several keys at once using a comma-
separated list: for instance, using ``s,C-s'' would cause both s and Control+s
to perform a search.

The following commands can be bound to keys by setting the variable Aptitude::
UI::Keybindings::command, where command is the name of the command to be bound:

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Command               |Default       |Description                             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Move to the beginning of the current    |
|Begin                 |home,C-a      |display: to the top of a list, or to the|
|                      |              |left of a text entry field.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|BugReport             |B             |Reports a bug in the currently selected |
|                      |              |package, using reportbug.               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Cancels the current interaction: for    |
|Cancel                |C-g,escape,C-[|instance, discards a dialog box or      |
|                      |              |deactivates the menu.                   |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Displays the changelog.Debian of the    |
|Changelog             |C             |currently selected package or package   |
|                      |              |version.                                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ChangePkgTreeGrouping |G             |Changes the grouping policy of the      |
|                      |              |currently active package list.          |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ChangePkgTreeLimit    |l             |Changes the limit of the currently      |
|                      |              |active package list.                    |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ChangePkgTreeSorting  |S             |Changes the sorting policy of the       |
|                      |              |currently active package list.          |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ClearAuto             |m             |Marks the currently selected package as |
|                      |              |having been manually installed.         |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|CollapseAll           |]             |Collapses the selected tree and all its |
|                      |              |children in a hierarchical list.        |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|CollapseTree          |No binding    |Collapses the selected tree in a        |
|                      |              |hierarchical list.                      |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |In the hierarchy editor, stores the     |
|Commit                |N             |hierarchy location of the current       |
|                      |              |package and proceeds to the next        |
|                      |              |package.                                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |In dialog boxes, this is equivalent to  |
|Confirm               |enter         |pressing ``Ok''; when interacting with a|
|                      |              |status-line multiple choice question, it|
|                      |              |chooses the default option.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Cycle                 |tab           |Switches the keyboard focus to the next |
|                      |              |``widget''.                             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|CycleNext             |f6            |Switches to the next active view.       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|CyclePrev             |f7            |Switches to the previous active view.   |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DelBOL                |C-u           |Deletes all text between the cursor and |
|                      |              |the beginning of the line.              |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DelBack               |backspace,C-h |Deletes the previous character when     |
|                      |              |entering text.                          |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DelEOL                |C-k           |Deletes all text from the cursor to the |
|                      |              |end of the line.                        |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DelForward            |delete,C-d    |Deletes the character under the cursor  |
|                      |              |when entering text.                     |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Dependencies          |d             |Displays the dependencies of the        |
|                      |              |currently selected package.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |When browsing the package list, cycles  |
|DescriptionCycle      |i             |through the available views in the      |
|                      |              |information area.                       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DescriptionDown       |z             |When browsing the package list, scrolls |
|                      |              |the information area down one line.     |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DescriptionUp         |a             |When browsing the package list, scrolls |
|                      |              |the information area up one line.       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |If not in a preview screen, display the |
|DoInstallRun          |g             |preview screen [a]; if in a preview     |
|                      |              |screen, perform an install run.         |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Moves down: for instance, scrolls a text|
|Down                  |down,j        |display down or selects the next item in|
|                      |              |a list.                                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|DpkgReconfigure       |R             |Runs ``dpkg-reconfigure'' on the        |
|                      |              |currently selected package.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|EditHier              |E             |Opens the hierarchy editor.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Move to the end of the current display: |
|End                   |end,C-e       |to the bottom of a list, or to the right|
|                      |              |of a text entry field.                  |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ExpandAll             |[             |Expands the selected tree and all its   |
|                      |              |children in a hierarchical list.        |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ExpandTree            |No binding    |Expands the selected tree in a          |
|                      |              |hierarchical list.                      |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Forbids a package from being upgraded to|
|ForbidUpgrade         |F             |the currently available version (or a   |
|                      |              |particular version).                    |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Discards all information about which    |
|ForgetNewPackages     |f             |packages are ``new'' (causes the list of|
|                      |              |``new'' packages to become empty).      |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Help                  |?             |Displays the on-line help screen.       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|HistoryNext           |down,C-n      |In a line editor with history, moves    |
|                      |              |forwards in the history.                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|HistoryPrev           |up,C-p        |In a line editor with history, moves    |
|                      |              |backwards in the history.               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Hold                  |=             |Places a package on hold.               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Install               |+             |Flags a package for installation.       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Marks a single package for installation;|
|InstallSingle         |I             |all other packages are kept at their    |
|                      |              |current version.                        |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Keep                  |:             |Cancels all installation or removal     |
|                      |              |requests for a package.                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Moves left: for instance, moves one menu|
|Left                  |left,h        |to the left in the menu bar, or moves   |
|                      |              |the cursor to the left when editing     |
|                      |              |text.                                   |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |In a hierarchical list, selects the next|
|LevelDown             |K             |sibling of the currently selected item  |
|                      |              |(the next item at the same level with   |
|                      |              |the same parent).                       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |In a hierarchical list, selects the     |
|LevelUp               |J             |previous sibling of the currently       |
|                      |              |selected item (the previous item at the |
|                      |              |same level with the same parent).       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Attempts to upgrade all packages which  |
|MarkUpgradable        |U             |are not held back or forbidden from     |
|                      |              |upgrading.                              |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|MineFlagSquare        |f             |In Minesweeper, places or removes a flag|
|                      |              |on a square.                            |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|MineLoadGame          |L             |Loads a Minesweeper game.               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|MineSaveGame          |S             |Saves a Minesweeper game.               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|MineSweepSquare       |No binding    |Sweeps around the current square in     |
|                      |              |Minesweeper.                            |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|MineUncoverSquare     |No binding    |Uncovers the current square in          |
|                      |              |Minesweeper                             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Uncovers the current square in          |
|MineUncoverSweepSquare|enter         |Minesweeper if it is covered; otherwise,|
|                      |              |sweeps around it.                       |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|NextPage              |pagedown,C-f  |Moves the current display one page      |
|                      |              |forward.                                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|No                    |n[b]          |This key will select the ``no'' button  |
|                      |              |in yes/no dialog boxes.                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Parent                |^             |Selects the parent of the selected item |
|                      |              |in a hierarchical list.                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|PrevPage              |pagedown,C-f  |Moves the current display one page      |
|                      |              |backward.                               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Purge                 |_             |Flags the currently selected package to |
|                      |              |be purged.                              |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|PushButton            |space,enter   |Activates the currently selected button,|
|                      |              |or toggles a checkbox.                  |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Quit                  |q             |Close the current view.                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|QuitProgram           |Q             |Quit the entire program.                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Refresh               |C-l           |Redraws the screen from scratch.        |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Remove                |-             |Flags a package for removal.            |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ReInstall             |L             |Flags the currently selected package to |
|                      |              |be reinstalled.                         |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ReSearch              |\,n           |Repeats the last search.                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ReverseDependencies   |r             |Displays packages which depend upon the |
|                      |              |currently selected package.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Moves right: for instance, moves one    |
|Right                 |right,l       |menu to the right in the menu bar, or   |
|                      |              |moves the cursor to the right when      |
|                      |              |editing text.                           |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|SaveHier              |S             |In the hierarchy editor, saves the      |
|                      |              |current hierarchy.                      |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Search                |/             |Activate the ``search'' function of the |
|                      |              |currently active interface element.     |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|SearchBroken          |b             |In a package tree, search for the next  |
|                      |              |broken package.                         |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|SetAuto               |M             |Marks the current package as having been|
|                      |              |automatically installed.                |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ShowHideDescription   |D             |In a package list, toggles whether the  |
|                      |              |information area is visible.            |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ToggleExpanded        |entry         |Expands or collapses the currently      |
|                      |              |selected tree in a hierarchical list.   |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|ToggleMenuActive      |f10,C-space   |Activates or deactivates the main menu. |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Cancels the last action, up to when the |
|Undo                  |C-_,C-u       |program was started OR the last time you|
|                      |              |update the package lists or installed   |
|                      |              |packages.                               |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Moves up: for instance, scrolls a text  |
|Up                    |up,k          |display up or selects the previous item |
|                      |              |in a list.                              |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|                      |              |Updates the list of packages by fetching|
|UpdatePackageList     |u             |new lists from the Internet if          |
|                      |              |necessary.                              |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Versions              |v             |Displays the available versions of the  |
|                      |              |currently selected package.             |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|Yes                   |y [b]         |This key will select the ``Yes'' button |
|                      |              |in yes/no dialog boxes.                 |
|______________________|______________|________________________________________|
|[a] unless Aptitude::Display-Planned-Action is false.                         |
|                                                                              |
|[b] This default may be different in different locales.                       |
|______________________________________________________________________________|

In addition to letter keys, number keys, and punctuation, the following
``special'' keys can be bound:

 _____________________________________________________________________________
|Key name        |Description                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|a1              |The A1 key.                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|a3              |The A3 key.                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|b2              |The B2 key.                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|backspace       |The Backspace key.                                          |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|backtab         |The back-tab key                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|begin           |The Begin key (not Home)                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|break           |The ``break'' key.                                          |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|c1              |The C1 key.                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|c3              |The C3 key.                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|cancel          |The Cancel key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|create          |The Create key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|comma           |Comma (,) -- note that because commas are used to list keys,|
|                |this is the only way to bind to a comma.                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|command         |The Command key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|copy            |The Copy key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|delete          |The Delete key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|delete_line     |The ``delete line'' key.                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|down            |The ``down'' arrow key.                                     |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|end             |The End key.                                                |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|entry           |The Enter key.                                              |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|exit            |The Exit key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|f1, f2, ..., f10|The F1 through F10 keys.                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|find            |The Find key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|home            |The Home key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|insert          |The Insert key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|insert_exit     |The ``insert exit'' key.                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|clear           |The ``clear'' key.                                          |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|clear_eol       |The ``clear to end of line'' key.                           |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|clear_eos       |The ``clear to end of sceren'' key.                         |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|insert_line     |The ``insert line'' key.                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|left            |The ``left'' arrow key.                                     |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|mark            |The Mark key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|message         |The Message key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|move            |The Move key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|next            |The Next key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|open            |The Open key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|previous        |The Previous key.                                           |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|print           |The Print key.                                              |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|redo            |The Redo key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|reference       |The Reference key.                                          |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|refresh         |The Refresh key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|replace         |The Replace key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|restart         |The Restart key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|resume          |The Resume key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|return          |The Return key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|right           |The ``right'' arrow key.                                    |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|save            |The Save key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|scrollf         |The ``scroll forward'' key.                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|scrollr         |The ``scroll backwards'' key.                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|select          |The Select key.                                             |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|suspend         |The Suspend key.                                            |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|pagedown        |The ``Page Down'' key.                                      |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|pageup          |The ``Page Up'' key.                                        |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|space           |The Space key                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|tab             |The Tab key                                                 |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|undo            |The Undo key.                                               |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|
|up              |The ``up'' arrow key.                                       |
|________________|____________________________________________________________|

In addition to binding keys globally, it is possible to change key bindings for
one particular part (or domain) of the program: for instance, to make Tab the
equivalent of the right arrow key in menu bars, set Aptitude::UI::Keybindings::
Menubar::Right to ``tab,right''. The following domains are available:

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Domain       |Description                                                     |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|EditLine     |Used by line-editing widgets, such as the entry field in a      |
|             |``search'' dialog.                                              |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Menu         |Used by drop-down menus.                                        |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Menubar      |Used by the menu bar at the top of the screen.                  |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Minesweeper  |Used by the Minesweeper mode.                                   |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|MinibufChoice|Used by the multiple-choice prompts that appear if you have     |
|             |chosen to have some prompts appear in the status line.          |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Pager        |Used when displaying a file on disk (for instance, the help     |
|             |text).                                                          |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|PkgNode      |Used by packages, trees of packages, package versions, and      |
|             |package dependencies when they appear in package lists.         |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|PkgTree      |Used by package lists.                                          |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Table        |Used by tables of widgets (for instance, dialog boxes).         |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|TextLayout   |Used by formatted text displays, such as package descriptions.  |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|
|Tree         |Used by all tree displays (including package lists, for which it|
|             |can be overridden by PkgTree).                                  |
|_____________|________________________________________________________________|


Customizing colors

The colors aptitude uses to display various things on the screen can be
customized to your liking. To change the color of the user interface element
elt, you set the configuration key Aptitude::UI::Colors::elt to a group of two
elements: the foreground color and the background color. In other words, to make
broken packages red-on-black instead of black-on-red, put this in the
configuration file:


Aptitude::UI::Colors::PkgBroken {red; black;};


The available colors are black, blue, cyan, green, magenta, red, white, and
yellow [11] . You can cause the element to appear in bold text by placing
``bold'' in front of the foreground color; for instance, boldwhite. Finally, you
can enter integers, which will be directly used as text attributes.

Putting it all together, a simple, if extremely ugly, redefinition of some
colors would look like this:


Aptitude::UI::Colors {
DefaultWidgetBackground {boldwhite; magenta;};
ScreenStatusColor {green; cyan;};
ScreenHeaderColor {red; yellow;};
Progress {cyan; white;};
};


This would result in the following display:

Sadly, you are using a non-graphical viewer, and this eye-watering display
cannot be faithfully represented in plain text.

The colors that can be customized are shown in Figure 2.10, ``Customizable
colors in aptitude''. The default for each color is given as a pair
foreground,background.

Figure 2.10. Customizable colors in aptitude

 ______________________________________________________________________________
|Color                  |Default       |Description                            |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|Bullet                 |yellow,black  |The color used to display the bullets  |
|                       |              |in bulleted lists.                     |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to draw blank areas of  |
|DefaultWidgetBackground|white,black   |the screen, and the default color used |
|                       |              |to display text.                       |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|DepBroken              |black,red     |The color used to display unfulfilled  |
|                       |              |dependencies.                          |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to indicate that a file |
|DownloadHit            |black,green   |was ``hit'': ie, it was checked but is |
|                       |              |unchanged, so it won't be donloaded.   |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|DownloadProgress       |black,yellow  |The color used to display the progress |
|                       |              |indicator for a download.              |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|Error                  |boldwhite,red |The color used to display error        |
|                       |              |messages.                              |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|HighlightedMenuBar     |boldwhite,blue|The color used to display the currently|
|                       |              |selected menu in the menu bar.         |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|HighlightedMenuEntry   |boldblue,white|The color used to display the currently|
|                       |              |selected choice in a menu.             |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|MediaChange            |boldyellow,red|The color used when asking the user to |
|                       |              |change CDs.                            |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|MenuBar                |boldblue,white|The color used to display the menu bar.|
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|MenuBorder             |boldwhite,blue|The color used to draw borders around  |
|                       |              |menus.                                 |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to display the choices  |
|MenuEntry              |white,blue    |in a menu. This will be changed to     |
|                       |              |boldface when drawing hotkeys.         |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|MineBombColor          |boldred,black |The color used to display bombs in     |
|                       |              |Minesweeper.                           |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|MineFlagColor          |boldred,black |The color used to display flags in     |
|                       |              |Minesweeper.                           |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|PkgBroken              |black,red     |The color used to display packages     |
|                       |              |which have unfulfilled dependencies.   |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|PkgToHold              |black,white   |The color used to display packages     |
|                       |              |which are on hold.                     |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to display packages     |
|PkgToInstall           |black,green   |which are being installed (not         |
|                       |              |upgraded) or reinstalled.              |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|PkgToRemove            |black,magenta |The color used to display a package    |
|                       |              |which will be removed or purged.       |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|PkgToUpgrade           |black,cyan    |The color used to display a package    |
|                       |              |which will be upgraded.                |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to display progress     |
|Progress               |blue,yellow   |indicators such as the one that appears|
|                       |              |while the package cache is being       |
|                       |              |loaded.                                |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|                       |              |The color used to display a screen     |
|ScreenHeaderColor      |boldwhite,blue|header (information at the top of the  |
|                       |              |screen).                               |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|
|ScreenStatusColor      |boldwhite,blue|The color used to display a status line|
|                       |              |at the bottom of the screen.           |
|_______________________|______________|_______________________________________|


Customizing the display layout

It is possible to rearrange the aptitude package list by making suitable
modifications to the configuration file.


Display Elements

The layout is stored in the configuration group Aptitude::UI::Default-Package-
View, and consists of a list of display elements:


Name Type {
  Row row;
  Column column;
  Width width;
  Height height;

  additional_options...
};


This creates a display element named Name; the type of element created is
determined by Type. The Row, Column, Width, and Height options must be present;
they determine where the display element is placed. (see below for a detailed
explanation of how display elements are arranged)

For examples of how to change the display layout, see the theme definitions in
the file /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults.

The following types of display elements are available:



  Description
      This display element will contain the ``information area'' (typically a
      description of the currently selected package).

      The option PopUpDownKey gives the name of a keyboard command which will
      cause the display element to be shown or hidden. For instance, setting
      this to ShowHideDescription will give the current display element the same
      behavior as the default information area. The option PopUpDownLinked gives
      the name of another display element; the current element will be shown or
      hidden whenever the other element is.


  MainWidget
      This is a placeholder for the ``main'' display element: typically this is
      the list of packages. A display layout must contain exactly one MainWidget
      element: no more, no less.


  Static
      A region of the screen which displays some text, possibly containing
      formatting codes as described in the section called ``Customizing how
      packages are displayed''. The text to display can be given in the Columns
      option, or it can be stored in another configuration variable specified by
      the ColumnsCfg option. The color of the text is determined by the color
      named by the Color option.

      Static items can be displayed and hidden in the same way as Description
      items, using the PopUpDownKey and PopUpDownLinked options.



Placement of display elements

The display elements are arranged in a ``table''. The upper-left corner of an
element is in the cell given by its Row and Column options (typically starting
from row 0 and column 0, but this is not required). The width of an element in
cells is given by its Width option, and its height is given by its Height
option.

Once the display elements are arranged and have been given an initial amount of
space on the screen, there is likely to be space left over. If there is extra
vertical space, each row containing a display element whose RowExpand option is
true will be allocated a share of the extra space; similarly, if there is extra
horizontal space, each column containing a display element whose ColExpand
option is true will be allocated a share of the extra space.

In the event that there is not enough space, every row and column whose widgets
all have their RowShrink or ColShrink options set to true will be shrunk. If
this is not enough, all rows and columns are shrunk to fit into the available
space.

If a display element is not expanded, but its row or column is, its alignment is
determined by the RowAlign and ColAlign options. Setting them to Left, Right,
Top, Bottom, or Center will tell aptitude where to place the element within the
row or column.

For instance, the following configuration group creates a static element named
``Header'', which is three cells wide and will expand horizontally but not
vertically. It has the same color as other header lines and uses the standard
display format for header lines:


Header Static {
  Row 0;
  Column 0;
  Width 3;
  Height 1;

  ColExpand true;
  ColAlign Center;

  RowAlign Center;

  Color ScreenHeaderColor;
  ColumnsCfg HEADER;
};



Display layout option reference

The following options are available for display elements:



  ColAlign alignment;
      alignment must be either Left, Right, or Center. If the row containing the
      current display element is wider than the element itself and ColExpand is
      false, the element will be placed within the row according to the value of
      alignment.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to Left.


