---
name: "apk-query"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "apk-tools"
version: "3.0.8-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/apk-query"
---

# apk-query(8)

query information about packages by various criteria

## NAME

apk query - query information about packages by various criteria

## SYNOPSIS

**apk query** \[\<*options*\>...\] *query*...

**apk query** \[\<*options*\>...\] **--recursive** *constraints*...

## DESCRIPTION

**apk query** searches for matching packages from selected sources.

In the default mode, *query* specifiers are interpreted as follows:

**name{\[\<\>~=\]version}**

Select packages by **name** and optional **version** match.

**text**

Select packages by selected fields matching **text**.

In the **--recursive** mode, the *constraints* specify a list of dependencies to satisfy and the solver algorithm is used to determine a list of packages that fulfil these constraints.

The query executes in the following steps:

- 1\.

  Each *query* string is executed independently to select candidate packages

- 2\.

  If **--all-matches** is not specified, the best candidate for given term is added to the list of result packages

- 3\.

  The resulting package list is sorted

## QUERY OPTIONS

The applets supporting query specifiers recognize the following options:

- **--all-matches**

  Select all matched packages. By default only best match for each query element is selected.

- **--available**

  Filter selection to available packages.

- **--fields** *FIELDS*\[:*REVERSE\_FIELD*\]

  A comma separated list of fields to include in the output. An optional specification to specify the field to output for the synthetic reverse dependency fields can be specified (**name**, **package** or **origin**).

- **--format** *FORMATSPEC*

  Specify output format from **default**, **yaml** or **json**. The **default** format is human readable text output.

- **--from** *FROMSPEC*

  Search packages from: **system** (all system sources), **repositories** (exclude installed database), **installed** (exclude normal repositories) or **none** (command-line repositories only).

- **--installed**

  Filter selection to installed packages.

- **--match** *FIELDS*

  A comma separated list of fields to match the query against.

- **--recursive**

  Run solver algorithm with given *constraints* to select packages.

- **--summarize** *FIELD*\[:*REVERSE\_FIELD*\]

  Produce a summary of the specified field from all matches. Summary is available on the following fields: **package**, **name**, **origin**, **depends**, **provides**, **replaces**, **install\_if**, **recommends**, **reverse-depends**, and **reverse-install-if**.

- **--upgradable**

  Filter selection to upgradable packages.

- **--world**

  Include [**apk-world**(5)](/apk-world/5.md) dependencies in constraints. Implies **--recursive**.

- **--orphaned**

  Filter selection to orphaned packages.

## FIELDS

The field names are all small letters for **--match** and **--fields** options and for the machine parseable output (json and yaml). For the human readable default format the fields are capitalized.

The following package metadata fields are available: **name**, **version**, **description**, **arch**, **license**, **origin**, **maintainer**, **url**, **commit**, **build-time**, **installed-size**, **file-size**, **provider-priority**, **depends**, **provides**, **replaces**, **install-if**, **layer**, **tags**, **triggers**, **scripts**, and **replaces-priority**. See **apk-package**(8) **package info metadata** and **package metadata** sections for the description of these fields.

Additionally the following fields are available:

**contents**

File names contained in a package.

**download-url**

Full URL to download the package from.

**owner**

Lookup owner package for given path name. (**--match** only)

**package**

The package identifier in format **name**-**version** (e.g. package-1.0-r0).

**repositories**

List of repositories the package is available from.

**status**

Status of an installed package. List of one or more of following keywords:

- •

  **installed**

- •

  **broken-files**

- •

  **broken-scripts**

- •

  **broken-xattr**

## EXAMPLES

\# search all packages starting with apk\
 apk query "apk\*"

\# show owner package of sensors executable in json\
 apk query --format json --match owner /usr/bin/sensors

\# show apk-tools and its dependencies in yaml\
 apk query --format yaml --recursive apk-tools

\# print source packages for all packages providing cmd:apk\
 apk query --match name,provides cmd:apk --fields origin

\# print source packages with specific dependency name\
 apk query --match depends so:libapk.so.2.14.9 --fields origin