Configuration file reference

Configuration file format
Locations of configuration files
Available configuration options

Configuration file format

In its basic form, aptitude's configuration file is a list of options and their values. Each line of the file should have the form Option Value;: for instance, the following line in the configuration file sets the option Aptitude::Theme to Dselect.

Aptitude::Theme "Dselect";

An option can contain other options if they are written in curly braces between the option and the semicolon following it, like this:

Aptitude::UI {
  Package-Status-Format "";
  Package-Display-Format "";
};

An option that contains other options is sometimes called a group. In fact, the double colons that appear in option names are actually a shorthand way of indicating containment: the option Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping is contained in the group Aptitude::UI, which itself is contained in the group Aptitude. Thus, if you wanted to, you could set this option to "" as follows:

Aptitude {
  UI {
    Default-Grouping "";
  };
};

For more information on the format of the configuration file, see the manual page apt.conf(5).

Locations of configuration files

aptitude's configuration is read from the following sources, in order:

  1. Configuration file options specified on the command-line.

  2. The user's configuration file, ~/.aptitude/config. This file is overwritten when the user modifies settings in the Options menu.

  3. The system configuration file, /etc/apt/apt.conf.

  4. The system configuration fragment files, /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/*.

  5. The file specified by the APT_CONFIG environment variable (if any).

  6. Default values stored in /usr/share/aptitude/aptitude-defaults.

  7. Default values built into aptitude.

When an option is being checked, these sources are searched in order, and the first one that provides a value for the option is used. For instance, setting an option in /etc/apt/apt.conf will override aptitude's defaults for that option, but will not override user settings in ~/.aptitude/config.

Available configuration options

The following configuration options are used by aptitude. Note that these are not the only available configuration options; options used by the underlying apt system are not listed here. See the manual pages apt(8) and apt.conf(5) for information on apt options.