  ColExpand true|false;
      If this option is set to true, the column containing this display element
      will be allocated a share of any extra horizontal space that is available.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to false.


  Color colorname;
      This option applies to Static elements. colorname is the name of a color
      (for instance, ScreenStatusColor) which should be used as the ``default''
      color for this display element.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to DefaultWidgetBackground.


  ColShrink true|false;
      If this option is set to true on each element in a column and there is not
      enough horizontal space, the column will be shrunk as necessary to fit the
      available space. Note that a column may be shrunk even if ColShrink is
      false; it simply indicates that aptitude should try shrinking a particular
      column before shrinking other columns.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to false.


  Column column;
      Specifies the leftmost column containing this display element.


  Columns format;
      This option applies to Static display elements for which the ColumnsCfg
      option is not set. It sets the displayed contents of the status item; it
      is a format string as described in the section called ``Customizing how
      packages are displayed''.


  ColumnsCfg HEADER|STATUS|name;
      This option applies to Static display elements. It sets the display format
      of the current element to the value of another configuration variable: if
      it is HEADER or STATUS, the options Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format
      and Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format, repectively, are used; otherwise,
      the option name is used.

      If this option is not present, the value of the Columns option is used to
      control the contents of the static item.


  Height height;
      Specifies the height of the current display element.


  PopUpDownKey command;
      This option applies to Description and Static display elements.

      command is the name of a keyboard command (for instance,
      ShowHideDescription). When this key is pressed, the display element will
      be hidden if it is visible, and displayed if it is hidden.


  PopUpDownLinked element;
      This option applies to Description and Static display elements.

      element is the name of a display element. When element is displayed, the
      current element will also be displayed; when element is hidden, the
      current element will also be hidden.


  Row row;
      Specifies the uppermost row containing this display element.


  RowAlign alignment;
      alignment must be either Top, Bottom, or Center. If the row containing the
      current display element is taller than the element itself and RowExpand is
      false, the element will be placed within the row according to the value of
      alignment.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to Top.


  RowExpand true|false;
      If this option is set to true, the row containing this display element
      will be allocated a share of any extra vertical space that is available.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to false.


  RowShrink true|false;
      If this option is set to true on each element in a row and there is not
      enough vertical space, the row will be shrunk as necessary to fit the
      available space. Note that a row may be shrunk even if RowShrink is false;
      it simply indicates that aptitude should try shrinking a particular row
      before shrinking other rows.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to false.


  Visible true|false;
      If set to false, this display element will initially be hidden. Presumably
      only useful in conjunction with PopUpDownKey and/or PopUpDownLinked.

      If this option is not present, it defaults to true.


  Width width;
      Specifies the width of the current display element.



Configuration file reference


Configuration file format

In its basic form, aptitude's configuration file is a list of options and their
values. Each line of the file should have the form ``Option Value;'': for
instance, the following line in the configuration file sets the option
Aptitude::Theme to ``Dselect''.


Aptitude::Theme "Dselect";


An option can ``contain'' other options if they are written in curly braces
between the option and the semicolon following it, like this:


Aptitude::UI {
  Package-Status-Format "";
  Package-Display-Format "";
};


An option that contains other options is sometimes called a group. In fact, the
double colons that appear in option names are actually a shorthand way of
indicating containment: the option Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping is contained
in the group Aptitude::UI, which itself is contained in the group Aptitude.
Thus, if you wanted to, you could set this option to "" as follows:


Aptitude {
  UI {
    Default-Grouping "";
  };
};


For more information on the format of the configuration file, see the manual
page apt.conf(5).


Locations of configuration files

aptitude's configuration is read from the following sources, in order:


  1. The user's configuration file, ~/.aptitude/config. This file is overwritten
     when the user modifies settings in the Options menu.

  2. The system configuration file, /etc/apt/apt.conf.

  3. Default values stored in /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults.

  4. Default values built into the program.


When an option is being checked, these sources are searched in order, and the
first one that provides a value for the option is used. For instance, setting an
option in /etc/apt/apt.conf will override aptitude's defaults for that option,
but will not override user settings in ~/.aptitude/config.


Available configuration options

The following configuration options are used by aptitude. Note that these are
not the only available configuration options; options used by the underlying apt
system are not listed here. See the manual pages apt(8) and apt.conf(5) for
information on apt options.

Option:Dir::Aptitude::state

Default:/var/lib/aptitude

Description: The directory in which aptitude's persistent state information is
stored.

Option:Aptitude::Allow-Null-Upgrade

Default:false

Description: Normally, if you try to start an install run when no actions will
be performed, aptitude will print a warning and return to the package list. If
this option is true, aptitude will continue to the preview screen whenever there
are upgradable packages, rather than displaying a reminder about the Actions-
>Mark Upgradable (U) command.

Option:Aptitude::Autoclean-After-Update

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clean up obsolete files (see
Actions->Clean obsolete files) every time you update the package list.

Option:Aptitude::Auto-Install

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically attempt to
fulfill the dependencies of a package when you select it for installation.

Option:Aptitude::Auto-Fix-Broken

Default:true

Description: If this option is false, aptitude will ask for permission before
attempting to fix any broken packages.

Option:Aptitude::Auto-Upgrade

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically flag all
upgradable packages for upgrade when the program starts, as if you had issued
the command Actions->Mark Upgradable (U).

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-Prompt

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this is set, aptitude will always prompt
before starting to install or remove packages, even if the prompt would normally
be skipped. This is equivalent to the -P command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-Yes

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will act as
if the user had answered ``yes'' to every prompt, causing most prompts to be
skipped. This is equivalent to the -y command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-Only

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will
download package files but not install them. This is equivalent to the -
d command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will be more
aggressive when attempting to fix the dependencies of broken packages. This is
equivalent to the -f command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Format

Default:%c%a%M %p# - %d#

Description: This is a format string, as described in the section called
``Customizing how packages are displayed'', which is used to display the results
of a command-line search. This is equivalent to the -F command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Width

Default:

Description: This option gives the width in characters for which command-line
search results should be formatted. If it is empty (the default; ie, ""), search
results will be formatted for the current terminal size, or for an 80-column
display if the terminal size cannot be determined.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display
a brief summary of the dependencies (if any) relating to a package's state. This
is equivalent to the -D command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Versions

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display
the version of a package that is being installed or removed. This is equivalent
to the -V command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-Changes

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display
the expected change in the amount of space used by each package. This is
equivalent to the -Z command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Simulate

Default:false

Description: In command-line mode, causes aptitude to just display the actions
that would be performed (rather than actually performing them). This is
equivalent to the -s command-line option.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Visual-Preview

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will enter its visual mode to
display the preview of an installation run and to download packages.

