6.3. apt-cache コマンド

6.3. `apt-cache` コマンド

apt-cache コマンドは APT の内部データベースに保存された情報の多くを表示できます。この情報は一種のキャッシュのようなもので、sources.list ファイル内のさまざまなソースから収集されます。収集は apt update の実行ごとに行われます。

VOCABULARY キャッシュ

キャッシュとは (パフォーマンスの観点から) 通常のアクセス方法が高くつく場合に、頻繁なデータアクセスを高速化する目的で使われる一時的な保存システムです。キャッシュの概念は、数多くの状況と異なる規模に対して、たとえばマイクロプロセッサのコアや高性能のストレージシステムにさえも、応用できます。

In the case of APT, the reference Packages files are those located on Debian mirrors. That said, it would be very ineffective to go through the network for every search that we might want to do in the database of available packages. That is why APT stores a copy of those files (in /var/lib/apt/lists/) and searches are done within those local files. Similarly, /var/cache/apt/archives/ contains a cache of already downloaded packages (see sidebar 「GOING FURTHER .deb ファイルのキャッシュ」) to avoid downloading them again if you need to reinstall them after a removal.

On the other hand, it is mandatory to run apt update regularly to update the cache. Otherwise your package search results will always miss the latest updates distributed by the Debian mirrors.

The apt-cache command can do keyword-based package searches with apt-cache search keyword. It can also display the headers of the package's available versions with apt-cache show package. This command provides the package's description, its dependencies, the name of its maintainer, etc. Note that apt search, apt show, aptitude search, and aptitude show work in the same way.

ALTERNATIVE axi-cache

apt-cache search はとても基本的なツールで、簡単に言ってしまえばパッケージ説明の grep 実装です。その結果の数は通常多すぎるか、逆にキーワードが多すぎれば全くないかのどちらかです。

axi-cache search term, on the other hand, provides better results, sorted by relevancy. It uses the Xapian search engine and is part of the apt-xapian-index package which indexes all package information (and more, like the .desktop files from all Debian packages). It knows about tags (see sidebar 「GOING FURTHER Tag フィールド」) and returns results in a matter of milliseconds.

$ axi-cache search package use::searching
axi-cache search package use::searching
13 results found.
Results 1-13:
100% packagesearch - GUI for searching packages and viewing package information
87% debtags - Debian Package Tags support tools
86% whohas - query multiple distributions' package archives
84% recoll - Personal full text search package
82% apt-forktracer - utility for tracking non-official package versions
[..]
66% apt - commandline package manager
More terms: debian dpkg search debtags whohas forktracer dctrl
More tags: role::program admin::package-management suite::debian works-with::software:package interface::commandline scope::utility protocol::http

Some features are more rarely used. For instance, apt-cache dumpavail displays the headers of all available versions of all packages. apt-cache pkgnames displays the list of all the packages which appear at least once in the cache.

One of the features which might come in handy more often is apt-cache policy, described in the following section.

6.3.1. The `apt-cache policy` Command

The apt-cache policy command displays the pinning priorities and distribution properties of each package source as explained in 第 6.2.5 節「パッケージ優先度の管理」. It can also show the pinning priorities for all available versions and sources of a package. For the sources.list example used in 例 6.2「Debian 安定版ユーザ向けの /etc/apt/sources.list ファイル」 and APT::Default-Release set to "bullseye", the output will look like this:

$ apt-cache policy
Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
 100 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports/main amd64 Packages
     release o=Debian Backports,a=bullseye-backports,n=bullseye-backports,l=Debian Backports,c=main,b=amd64
     origin deb.debian.org
 990 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/non-free amd64 Packages
     release v=11.0,o=Debian,a=stable,n=bullseye,l=Debian,c=non-free,b=amd64
     origin deb.debian.org
 990 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/contrib amd64 Packages
     release v=11.0,o=Debian,a=stable,n=bullseye,l=Debian,c=contrib,b=amd64
     origin deb.debian.org
 990 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages
     release v=11.0,o=Debian,a=stable,n=bullseye,l=Debian,c=main,b=amd64
     origin deb.debian.org
 500 http://security.debian.org bullseye-security/main amd64 Packages
     release v=11,o=Debian,a=stable-security,n=bullseye-security,l=Debian-Security,c=main,b=amd64
     origin security.debian.org
Pinned packages:

apt-cache policy can also show the pinning priorities for all available versions and sources of a given package.

$ apt-cache policy limnoria
limnoria:
  Installed: 2021.06.15-1
  Candidate: 2021.06.15-1
  Version table:
     2021.07.21-1~bpo11+1 100
        100 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2021.06.15-1 990
        990 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Although there is a newer version of limnoria in the bullseye-backports repository, APT will not install it automatically based on the priority. One would have to use apt install limnoria/bullseye-backports or add a higher pinning priority to /etc/apt/preferences.d/limnoria.pref:

Package: limnoria
Pin: release o=Debian Backports, a=bullseye-backports
Pin-Priority: 1001

$ apt-cache policy limnoria
limnoria:
  Installed: 2021.06.15-1
  Candidate: 2021.07.21-1~bpo11+1
  Version table:
     2021.07.21-1~bpo11+1 1001
        100 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2021.06.15-1 990
        990 https://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status