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apt-patterns
5
APT
apt-patterns
Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns
<h1>Description</h1>
<p>Starting with version 2.0, <code>APT</code> provides support for patterns, which can be used to query the apt cache for packages.</p>
<h1>Logic patterns</h1>
<p>These patterns provide the basic means to combine other patterns into more complex expressions, as well as <code>?true</code> and <code>?false</code> patterns.</p>
<dl class="incremental">
<dt><code>?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects objects where all specified patterns match.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?false</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects nothing.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?not(PATTERN)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects objects where at least one of the specified patterns match.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?true</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects all objects.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h1>Package patterns</h1>
<p>These patterns select specific packages.</p>
<dl class="incremental">
<dt><code>?architecture(WILDCARD)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages matching the specified architecture, which may contain wildcards using any.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?automatic</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that were installed automatically.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?broken</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that have broken dependencies.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?config-files</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that are not fully installed, but have solely residual configuration files left.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?essential</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that have Essential: yes set in their control file.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?exact-name(NAME)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages with the exact specified name.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?garbage</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that can be removed automatically.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?installed</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that are currently installed.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?name(REGEX)</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages where the name matches the given regular expression.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?obsolete</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that no longer exist in repositories.</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?upgradable</code></dt>
<dd><p>Selects packages that can be upgraded (have a newer candidate).</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>?virtual</code></dt>
<dd><p>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.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h1>Examples</h1>
<dl class="incremental">
<dt><code>apt remove ?garbage</code></dt>
<dd><p>Remove all packages that are automatically installed and no longer needed - same as apt autoremove</p>
</dd>
<dt><code>apt purge ?config-files</code></dt>
<dd><p>Purge all packages that only have configuration files left</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h1>Migrating from aptitude</h1>
<p>Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but with some tweaks:</p>
<ul class="incremental">
<li><p>Only long forms MDASH the ones starting with ? MDASH are supported</p></li>
<li><p>Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening parenthesis after a term, it is always assumed to be the beginning of an argument list.</p>
<p>In aptitude, a syntactic form <code>&quot;?foo(bar)&quot;</code> could mean <code>&quot;?and(?foo,bar)&quot;</code> if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this will cause an error.</p></li>
<li><p>Not all patterns are supported.</p></li>
<li><p>Some additional patterns are available, for example, for finding gstreamer codecs.</p></li>
<li><p>Escaping terms with <code>~</code> is not supported.</p></li>
<li><p>A trailing comma is allowed in argument lists</p></li>
</ul>
<h1>See Also</h1>
<p>APT-GET, APT</p>
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