On Tue, Mar 15 2022 at 08:28:41 AM, Cousin Stanley <cousinstan...@gmail.com> wrote: > > <snip> > > I was under the impression that > package information returned by .... > > apt-cache show some-package > > for packages that I have not installed > would not be downloaded onto my system > until I actually requested it. > > If that is the case then a transmission > would be happening when one made > such a request. > > Does the Debian package manager > really download package information > for all ~59,000 avaiilabel packages > in anticipation that users will need it > at sometime in the future ? >
Yes, this is what happens. See the files in the /var/lib/apt/lists directory. > That would be suprising to me. > See the description of the update operation in the apt-get manpage. > <snip> -- regards, kushal