appstreamcli is a small helper tool to work with AppStream metadata and access the AppStream component index from the command-line. The AppStream component index contains a list of all available software components for your distribution, matched to their package names. It is generated using AppStream XML or Debian DEP-11 data, which is provided by your distributor.

For more information about the AppStream project and the other components which are part of it, take a look at the AppStream pages at m[blue]Freedesktop.orgm[]

OPTIONS

status

Display various information about the installed metadata and the metadata cache.

get ID

Get a component by it's identifier.

s, search TERM

Search the AppStream component database for a given search term.

what-provides TYPE TERM

Return components which provide a given item. An item type can be specified using the TYPE parameter, a value to search for has to be supplied using the TERM parameter.

Examples:

Get components which handle the "text/xml" mimetype.

appstreamcli what-provides mimetype "text/xml"

Get component which provides the "libfoo.so.2" library.

appstreamcli what-provides lib libfoo.so.2

refresh, refresh-index

Trigger a database refresh, if necessary. In case you want to force the database to be rebuilt, supply the --force flag.

This command must be executed with root permission.

dump ID

Dump the XML description of a component with the given ID.

validate FILES

Validate AppStream XML metadata for compliance with the specification.

Both XML metadata types, upstream and distro XML, are handled. The filetype which should be validated is determined automatically.

The --pedantic flag triggers a more pedantic validation of the file, including minor and style issues in the report.

validate-tree DIRECTORY

Validate AppStream XML metadata found in a file-tree.

This performs a standard validation of all found metadata, but also checks for additional errors, like the presence of .desktop files and validity of other additional metadata.

install ID

Install a software component by its ID.

This resolves the AppStream component ID to the package name which provides it and then calls the distribution's package manager to install the software.

This feature is experimental.

put FILE

Install a metadata file into the right directory on the current machine.

--details

Print out more information about a found component.

--no-color

Don't print colored output.

--version

Display the version number of appstreamcli

SEE ALSO

pkcon (1).

AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Matthias Klumpp <matthias@tenstral.net>.

COPYRIGHT

NOTES

1.

Freedesktop.org

www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream