Synaptic
========

Synaptic (previously known as raptor) is a graphical package management
program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command line 
utility with a GUI front-end based on Gtk+ or WINGs. 

Synaptic was developed by Alfredo K. Kojima <kojima@conectiva.com.br>. His
last offical released was 0.16. I took over his CVS version, where he added
a nearly complette port to Gtk+. I completted the port and add some
new features. See the NEWS file for the user visible changes from that
point on. 

If you want to use synaptic from the gnome menu, you should use gksu 
(default) or xsu to obtain root privileges. Get it from 
gksu from http://people.debian.org/~kov/gksu/ or http://xsu.freax.eu.org/
Currently, gksu is the default because it does not depend on all the gnome
libs like xsu. Maybe someone can write a configure test to find out which
one is installed (hint, hint :)

All development is done at http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/synaptic

Tutorial:
---------
Synaptic is used very much like apt-get. Usually you do a 
"update" which will update the package list from the servers in your
sources.list file. Note that no packages are updated in this step,
only information about the packages. Now you can view what packages
are "upgradeable". To do this, just click on the filter "Upgradeable".
The main list will change and you will see only those packages where
a new version is available on the server. You can now upgrade
inidiviual packages by selecting them and then clicking on the small
"upgrade" button on the left (or double click in the gtk-version) or
thos to upgrade all packages by clicking on the big "Upgrade" button
on the top. No packages will downloaded/upgraded yet, they are only
marked as to be upgraded. You may want to change the filter again to
"Expected Changes" to see what will happen if you continue. If you
like what you see, click "Proceed!" and synaptic will download the
packages and install them. 


Filters:
--------
Synaptic display the main package list according to the filter you
selected. The most simple filter is of course "All packages". But
there are much more filters than that :) You can view the predefiend
filters and make your own filters by clicking on "Filters" above the
main package list. 

Keybindings:
------------
From version 0.20 on, the gtk has some global keybings:
* ALT-k keep
* ALT-i install
* ALT-r remove
* ALT-n search next
* ALT-u Update individual package
* ALT-l Update Package List
* ALT-g upgrade
* ALT-d DistUpgrade
* ALT-p proceed

Command line options:
---------------------
From version 0.25 on, synaptic supports the following command line
options:
 '-f <filename>' or "--filter-file <filename>" = give a alternative filter file
 '-i <int>' or "--initial-filter <int>" = start with filter nr. <int>
 '-o <option>' or "--option <option>" = set a synaptic/apt option (expert only)

Selecting Multiple Packages
----------------------------
From 0.25 on, you can select more than one package at a time. You have to
use SHIFT or CTRL to select multiple packages. If you click on a action 
(install/upgrade/remove) for multiple packages, the action will be performed
for each package (as you probably already guessed (: ).


Contacting me
-------------
If you have any questions, suggestions or bugreports, send a email
to synaptic-devel@mail.freesoftware.fsf.org or directly to me (mvo@debian.org).


Have fun with synaptic,
 Michael Vogt