Option:Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose

Default:0

Description: This controls how verbose the command-line mode of aptitude is.
Every occurance of the -v command-line option adds 1 to this value.

Option:Aptitude::Delete-Unused

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, automatically installed packages which are
no longer required will be automatically removed. For more information, see the
section called ``Managing automatically installed packages''.

Option:Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern

Default:

Description: If Aptitude::Delete-Unused is true, only unused packages which do
not match this pattern (see the section called ``Search Patterns'') will be
removed. If this option is set to an empty string (the default), all unused
packages will be removed.

Option:Aptitude::Display-Planned-Action

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a preview screen
before actually carrying out the actions you have requested.

Option:Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Update

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new
packages whenever the package list is updated, as if you had issued the command
Actions->Forget new packages (f)

Option:Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Install

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new
packages whenever you install, upgrade, or remove packages, as if you had issued
the command Actions->Forget new packages (f).

Option:Aptitude::Keep-Suggests

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will keep automatically installed
packages on the system as long as any installed package suggests them. For more
information, see the section called ``Managing automatically installed
packages''.

Option:Aptitude::Log

Default:/var/log/aptitude

Description: If this is set to a nonempty string, aptitude will log the package
installations, removals, and upgrades that it performs. If the value of
Aptitude::Log begins with a pipe character (ie, ``|''), the remainder of its
value is used as the name of a command into which the log will be piped: for
instance, |mail -s 'Aptitude install run' root will cause the log to be emailed
to root. To log to multiple files or commands, you may set this option to a list
of log targets.

Option:Aptitude::Pkg-Display-Limit

Default:

Description: The default filter applied to the package list; see the section
called ``Search Patterns'' for details about its format.

Option:Aptitude::Recommends-Important

Default:true

Description: If this option is true and Aptitude::Auto-Install is true,
installing a new package will also install any packages that it recommends.

Option:Aptitude::Suggests-Important

Default:false

Description: This is an obsolete option; use Aptitude::Keep-Suggests instead.
Setting this option to true has the same effect as setting Aptitude::Keep-
Suggests to true.

Option:Aptitude::Theme

Default:

Description: The theme that aptitude should use; see the section called
``Themes'' for more information.

Option:Aptitude::Track-Dselect-State

Default:true

Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will attempt to detect when
a change to a package's state has been made using dselect or dpkg: for instance,
if you remove a package using dpkg, aptitude will not try to reinstall it. Note
that this may be somewhat buggy.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Advance-On-Action

Default:false

Description: If this option is set to true, changing a package's state (for
instance, marking it for installation) will cause aptitude to advance the
highlight to the next package in the current group.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Auto-Show-Reasons

Default:true

Description: If this option is set to true, selecting a package which is broken
or which appears to be causing other packages to be broken will cause the
information area to automatically display some reasons why the breakage might be
occuring.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Colors

Default:

Description: This is a configuration group whose contents define the color
scheme of aptitude. For more information, see the section called ``Customizing
colors''.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping

Default:filter(missing),status,section(subdir,passthrough),section(topdir)

Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for package lists. See the
section called ``Customizing the package hierarchy'' for additional information
on grouping policies.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Default-Preview-Grouping

Default:action

Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for preview screens. See the
section called ``Customizing the package hierarchy'' for additional information
on grouping policies.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Description-Visible-By-Default

Default:true

Description: When a package list is first displayed, the information area (which
typically contains the long description of the current package) will be visible
if this option is true and hidden if it is false.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Default-Package-View

Default:

Description: This option is a group whose members define the default layout of
aptitude's display. See the section called ``Customizing the display layout''
for more information.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Exit-On-Last-Close'

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, closing all the active views will quit
aptitude; otherwise, aptitude will not exit until you issue the command Actions-
>Quit (Q). See the section called ``Working with multiple views'' for more
information.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Fill-Text

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will format descriptions so that
each line is exactly the width of the screen.

Option:Aptitude::UI::HelpBar

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, a line of information about important
keystrokes will be displayed at the top of the screen.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Incremental-Search

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will perform ``incremental''
searches: as you type the search pattern, it will search for the next package
matching what you have typed so far.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Keybindings

Default:

Description: This is a group whose members define the connections between
keystrokes and commands in aptitude. For more information, see the section
called ``Customizing keybindings''.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Menubar-Autohide

Default:false

Description: If this option is set to true, the menu bar will be hidden while it
is not in use.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Download-Bar

Default:false

Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will use a less obtrusive
mechanism to display the progress of downloads: a bar at the bottom of the
screen will appear which displays the current download status. While the
download is active, pressing q will abort it.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Prompts

Default:false

Description: If this option is true, some prompts (such as yes/no and multiple-
choice prompts) will be displayed at the bottom of the screen instead of in
dialog boxes.

Option:Aptitude::UI::New-Package-Commands

Default:true

Description: If this option is set to false, commands such as Package->Install
(+) will have the same deprecated behavior that they did in antique versions of
aptitude.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format

Default:%c%a%M %p %Z %v %V

Description: This option controls the format string used to display packages in
package lists. For more information on format strings, see the section called
``Customizing how packages are displayed''.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format

Default:%d

Description: This option controls the format string used to display the header
line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the package list and
the menu bar). For more information on format strings, see the section called
``Customizing how packages are displayed''.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format

Default:%d

Description: This option controls the format string used to display the status
line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the package list and
the information area). For more information on format strings, see the section
called ``Customizing how packages are displayed''.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Pause-After-Download

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a message after it
finishes downloading packages, asking you if you want to continue with the
installation. Otherwise, it will immediately begin installing the packages.

Option:Aptitude::Preview-Limit

Default:

Description: The default filter applied to the preview screen; see the section
called ``Search Patterns'' for details about its format.

Option:Aptitude::UI::Prompt-On-Exit

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a confirmation prompt
before shutting down.

Option:Aptitude::Warn-Not-Root

Default:true

Description: If this option is true, aptitude will detect when you need root
privileges to do something, and ask you whether you want to switch to the root
account if you aren't root already. See the section called ``Becoming root'' for
more information.


Themes

A theme in aptitude is simply a collection of settings that ``go together''.
Themes work by overriding the default values of options: if an option is not set
in the system configuration file or in your personal configuration file,
aptitude will use the setting from the current theme, if one is available,
before using the standard default value.

A theme is simply a named group under Aptitude::Themes; each configuration
option contained in the group will override the corresponding option in the
global configuration. For instance, if the Dselect theme is selected, the option
Aptitude::Themes::Dselect::Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format will override
the default value of the option Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format.

To select a theme, set the configuration option Aptitude::Theme to the name of
the theme; for instance,


Aptitude::Theme Vertical-Split;


The following themes are shipped with aptitude in /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-
defaults:



  Dselect
      This theme makes aptitude look and behave more like the legacy dselect
      package manager:


       Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
      f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
      --\ Installed Packages
        --\ Priority required
          --\ base - The Debian base system
      c   base  base-file 3.0.16      3.0.16      Debian base system
      miscellaneous fil
      c   base  base-pass 3.5.7       3.5.7       Debian base system master
      password a
      c   base  bash      2.05b-15    2.05b-15    The GNU Bourne Again SHell
      c   base  bsdutils  1:2.12-7    1:2.12-7    Basic utilities from 4.4BSD-
      Lite
      c   base  coreutils 5.0.91-2    5.0.91-2    The GNU core utilities
      c   base  debianuti 2.8.3       2.8.3       Miscellaneous utilities
      specific to
      c   base  diff      2.8.1-6     2.8.1-6     File comparison utilities
      base-files                      installed ; none
      required
      This package contains the basic filesystem hierarchy of a Debian system,
      and
      several important miscellaneous files, such as /etc/debian_version,
      /etc/host.conf, /etc/issue, /etc/motd, /etc/profile, /etc/nsswitch.conf,
      and
      others, and the text of several common licenses in use on Debian systems.








  Vertical-Split
      This theme rearranges the display: instead of the current package's
      description appearing underneath the package list, it is displayed to the
      right of the package list. This theme is useful with very wide terminals,
      and perhaps also when editing the built-in hierarchy of packages.


       Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
      f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
      aptitude 0.2.14.1
      --\ Installed Packages                  Modern computers support the
      Advanced  #
        --\ admin - Administrative utilities  Configuration and Power Interface
          --\ main - The main Debian archive  (ACPI) to allow intelligent power
      i   acpid         1.0.3-19   1.0.3-19   management on your system and to
      query
      i   alien         8.44       8.44       battery and configuration status.
      i   anacron       2.3-9      2.3-9
      i   apt-show-vers 0.07       0.07       ACPID is a completely flexible,
      totally
      i A apt-utils     0.5.25     0.5.25     extensible daemon for delivering
      ACPI
      i   apt-watch     0.3.2-2    0.3.2-2    events. It listens on a file
      i   aptitude      0.2.14.1-2 0.2.14.1-2 (/proc/acpi/event) and when an
      event
      i   at            3.1.8-11   3.1.8-11   occurs, executes programs to
      handle the
      i   auto-apt      0.3.20     0.3.20     event. The programs it executes
      are
      i   cron          3.0pl1-83  3.0pl1-83  configured through a set of
      i   debconf       1.4.29     1.4.29     configuration files, which can be
      i   debconf-i18n  1.4.29     1.4.29     dropped into place by packages or
      by
      i A debootstrap   0.2.39     0.2.39     the admin.
      i A deborphan     1.7.3      1.7.3
      i   debtags       0.16       0.16       In order to use this package you
      need a
      i A defoma        0.11.8     0.11.8     recent Kernel (=>2.4.7). This can
      be
      i   discover      2.0.4-5    2.0.4-5    one including the patches on
      Utilities for using ACPI power management




Playing Minesweeper

In case you get tired of installing and removing packages, aptitude includes a
version of the classic game ``Minesweeper''. To start it, select Actions->Play
Minesweeper; the initial Minesweeper board will appear:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper                                              10/10 mines  13 seconds





                                   +--------+
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   |        |
                                   +--------+






Within the rectangle that appears on the screen are hidden ten mines. Your goal
is to determine, through intuition, logic, and luck, where those mines are,
without setting any of them off! To do this, you must uncover all the squares
that do not contain mines; in doing so, you will learn important information
regarding which squares do contain mines. Beware, however: uncovering a square
that contains a mine will set it off, ending your game immediately!

To uncover a square (and find out whether a mine is hidden there), select the
square with the arrow keys and press Enter:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper                                             10/10 mines  387 seconds





                                   +--------+
                                   | 2......|
                                   | 2111...|
                                   |    1...|
                                   | 1111...|
                                   |11...111|
                                   |...113  |
                                   |1122    |
                                   |        |
                                   +--------+






As you can see, some of the hidden (blank) parts of the board have been revealed
in this screenshot. The squares containing a . are squares which are not next to
any mines; the numbers in the remaining squares indicate how many mines they are
next to.

If you think you know where a mine is, you can place a ``flag'' on it. To do
this, select the suspected square and press f. For instance, in the screenshot
below, I decided that the square on the left-hand side of the board looked
suspicious...


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper                                              9/10 mines  961 seconds





                                   +--------+
                                   | 2......|
                                   | 2111...|
                                   |    1...|
                                   |F1111...|
                                   |11...111|
                                   |...113  |
                                   |1122    |
                                   |        |
                                   +--------+






As you can see, an F appeared in the selected square. It is no longer possible
to uncover this square, even accidentally, until the flag is removed (by
pressing f again). Once you have placed flags on all the mines that are next to
a square (for instance, the squares labelled 1 next to the flag above), you can
``sweep'' around the square. This is just a convenient shortcut to uncover all
the squares next to it (except those containing a flag, of course). For
instance, sweeping around the 1 above:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper                                              9/10 mines  2290
seconds





                                   +--------+
                                   | 2......|
                                   | 2111...|
                                   |221 1...|
                                   |F1111...|
                                   |11...111|
                                   |...113  |
                                   |1122    |
                                   |        |
                                   +--------+






Luckily (or was it luck?), my guess about the location of that mine was correct.
If I had been wrong, I would have lost immediately:


 Actions  Undo  Package  Search  Options  Views  Help
f10: Menu  ?: Help  q: Quit  u: Update  g: Download/Install/Remove Pkgs
Minesweeper                                   Minesweeper    Lost in 2388
seconds





                                   +--------+
                                   |^2......|
                                   |^2111...|
                                   |221^1...|
                                   |^1111...|
                                   |11...111|
                                   |...113^ |
                                   |1122* ^ |
                                   | ^ ^   ^|
                                   +--------+






When you lose, the locations of all the mines are revealed: unexploded mines are
indicated by a caret symbol (^), and the one you ``stepped on'' is indicated by
an asterisk (*).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[6]This is sometimes referred to as an ``install run'', even though you might be
upgrading or removing packages in addition to installing them.

