NAME
capt - console ncurses based ui for APT
SYNOPSIS
capt -(op 1) [package1 .. package2 .. packageN] ... -(op N) [pkg1 .. pkgN]
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the capt command, which can also be invoked as console-apt (or apt-find, for backwards compatibility). The fundamental name is capt, but it can be refered to as console-apt.
console-apt is a semi-replacement for dselect and apt-get. It is attempting to break the barrier between the two packaging systems in the debian environment. An ncurses interface of packages is presented for easy installation/upgrading/deleting of packages from the system.
OPTIONS
Capt uses its own command line parser. In light of this I'll take a few moments to explain to your exactly how it works. All command line options start with a '-' (dash) closely proceeded by a string or letter that identifies the operation that is to be completed. The operation may or may not require addition arguments. Any options that do require additional arguments are pointed out below, among the others.
An important feature of capt's command line parser is that it allows you to complete MULTIPLE operations at one time. For example: capt -u -i foo -p bar -g this above will update the available package list, install package foo, remove package bar, then do a distribution upgrade. All in one swoop. Remember, that if foo or bar happen to not exist, the operation execution cycle will stop and print an error dialog and wait for user input on the failure of these operations.
(Note; the letter enclosed in the [] brackets may be used as a shortcut for the full word in any case)
- [h]elp
-
:: Print out command options
- [v]ersion
-
:: Current version of the program
- [i]nstall [packages ...]
-
:: Install package(s)
- [d]elete [packages ...]
-
:: Remove package(s)
- [p]urge [packages ...]
-
:: Remove package(s) including config files
- [u]pdate
-
:: Attempt to get new package listings
- up[g]rade
-
:: Upgrade all packages
INTERFACE
The graphical interface in capt is very easy to pick up on. By pressing the 'h' or '?' (question mark) in the program you can get a full list of all key combinations possible in console-apt. Some basics to get you started are listed under the "navigation" section header.
In addition to this help dialog, there is the additional interactive menu at the top of the screen. There are specific key combinations that are used to activate these menus. Under these menus you will find selectable options and the same menu items that are found for normal keystrokes for ease of use.
NAVIGATION
Navigation in console-apt is almost as simple as in a text editor. The arrow keys move you up and down through the available package list, and Page Up / Page Down will move you a whole page.
- Vi key combinations are supported: j/k/^/g/$/G, etc.
MENU SYSTEM
As of version 0.7.7.1 all capt functionality is accessable via a menu system that have key bindings to trigger them. The shift key is the key used to trigger the menus in combination with another standard alphanum key. For example, to access the "Operation" menu you should press Shift and the O key (Shift-O) which is hte equivelant of an upper-case 'o'; so on and so forth:
Key Combo Menu Name
Shift + 'O' ....... Operation
Shift + 'T' ....... Toggles
Shift + 'A' ....... Alter
Shift + 'F' ....... Filters
Shift + 'S' ....... Sorting
OPERATING CAPT
The main use of capt is to change the state of packages. That is, to either - install, remove, purge, or upgrade one or many packages. Capt provides the following key bindings to deal with these operations:
+ :: Mark package for installation or upgrade
- :: Mark package for remove
_ :: Mark package for purge (remove package and config files)
Once you have selected all the packages that you wish to modify, you can then proceed to the verification screen in which you will be able to check the operations that are going to be completed. The 'c' button will take you to this screen. If you see errors and wish to go back and correct them, press the 'q' key and you will be taken straight back into the main package list. If everything is fine, and you want capt to go download and install (or remove) the packages that you have requested press 'c' again. You will then be presented with the download interface including progress indicators and a log of the being download and any errors that may be occuring during the download.
CAPTRIS
Another feature of capt is that it has an optional game called captris (also known as tetris to DOS users) that you can play while your files are downloading. To enable this game, press the 't' button in the fetcher interface and it will appear in the bottom left corner. O happy day :)
FILTERING AND SORTING
In capt, you can filter the package list using regular expression matches on packages ('f', 'l', 'F' keys to try it out). You can also select from the many different combinations of sort options in the sort editor ('s' key).
ERRORS
There are very few places where you will get error dialogs or messages in capt. I will mention some of them in this section, and how you can resolve possible errors.
When booting up capt :: If you get an error message when capt is loading up and the apt cache is initializing then it is probably due to the fact that capt had trouble loading the apt package cache files because the permissions are not set correctly. If you previously ran capt or apt-get as root and the package cache files got written at this time, then you will probably have trouble running capt as root because of this reason. The easy way to correct this is to rerun capt as root and it will rewrite the package cache files with the correct permissions.
Unmet dependencies :: There are often problems of unmet dependencies. Capt will not continue to download or install packages if there are unmet dependencies of one or more packages because the package manager will fail. If it is possible to correct the missing dependencies, by all means, do so. If it is not, then just unmark the package and try again.
Package manager (dpkg) produced errors :: Packages maintained in the debian unstable distribution are not always able to be installed by the debian package manager because they have been made incorrectly by one or more debian developers. This is not always the case however. It may be because there is not enough free space on your drive, or another package is not configured properly. In most cases, it is wise to check up on packages that fail to be installed or configured by dpkg during a completion operation.
DEPENDENCY RESOLVING
Capt does not allow users to manually resolve dependencies. This is because it uses the acquisition package tool library that supports auto upgrading, installing and removing of packages based on the dependencies of packages.
BUGS
If you feel you've found any bug(s), please feel welcome to email them to Patrick Cole <[email protected]> or use the bug command to file it via the Debian Bug Tracking System. Thanks.
SEE ALSO
apt(8), apt-get(8), apt-cache(8), apt.conf(5), sources.list(5)
No other console-apt related documentation is available at the moment.
AUTHOR
Console-apt (and this manual page) is written by Patrick Cole.