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dpkg(1) dpkg suite dpkg(1)
NAME
dpkg - package manager for Debian
SYNOPSIS
dpkg [options] action
WARNING
This manual is intended for users wishing to understand dpkg's command line options and
package states in more detail than that provided by dpkg --help.
It should not be used by package maintainers wishing to understand how dpkg will install
their packages. The descriptions of what dpkg does when installing and removing packages
are particularly inadequate.
DESCRIPTION
dpkg is a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages. The primary and more
user-friendly front-end for dpkg is aptitude(1). dpkg itself is controlled entirely via
command line parameters, which consist of exactly one action and zero or more options. The
action-parameter tells dpkg what to do and options control the behavior of the action in
some way.
dpkg can be also be used as a front-end to dpkg-deb(1). The following are dpkg-deb
actions, and if they are encountered, dpkg just runs dpkg-deb with the parameters given to
it:
-b, --build,
-c, --contents,
-I, --info,
-f, --field,
-e, --control,
-x, --extract,
-X, --vextract, and
--fsys-tarfile.
Please refer to dpkg-deb(1) for information about these actions.
INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES
dpkg maintains some usable information about available packages. The information is
divided in three classes: states, selection states and flags. These values are intended to
be changed mainly with dselect.
PACKAGE STATES
not-installed
The package is not installed on your system.
config-files
Only the configuration files of the package exist on the system.
half-installed
The installation of the package has been started, but not completed for some rea-
son.
unpacked
The package is unpacked, but not configured.
half-configured
The package is unpacked and configuration has been started, but not yet completed
for some reason.
triggers-awaited
The package awaits trigger processing by another package.
triggers-pending
The package has been triggered.
installed
The package is unpacked and configured OK.
PACKAGE SELECTION STATES
install
The package is selected for installation.
deinstall
The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to remove all files,
except configuration files).
purge The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove everything, even con-
figuration files).
PACKAGE FLAGS
hold A package marked to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless forced to do that
with option --force-hold.
reinst-required
A package marked reinst-required is broken and requires reinstallation. These pack-
ages cannot be removed, unless forced with option --force-remove-reinstreq.
ACTIONS
-i, --install package_file...
Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is specified, package_file must
refer to a directory instead.
Installation consists of the following steps:
1. Extract the control files of the new package.
2. If another version of the same package was installed before the new installa-
tion, execute prerm script of the old package.
3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.
4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back up the old files, so that if
something goes wrong, they can be restored.
5. If another version of the same package was installed before the new installa-
tion, execute the postrm script of the old package. Note that this script is exe-
cuted after the preinst script of the new package, because new files are written at
the same time old files are removed.
6. Configure the package. See --configure for detailed information about how this
is done.
--unpack package_file...
Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R option is speci-
fied, package_file must refer to a directory instead.
--configure package...|-a|--pending
Reconfigure an unpacked package. If -a or --pending is given instead of package,
all unpacked but unconfigured packages are configured.
Configuring consists of the following steps:
1. Unpack the configuration files, and at the same time back up the old configura-
tion files, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
--triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
Processes only triggers. All pending triggers will be processed. If package names
are supplied only those packages' triggers will be processed, exactly once each
where necessary. Use of this option may leave packages in the improper trig-
gers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can be fixed later by running: dpkg
--configure --pending.
-r, --remove, -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
Remove an installed package. -r or --remove remove everything except configuration
files. This may avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled later.
(Configuration files are the files listed in the debian/conffiles control file). -P
or --purge removes everything, including configuration files. If -a or --pending is
given instead of a package name, then all packages unpacked, but marked to be
removed or purged in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed or purged, respec-
tively.
Removing of a package consists of the following steps:
1. Run prerm script
2. Remove the installed files
3. Run postrm script
--update-avail, --merge-avail Packages-file
Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are available. With action
--merge-avail, old information is combined with information from Packages-file.
With action --update-avail, old information is replaced with the information in the
Packages-file. The Packages-file distributed with Debian is simply named Packages.
dpkg keeps its record of available packages in /var/lib/dpkg/available.
A simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the available file is dselect
update.
-A, --record-avail package_file...
Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages are available with information
from the package package_file. If --recursive or -R option is specified, pack-
age_file must refer to a directory instead.
--forget-old-unavail
Forget about uninstalled unavailable packages.
--clear-avail
Erase the existing information about what packages are available.
-C, --audit
Searches for packages that have been installed only partially on your system. dpkg
will suggest what to do with them to get them working.
--get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
Get list of package selections, and write it to stdout. Without a pattern, packages
marked with state purge will not be shown.
--set-selections
Set package selections using file read from stdin. This file should be in the for-
mat '<package> <state>', where state is one of install, hold, deinstall or purge.
Blank lines and comment lines beginning with '#' are also permitted.
--clear-selections
Set the requested state of every non-essential package to deinstall. This is
intended to be used immediately before --set-selections, to deinstall any packages
not in list given to --set-selections.
