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.

           When a package is supplied as an argument, the package will be installed prior to
           the upgrade action.

       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.

           When a package is supplied as an argument, the package will be installed prior to
           the upgrade action.

       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 (bookworm, trixie, 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, apt-patterns(7), 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.

       showsrc, depends, rdepends, policy (summarised in apt-cache(8))

       source, build-dep, download, changelog, clean, distclean, autoclean (summarised in apt-
       get(8))

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), apt-patterns(7),
       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
           https://bugs.debian.org/src:apt

APT 2.7.14                               12 March 2024                                   APT(8)