apt

APT(8)                                APT                               APT(8)

NAME
       apt - command-line interface

SYNOPSIS
       apt [-h] [-o=config_string] [-c=config_file] [-t=target_release]
           [-a=architecture] {list | search | show | update |
           install pkg [{=pkg_version_number | /target_release}]...  |
           remove pkg...  | upgrade | full-upgrade | edit-sources |
           {-v | --version} | {-h | --help}}

DESCRIPTION
       apt provides a high-level commandline interface for the package
       management system. It is intended as an end user interface and enables
       some options better suited for interactive usage by default compared to
       more specialized APT tools like apt-get(8) and apt-cache(8).

       Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end user interface
       and as such only mentions the most used commands and options partly to
       not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to avoid
       overwhelming readers with a cornucopia of options and details.

       update (apt-get(8))
           update is used to download package information from all configured
           sources. Other commands operate on this data to e.g. perform
           package upgrades or search in and display details about all
           packages available for installation.

       upgrade (apt-get(8))
           upgrade is used to install available upgrades of all packages
           currently installed on the system from the sources configured via
           sources.list(5). New packages will be installed if required to
           satisfy dependencies, but existing packages will never be removed.
           If an upgrade for a package requires the removal of an installed
           package the upgrade for this package isn't performed.

       full-upgrade (apt-get(8))
           full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade but will remove
           currently installed packages if this is needed to upgrade the
           system as a whole.

       install, reinstall, remove, purge (apt-get(8))
           Performs the requested action on one or more packages specified via
           regex(7), glob(7) or exact match. The requested action can be
           overridden for specific packages by appending a plus (+) to the
           package name to install this package or a minus (-) to remove it.

           A specific version of a package can be selected for installation by
           following the package name with an equals (=) and the version of
           the package to select. Alternatively the version from a specific
           release can be selected by following the package name with a
           forward slash (/) and codename (buster, bullseye, sid ...) or suite
           name (stable, testing, unstable). This will also select versions
           from this release for dependencies of this package if needed to
           satisfy the request.

           Removing a package removes all packaged data, but leaves usually
           small (modified) user configuration files behind, in case the
           remove was an accident. Just issuing an installation request for
           the accidentally removed package will restore its function as
           before in that case. On the other hand you can get rid of these
           leftovers by calling purge even on already removed packages. Note
           that this does not affect any data or configuration stored in your
           home directory.

       autoremove (apt-get(8))
           autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically
           installed to satisfy dependencies for other packages and are now no
           longer needed as dependencies changed or the package(s) needing
           them were removed in the meantime.

           You should check that the list does not include applications you
           have grown to like even though they were once installed just as a
           dependency of another package. You can mark such a package as
           manually installed by using apt-mark(8). Packages which you have
           installed explicitly via install are also never proposed for
           automatic removal.

       satisfy (apt-get(8))
           satisfy satisfies dependency strings, as used in Build-Depends. It
           also handles conflicts, by prefixing an argument with "Conflicts:
           ".

           Example: apt satisfy "foo, bar (>= 1.0)" "Conflicts: baz, fuzz"

       search (apt-cache(8))
           search can be used to search for the given regex(7) term(s) in the
           list of available packages and display matches. This can e.g. be
           useful if you are looking for packages having a specific feature.
           If you are looking for a package including a specific file try apt-
           file(1).

       show (apt-cache(8))
           Show information about the given package(s) including its
           dependencies, installation and download size, sources the package
           is available from, the description of the packages content and much
           more. It can e.g. be helpful to look at this information before
           allowing apt(8) to remove a package or while searching for new
           packages to install.

       list
           list is somewhat similar to dpkg-query --list in that it can
           display a list of packages satisfying certain criteria. It supports
           glob(7) patterns for matching package names as well as options to
           list installed (--installed), upgradeable (--upgradeable) or all
           available (--all-versions) versions.

       edit-sources (work-in-progress)
           edit-sources lets you edit your sources.list(5) files in your
           preferred text editor while also providing basic sanity checks.

SCRIPT USAGE AND DIFFERENCES FROM OTHER APT TOOLS
       The apt(8) commandline is designed as an end-user tool and it may
       change behavior between versions. While it tries not to break backward
       compatibility this is not guaranteed either if a change seems
       beneficial for interactive use.

       All features of apt(8) are available in dedicated APT tools like apt-
       get(8) and apt-cache(8) as well.  apt(8) just changes the default value
       of some options (see apt.conf(5) and specifically the Binary scope). So
       you should prefer using these commands (potentially with some
       additional options enabled) in your scripts as they keep backward
       compatibility as much as possible.

SEE ALSO
       apt-get(8), apt-cache(8), sources.list(5), apt.conf(5), apt-config(8),
       The APT User's guide in /usr/share/doc/apt-doc/, apt_preferences(5),
       the APT Howto.

DIAGNOSTICS
       apt returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.

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

AUTHOR
       APT team

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

APT 2.0.10                       05 April 2020                          APT(8)