Search term reference

Search term reference
Search term reference
Search patterns
Search term reference
Table 2.3, “Quick guide to search terms”
provides a brief
summary of all the search terms provided by
aptitude
. A
full description of each term can be found
below
Table 2.3. Quick guide to search terms
Long form
Short form
Description
?=
variable
Select the package bound to
variable
; see
the section called “Explicit search targets”
?not
pattern
pattern
Select any package that does not match
pattern
?action
action
~a
action
Select packages that have been marked for the given
action
(e.g.,
install
or
upgrade
).
?all-versions
pattern
Select packages whose versions all match
pattern
?and
pattern1
pattern2
pattern1
pattern2
Select any package that matches both
pattern1
and
pattern2
?any-version
pattern
Select packages for which at least one version
matches
pattern
?architecture
architecture
~r
architecture
Select packages for the given architecture (such as
amd64
, or
all
). Special values:
native
and
foreign
?archive
archive
~A
archive
Select packages from the given archive (such as
unstable
).
?automatic
~M
Select packages that were automatically installed.
?bind
variable
pattern
variable
term-name
args
Selects anything if
variable
matches
pattern
; see
the section called “Explicit search targets”
?broken
~b
Select packages that have a broken dependency.
?broken-
depType
~B
depType
Select package that have a broken dependency of the
given
depType
?broken-
depType
pattern
~DB[
depType
pattern
Select packages that have a broken dependency of the
given
depType
matching
pattern
?broken-reverse-
depType
pattern
~RB
depType
pattern
Select packages that a package matching
pattern
declares a broken
dependency of type
depType
?conflicts
pattern
~C
pattern
Select packages that conflict with a package
matching
pattern
?config-files
~c
Select packages that were removed but not purged.
depType
pattern
~D[
depType
pattern
Match packages that declare a dependency of type
depType
on a package
matching
pattern
?description
description
~d
description
Select packages whose description matches
description
?essential
~E
Select essential packages, those with
Essential: yes
in their control
files.
?exact-name
name
Select packages named
name
?false
~F
Select no packages.
?for
variable
pattern
Select packages that match
pattern
with
variable
bound to the
package being matched; see
the section called “Explicit search targets”
?garbage
~g
Select packages that are not required by any manually
installed package.
?installed
~i
Select installed packages.
?maintainer
maintainer
~m
maintainer
Select packages maintained by
maintainer
?multiarch
multiarch
Select packages with a multi-arch capability of
multiarch
(that is, either
foreign
same
allowed
, or
none
).
?narrow
filter
pattern
~S
filter
pattern
Select packages for which a single version matches
both
filter
and
pattern
?name
name
~n
name
name
Select packages with the given
name
?new
~N
Select new packages.
?obsolete
~o
Match installed packages that cannot be downloaded.
?or
pattern1
pattern2
pattern1
pattern2
Select packages that match
pattern1
pattern2
, or both.
?origin
origin
~O
origin
Select packages with the given
origin
?provides
pattern
~P
pattern
Select packages that provide a package matching
pattern
?priority
priority
~p
priority
Select packages with the given
priority
?reverse-
depType
pattern
~R[
depType
pattern
Select packages that are the targets of a dependency
of type
depType
declared
by a package matching
pattern
?reverse-broken-
depType
pattern
~RB
depType
pattern
Select packages that are the targets of a broken
dependency of type
depType
declared by a
package matching
pattern
?section
section
~s
section
Select packages in the given
section
?source-package
name
~e
name
Select packages whose source package name matches
the regular expression
name
?source-version
version
Select packages whose source version matches the
regular expression
version
?tag
tag
~G
tag
Select packages that have the given debtags
tag
?term
keyword
Full-text search for packages that contain the given
keyword
?term-prefix
keyword
Full-text search for packages that contain a keyword
that begins with the given
keyword
?true
~T
Select all packages.
?task
task
~t
task
Select packages that are in the given
task
?upgradable
~U
Select packages that are installed and can be
upgraded.
?user-tag
Select packages that are marked with a user-tag
matching the regular expression
user-tag
?version
version
~V
version
Select packages whose version matches
version
(special values:
CURRENT
CANDIDATE
, and
TARGET
).
?virtual
~v
Select virtual packages.
?widen
pattern
~W
pattern
Select versions for which
pattern
matches any version
of the corresponding package, discarding local
version restrictions.
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
To match packages whose names contain several
different substrings, use the
?name
term (described
below); for instance,
?name
(apti)
?name
(tude)
will match any package whose name contains
both
apti
and
tude
?=
variable
Matches packages that correspond to the value of
variable
, which must be bound
by an enclosing
?for
. For instance,
?for
x:
?depends
?recommends
( ?=x ) )
will match any
package
that depends on a
package which recommends
For instance, the following search expression matches
packages that conflict with themselves:
Example 2.2.
Use of the
?=
term.
?for
x:
?conflicts
(?=x)
See
the section called “Explicit search targets”
for more
information.
?not(
pattern
pattern
Matches packages which do
not
match
the pattern
pattern
. For
instance,
?not(
?broken
selects packages that are not
broken
Note
To include a
in a search string, it
must be
escaped
by placing a tilde
) in front of it;
otherwise,
aptitude
will consider it to be part of a
?not
term. For instance, to select
packages whose description contains
extra!
, use
?description
(extra~!)
?and(
pattern1
pattern2
pattern1
pattern2
Matches packages that match both
pattern1
and
pattern2
?or(
pattern1
pattern2
pattern1
pattern2
Matches packages that match either
pattern1
or
pattern2
Note
To use the character
in a regular expression, it
must be
escaped
to prevent
aptitude
from creating
an OR term from it:
~|
pattern
Matches
pattern
. For instance,
opengl (perl|python)
matches any package whose name contains
opengl
, and also contains either
perl
or
python
?action(
action
~a
action
Matches packages upon which the given
action
is going to be
performed.
action
can be
install
upgrade
downgrade
remove
purge
hold
(tests whether a
package has been placed on hold), or
keep
(tests whether a
package will be unchanged).
Note
Note that this only tests whether an action is actually
queued up to be performed on a package, not whether it
could
be performed. Thus, for
instance,
?action
(upgrade)
matches
exactly those packages that you have already decided to
upgrade, not packages which
could
be upgraded in the future (for that, use
?upgradable
).
?all-versions(
pattern
Matches any package whose versions all match the given
expression. Each version of a package will be
separately tested against
pattern
, and the package will
match if all of its versions match. Packages without
versions, such as virtual packages, will always be
matched by this search term.
This term may not be used in a context in which the
versions to match against have already been narrowed,
such as within
?depends
or
?narrow
. However, it may
always be used within
?widen
?any-version(
pattern
Matches a package if any one of its versions matches the
enclosed pattern. This is the dual to
?all-versions
This term may not be used in a context in which the
versions to match against have already been narrowed,
such as within
?depends
or
?narrow
. However, it may
always be used within
?widen
Note
This term is closely related to
?narrow
In fact,
?any-version(
pattern1
pattern2
is exactly
the same as
?narrow
pattern1
pattern2
Note
To be precise, as with any other pattern, it is not packages but
versions of the packages which are matched. For
aptitude search
and other uses
it does not make much difference, but
aptitude
versions
will only show the versions that
match, not all versions of the package for which any version
matches. For that, use an enclosing
?widen
?architecture(
architecture-spec
~r
architecture-spec
Matches package versions for the given
architecture-spec
. For instance,
?architecture(amd64)
matches
amd64
packages, while
?architecture(all)
matches
arch-independent packages.
It also accepts the special values
native
and
foreign
, and architecture wildcards
(e.g.
linux-any
or
any-amd64
), as specified in Policy (
11.1
Architecture specification strings
).
?archive(
archive
~A
archive
Matches package versions which are available from an
archive that matches the regular expression
archive
. For instance,
?archive(testing)
matches any package available from the
testing
archive.
?automatic
~M
Matches packages which were automatically installed.
?bind(
variable
pattern
variable
term-name
args
Matches any package or version if the given
pattern
matches the package or
version bound to
variable
which must be defined in an enclosing
?for
Example 2.3. Use of the
?bind
term
?for
x:
?depends
?depends
?for
z: ?bind(x,
?depends
?=
z))))
?for
x:
?depends
?depends
?for
z: ?x:
depends
?=
z)))
The two search patterns in the above example both match
any package
such that
depends on a package
which in turn depends on a package
such that
also
depends directly on
. The first
pattern uses
?bind
directly, while
the second one uses an equivalent shorthand syntax.
