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APT



Hi,

We are now releasing apt for general beta. This applies only to the
command-line utility apt-get and not the gui apt (both are in the apt deb)

The purpouse of this beta is to debug the interface to dpkg, the
dependancy handling, package downloading, installation ordering and error
handling code that apt-get excercises. I have already run a fairly wide
spread beta test on the core functionalities so this should be fairly
safe.

If you are going to be experimenting with apt-get and frozen please be
aware of the bash packing bug that will leave bash inoperable on your
machine, you -MUST- install libreadline and libreadlineg2 manually before
installing bash. Also note that grep does not work in frozen.

This version of apt-get plugs into dselect as a dselect method as well as
operating from a command line.

Please report bugs (and sucesses) and be sure to report any packaging bugs
- such as failing maintainer scripts, incorect dependanices, etc.

I have attached below the man page for apt-get, a typical scenario might
go something like:
  apt-get update
  apt-get install libreadline libreadlineg2
  apt-get upgrade

[ NOTE: installing both libreadline and libreadlineg2 is not known 100% to
fix bash - please have several root shells open if you are attempting to
upgade bash. Apt's downloaded debs end up in /var/cache/apt/archives. ]
 
Jason

apt-get(8)                                             apt-get(8)

NAME
       apt-get  - package handling utility -- command-line inter
       face

SYNOPSIS
       apt-get [options] command [package ...]

DESCRIPTION
       apt-get is the command-line tool  for  handling  packages,
       and  may  be  considered  the user's "back-end" to apt(8).
       Use apt(8) if the usage of apt-get  does  not  seem  intu
       itive.

       command is one of
              update
              upgrade
              dselect-upgrade
              dist-upgrade
              install
              check

       Only the install command requires any further arguments.

   update
       update is used to resynchronize the package overview files
       from their sources. The overviews  of  available  packages
       are    fetched   from   the   location(s)   specified   in
       sources.list.  For example, when using a  Debian  archive,
       this command retrieves and scans the Packages.gz files, so
       that information about new and updated packages is  avail
       able.  An  update  should  always  be  performed before an
       upgrade or dist-upgrade.

   upgrade
       upgrade is used to install  the  newest  versions  of  all
       packages  currently  installed  on  the  system  from  the
       sources enumerated in  sources.list.   Packages  currently
       installed  with  new  versions available are retrieved and
       upgraded; under no circumstances are  currently  installed
       packages   removed,  or  packages  not  already  installed
       retrieved  and  installed.  New  versions   of   currently
       installed  packages that cannot be upgraded without chang
       ing the install status of another package will be left  at
       their  current  version. An update must be performed first
       so that apt-get knows that new versions  of  packages  are
       available.

   dselect-upgrade
       dselect-upgrade  is  used  in  conjunction with the tradi
       tional Debian GNU/Linux packaging front-end,  dselect.dse
       lect-upgrade  follows  the  changes made by dselect to the
       Status field  of  available  packages,  and  performs  the
       actions necessary to realize that state (for instance, the
       removal of old and  the  installation  of  new  packages). 
       
       dselect-upgrade  does not attempt to intelligently address
       dependency issues as dist-upgrade or install  do.  If  any
       dependency problems arise, apt-get aborts without perform
       ing any of the actions requested, even those without prob
       lems.   This option is only useful to users of dselect and
       the .deb package file  format.  The  /etc/apt/sources.list
       file  contains  a list of locations from which to retrieve
       desired package files.

   dist-upgrade
       dist-upgrade, in addition to performing  the  function  of
       upgrade,  also intelligently handles changing dependencies
       with new versions of packages; apt-get has a "smart"  con
       flict  resolution  system,  and it will attempt to upgrade
       the most important packages at the expense of less  impor
       tant  ones  if  necessary.  The /etc/apt/sources.list file
       contains a  list  of  locations  from  which  to  retrieve
       desired package files.

   install
       install  is  followed  by one or more packages desired for
       installation. Each package is a package name, not a  fully
       qualified  filename  (for  instance, in a Debian GNU/Linux
       system,  lsdo  would  be  the   argument   provided,   not
       ldso_1.9.6-2.deb).   All  packages  required  by the pack
       age(s) specified for installation will also  be  retrieved
       and  installed.  The /etc/apt/sources.list file is used to
       locate the desired packages.

   check
       check is a diagnostic tool; it updates the  package  cache
       and checks for broken packages.

OPTIONS
       -h     Help; display a helpful usage message and exit.

       -q     Quiet;  produces output suitable for logging, omit
              ting progress indicators.

       -qq    Very quiet; no output except for errors.

       -d     Download only; package files  are  only  retrieved,
              not unpacked or installed.

       -s     No  action;  perform  a  simulation  of events that
              would occur but do not actually change the  system.

       -y     Automatic yes to prompts; assume "yes" as answer to
              all prompts and run non-interactively.

FILES
       /etc/apt/sources.list

SEE ALSO
       apt(8), apt-cache(8), sources.list(5)

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

BUGS
       See  <http://www.debian.org/Bugs/db/pa/lapt.html>.  If you
       wish  to   report   a   bug   in   apt-get,   please   see
       /usr/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the bug(1) command.

AUTHOR
       apt-get   was   written   by   the   APT  team  <apt@pack
       ages.debian.org>.


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