info > APT-MARK

🏷️ NAME

apt-mark — show, set and unset various settings for a package

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
Mark package as automatically installed	apt-mark auto <package>	Package will be removed when no longer needed
Mark package as manually installed	apt-mark manual <package>	Prevent automatic removal
Show automatically installed packages	apt-mark showauto	List all auto‑installed packages
Show manually installed packages	apt-mark showmanual	List all manually installed packages
Hold a package (prevent changes)	apt-mark hold <package>	Block upgrades, installs, or removal
Unhold a package	apt-mark unhold <package>	Allow changes again
Schedule install	apt-mark install <package>	Mark for installation
Schedule remove (deinstall)	apt-mark remove <package>	Mark for removal
Schedule purge	apt-mark purge <package>	Mark for purge (remove config too)
Show held packages	apt-mark showhold	List packages on hold
Show scheduled installs	apt-mark showinstall	List packages marked for install
Show scheduled removals	apt-mark showremove	List packages marked for removal
Show scheduled purges	apt-mark showpurge	List packages marked for purge

📝 SYNOPSIS

apt-mark {-f=filename | {auto | manual} pkg...  |
                {showauto | showmanual} [pkg...] } | {-v | --version} |
                {-h | --help}

apt-mark {hold | unhold | install | remove | purge} pkg...  |
                {showhold | showinstall | showremove | showpurge} [pkg...]

📖 DESCRIPTION

apt-mark can be used as a unified front‑end to set various settings for a package, such as marking a package as being automatically/manually installed or changing dpkg selections such as hold, install, deinstall and purge which are respected e.g. by apt-get(8) dselect‑upgrade or aptitude(8).

📦 AUTOMATICALLY AND MANUALLY INSTALLED PACKAGES

When you request that a package is installed, and as a result other packages are installed to satisfy its dependencies, the dependencies are marked as being automatically installed, while the package you installed explicitly is marked as manually installed. Once an automatically installed package is no longer depended on by any manually installed package it is considered no longer needed and e.g. apt‑get or aptitude will at least suggest removing them.

auto

auto is used to mark a package as being automatically installed, which will cause the package to be removed when no more manually installed packages depend on this package.

manual

manual is used to mark a package as being manually installed, which will prevent the package from being automatically removed if no other packages depend on it.

minimize‑manual

minimize‑manual is used to mark (transitive) dependencies of metapackages as automatically installed. This can be used after an installation for example, to minimize the number of manually installed packages; or continuously on systems managed by system configuration metapackages.

showauto

showauto is used to print a list of automatically installed packages with each package on a new line. All automatically installed packages will be listed if no package is given. If packages are given only those which are automatically installed will be shown.

showmanual

showmanual can be used in the same way as showauto except that it will print a list of manually installed packages instead.

Options

• -f=filename, --file=filename — Read/Write package stats from the filename given with the parameter filename instead of from the default location, which is extended_states in the directory defined by the Configuration Item: Dir::State.

🔒 PREVENT CHANGES FOR A PACKAGE

hold

hold is used to mark a package as held back, which will prevent the package from being automatically installed, upgraded or removed.

unhold

unhold is used to cancel a previously set hold on a package to allow all actions again.

showhold

showhold is used to print a list of packages on hold in the same way as for the other show commands.

📅 SCHEDULE PACKAGES FOR INSTALL, REMOVE AND PURGE

Some front‑ends like apt‑get dselect‑upgrade can be used to apply previously scheduled changes to the install state of packages. Such changes can be scheduled with the install, remove (also known as deinstall) and purge commands. Packages with a specific selection can be displayed with showinstall, showremove and showpurge respectively. More information about these so called dpkg selections can be found in dpkg(1).

⚙️ OPTIONS

-h, --help

Show a short usage summary.

-v, --version

Show the program version.

-c, --config-file

Configuration File; Specify a configuration file to use. The program will read the default configuration file and then this configuration file. If configuration settings need to be set before the default configuration files are parsed specify a file with the APT_CONFIG environment variable. See apt.conf(5) for syntax information.

-o, --option

Set a Configuration Option; This will set an arbitrary configuration option. The syntax is -o Foo::Bar=bar. -o and --option can be used multiple times to set different options.

📁 FILES

• /var/lib/apt/extended_states — Status list of auto‑installed packages. Configuration Item: Dir::State::extended_states.

🚪 Exit Codes

apt‑mark returns zero on normal operation, non‑zero on error.

📚 SEE ALSO

apt-get(8), aptitude(8), apt.conf(5)

🐛 BUGS

APT bug page[1]. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.

👤 AUTHORS

Mike O'Connor

APT team

📝 NOTES

1. APT bug page: http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt