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

`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-cache` | 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.
`new-template `TYPE` `FILE`` | Create a metainfo file template to be used by software projects. The `--from-desktop` option can be used to use a .desktop file as template for generating the example file. The generated files contain example entries which need to be filed in with the actual desired values by the project author. The first `TYPE` parameter is the name of an AppStream component type. For a complete list check out the documentation or the help output of appstreamcli for this subcommand.
`--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>`.