See
the section called “Explicit search targets”
for more
information.
?broken
~b
Matches packages that are
broken
: they have an
unfulfilled dependency, predependency, breaks, or conflict.
?broken-
depType
~B
depType
Matches packages which have an unfulfilled (
broken
dependency of the given
depType
depType
can be
depends
predepends
recommends
suggests
breaks
conflicts
, or
replaces
?broken-
depType
pattern
~DB[
depType
pattern
Matches packages with an unsatisfied dependency of type
depType
on a package matching
pattern
depType
may be any one of the
dependency types listed in
the documentation of
?broken-
depType
?conflicts(
pattern
~C
pattern
Matches packages which conflict with a package matching
the given
pattern
. For
instance,
?conflicts(
?maintainer
(dburrows@debian.org))
matches any package which conflicts with a package I
maintain.
?config-files
~c
Matches packages which have been removed, but whose
configuration files remain on the system (ie, they were
removed but not purged).
depType
pattern
~D[
depType
pattern
depType
may be any one of the
dependency types given in
the documentation of
?broken-
depType
as well as
provides
: for instance,
?depends
(libpng3)
will match any
package that depends on
libpng3
. If
the short form (
~D
) is used and
depType
is not present, it
defaults to
depends
If
depType
is
provides
, matches
packages that provide a package matching
pattern
(the equivalent of
?provides
). Otherwise, matches packages which declare
a dependency of type
depType
upon a package version which matches
pattern
?description(
description
~d
description
Matches packages whose description matches the regular
expression
description
?essential
~E
Matches Essential packages.
?exact-name(
name
Matches packages named
name
This is similar to
?name
, but the name must match
exactly. For instance, the following pattern will match
only the package
apt
; with
?name
, it would also match
aptitude
uvccapture
, etc.
Example 2.4. Use of the
?exact-name
term
?exact-name(apt)
?false
~F
This term does not match any package.
[18]
?for
variable
pattern
Matches
pattern
, but the given
variable
may be used inside
pattern
to refer to the package
or package version this term to.
You can use
variable
in two
ways. To apply a
-style term to
the variable, write
variable
term-name
args
for instance,
?x:
depends
(apt)
. In
addition, the term
?=
variable
will select any package or version that matches the
value of the given
variable
For instance, the following term will match any package
that both depends and recommends a
second package
Example 2.5. Use of the
?for
term
?for x:
?depends
( ?for y: ?x:
recommends
?=
y ) )
See
the section called “Explicit search targets”
for more
information.
?garbage
~g
Matches packages which are not installed, or which were
automatically installed and are not depended upon by any
installed package.
?installed
~i
Matches package versions which are currently installed.
Since all versions are tested by default, this normally
matches packages which are currently installed.
?maintainer(
maintainer
~m
maintainer
Matches packages whose Maintainer field matches the
regular expression
maintainer
. For instance,
?maintainer
(joeyh)
will find all packages maintained by Joey Hess.
?multiarch(
multiarch
Matches packages with the multi-arch capability
specified by
multiarch
. For instance,
?multiarch
(foreign)
will find all packages which can satisfy dependencies of
packages for another architecture.
?multiarch
(none)
will select packages with no multi-arch capability.
?narrow(
filter
pattern
~S
filter
pattern
This term
narrows
the search to package
versions matching
filter
. In
particular, it matches any package version which matches
both
filter
and
pattern
. The string value of
the match is the string value of
pattern
?name(
name
~n
name
Matches packages whose name matches the regular
expression
name
. For
instance, most of the packages that match
?name
(^lib)
are
libraries of one sort or another.
?new
~N
Matches packages which are
new
: that is,
they have been added to the archive since the last time
the list of packages was cleared using
Actions
Forget new packages
or the command-line action
forget-new
?obsolete
~o
This term matches any installed package which is not
available in any version from any archive. These
packages appear as
Obsolete or Locally
Installed
in the visual interface.
?origin(
origin
~O
origin
Matches package versions whose origin matches the
regular expression
origin
For instance,
!?origin(debian)
will
find any unofficial packages on your system (packages
not from the Debian archive).
