Starting from @derobert's answer, I worked my way to getting exactly the current version of all packages to reinstall.
Short version:
sudo dpkg -l | grep '^ii ' | sed 's/ */\t/g' |cut -f 2,3 | sed 's/\t/=/' | xargs apt-get install --reinstall -y --ignore-missing
Explained:
The key is actually specifying the required version of each package.
The general command is:
apt-get install --reinstall <package>=<version>
Breaking down the long command line:
$ dpkg -l
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-===========================================================-==================================-============-========================================================================
ii adduser 3.113+nmu3 all add and remove users and groups
ii apt 0.9.7.8+rpi1 armhf commandline package manager
ii apt-utils 0.9.7.8+rpi1 armhf package managment related utility programs
ii aptitude-common 0.6.8.2-1 all architecture indepedent files for the aptitude package manager
ii atmel-firmware 1.3-4 all Firmware for Atmel at76c50x wireless networking chips.
$ dpkg -l | grep '^ii '
...gets rid of the header lines and a few packages with status 'hold
' (marked as hi
instead of ii
)
$ dpkg -l | grep '^ii ' | sed 's/ */\t/g'
... converts any number of spaces to a single TAB character, preparing the ground for cut
.
(Btw: why, oh why, doesn't sed
support x+
regex for "character x, one or more times"? It can be emulated with xx*
- meaning 'x' once followed by 'x' zero or more times)
The output looks like this:
ii adduser 3.113+nmu3 all add and remove users and groups
ii apt 0.9.7.8+rpi1 armhf commandline package manager
ii apt-utils 0.9.7.8+rpi1 armhf package managment related utility programs
ii aptitude-common 0.6.8.2-1 all architecture indepedent files for the aptitude package manager
ii atmel-firmware 1.3-4 all Firmware for Atmel at76c50x wireless networking chips.
Next:
$ dpkg -l | grep '^ii ' | sed 's/ */\t/g' | cut -f 2,3 | sed 's/\t/=/'
...gets the name and version of each package (the 2nd and 3rd fields), and replaces the tab that separates them with an '='
adduser=3.113+nmu3
apt=0.9.7.8+rpi1
apt-utils=0.9.7.8+rpi1
aptitude-common=0.6.8.2-1
atmel-firmware=1.3-4
Finally, pipe each of the above to apt-get as a long list of arguments using xargs
.
Notice the parameter --ignore-missing
- this command is run as 'best effort' - I don't want the updating to stop because some packages are not available to reinstall (those will stay unmodified)
$ dpkg -l | grep '^ii ' | sed 's/ */\t/g' |cut -f 2,3 | sed 's/\t/=/' | xargs apt-get install --reinstall --ignore-missing
While testing, I also added a --dry-run
argument to apt-get.
In order to use the man command, you must also install the man
package before or after the man-pages
one
# yum install man-pages
... ok
# yum install man
... ok
Now man
is installed
# man ls
NAME
ls - list directory contents
SYNOPSIS
ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
DESCRIPTION
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default). Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. ...
Best Answer
Man pages describe how the system actually functions, not how a standards body N years after the OS came out changed the standard. If Red Hat chose to ship POSIX 2003 man pages with their OS, I take that as meaning that's the closest POSIX standard to what they shipped.
I would leave the OS-provided POSIX man pages alone, but download the current versions, install them somewhere else like
/usr/local/linux-man-pages/share/man
, then put that directory into yourMANPATH
.If you rename the
p
pages to have some other tag — say,pc
for "POSIX current" — you can query them separately from the OS-provided ones. For example, you could use a tool likemmv
:Either remove the non-POSIX man pages that conflict with the OS-provided ones, or tag them similarly if you also want to be able to refer to current Linux-specific man pages. You could use
lc
for "Linux current", for example.