NAME¶
apt-patterns - Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns
DESCRIPTION¶
Starting with version 2.0, APT provides support for
patterns, which can be used to query the apt cache for packages.
LOGIC PATTERNS¶
These patterns provide the basic means to combine other patterns
into more complex expressions, as well as ?true and ?false patterns.
?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN PATTERN ...
Selects objects where all specified patterns match.
?false, ~F
Selects nothing.
?not(PATTERN), !PATTERN
Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.
?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...), PATTERN | PATTERN | ...
Selects objects where at least one of the specified
patterns match.
?true, ~T
Selects all objects.
(PATTERN)
Selects the same as PATTERN, can be used to work around
precedence, for example, (~ramd64|~ri386)~nfoo
NARROWING PATTERNS¶
?all-versions(PATTERN)
Selects packages where all versions match PATTERN. When
matching versions instead, same as PATTERN.
?any-version(PATTERN)
Selects any version where the pattern matches on the
version.
For example, while ?and(?version(1),?version(2)) matches a package
which has one version containing 1 and one version containing 2,
?any-version(?and(?version(1),?version(2))) restricts the ?and to act on the
same version.
?narrow(PATTERN...)
Selects any version matching all PATTERNs, short for
?any-version(?and(PATTERN...)).
PACKAGE PATTERNS¶
These patterns select specific packages.
?architecture(WILDCARD), ~rWILDCARD
Selects packages matching the specified architecture,
which may contain wildcards using any.
?automatic, ~M
Selects packages that were installed automatically.
?broken, ~b
Selects packages that have broken dependencies.
?config-files, ~c
Selects packages that are not fully installed, but have
solely residual configuration files left.
?essential, ~E
Selects packages that have Essential: yes set in their
control file.
?exact-name(NAME)
Selects packages with the exact specified name.
?garbage, ~g
Selects packages that can be removed automatically.
?installed, ~i
Selects packages that are currently installed. Since
version 2.5.4, narrowing this pattern (see narrowing patterns above) makes it
only match installed versions (see version patterns below).
?name(REGEX), ~nREGEX
Selects packages where the name matches the given regular
expression.
?obsolete, ~o
Selects packages that no longer exist in
repositories.
?upgradable, ~U
Selects packages that can be upgraded (have a newer
candidate).
?virtual, ~v
Selects all virtual packages; that is packages without a
version. These exist when they are referenced somewhere in the archive, for
example because something depends on that name.
VERSION PATTERNS¶
These patterns select specific versions of a package.
?archive(REGEX), ~AREGEX
Selects versions that come from the archive that matches
the specified regular expression. Archive, here, means the values after a= in
apt-cache policy.
?codename(REGEX)
Selects versions that come from the codename that matches
the specified regular expression. Codename, here, means the values after n= in
apt-cache policy.
?installed, ~i
Selects package versions that are currently installed.
Versions prior to 2.5.4 only matched at the package level, hence
?any-version(?installed?version(2.0))matched even if 2.0 was not installed,
but another version was.
?origin(REGEX), ~OREGEX
Selects versions that come from the origin that matches
the specified regular expression. Origin, here, means the values after o= in
apt-cache policy.
?section(REGEX), ~sREGEX
Selects versions where the section matches the specified
regular expression.
?source-package(REGEX), ~eREGEX
Selects versions where the source package name matches
the specified regular expression.
?source-version(REGEX)
Selects versions where the source package version matches
the specified regular expression.
?version(REGEX), ~VREGEX
Selects versions where the version string matches the
specified regular expression.
?priority(NAME), ~pNAME
Selects versions where the Priority string equals the
given name.
PACKAGE RELATIONSHIP PATTERNS¶
These patterns match specific package versions that
depend/conflict with some other packages.
?depends(PATTERN), ~DPATTERN, ?pre-depends(PATTERN),
~DPre-Depends:PATTERN, ?suggests(PATTERN), ~DSuggests:PATTERN,
?conflicts(PATTERN), ~DConflicts:PATTERN, ?replaces(PATTERN),
~DReplaces:PATTERN, ?obsoletes(PATTERN), ~DObsoletes:PATTERN,
?breaks(PATTERN), ~DBreaks:PATTERN, ?enhances(PATTERN),
~DEnhances:PATTERN
Selects versions
depending/pre-depending/suggesting/conflicting/etc on/with/ packages matching
PATTERN.
?reverse-depType(PATTERN), ~RDepType:PATTERN
Opposite of ?depends and friends - selects all packages
that have reverse-dependencies (versions) matching PATTERN.
depType is one of the dependency types such as depends, so
that we don't have to repeat the entire list from the first paragraph
here.
EXAMPLES¶
apt remove ?garbage
Remove all packages that are automatically installed and
no longer needed - same as apt autoremove
apt purge ?config-files
Purge all packages that only have configuration files
left
apt list '~i !~M (~slibs|~sperl|~spython)'
List all manually-installed packages in sections matching
libs, perl, or python.
MIGRATING FROM APTITUDE¶
Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but
with some tweaks:
•Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening
parenthesis after a term, it is always assumed to be the beginning of an
argument list.
In aptitude, a syntactic form "?foo(bar)" could mean
"?and(?foo,bar)" if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this
will cause an error.
•Not all patterns are supported.
•Some additional patterns are available, for
example, for finding gstreamer codecs.
•Escaping terms with ~ is not supported.
•A trailing comma is allowed in argument
lists
•?narrow accepts infinite arguments
•foo cannot be used as a shortform for ?name(foo),
as this can cause typos to go unnoticed: Consider ?and(...,~poptional): this
requires the package to have required priority, but if you do not type the ~,
it would require the package name to contain poptional.
•Dependency types for ~D and related operators
need to be specified in the canonical case.
BUGS¶
APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please
see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1)
command.
AUTHOR¶
APT was written by the APT team
<apt@packages.debian.org>.
AUTHORS¶
Jason Gunthorpe
APT team