--yet-to-unpack
Searches for packages selected for installation, but which for some reason still
haven't been installed.
--print-architecture
Print architecture of packages dpkg installs (for example, "i386").
--compare-versions ver1 op ver2
Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg returns success
(zero result) if the specified condition is satisfied, and failure (nonzero
result) otherwise. There are two groups of operators, which differ in how
they treat an empty ver1 or ver2. These treat an empty version as earlier
than any version: lt le eq ne ge gt. These treat an empty version as later
than any version: lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl. These are provided only for com-
patibility with control file syntax: < << <= = >= >> >.
--command-fd <n>
Accept a series of commands on input file descriptor <n>. Note: additional
options set on the command line, and thru this file descriptor, are not
reset for subsequent commands executed during the same run.
--help Display a brief help message.
--force-help
Give help about the --force-thing options.
-Dh, --debug=help
Give help about debugging options.
--licence, --license
Display dpkg licence.
--version
Display dpkg version information.
dpkg-deb actions
See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following actions.
-b, --build directory [archive|directory]
Build a deb package.
-c, --contents archive
List contents of a deb package.
-e, --control filename [directory]
Extract control-information from a package.
-x, --extract archive directory
Extract the files contained by package.
-X, --vextract archive directory
Extract and display the filenames contained by a
package.
-f, --field archive [control-field...]
Display control field(s) of a package.
--fsys-tarfile archive
Display the filesystem tar-file contained by a
Debian package.
-I, --info archive [control-file...]
Show information about a package.
dpkg-query actions
See dpkg-query(1) for more information about the following actions.
-l, --list package-name-pattern...
List packages matching given pattern.
-s, --status package-name...
Report status of specified package.
-L, --listfiles package-name...
List files installed to your system from package-name.
-S, --search filename-search-pattern...
Search for a filename from installed packages.
-p, --print-avail package-name...
Display details about package-name, as found in
/var/lib/dpkg/available.
OPTIONS
All options can be specified both on the command line and in the dpkg configuration
file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg. Each line in the configuration file is either an option
(exactly the same as the command line option but without leading dashes) or a com-
ment (if it starts with a #).
--abort-after=number
Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is 50.
-B, --auto-deconfigure
When a package is removed, there is a possibility that another installed
package depended on the removed package. Specifying this option will cause
automatic deconfiguration of the package which depended on the removed pack-
age.
-Doctal, --debug=octal
Switch debugging on. octal is formed by bitwise-orring desired values
together from the list below (note that these values may change in future
releases). -Dh or --debug=help display these debugging values.
number description
1 Generally helpful progress information
2 Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
10 Output for each file processed
100 Lots of output for each file processed
20 Output for each configuration file
200 Lots of output for each configuration file
40 Dependencies and conflicts
400 Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
10000 Trigger activation and processing
20000 Lots of output regarding triggers
40000 Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
1000 Lots of drivel about e.g. the dpkg/info dir
2000 Insane amounts of drivel
--force-things, --no-force-things, --refuse-things
Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to do some things.
things is a comma separated list of things specified below. --force-help
displays a message describing them. Things marked with (*) are forced by
default.
Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts only. Using
them without fully understanding their effects may break your whole system.
all: Turns on (or off) all force options.
downgrade(*): Install a package, even if newer version of it is already
installed.
Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking on downgrades
and therefore will not warn you if the downgrade breaks the dependency of
some other package. This can have serious side effects, downgrading essen-
tial system components can even make your whole system unusable. Use with
care.
configure-any: Configure also any unpacked but unconfigured packages on
which the current package depends.
hold: Process packages even when marked "hold".
remove-reinstreq: Remove a package, even if it's broken and marked to
require reinstallation. This may, for example, cause parts of the package to
remain on the system, which will then be forgotten by dpkg.
remove-essential: Remove, even if the package is considered essential.
Essential packages contain mostly very basic Unix commands. Removing them
might cause the whole system to stop working, so use with caution.
depends: Turn all dependency problems into warnings.
depends-version: Don't care about versions when checking dependencies.
breaks: Install, even if this would break another package.
conflicts: Install, even if it conflicts with another package. This is dan-
gerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some files.
confmiss: Always install a missing configuration file. This is dangerous,
since it means not preserving a change (removing) made to the file.
confnew: If a conffile has been modified always install the new version
without prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which
case the default action is preferred.
confold: If a conffile has been modified always keep the old version without
prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which case the
default action is preferred.
confdef: If a conffile has been modified always choose the default action.
If there is no default action it will stop to ask the user unless
--force-confnew or --force-confold is also been given, in which case it will
use that to decide the final action.
overwrite: Overwrite one package's file with another's file.
overwrite-dir Overwrite one package's directory with another's file.
overwrite-diverted: Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted version.
architecture: Process even packages with the wrong architecture.
bad-path: PATH is missing important programs, so problems are likely.
not-root: Try to (de)install things even when not root.
bad-verify: Install a package even if it fails authenticity check.
--ignore-depends=package,...
