aptsh - interactive APT shell

aptsh [-?, --help] [-c, --config-file configuration_file ] [-s, --storing] [-v, --version] [-x, --execute aptsh_command ]

aptsh is a tool which makes using APT much easier. It gives you an interactive shell with all those sweet features like tab-completion (which you can use to complete name of a package), simpler access to apt commands and easier package searching (ls, rls). Although it's not necessary, it just tries to make life easier.

We'll try to do some ordinary administration tasks - install/remove/search few packages. As a root, type 'aptsh' and press return. Then type 'ins', and press Tab - 'ins' should change into 'install' followed by a whitespace. Now write down 'kde', and press Tab twice - if you're using Debian or other large distro, it should ask you whether you want to see all packages which begin with 'kde'. As you should have noticed - it works exactly like a good shell. You can also play with 'remove' - then aptsh will prompt only installed packages. And remember, that you can pipe results of commands (ie. dump | grep ^Package | cut -d -f 2 | grep ^kde ). You can execute a normal shell command by preceding it with ".".

aptsh commands:

dump-cfg

Dump all aptsh options.

dpkg

Query dpkg.

ls

Search for packages by matching names to a wildcard. Remember that in some enviroments you have to put the expression between " " or preced special chars with \.

rls

Search for packages by matching names to a regular expression. Read note about special chars above!

whatis

Display a short description of a package.

whichpkg

Find the package that supplies the given command or file.

listfiles

List all files owned by a package.

`

Change mode to storing or live executing

queue-commit

Commit stored commands. User answers to prompts.

queue-commit-say

Commit stored commands, automaticly answering to all prompts. It should be followed by the answer, if not, it answers \n (then usually program's behaviour is default). Proper usage of commit-say would be "commit-say y" - then Aptsh answers 'y' to all prompts.

queue

Display currently stored commands

queue-remove

Remove stored commands from list. It should be followed by list or section of numbers of items to remove. Proper usage of this command would be: "commit-remove 1 3 10-15 21" - it will remove items numbered as 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 21. You can use alias 'last' which refers to the last item.

queue-clear

Clear list of stored commands

orphans

Find orphaned libraries on your system.

orphans-all

Find all orphaned packages on your system, not only libraries. It's output is other than the orphans' one - it's splitted into two columns, first one contains packages' Section, second Name.

help

Executes 'man aptsh'.

help-howto

Displays HOWTO. You can pipe it to a browser ("more" or "less") or grep it.

quit

Erm... quit? :)

apt-get querying commands (see man apt-get):

install

update

upgrade

dselect-upgrade

dist-upgrade

remove

source

build-dep

check

clean

autoclean

apt-cache querying commands (see man apt-cache):

show

dump

add

showpkg

stats

showsrc

dumpavail

unmet

search

depends

rdepends

pkgnames

dotty

policy

madison

Marcin Wrochniak (wrochniak@gmail.com)