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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 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  com‐
	      pleted for some reason.

       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.

       hold   A package marked to be on hold is not handled  by	 dpkg,	unless
	      forced to do that with option --force-hold.

       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 configuration files).

   PACKAGE FLAGS
       reinst-required
	      A	 package  marked  reinst-required is broken and requires rein‐
	      stallation. These packages 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 installation, 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 installation, execute the postrm script of the old pack‐
	      age. Note that this script is executed 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  informa‐
	      tion about how this is done.

       --unpack package_file...
	      Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R
	      option is specified, 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  conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
	      conffiles, 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 triggers-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 conffiles. This may avoid having to reconfigure the pack‐
	      age  if  it  is  reinstalled later. (Conffiles are configuration
	      files that are listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles control file).  -P
	      or  --purge  removes  everything,	 including conffiles. 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, respectively. Note:
	      some  configuration  files might be unknown to dpkg because they
	      are created and handled  separately  through  the	 configuration
	      scripts. In that case, dpkg won't remove them by itself, but the
	      package's postrm script (which is called by dpkg), has  to  take
	      care of their removal during purge.

	      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 avail‐
	      able. 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	 Pack‐
	      ages-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. Note that this file is mostly useless if
	      you don't use dselect but an APT-based frontend: APT has its own
	      system to keep track of available packages.

       -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, package_file must refer to  a	direc‐
	      tory instead.

       --forget-old-unavail
	      Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget unin‐
	      stalled unavailable packages.

       --clear-avail
	      Erase the existing information about what	 packages  are	avail‐
	      able.

	-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, non-installed packages (i.e. those  which  have  been
	      previously purged) will not be shown.

       --set-selections
	      Set  package  selections	using  file read from stdin. This file
	      should be in the format '<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	 dein‐
	      stall.	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  exam‐
	      ple, "i386").

       --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
	      Compare  version	numbers, where op is a binary operator.
	      dpkg returns success (zero result) if the specified  con‐
	      dition  is satisfied, and failure (nonzero result) other‐
	      wise. 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 ver‐
	      sion: lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl. These  are	 provided  only
	      for  compatibility 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	follow‐
	      ing 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. Users of APT-based frontends
		  should use apt-cache show package-name instead.

OPTIONS
       All options can be specified both on the command line and in the
       dpkg configuration file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or the files	on  the
       configuration  directory /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each line in the
       configuration file is either an option (exactly the same as  the
       command line option but without leading dashes) or a comment (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  pack‐
	      age.  Specifying	this option will cause automatic decon‐
	      figuration of the package which depended on  the	removed
	      package.

       -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 pack‐
	      age. This can  have  serious  side  effects,  downgrading
	      essential system components can even make your whole sys‐
	      tem unusable. Use with care.

	      configure-any: Configure also any unpacked but  unconfig‐
	      ured 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 exam‐
	      ple,  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	consid‐
	      ered  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  pack‐
	      age.

	      conflicts:  Install,  even  if  it conflicts with another
	      package. This is dangerous, for  it  will	 usually  cause
	      overwriting of some files.

	      confmiss: Always install a missing conffile. This is dan‐
	      gerous, 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 archi‐
	      tecture.

	      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 authentic‐
	      ity check.

       --ignore-depends=package,...
	      Ignore  dependency-checking for specified packages (actu‐
	      ally, checking is performed, but only warnings about con‐
	      flicts 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 build‐
	      ing 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 prob‐
	      ably expected it to actually do nothing)

       -R, --recursive
	      Recursively handle all  regular  files  matching	pattern
	      *.deb  found at specified directories and all of its sub‐
	      directories. 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 installa‐
	      tion. The actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg,
	      when  it handles packages. For example, when a package is
	      removed, it will be marked selected for deinstallation.

       -E, --skip-same-version
	      Don't install the package if  the	 same  version	of  the
	      package is already installed.

       --pre-invoke=command
       --post-invoke=command
	      Set  an  invoke hook command to be run via “sh -c” before
	      or after the dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install,
	      triggers-only, remove and purge dpkg actions. This option
	      can be specified multiple times. The  order  the	options
	      are  specified  is preserved, with the ones from the con‐
	      figuration  files	 taking	 precedence.   The  environment
	      variable	DPKG_HOOK_ACTION  is  set  for the hooks to the
	      current dpkg action. Note:  front-ends  might  call  dpkg
	      several  times  per invocation, which might run the hooks
	      more times than expected.

       --status-fd n
	      Send machine-readable package status and progress	 infor‐
	      mation 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 new‐
		     lines, 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 conffile question.

	      processing: stage: package
		     Sent  just before a processing stage starts. stage
		     is one  of	 upgrade,  install  (both  sent	 before
		     unpacking),    configure,	 trigproc,   disappear,
		     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 --configure --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 infor‐
	      mation  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  status  file	 is backed up daily in /var/backups. It
	      can be useful if it's lost or corrupted due  to  filesys‐
	      tems troubles.

       The  following  files  are  components  of a binary package. See
       deb(5) for more information 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  display‐
	      ing formatted text. Currently only used by -l.

       DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
	      Defined  by  dpkg on the maintainer script environment to
	      the version of the currently running dpkg instance.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
	      Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script	environment  to
	      the package name being handled.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
	      Defined  by  dpkg on the maintainer script environment to
	      the architecture the package got built for.

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  "available"	 file  shows that the vim package is in
       section "editors":
	    cd /cdrom/pool/main/v/vim
	    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 dselect-upgrade.

       Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more conve‐
       nient 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-control(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			  2009-11-12			       dpkg(1)
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