Man page 1 : apt-sortpkgs

apt-sortpkgs - Utility to sort package index files

apt-sortpkgs [-hvs] [-o=\fIconfig string\fR] [-c=\fIfile\fR] file...

apt-sortpkgs will take an index file (Source index or Package index) and sort the records so that they are ordered by the package name. It will also sort the internal fields of each record according to the internal sorting rules.

All output is sent to stdout, the input must be a seekable file.

All command line options may be set using the configuration file, the descriptions indicate the configuration option to set. For boolean options you can override the config file by using something like -f-,--no-f, -f=no or several other variations.

-s, --source
    Use Source index field ordering. Configuration Item: APT::SortPkgs::Source.

-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.

apt.conf(5)

apt-sortpkgs returns zero on normal operation, decimal 100 on error.

\m[blue]APT bug page\m[]\s-2\u[1]\d\s+2. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.

Jason Gunthorpe

APT team

1. 4 APT bug page
    http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt