Version 3.1.3
Copyright © 1997 Manoj Srivastava
License Notice
APT, including this document, is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. |
This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details. |
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License with your
Debian system, in |
Abstract
This document is an overview of the specifications and design goals of the APT project. It also attempts to give a broad description of the implementation as well.
Table of Contents
APT is supposed to be a replacement for dselect, and not a replacement for dpkg. However, since addition functionality has been required for APT, and given the fact that this is very closely related to dpkg, it is not unreasonable to expect that additional functionality in the underlying dpkg would also be requested. |
Deity/dselect are the first introduction that people have to Debian, and unfortunately this first impression contributes greatly to the public perception of the distribution. It is imperative that this be a showcase for Debian, rather than frighten novices away (which has been an accusation often levelled at the current system) |
|
|
|
_____________
__\|http modules|
/ /|____________|
_ ____________ / ________________
| update | / |mount/local file|
|==========================>| module |/_____\| traversals |
| |_____________| /|________________|
| ^ ^
| | | ______________
______|_______ _ _____ ______ | _____v________ \| |
|Configuration | |configuration| | |Packages Files| ===|Status file |
| module |<=>| data | | |______________| / /|____________|
|______________| |_____________| | ^ /
^ | | /
| | _______v_______|/_
| | | | ________________
| | | |/_\| Dependency |
| | |backing store |\ /| Module |
| | |______________| _|_______________|
| \ ^ /| ^
| \ | / |
| _\|____v_______|/__ ____v_______
|_____________________________\| User interaction| | dpkg |
/|_________________|<==> Invoker |
|___________|
|
dpkg also interacts with status and available files. |
The backing store and the associated data structures are the core of APT. All modules essentially revolve around the backing store, feeding it data, adding and manipulating links and relationships between data in the backing store, allowing the user to interact with and modify the data in the backing store, and finally writing it out as the status file and possibly issuing directives to dpkg. |
The other focal point for APT is the user interface. |