Need help with " aptitude"

michalng · 05-24-2011, 09:16 AM

Assuming if I do a aptitude search xorg and the output is as below

Quote:

c xserver-xorg-input-mouse
v xserver-xorg-input-penmount
i A xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
p xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-dev

what is the meaning of c , v , p, i(installed), A etc.

have googled quite a bit but didn't have much luck.

TobiSGD · 05-24-2011, 09:33 AM

A simple man aptitude gave me that:

Quote:

Each search result is listed on a separate line. The first
character of each line indicates the current state of the package:
the most common states are p, meaning that no trace of the package
exists on the system, c, meaning that the package was deleted but
its configuration files remain on the system, i, meaning that the
package is installed, and v, meaning that the package is virtual.
The second character indicates the stored action (if any; otherwise
a blank space is displayed) to be performed on the package, with
the most common actions being i, meaning that the package will be
installed, d, meaning that the package will be deleted, and p,
meaning that the package and its configuration files will be
removed. If the third character is A, the package was automatically
installed.

Telengard · 05-24-2011, 11:52 AM

It is explained in aptitude user's manual, which may be available on your system at /usr/share/doc/aptitude/README.

Those flags are the current state of the packages.

c = the package was removed, but its configuration files are still present.
v = the package is virtual.
iA = the package is installed and all its dependencies are satisfied. (I'm pretty sure that A means automatic, or to satisfy a dependency.)
p = the package and all its configuration files were removed, or the package was never installed.

The author maintains aptitude user's manual online too:
http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/...h02s02s02.html

HTH

TobiSGD · 05-24-2011, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Telengard

iA = the package is installed and all its dependencies are satisfied. (I'm pretty sure that A means automatic, or to satisfy a dependency.)

As you can see in the man page (I posted the relevant part in the post above yours), A does not mean that the dependencies of the package are satisfied, but that this package was installed automatically to satisfy the dependencies of a different package.

Telengard · 05-24-2011, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

As you can see in the man page (I posted the relevant part in the post above yours), A does not mean that the dependencies of the package are satisfied, but that this package was installed automatically to satisfy the dependencies of a different package.

Yeah. That's what I meant, but thanks for saying it more clearly

BTW, man aptitude does not give you aptitude user's manual. It does mention the location of aptitude user's manual in the filesystem (at least it does on my system) in the SEE ALSO section.

If aptitude user's manual is not installed on your system, then you should be able to get it from the repositories. For Ubuntu the package name is aptitude-doc. For Debian I don't know what the package name is, nor do I know whether it is installed by default.

HTH

the trooper · 05-24-2011, 02:31 PM

Quote:

For Debian I don't know what the package name is

For Debian it is as follows:

Code:

ade@Pc1:~$ apt-cache search aptitude-doc
aptitude-doc-cs - Czech manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager
aptitude-doc-en - English manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager
aptitude-doc-es - Spanish manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager
aptitude-doc-fi - Finnish manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager
aptitude-doc-fr - French manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager
aptitude-doc-ja - Japanese manual for aptitude, a terminal-based package manager

Same as Ubuntu?.

Telengard · 05-24-2011, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the trooper

Same as Ubuntu?.

Sort of, I guess. On Ubuntu aptitude-doc is a virtual package which points to the language specific packages.

Code:

~$ aptitude search aptitude-doc
v   aptitude-doc                    -
p   aptitude-doc-cs                 - Czech manual for aptitude, a terminal-base
i   aptitude-doc-en                 - English manual for aptitude, a terminal-ba
p   aptitude-doc-fi                 - Finnish manual for aptitude, a terminal-ba
p   aptitude-doc-fr                 - French manual for aptitude, a terminal-bas
p   aptitude-doc-ja                 - Japanese manual for aptitude, a terminal-b
~$ aptitude show aptitude-doc
No current or candidate version found for aptitude-doc
Package: aptitude-doc
State: not a real package
Provided by: aptitude-doc-cs, aptitude-doc-en, aptitude-doc-fi, aptitude-doc-fr,
             aptitude-doc-ja

craigevil · 05-24-2011, 06:59 PM

The "state" flag is one of the following:

v - virtual
B - broken
u - "unpacked"
C - half-configured
H - half-installed
c - removed, but config-files still present (ie, not purged)
i - installed
E - internal error (should not happen)

The "action" flag is one of the following:

h - hold
p - purge
d - delete (remove)
B - broken
i - install
r - reinstall
u - upgrade
F - the available upgrade has been forbidden via "F"

If present, the "automatic" flag is "A", indicating that the package
was automatically installed and will be removed when nothing depends
on it.

From file:///usr/share/aptitude/help.txt

Which is different from man aptitude, the aptitude manual is also online at:
http://algebraicthunk.net/~dburrows/...titude/doc/en/
and if the appropriate aptitude-doc package is installed at:
file:///usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en/index.html

Telengard · 05-24-2011, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by craigevil

file:///usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en/index.html

Which is the HTML version of the plain text file /usr/share/doc/aptitude/README. I found that on the Debian website. Thanks for finding it on a real Debian system.

craigevil · 05-24-2011, 10:18 PM

Take a look at: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...nu-linux-3073/

for more helpful info