Option: Apt::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, then aptitude will not consider packages to be unused (and thus will not automatically remove them) as long as any installed package recommends them, even if Apt::Install-Recommends is false. For more information, see the section called “Managing automatically installed packages”.
Option: Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, then aptitude will not consider packages to be unused (and thus will not automatically remove them) as long as any installed package suggests them. For more information, see the section called “Managing automatically installed packages”.
Option: Apt::Get::List-Cleanup
Default: true
Description: A synonym for Apt::List-Cleanup. If either of these options is set to false, aptitude will not delete old package list files after downloading a new set of package lists.
Option: Apt::List-Cleanup
Default: true
Description: A synonym for Apt::Get::List-Cleanup. If either of these options is set to false, aptitude will not delete old package list files after downloading a new set of package lists.
Option: Apt::Install-Recommends
Default: true
Description: If this option is true and Aptitude::Auto-Install is true, then whenever you mark a package for installation, aptitude will also mark the packages it recommends for installation. Furthermore, if this option is true, aptitude will not consider packages to be unused (and thus will not automatically remove them) as long as any installed package reommends them. For more information, see the section called “Managing automatically installed packages” and the section called “Immediate dependency resolution”.
Option: Aptitude::Allow-Null-Upgrade
Default: false
Description: Normally, if you try to start an install run when no actions will be performed, aptitude will print a warning and return to the package list. If this option is true, aptitude will continue to the preview screen whenever there are upgradable packages, rather than displaying a reminder about the ActionsMark Upgradable (U) command.
Option: Aptitude::Always-Use-Safe-Resolver
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude's command-line actions will always use a safe dependency resolver, as if --safe-resolver had been passed on the command line.
Option: Aptitude::Autoclean-After-Update
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clean up obsolete files (see ActionsClean obsolete files) every time you update the package list.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Fix-Broken
Default: true
Description: If this option is false, aptitude will ask for permission before attempting to fix any broken packages.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Install
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically attempt to fulfill the dependencies of a package when you mark a package to be installed or upgraded.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Install-Remove-Ok
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically remove conflicting packages when you mark a package to be installed or upgraded. Normally these conflicts are flagged and you must handle them manually.
Option: Aptitude::Auto-Upgrade
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will automatically flag all upgradable packages for upgrade when the program starts, as if you had issued the command ActionsMark Upgradable (U).
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Always-Prompt
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this is set, aptitude will always prompt before starting to install or remove packages, even if the prompt would normally be skipped. This is equivalent to the -P command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Assume-Yes
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will act as if the user had answered yes to every prompt, causing most prompts to be skipped. This is equivalent to the -y command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Disable-Columns
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, the results of command-line searches (performed via aptitude search) will not be formatted into fixed-width columns or truncated to the screen width. This is equivalent to the --disable-columns command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Download-Only
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will download package files but not install them. This is equivalent to the -d command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Fix-Broken
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will be more aggressive when attempting to fix the dependencies of broken packages. This is equivalent to the -f command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Group-By
Default: Set to auto, none, package, or source-package to control whether and how the output of aptitude versions is grouped. Equivalent to the command-line option --group-by (see its documentation for more description of what the values mean).
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Ignore-Trust-Violations
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, causes aptitude to ignore the installation of untrusted packages. This is a synonym for Apt::Get::AllowUnauthenticated.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p# - %d#
Description: This is a format string, as described in the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”, which is used to display the results of a command-line search. This is equivalent to the -F command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Package-Display-Width
Default:
Description: This option gives the width in characters for which command-line search results should be formatted. If it is empty (the default; ie, ""), search results will be formatted for the current terminal size, or for an 80-column display if the terminal size cannot be determined.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Progress::Percent-On-Right
Default: false
Description: This option controls whether command-line progress indicators display the percentage on the left-hand side of the screen, in the same style as apt-get, or on the right-hand side (the default). This option does not affect download progress indicators.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Progress::Retain-Completed
Default: false
Description: If this value is false, then command-line progress indicators will be deleted and overwritten once the task they represent is completed. If it is true, then they will be left on the terminal. This option does not affect download progress indicators.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Request-Strictness
Default: 10000
