I am attempting to quiet the output of apt, particularly apt-get, but maybe the others as well. Now, I can: alias apt-get='apt-get -q' But this is annoying. I would rather use the configuration file. Thus, I have tried placing the following in /etc/apt/apt.conf: apt { get { quiet "true"; }; }; I have also tried things like: apt::get::quiet "true"; apt::get::quiet "1"; with no result--it still hits me with percentages while installing, removing, and so on, which is what I am trying to avoid. So I looked at the examples. In the examples "configure-index", which claims it contains defaults for *all* apt configuration items, the word "quiet" does not appear, even though the apt-get, and apt-cache, man pages, say it is a valid option. I know the configuration file is being read. What am I doing wrong? Thanks Luke