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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
]>
<refentry>
<refentryinfo>
&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
&apt-author.team;
&apt-email;
&apt-product;
<!-- The last update date -->
<date>2019-08-15T00:00:00Z</date>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>apt-patterns</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<!-- Man page title -->
<refnamediv>
<refname>apt-patterns</refname>
<refpurpose>Syntax and semantics of apt search patterns</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1><title>Description</title>
<para>
Starting with version 2.0, <command>APT</command> provides support for
patterns, which can be used to query the apt cache for packages.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Logic patterns</title>
<para>
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.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?and(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where all specified patterns match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?false</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects nothing.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?not(PATTERN)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where PATTERN does not match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?or(PATTERN, PATTERN, ...)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects objects where at least one of the specified patterns match.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?true</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects all objects.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Narrowing patterns</title>
<para>
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?all-versions(PATTERN)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages where all versions match PATTERN. When matching versions instead, same as PATTERN.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?any-version(PATTERN)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects any version where the pattern matches on the version.</para>
<para>For example, while <code>?and(?version(1),?version(2))</code> matches a package which has one version containing 1 and one version containing 2, <code>?any-version(?and(?version(1),?version(2)))</code> restricts the <code>?and</code> to act on the same version.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?narrow(PATTERN...)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects any version matching all PATTERNs, short for<code>?any-version(?and(PATTERN...))</code>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Package patterns</title>
<para>
These patterns select specific packages.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?architecture(WILDCARD)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages matching the specified architecture, which may contain wildcards using any.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?automatic</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that were installed automatically.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?broken</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that have broken dependencies.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?config-files</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that are not fully installed, but have solely residual configuration files left.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?essential</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that have Essential: yes set in their control file.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?exact-name(NAME)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages with the exact specified name.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?garbage</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that can be removed automatically.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?installed</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that are currently installed.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?name(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages where the name matches the given regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?obsolete</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that no longer exist in repositories.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?upgradable</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects packages that can be upgraded (have a newer candidate).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?virtual</code></term>
<listitem><para>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.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Version patterns</title>
<para>
These patterns select specific versions of a package.
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>?archive(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions that come from the archive that matches the specified regular expression. Archive, here, means the values after <code>a=</code> in <command>apt-cache policy</command>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?origin(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions that come from the origin that matches the specified regular expression. Origin, here, means the values after <code>o=</code> in <command>apt-cache policy</command>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?section(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions where the section matches the specified regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?source-package(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions where the source package name matches the specified regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?source-version(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions where the source package version matches the specified regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>?version(REGEX)</code></term>
<listitem><para>Selects versions where the version string matching the specified regular expression.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>Examples</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry><term><code>apt remove ?garbage</code></term>
<listitem><para>Remove all packages that are automatically installed and no longer needed - same as apt autoremove</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><code>apt purge ?config-files</code></term>
<listitem><para>Purge all packages that only have configuration files left</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>Migrating from aptitude</title>
<para>
Patterns in apt are heavily inspired by patterns in aptitude, but with some tweaks:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Only long forms — the ones starting with ? — are supported</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Syntax is uniform: If there is an opening parenthesis after a term, it is always assumed to be the beginning of an argument list.
</para>
<para>
In aptitude, a syntactic form <code>"?foo(bar)"</code> could mean <code>"?and(?foo,bar)"</code> if foo does not take an argument. In APT, this will cause an error.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Not all patterns are supported.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Some additional patterns are available, for example, for finding gstreamer codecs.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Escaping terms with <code>~</code> is not supported.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A trailing comma is allowed in argument lists</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>?narrow accepts infinite arguments</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>See Also</title>
<para>
&apt-get;, &apt;
</para>
</refsect1>
&manbugs;
&manauthor;
</refentry>
|
