Manual for apt

[Colin Law]

On 3 September 2016 at 10:27, Ralf Mardorf <silver.bullet at zoho.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 3 Sep 2016 09:17:38 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
>>On 3 September 2016 at 09:01, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>>> Packages installed by either apt "full-upgrade" or "install", e.g.
>>>
>>>   # apt -o APT::Color="0" full-upgrade
>>>   # apt install alpine-pico
>>>
>>> are not stored in /var/cache/apt/archives/.
>>> As wanted apt-get "dist-upgrade" and "install" stores the packages in
>>> the cache.
>>
>>The install history is in /var/log/apt/history.log, but is that not
>>also the case for apt-get?
>
> Yes, but the Ubuntu 16.04 version of apt does not save the installed
> packages in _cache_.
>
>>I agree with your point that documentation for apt is lacking.  For
>>example man apt does not even show autoremove as an option.
>
> It is mentioned by the Ubuntu 16.04 version of apt:
>
> [weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ lsb_release -r; man apt | grep autoremove
> Release:        16.04
>        autoremove (apt-get(8))
>            autoremove is used to remove packages that were automatically
>                       installed to satisfy dependencies for other
> [weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ apt --help | grep autoremove
>   autoremove - Remove automatically all unused packages

Ah yes, you are right, the fact that it is not shown in the synopsis
led me astray.

> ...
> It's intended to keep the man page brief:
>
> [weremouse at moonstudio ~]$ man apt | grep "most used" -A1
>        Much like apt itself, its manpage is intended as an end user
> interface and as such only mentions the most used commands and options
> partly to not duplicate information in multiple places and partly to
> avoid overwhelming

That seems unusual to me, I thought the whole point of man was to give
a full definition.  Most man pages care not a fig about "overwhelming
readers with a cornucopia of options and details".  If the details are
not in the man page then where are we supposed to find them? I am not
asking you that, Ralf, as I think that is the point you are making.

Colin