I was following these instructions and I have installed apt-file along with some other packages using:

sudo apt-get install gnupg pbuilder ubuntu-dev-tools bzr-builddeb apt-file

And now every time I startup my computer I get this notice:

So I finally went into Terminal and typed the command:

apt-file update

And I got this output:

apt-file is now using the user's cache directory.
If you want to switch back to the system-wide cache directory, run 'apt-file purge'
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 94 29.6M 94 27.8M 0 0 667k 0 0:00:45 0:00:42 0:00:03 97 29.6M 97 28.8M 0 0 677k 0 0:00:44 0:00:43 0:00:01 99 29.6M 99 29.5M 0 0 678k 0 0:00:44 0:00:44 --:--:--100 29.6M 100 29.6M 0 0 678k 0 0:00:44 0:00:44 --:--:-- 738k
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 11 3134k 11 367k 0 0 480k 0 0:00:06 --:--:-- 0:00:06 35 3134k 35 1101k 0 0 623k 0 0:00:05 0:00:01 0:00:04 53 3134k 53 1685k 0 0 609k 0 0:00:05 0:00:02 0:00:03 75 3134k 75 2373k 0 0 630k 0 0:00:04 0:00:03 0:00:01 99 3134k 99 3105k 0 0 651k 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 --:--:--100 3134k 100 3134k 0 0 652k 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 --:--:-- 684k
Downloading Index
No Index available.
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
File is up-to-date.
Downloading Index
No Index available.
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
File is up-to-date.
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--100 121k 100 121k 0 0 189k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 189k
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 17 2546k 17 452k 0 0 454k 0 0:00:05 --:--:-- 0:00:05 46 2546k 46 1185k 0 0 593k 0 0:00:04 0:00:01 0:00:03 75 2546k 75 1918k 0 0 640k 0 0:00:03 0:00:02 0:00:01100 2546k 100 2546k 0 0 660k 0 0:00:03 0:00:03 --:--:-- 660k
Downloading Index
No Index available.
Downloading complete file % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 0
File is up-to-date.
Ignoring source without Contents File:
Ignoring source without Contents File: 

So I see that it says:

apt-file is now using the user's cache directory.
If you want to switch back to the system-wide cache directory, run 'apt-file purge'

So what exactly is apt-file? And what does it mean by the fact that it is now using the user's cache directory? Is this a good thing? What is the difference here between the user's cache directory and the system-wide cache directory, and which one should I use? Does this in any way affect my apt-get sources?

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OS Information:

Description: Ubuntu 14.10
Release: 14.10

Package Information:

apt-file: Installed: 2.5.2.3ubuntu1 Candidate: 2.5.2.3ubuntu1 Version table: *** 2.5.2.3ubuntu1 0 500 utopic/universe amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

1 Answer

• apt-file is used to do a search of which package provides a file. Consider it the offline and somewhat limited version of .
• Since you used apt-file update without sudo, it cannot use a system-wide directory (typically /var/cache/apt/apt-file), and instead uses a directory in your home (~/.cache/apt-file).
• Searches by other users cannot use your user's cache.
• If you're the only user, it doesn't really matter which cache apt-file uses, as long as you're consistent about using sudo (or not).
• apt-get and apt-file share sources, but neither affects the other.

6

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