[7] More precisely: they will be removed when there is no path via Depends,
PreDepends, or Recommends to them from a manually installed package. If
Aptitude::Keep-Suggests is true, a Suggests relationship is also enough to keep
a package installed.

[8] Regular expression metacharacters include: ``+'', ``-'', ``.'', ``('',
``)'', ``|'', ``['', ``]'', ``^'', ``$'', and ``?''. Note that some of these are
also aptitude metacharacters, so if you want to type (for instance) a literal
``|'', it must be double-escaped: ``\~|''.

[9] This is provided largely for symmetry with ~T.

[10]Currently tagging is not supported; this escape is for future use.

[11] Which becomes brown on some terminals when it is the background color.


Chapter 3. aptitude FAQ


  ``What ... is your name?''                                    

  ``I am Arthur, King of the Britons.''

  ``What ... is your quest?''

  ``I seek the Holy Grail!''

  ``What ... is the airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow?''

  ``What do you mean? An African or a European sparrow?''

  ``Huh? I ... I don't kn---AAAAAUUUGGGHH!''

                              -- Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grail




  3.1. How can I find exactly one package by name?

  3.2. How can I find broken packages?

  3.3. I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?


3.1. How can I find exactly one package by name?

     As mentioned in the section called ``Search Patterns'', when you search for
     a package by name, the text you enter is actually a regular expression.
     Thus, the search pattern ``^name$'' will match only a package named name.

     For instance, you can find apt (but not aptitude or synaptic) by entering
     ^apt$; you can find g++ (but not g++-2.95 or g++-3.0) by entering ^g\+\+$.

3.2. How can I find broken packages?

     Use the command Search->Find Broken (b).

3.3. I want to select text, why doesn't aptitude let me disable the mouse?

     When a program running in an xterm is using the mouse, the xterm disables
     text selection. However, you can override this behavior and perform a
     selection by holding the Shift key down.



Chapter 4. Credits


  No-one remembers the singer. The song remains.  

                 -- Terry Pratchett, The_Last_Hero


This section commemorates some of the people who have contributed to aptitude
over its lifetime.


 [Note]  Note

         This section is presently rather incomplete and will likely be updated
         and expanded as time goes on (in particular, there are many missing
         translation credits due to the huge number of sources of translations
         [12]). If you think you should be on this list, please email
         <dburrows@debian.org> with an explanation of why you think so.


Translations and Internationalization



  Brazilian translation
      Andre Luis Lopes, Gustavo Silva


  Chinese translation
      Carlos Z.F. Liu


  Czech translation
      Miroslav Kure


  Danish translation
      Morten Brix Pedersen, Morten Bo Johansen


  Dutch translation
      Luk Claes


  Finnish translation
      Jaakko Kangasharju


  French translation
      Martin Quinson, Jean-Luc Coulon


  German translation
      Sebastian Schaffert, Erich Schubert, Sebastian Kapfe


  Italian translation
      Danilo Piazzalunga


  Japanese translation
      YasuoEto,


  Lithuanian translation
      Darius ?itkevicius


  Polish translation
      Michal Politowski


  Portuguese translation
      Nuno Snica, Miguel Figueiredo


  Norwegian translation
      Hvard Korsvoll


  Spanish translation
      Jordi Malloch, Ruben Porras


  Initial i18n patch
      Masato Taruishi


  i18n triaging and maintainence
      Christian Perrier


Documentation



  User's Manual
      Daniel Burrows


Programming



  Program design and implementation
      Daniel Burrows




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[12] It should be possible to compile a fairly complete list of i18n
contributors based on the ChangeLog, its references to the Debian bug tracking
system, and the revision history of aptitude, but doing so will require a large
investment of time that is not currently available.



aptitude command-line reference

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents



  aptitude - high-level interface to the package manager


Name

aptitude --; high-level interface to the package manager


Synopsis

aptitude [options...] { autoclean | clean | forget-new | update | upgrade }

aptitude [options...] { changelog | dist-upgrade | download | forbid-version |
hold | markauto | purge | reinstall | remove | show | unmarkauto } packages...

aptitude [options...] search patterns...

aptitude [-S fname] [ -u | -i ]

aptitude help


Description

aptitude is a text-based interface to the Debian GNU/Linux package system.

It allows the user to view the list of packages and to perform package
management tasks such as installing, upgrading, and removing packages. Actions
may be performed from a visual interface or from the command-line.


Command-Line Actions

The first argument which does not begin with a hyphen (``-'') is considered to
be an action that the program should perform. If an action is not specified on
the command-line, aptitude will start up in visual mode.

The following actions are available:



  install
      Install one or more packages. The packages should be listed after the
      ``install'' command; if a package name contains a tilde character (``~''),
      it will be treated as a search pattern and every package matching the
      pattern will be installed (see the section ``Search Patterns'' in the
      aptitude reference manual).

      To select a particular version of the package, append ``=version'' to the
      package name: for instance, ``aptitude install apt=0.3.1''. Similarly, to
      select a package from a particular archive, append ``/archive'' to the
      package name: for instance, ``aptitude install apt/experimental''.

      Appending ``-'', ``+'', ``_'', or ``='' to the name of a package will
      cause the package to be removed, installed, purged, or held respectively.
      This can be used, for instance, to perform multiple actions from one
      command line.

      As a special case, ``install'' with no arguments will act on any stored/
      pending actions.


       [Note]  Note

               The ``install'' command will modify aptitude's stored information
               about what actions to perform. Therefore, if you issue (e.g.) the
               command ``aptitude install foo bar'' and then abort the
               installation, you will need to run ``aptitude remove foo bar'' to
               cancel that order.



  remove, purge, hold, reinstall
      These commands are the same as ``install'', but apply the named action to
      all packages given on the command line, unless specified otherwise.

      For instance, ``aptitude remove '~ndeity''' will remove all packages whose
      name contains ``deity''.


  markauto, unmarkauto
      Mark packages as automatically installed or manually installed,
      respectively. Packages are specified in exactly the same way as for the
      ``install'' command. For instance, ``aptitude markauto '~slibs''' will
      mark all packages in the ``libs'' section as having been automatically
      installed.

      For more information on automatically installed packages, see the section
      ``Managing Automatically Installed Packages'' in the aptitude reference
      manual.


  forbid-version
      Forbid a package from being upgraded to a particular version. This will
      prevent aptitude from automatically upgrading to this version, but will
      allow automatic upgrades to future versions. By default, aptitude will
      select the version to which the package would normally be upgraded; you
      may override this selection by appending ``=version'' to the package name:
      for instance, ``aptitude forbid-version vim=1.2.3.broken-4''.

      This command is useful for avoiding broken versions of packages without
      having to set and clear manual holds. If you decide you really want the
      forbidden version after all, the ``install'' command will remove the ban.


  update
      Updates the list of available packages from the apt sources (this is
      equivalent to ``apt-get update'')


  upgrade
      Upgrades installed packages to their most recent version. Installed
      packages will not be removed unless they are unused (see the section
      ``Managing Automatically Installed Packages'' in the aptitude reference
      manual); packages which are not currently installed will not be installed.

      If a package cannot be upgraded without violating these constraints, it
      will be kept at its current version.


  forget-new
      Forgets all internal information about what packages are ``new''
      (equivalent to pressing ``f'' when in visual mode).


  search
      Searches for packages matching one of the patterns supplied on the command
      line. All packages which match any of the given patterns will be
      displayed; for instance, ``aptitude search '~N''' will list all ``new''
      packages. For more information on search patterns, see the section
      ``Search Patterns'' in the aptitude reference manual.


  show
      Displays detailed information about one or more packages, listed following
      the search command. If a package name contains a tilde character (``~''),
      it will be treated as a search pattern and all matching packages will be
      displayed (see the section ``Search Patterns'' in the aptitude reference
      manual).


  clean
      Removes all previously downloaded .deb files from the package cache
      directory (usually /var/cache/apt/archives).


  autoclean
      Removes any cached packages which can no longer be downloaded. This allows
      you to prevent a cache from growing out of control over time without
      completely emptying it.


  changelog
      Downloads and displays the Debian changelog for each of the given
      packages.

      By default, the changelog for the version which would be installed with
      ``aptitude install'' is downloaded. You can select a particular version of
      a package by appending =version to the package name; you can select the
      version from a particular archive by appending /archive to the package
      name.


  download
      Downloads the .deb file for the given package to the current directory.

      By default, the version which would be installed with ``aptitude install''
      is downloaded. You can select a particular version of a package by
      appending =version to the package name; you can select the version from a
      particular archive by appending /archive to the package name.


  help
      Displays a brief summary of the available commands and options.



Options

The following options may be used to modify the behavior of the actions
described above. Note that while all options will be accepted for all commands,
some options don't apply to particular commands and will be ignored by those
commands.



  -D, --show-deps
      Show brief summaries of why packages will be automatically installed or
      removed.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps.


  -d, --download-only
      Download packages to the package cache as necessary, but do not install or
      remove anything. By default, the package cache is stored in /var/cache/
      apt/archives.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-
      Only.


  -F format, --display-format format
      Specify the format which should be used to display output from the search
      command. For instance, passing ``%p %V %v'' for format will display a
      package's name, followed by its currently installed version and its
      available version (see the section ``Customizing how packages are
      displayed'' in the aptitude reference manual for more information).

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-
      Display-Format.


  -f
      Aggressively try to fix the dependencies of broken packages.

      This corresponds to the configuration item Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken.


  -h, --help
      Display a brief help message. Identical to the help action.


  -P, --prompt
      Always display a prompt, even when no actions other than those explicitly
      requested will be performed.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-
      Prompt.


  -R, --without-recommends
      Do not treat recommendations as dependencies when installing new packages
      (this overrides settings in /etc/apt/apt.conf and ~/.aptitude/config).

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::Recommends-
      Important


  -r, --with-recommends
      Treat recommendations as dependencies when installing new packages (this
      overrides settings in /etc/apt/apt.conf and ~/.aptitude/config).

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::Recommends-
      Important


  -s, --simulate
      Print the actions that would normally be performed, but don't actually
      perform them. This does not require root privileges.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Simulate.


  -t release, --target-release release
      Set the release from which packages should be installed. For instance,
      ``aptitude -t experimental ...'' will install packages from the
      experimental distribution unless you specify otherwise.

      This corresponds to the configuration item APT::Default-Release.


  -O order, --sort order
      Specify the order in which output from the search command should be
      displayed. For instance, passing ``installsize'' for order will list
      packages in order according to their size when installed (see the section
      ``Customizing how packages are sorted'' in the aptitude reference manual
      for more information).


  -o key=value
      Set a configuration file option directly; for instance, use -o Aptitude::
      Log=/tmp/my-log to log aptitude's actions to /tmp/my-log. For more
      information on configuration file options, see the section ``Configuration
      file reference'' in the aptitude reference manual.


  -V, --show-versions
      Show which versions of packages will be installed.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-
      Versions.


  -v, --verbose
      Causes some commands (for instance, show) to display extra information.
      This may be supplied multiple times to get more and more information.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose.


  --version
      Display the version of aptitude and some information about how it was
      compiled.


  --visual-preview
      When installing or removing packages from the command line, instead of
      displaying the usual prompt, start up the visual interface and display its
      preview screen.


  -w width, --width width
      Specify the display width which should be used for output from the search
      command (by default, the terminal width is used).

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-
      Display-Width


  -y, --assume-yes
      When a yes/no prompt would be presented, assume that the user entered
      ``yes''. In particular, suppresses the prompt that appears when
      installing, upgrading, or removing packages. Prompts for ``dangerous''
      actions, such as removing essential packages, will still be displayed.
      This option overrides -P.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-
      Yes.


  -Z
      Show how much disk space will be used or freed by the individual packages
      being installed, upgraded, or removed.

      This corresponds to the configuration option Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-
      Changes.


The following options apply to the visual mode of the program, but are primarily
for internal use; you generally won't need to use them yourself.



  -S fname
      Loads the extended state information from fname instead of the standard
      state file.


  -u
      Begins updating the package lists as soon as the program starts. You
      cannot use this option and -i at the same time.


  -i
      Displays a download preview when the program starts (equivalent to
      starting the program and immediately pressing ``g''). You cannot use this
      option and ``-u'' at the same time.



See Also

apt-get(8), apt(8), /usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/index.html