Description: When run in command-line mode, if dependency problems are encountered, aptitude will add this value to the problem resolver score of each action that you explicitly request.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Debug
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will print extremely verbose information while attempting to resolve broken dependencies. As the name suggests, this option is primarily meant to aid in debugging the problem resolver.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Dump
Default:
Description: In command-line mode, if it is necessary to resolve broken dependencies and this option is set to the name of a writable file, the resolver state will be dumped to this file before any calculations are undertaken.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Resolver-Show-Steps
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, then a dependency solution will be displayed as a sequence of resolutions of individual dependencies; for instance, wesnoth depends upon wesnoth-data (= 1.2.4-1) -> installing wesnoth-data 1.2.4-1 (unstable). To toggle between the two display modes, press o at the prompt Accept this solution?.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Deps
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display a brief summary of the dependencies (if any) relating to a package's state. This is equivalent to the -D command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Size-Changes
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display the expected change in the amount of space used by each package. This is equivalent to the -Z command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Why-Display-Mode
Default: no-summary
Description: This option sets the default value of the command-line argument --show-summary. See the documentation of --show-summary for a list of the allowed values of this option and their meanings.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Versions
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display the version of a package that is being installed or removed. This is equivalent to the -V command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Show-Why
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, if this option is true, aptitude will display the manually installed packages that require each automatically installed package, or the manually installed packages that cause a conflict with each automatically removed package. This is equivalent to the -W command-line option and displays the same information you can access via aptitude why or by pressing i in a package list.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Version-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p# %t %i
Description: This is a format string, as described in the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”, which is used to display the output of aptitude versions. This is equivalent to the -F command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Versions-Show-Package-Names
Default: Set to always, auto, or never to control when package names are displayed in the output of aptitude versions. Equivalent to the command-line option --show-package-names (see its documentation for more description of what the values mean).
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::Show-Resolver-Actions
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, then when the safe dependency resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or because the command-line action is safe-upgrade, it will display a summary of the actions taken by the resolver before showing the installation preview. Equivalent to the command-line option --show-resolver-actions.
Option: Aptitude::Screenshot::IncrementalLoadLimit
Default: 16384
Description: The minimum size in bytes at which aptitude will begin to display screenshots incrementally. Below this size, screenshots will not appear until they are fully downloaded.
Option: Aptitude::Screenshot::Cache-Max
Default: 4194304
Description: The maximum number of bytes of screenshot data that aptitude will store in memory for screenshots that are not currently being displayed. The default is four megabytes.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Simulate
Default: false
Description: This option is deprecated; use Aptitude::Simulate instead. In command-line mode, causes aptitude to just display the actions that would be performed (rather than actually performing them); in the visual interface, causes aptitude to start in read-only mode regardless of whether you are root or not. This is equivalent to the -s command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Verbose
Default: 0
Description: This controls how verbose the command-line mode of aptitude is. Every occurrence of the -v command-line option adds 1 to this value.
Option: Aptitude::CmdLine::Visual-Preview
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will enter its visual interface to display the preview of an installation run and to download packages.
Option: Aptitude::Delete-Unused
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, automatically installed packages which are no longer required will be automatically removed. For more information, see the section called “Managing automatically installed packages”.
Option: Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern
Default:
Description: Deprecated alias for Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern. If Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern is unset or set to an empty string, the value of this configuration option will override it. Otherwise, Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern is ignored.
Option: Aptitude::Display-Planned-Action
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a preview screen before actually carrying out the actions you have requested.
Option: Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Install
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new packages whenever you install, upgrade, or remove packages, as if you had issued the command ActionsForget new packages (f).
Option: Aptitude::Forget-New-On-Update
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will clear the list of new packages whenever the package list is updated, as if you had issued the command ActionsForget new packages (f).
Option: Aptitude::Get-Root-Command
Default: su:/bin/su
Description: This option sets the external command that aptitude will use to switch to the root user (see the section called “Becoming root). It has the form protocol:command. protocol must be either su or sudo; it determines how aptitude invokes the program when it wants to gain root privileges. If protocol is su, then command -c arguments is used to become root; otherwise, aptitude uses command arguments. The first word in command is the name of the program that should be invoked; remaining words are treated as arguments to that program.