?provides(
pattern
~P
pattern
Matches package versions which provide a package that
matches the
pattern
. For
instance,
?provides(mail-transport-agent)
will match all the packages that provide
mail-transport-agent
?priority(
priority
~p
priority
Matches packages whose priority is
priority
priority
must be
extra
important
optional
required
, or
standard
. For instance,
?priority(required)
matches packages whose priority is
required
?reverse-
depType
pattern
~R[
depType
pattern
depType
may be either
provides
or one of the
dependency types given in
the documentation of
?broken-
depType
If
depType
is not present, it
defaults to
depends
If
depType
is
provides
, matches
packages whose name is provided by a package version
matching
pattern
. Otherwise,
matches packages which a package version matching
pattern
declares a dependency of
type
depType
upon.
?reverse-broken-
depType
pattern
?broken-reverse-
depType
pattern
~RB[
depType
pattern
depType
may be either
provides
or one of the
dependency types given in
the documentation of
?broken-
depType
If
depType
is not present, it
defaults to
depends
Matches packages which a package version matching
pattern
declares an unsatisfied
dependency of type
depType
upon.
?section(
section
~s
section
Matches packages whose section matches the regular
expression
section
?source-package(
name
~e
name
Matches packages whose source package name matches the
regular expression
name
?source-version(
version
Matches packages whose source version matches the
regular expression
version
?tag(
tag
~G
tag
Matches packages whose Tag field matches the regular
expression
tag
. For
instance, the pattern
?tag(game::strategy)
would match
strategy games.
For more information on tags and debtags, see
?task(
task
~t
task
Matches packages that appear in a task whose name
matches the regular expression
task
?term(
keyword
This term performs a full-text search for
keyword
in the apt package
cache. When used with
aptitude
Limit Display
in the
curses front-end, or typed into a package search box in
the GTK+ front-end, this term will allow
aptitude
to
accelerate the search using a Xapian index.
?term-prefix(
keyword
This term performs a full-text search for any keyword
beginning with
keyword
in the
apt package cache. When used with
aptitude search
Limit Display
in the
curses front-end, or typed into a package search box in
the GTK+ front-end, this term will allow
aptitude
to
accelerate the search using a Xapian index.
This is similar to
?term
, but matches extensions of
the
keyword
. For instance,
the following search pattern will match any package
indexed under the keywords
hour
hourglass
hourly
and so on:
Example 2.6. Use of the
?term-prefix
term
?term-prefix(hour)
?true
~T
This term matches any package. For instance,
?installed
?provides
?true
matches installed packages which provide any package.
?upgradable
~U
This term matches any installed package which can be
upgraded.
Note
Note that this only tests whether there are upgrades available
for a package, not whether an upgrade
could
be performed (with actions such as
safe-upgrade
or
full-upgrade
).
For instance, there can be upgrades available for several
packages, but maybe the upgraded versions of a subset conflict
with each other, so they cannot be co-installed or not all of
them upgraded at the same time.
?user-tag(
tag
This term matches any package that is marked with a
user-tag matching the regular expression
tag
?version(
version
~V
version
Matches any package version whose version number matches
the regular expression
version
, with the exceptions
noted below. For instance,
?version(debian)
matches packages whose version contains
debian
The following values of
version
are treated
specially. To search for version numbers containing
these values, preface the value with a backslash; for
instance, to find packages whose version number contains
CURRENT
, search for
\CURRENT
CURRENT
matches the currently
installed version of a package, if any.
CANDIDATE
matches the version,
if any, of the package that will be installed if
you press
on the package or run
aptitude install
on it.
TARGET
matches the version of a
package that is currently targeted for
installation, if any.
?virtual
~v
Matches any package which is purely virtual: that is, its name is
provided by a package, but no package of that name exists. For
instance,
?virtual
?reverse-provides
?installed
matches virtual packages which are provided by any installed
package.
?widen(
pattern
~W
pattern
Widens
the match: if the versions to
match against have been limited by an enclosing term
(such as
?depends
), these limits are dropped. Thus,
?widen
pattern
matches a package version if
pattern
matches
any
version of that package.
[18]
This is provided largely for symmetry with
?true
Explicit search targets
Customizing
aptitude