appstreamcli: AppStream Library Reference Manual

## appstreamcli appstreamcli — Handle AppStream metadata and the AppStream index |

## Synopsis

`appstreamcli` [`COMMAND`]

## Description

This manual page documents briefly the appstreamcli command.

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 Freedesktop.org.

## Options

`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.
`--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>`.