CLI and environment reference

Synopsis

goaptcacher [options] [command]

Place options before the command:

goaptcacher --config /etc/goaptcacher/config.yaml verify-repos

Options

Short	Long	Argument	Description
-h	--help	none	Print usage and exit.
-v	--version	none	Print version, commit, and build timestamp, then exit.
-c	--config	file path	Select the YAML configuration file.

Example version output:

GoAPTCacher version 1.2.3, commit abcdef12, built at 2026-09-04T12:00:00Z

Exact values are injected by release builds. A local development build may show placeholder build information.

Commands

Default server mode

With no command, GoAPTCacher:

1. loads configuration;
2. initializes optional debugging and interception;
3. opens the cache and starts persistence loops;
4. starts cache expiration when configured;
5. starts HTTP, alternative, and optional TLS listeners;
6. announces mDNS when enabled;
7. runs until the process is terminated.

goaptcacher --config ./config.yaml

verify-repos

goaptcacher --config ./config.yaml verify-repos

Scans cached repositories and reports metadata or package checksum mismatches. This mode does not start listeners. See Repository verification.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
CONFIG	empty	Configuration path used when --config/-c is absent.
CACHE_DIR	empty	Overrides cache_directory after YAML parsing.
INVOCATION_ID	normally set by systemd	When non-empty, suppresses Go log timestamps and source-file prefixes.

Configuration path precedence is:

1. --config or -c;
2. CONFIG;
3. ./config.yaml.

CACHE_DIR is independent and always overrides the parsed field when non-empty.

Package service environment

The systemd unit uses:

Environment="CONFIG=/etc/goaptcacher/config.yaml"
WorkingDirectory=/etc/goaptcacher
User=goaptcacher
Group=goaptcacher

The one-shot repository-verification service uses the same configuration and user.

Container defaults

The image uses:

USER goaptcacher:goaptcacher
WORKDIR /config
CMD ["/goaptcacher"]

Therefore /config/config.yaml is selected by the default relative path. Use CONFIG for another mounted path and CACHE_DIR for another writable volume.

Exit behavior

Help, version, a successful no-op verification, and a completed verification without internal repository failures exit successfully. Configuration read failures, invalid commands, interception initialization errors, and repository processing failures exit non-zero.

Checksum mismatches are currently warnings and do not by themselves produce a non-zero exit. Parse verification output in monitoring automation.