Option: Aptitude::Ignore-Old-Tmp
Default: false
Description: Old versions of aptitude created a directory ~/.aptitude/.tmp which is no longer necessary. If the directory exists and Aptitude::Ignore-Old-Tmp is true, aptitude will ask you whether to remove this directory. This option is automatically set to true after you reply. On the other hand, if the directory does not exist, this option is set to false so that you will be notified if it reappears.
Option: Aptitude::Ignore-Recommends-Important
Default: false
Description: In previous versions of aptitude, the setting Aptitude::Recommends-Important caused recommendations to be installed automatically, the same way that Apt::Install-Recommends does today. If this option is set to false and Aptitude::Recommends-Important is also set to false, aptitude will set Apt::Install-Recommends to false and set Aptitude::Ignore-Recommends-Important to true on startup.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Recommends
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use Apt::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant instead. Setting this option to true has the same effect as setting Apt::AutoRemove::RecommendsImportant to true.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Suggests
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant instead. Setting this option to true has the same effect as setting Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant to true.
Option: Aptitude::Keep-Unused-Pattern
Default:
Description: If Aptitude::Delete-Unused is true, only unused packages which do not match this pattern (see the section called “Search patterns”) will be removed. If this option is set to an empty string (the default), all unused packages will be removed.
Option: Aptitude::LockFile
Default: /var/lock/aptitude
Description: A file that will be fcntl-locked to ensure that at most one aptitude process can modify the cache at once. In normal circumstances, you should never need to modify this; it may be useful for debugging. Note: if aptitude complains that it cannot acquire a lock, this is not because the lock file needs to be deleted. fcntl locks are managed by the kernel and will be destroyed when the program holding them terminates; failure to acquire the lock means that another running program is using it!
Option: Aptitude::Log
Default: /var/log/aptitude
Description: If this is set to a nonempty string, aptitude will log the package installations, removals, and upgrades that it performs. If the value of Aptitude::Log begins with a pipe character (ie, |), the remainder of its value is used as the name of a command into which the log will be piped: for instance, |mail -s 'Aptitude install run' root will cause the log to be emailed to root. To log to multiple files or commands, you may set this option to a list of log targets.
Option: Aptitude::Logging::File
Default:
Description: If this is set to a nonempty string, aptitude will write logging messages to it; setting it to - causes logging messages to be printed to standard output. This differs from the setting Aptitude::Log: that file is used to log installations and removals, whereas this file is used to log program events, errors, and debugging messages (if enabled). This option is equivalent to the command-line argument --log-file. See also Aptitude::Logging::Levels.
Option: Aptitude::Logging::Levels
Default: (empty)
Description: This option is a group whose members control which log messages are written. Each entry is either level, to set the global log level (the log level of the root logger) to the given level, or category:level, where category is the category of messages to modify (such as aptitude.resolver.hints.match) and level is the lowest log level of messages in that category that should be displayed. Valid log levels are fatal, error, warn, info, debug, and trace. The command-line option --log-level can be used to set or override any log level.
Option: Aptitude::Parse-Description-Bullets
Default: true
Description: If this option is enabled, aptitude will attempt to automatically detect bulleted lists in package descriptions. This will generally improve how descriptions are displayed, but it is not entirely backwards-compatible; some descriptions might be formatted less attractively when this option is true than when it is false.
Option: Aptitude::Pkg-Display-Limit
Default:
Description: The default filter applied to the package list; see the section called “Search patterns” for details about its format.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, the problem resolver will consider breaking package holds or installing forbidden versions in order to resolve a dependency. If it is set to false, these actions will be rejected by default, although you can always enable them manually (see the section called “Resolving Dependencies Interactively”).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::BreakHoldScore
Default: -300
Description: How much to reward or penalize solutions that change the state of a held package or install a forbidden version. Note that unless Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Allow-Break-Holds is set to true, the resolver will never break a hold or install a forbidden version unless it has explicit permission from the user.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Break-Hold-Level
Default: 50000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that break a hold set by the user (by upgrading a held package or by installing a forbidden version of a package). See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::BrokenScore
Default: -100
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on the number of dependencies they break. For each dependency broken by a possible solution, this many points are added to its score; typically this should be a negative value.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::DefaultResolutionScore
Default: 400
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on how many default resolutions for currently unsatisfied dependencies they install. The default resolution is the resolution that apt-get install or the immediate dependency resolver would pick. The score is only applied for dependencies and recommendations whose targets are not currently installed.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Discard-Null-Solution
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will never suggest cancelling all of your proposed actions in order to resolve a dependency problem.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::EssentialRemoveScore
Default: -100000