Ignore dependency-checking for specified packages (actually, checking is
performed, but only warnings about conflicts are given, nothing else).
--new, --old
Select new or old binary package format. This is a dpkg-deb(1) option.
--nocheck
Don't read or check contents of control file while building a package. This
is a dpkg-deb(1) option.
--no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
Do everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write any changes.
This is used to see what would happen with the specified action, without
actually modifying anything.
Be sure to give --no-act before the action-parameter, or you might end up
with undesirable results. (e.g. dpkg --purge foo --no-act will first purge
package foo and then try to purge package --no-act, even though you probably
expected it to actually do nothing)
-R, --recursive
Recursively handle all regular files matching pattern *.deb found at speci-
fied directories and all of its subdirectories. This can be used with -i,
-A, --install, --unpack and --avail actions.
-G Don't install a package if a newer version of the same package is already
installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.
--admindir=dir
Change default administrative directory, which contains many files that give
information about status of installed or uninstalled packages, etc.
(Defaults to /var/lib/dpkg)
--instdir=dir
Change default installation directory which refers to the directory where
packages are to be installed. instdir is also the directory passed to
chroot(2) before running package's installation scripts, which means that
the scripts see instdir as a root directory. (Defaults to /)
--root=dir
Changing root changes instdir to dir and admindir to dir/var/lib/dpkg.
-O, --selected-only
Only process the packages that are selected for installation. The actual
marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it handles packages. For exam-
ple, when a package is removed, it will be marked selected for deinstalla-
tion.
-E, --skip-same-version
Don't install the package if the same version of the package is already
installed.
--status-fd n
Send machine-readable package status and progress information to file
descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple times. The information
is generally one record per line, in one of the following forms:
status: package: status
Package status changed; status is as in the status file.
status: package : error : extended-error-message
An error occurred. Unfortunately at the time of writing extended-
error-message can contain newlines, although in locales where the
translators have not made mistakes every newline is followed by at
least one space.
status: file : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new' useredited distedited
User is being asked a configuration file question.
processing: stage: package
Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is one of upgrade,
install (both sent before unpacking), configure, trigproc, remove,
purge.
--log=filename
Log status change updates and actions to filename, instead of the default
/var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is given multiple times, the last filename
is used. Log messages are of the form `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status <state>
<pkg> <installed-version>' for status change updates; `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
<action> <pkg> <installed-version> <available-version>' for actions where
<action> is one of install, upgrade, remove, purge; and `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
conffile <filename> <decision>' for conffile changes where <decision> is
either install or keep.
--no-debsig
Do not try to verify package signatures.
--no-triggers
Do not run any triggers in this run (activations will still be recorded).
If used with --configure package or --triggers-only package then the named
package postinst will still be run even if only a triggers run is needed.
Use of this option may leave packages in the improper triggers-awaited and
triggers-pending states. This can be fixed later by running: dpkg --config-
ure --pending.
--triggers
Cancels a previous --no-triggers.
FILES
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
Configuration file with default options.
/var/log/dpkg.log
Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg(5) and option --log).
The other files listed below are in their default directories, see option
--admindir to see how to change locations of these files.
/var/lib/dpkg/available
List of available packages.
/var/lib/dpkg/status
Statuses of available packages. This file contains information about whether
a package is marked for removing or not, whether it is installed or not,
etc. See section INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES for more info.
The following files are components of a binary package. See deb(5) for more infor-
mation about them:
control
conffiles
preinst
postinst
prerm
postrm
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
DPKG_NO_TSTP
Define this to something if you prefer dpkg starting a new shell rather than
suspending itself, while doing a shell escape.
SHELL The program dpkg will execute when starting a new shell.
COLUMNS
Sets the number of columns dpkg should use when displaying formatted text.
Currently only used by -l.
EXAMPLES
To list packages related to the editor vi(1):
dpkg -l '*vi*'
To see the entries in /var/lib/dpkg/available of two packages:
dpkg --print-avail elvis vim | less
To search the listing of packages yourself:
less /var/lib/dpkg/available
To remove an installed elvis package:
dpkg -r elvis
To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or CDROM. The "avail-
able" file shows that the vim package is in section "editors":
cd /cdrom/hamm/hamm/binary/editors
dpkg -i vim_4.5-3.deb
To make a local copy of the package selection states:
dpkg --get-selections >myselections
You might transfer this file to another computer, and install it there with:
dpkg --clear-selections
dpkg --set-selections <myselections
Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but just set the
selection state on the requested packages. You will need some other application to
actually download and install the requested packages. For example, run apt-get dse-
lect-upgrade.
Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more convenient way to modify
the package selection states.
ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY
Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the following packages:
apt, aptitude and debsums.
SEE ALSO
aptitude(1), apt(1), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1), deb(5), deb-con-
trol(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).
BUGS
--no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.
AUTHORS
See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who have contributed to dpkg.
Debian Project 2008-04-06 dpkg(1)
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2012-05-25 20:43 @38.107.179.239 Crawled by CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)