Description: How much to reward or penalize solutions that remove an Essential package.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Essential-Level
Default: 60000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that remove an Essential package. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ExtraScore
Default: -1
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is extra will have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::FullReplacementScore
Default: 500
Description: Removing a package and installing another package that fully replaces it (i.e., conflicts with it, replaces it, and provides it) is assigned this score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::FutureHorizon
Default: 50
Description: How many steps the resolver should run after finding the first solution. Although aptitude attempts to generate better solutions before worse solutions, sometimes it is unable to do so; this setting causes the resolver to briefly continue searching for a better solution before displaying its results, rather than stopping immediately after it finds the first solution.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Hints
Default: (empty)
Description: This option is a group whose members are used to configure the problem resolver. Each item in the group is a string describing an action that should be applied to one or more packages. The syntax for each hint, and the effect that hints have, may be found in the section called “Configuring resolver hints”.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ImportantScore
Default: 5
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is important will have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Infinity
Default: 1000000
Description: A maximum score for potential solutions. If a set of actions has a score worse than -Infinity, it will be discarded immediately.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::InstallScore
Default: -20
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to installing a package, if the package is not already going to be installed.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Keep-All-Level
Default: 20000
Description: The safety cost assigned to the single solution that cancels all of the actions selected by the user. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::KeepScore
Default: 0
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to keeping a package in its current state, if that package is not already going to be kept in its current state.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::NonDefaultScore
Default: -40
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to installing a non-default version of the package (one that is not the current version and not the candidate version).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Non-Default-Level
Default: 50000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that install non-default versions of a package. For instance, if version 5 of a package is installed, versions 6, 7, and 8 are available, and version 7 is the default version, then versions 6 and 8 will be given a safety cost that is at least this high. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::OptionalScore
Default: 1
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is optional will have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::PreserveAutoScore
Default: 0
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to preserving automatic installations or removals.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::PreserveManualScore
Default: 60
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to preserving explicit user selections.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::RemoveScore
Default: -300
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to removing a package (if it is not already marked for removal).
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Remove-Level
Default: 10000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that remove a package. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::RequiredScore
Default: 4
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is required will have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::ResolutionScore
Default: 50
Description: In addition to all other scoring factors, proposed solutions that actually resolve all unsatisfied dependencies are awarded this many extra points.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Safe-Level
Default: 10000
Description: The safety cost assigned to actions that install the default version of a package, upgrade a package to its default version, or cancel installing or upgrading a package. Solutions assigned this cost could be generated by aptitude safe-upgrade. See the section called “Safety costs” for a description of safety costs.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::SolutionCost
Default: safety,priority
Description: Describes how to determine the cost of a solution. See the section called “Costs in the interactive dependency resolver” for a description of what solution costs are, what they do, and the syntax used to specify them. If the cost cannot be parsed, an error is issued and the default cost is used instead.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StandardScore
Default: 3
Description: Any version of a package whose Priority is standard will have this many points added to its score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepLimit
Default: 5000
Description: The maximum number of steps which should be performed by the problem resolver on each attempt to find a solution to a dependency problem. Decreasing this number will make aptitude give up sooner; increasing it will permit the search for a solution to consume much more time and memory before it is aborted. Setting StepLimit to 0 will disable the problem resolver entirely. The default value is large enough to accomodate commonly encountered situations, while preventing aptitude from blowing up if an overly complicated problem is encountered. (note: this applies only to command-line searches; in the visual interface, the resolver will continue working until it reaches a solution)
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::StepScore
Default: 70
Description: How much to reward or penalize prospective solutions based on their length. For each action performed by a solution, this many points are added to its score. The larger this value is, the more the resolver tends to stick with its first choice rather than considering alternatives; this will cause it to produce a solution more quickly, but the solution might be of slightly lower quality than it would otherwise be.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-Directory
Default:
Description: If this value is set, then each time the problem resolver produces a solution, a stripped-down version of the package state sufficient to reproduce that solution is written to the given file. If Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-File is also set, the same information will also be written to the trace file. Trace directories are more transparent than trace files, and are more suitable for, e.g., including in source trees as test cases.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-File
Default:
Description: If this value is set, then each time the problem resolver produces a solution, a stripped-down version of the package state sufficient to reproduce that solution is written to the given file. If Aptitude::ProblemResolver::Trace-Directory is also set, the same information will also be written to the trace directory. A trace file is simply a compressed archive of a trace directory; it will take less space than the trace directory and is suitable for transmission over a network.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UndoFullReplacementScore
Default: -500
Description: Installing a package and removing another package that fully replaces it (i.e., conflicts with it, replaces it, and provides it) is assigned this score.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UnfixedSoftScore
Default: -200
Description: How much to reward or penalize leaving a Recommends relationship unresolved. This should typically be less than RemoveScore, or aptitude will tend to remove packages rather than leaving their Recommendations unfixed. See the section called “Resolving Dependencies Interactively” for details.
Option: Aptitude::ProblemResolver::UpgradeScore
Default: 0
Description: How much weight the problem resolver should give to upgrading (or downgrading) a package to its candidate version, if the package was not already going to be upgraded.
Option: Aptitude::Purge-Unused
Default: false
Description: If this option is true and Aptitude::Delete-Unused is also true, then packages which are unused will be purged from the system, removing their configuration files and perhaps other important data. For more information about which packages are considered to be unused, see the section called “Managing automatically installed packages”. THIS OPTION CAN CAUSE DATA LOSS! DO NOT ENABLE IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
Option: Aptitude::Recommends-Important
Default: true
Description: This is an obsolete configuration option that has been superseded by Apt::Install-Recommends. On startup, aptitude will copy Aptitude::Recommends-Important (if it exists) to Apt::Install-Recommends and then clear Aptitude::Recommends-Important in your user configuration file.
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Installs
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, then when the safe dependency resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or by using the safe-upgrade command-line action, the resolver will not be allowed to install packages that are not currently installed.
Option: Aptitude::Safe-Resolver::No-New-Upgrades
Default: false
Description: If this option is enabled, then when the safe dependency resolver has been activated via --safe-resolver or by using the safe-upgrade command-line action, the resolver will not be allowed to resolve dependencies by upgrading packages.
Option: Aptitude::Sections::Descriptions
Default: See $prefix/share/aptitude/section-descriptions
Description: This option is a group whose members define the descriptions displayed for each section when using the section package hierarchy grouping policy. Descriptions are assigned to section trees based on the last component of the name: for instance, a member of this group named games will be used to describe the Sections games, non-free/games, and non-free/desktop/games. Within the text of section descriptions, the string \n will be replaced by a line-break, and the string '' will be replaced by a double-quote character.
Option: Aptitude::Sections::Top-Sections
Default: "main"; "contrib"; "non-free"; "non-US";
Description: A configuration group whose elements are the names of the top-level archive sections. The topdir, subdir, and subdirs grouping policies use this list to interpret Section fields: if the first path element of a package's Section is not contained in this list, or if its Section has only one element, then the package will be grouped using the first member of this list as its first path element. For example, if the first member of Top-Sections is main, then a package whose Section is games/arcade will be treated as if its Section field were main/games/arcade.
Option: Aptitude::Simulate
Default: false
Description: In command-line mode, causes aptitude to just display the actions that would be performed (rather than actually performing them); in the visual interface, causes aptitude to start in read-only mode regardless of whether you are root or not. This is equivalent to the -s command-line option.
Option: Aptitude::Spin-Interval
Default: 500
Description: The number of milliseconds to delay in between updating the spinner that appears while the problem resolver is running.
Option: Aptitude::Suggests-Important
Default: false
Description: This is an obsolete option; use Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant instead. Setting this option to true has the same effect as setting Apt::AutoRemove::SuggestsImportant to true.
Option: Aptitude::Suppress-Read-Only-Warning
Default: false
Description: If this option is false, aptitude will display a warning the first time that you attempt to modify package states while aptitude is in read-only mode.
Option: Aptitude::Theme
Default:
Description: The theme that aptitude should use; see the section called “Themes” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::Track-Dselect-State
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will attempt to detect when a change to a package's state has been made using dselect or dpkg: for instance, if you remove a package using dpkg, aptitude will not try to reinstall it. Note that this may be somewhat buggy.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Advance-On-Action
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, changing a package's state (for instance, marking it for installation) will cause aptitude to advance the highlight to the next package in the current group.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Auto-Show-Reasons
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to true, selecting a package which is broken or which appears to be causing other packages to be broken will cause the information area to automatically display some reasons why the breakage might be occuring.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping
Default: filter(missing),status,section(subdirs,passthrough),section(topdir)
Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for package lists. See the section called “Customizing the package hierarchy” for additional information on grouping policies.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Package-View
Default:
Description: This option is a group whose members define the default layout of aptitude's display. See the section called “Customizing the display layout” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Preview-Grouping
Default: action
Description: Sets the default grouping policy used for preview screens. See the section called “Customizing the package hierarchy” for additional information on grouping policies.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Default-Sorting
Default: name
Description: The default sorting policy of package views. See the section called “Customizing how packages are sorted” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Description-Visible-By-Default
Default: true
Description: When a package list is first displayed, the information area (which typically contains the long description of the current package) will be visible if this option is true and hidden if it is false.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Exit-On-Last-Close
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, closing all the active views will quit aptitude; otherwise, aptitude will not exit until you issue the command ActionsQuit (Q). See the section called “Working with multiple views” for more information.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Fill-Text
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will format descriptions so that each line is exactly the width of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Flat-View-As-First-View
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a flat view on startup instead of the default view.
Option: Aptitude::UI::HelpBar
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, a line of information about important keystrokes will be displayed at the top of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Incremental-Search
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will perform incremental searches: as you type the search pattern, it will search for the next package matching what you have typed so far.
Option: Aptitude::UI::InfoAreaTabs
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display tabs at the top of the information area (the pane at the bottom of the screen) describing the different modes the area can be set to.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Keybindings
Default:
Description: This is a group whose members define the connections between keystrokes and commands in aptitude. For more information, see the section called “Customizing keybindings”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Menubar-Autohide
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, the menu bar will be hidden while it is not in use.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Download-Bar
Default: false
Description: If this option is set to true, aptitude will use a less obtrusive mechanism to display the progress of downloads: a bar at the bottom of the screen will appear which displays the current download status. While the download is active, pressing q will abort it.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Prompts
Default: false
Description: If this option is true, some prompts (such as yes/no and multiple-choice prompts) will be displayed at the bottom of the screen instead of in dialog boxes.
Option: Aptitude::UI::New-Package-Commands
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to false, commands such as PackageInstall (+) will have the same deprecated behavior that they did in antique versions of aptitude.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format
Default: %c%a%M %p %Z %v %V
Description: This option controls the format string used to display packages in package lists. For more information on format strings, see the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format
Default: %N %n #%B %u %o
Description: This option controls the format string used to display the header line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the package list and the menu bar). For more information on format strings, see the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format
Default: %d
Description: This option controls the format string used to display the status line of package lists (ie, the line that appears between the package list and the information area). For more information on format strings, see the section called “Customizing how packages are displayed”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Pause-After-Download
Default: OnlyIfError
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a message after it finishes downloading packages, asking you if you want to continue with the installation. If it is OnlyIfError, a message will only be displayed if a download failed. Otherwise, if the option is set to false, aptitude will immediately proceed to the next screen after completing a download.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Preview-Limit
Default:
Description: The default filter applied to the preview screen; see the section called “Search patterns” for details about its format.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Prompt-On-Exit
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will display a confirmation prompt before shutting down.
Option: Aptitude::UI::Styles
Default:
Description: This is a configuration group whose contents define what textual styles aptitude uses to display information. For more information, see the section called “Customizing text colors and styles”.
Option: Aptitude::UI::ViewTabs
Default: true
Description: If this option is set to false, aptitude will not display tabs describing the currently active views at the top of the screen.
Option: Aptitude::Warn-Not-Root
Default: true
Description: If this option is true, aptitude will detect when you need root privileges to do something, and ask you whether you want to switch to the root account if you aren't root already. See the section called “Becoming root for more information.
Option: DebTags::Vocabulary
Default: /usr/share/debtags/vocabulary
Description: The location of the debtags vocabulary file; used to load in the package tag metadata.
Option: Dir::Aptitude::state
Default: /var/lib/aptitude
Description: The directory in which aptitude's persistent state information is stored.
Option: Quiet
Default: 0
Description: This controls the quietness of the command-line mode. Setting it to a higher value will disable more progress indicators.