1dpkg-deb(1) dpkg suite dpkg-deb(1)
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6 dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
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9 dpkg-deb [option...] command
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12 dpkg-deb packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.
13 Use dpkg to install and remove packages from your system.
15 You can also invoke dpkg-deb by calling dpkg with whatever options you
17 want to pass to dpkg-deb. dpkg will spot that you wanted dpkg-deb and
18 run it for you.
19 For most commands taking an input archive argument, the archive can be
21 read from standard input if the archive name is given as a single minus
22 character («-»); otherwise lack of support will be documented in their
23 respective command description.
24
26 -b, --build binary-directory [archive|directory]
27 Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in
28 binary-directory. binary-directory must have a DEBIAN
29 subdirectory, which contains the control information files such
30 as the control file itself. This directory will not appear in
31 the binary package's filesystem archive, but instead the files
32 in it will be put in the binary package's control information
33 area.
34 Unless you specify --nocheck, dpkg-deb will read DEBIAN/control
36 and parse it. It will check the file for syntax errors and other
37 problems, and display the name of the binary package being
38 built. dpkg-deb will also check the permissions of the
39 maintainer scripts and other files found in the DEBIAN control
40 information directory.
41 If no archive is specified then dpkg-deb will write the package
43 into the file binary-directory.deb.
44 If the archive to be created already exists it will be
46 overwritten.
47 If the second argument is a directory then dpkg-deb will write
49 to the file directory/package_version_arch.deb. When a target
50 directory is specified, rather than a file, the --nocheck option
51 may not be used (since dpkg-deb needs to read and parse the
52 package control file to determine which filename to use).
53 -I, --info archive [control-file-name...]
55 Provides information about a binary package archive.
56 If no control-file-names are specified then it will print a
58 summary of the contents of the package as well as its control
59 file.
60 If any control-file-names are specified then dpkg-deb will print
62 them in the order they were specified; if any of the components
63 weren't present it will print an error message to stderr about
64 each one and exit with status 2.
65 -W, --show archive
67 Provides information about a binary package archive in the
68 format specified by the --showformat argument. The default
69 format displays the package's name and version on one line,
70 separated by a tabulator.
71 -f, --field archive [control-field-name...]
73 Extracts control file information from a binary package archive.
74 If no control-field-names are specified then it will print the
76 whole control file.
77 If any are specified then dpkg-deb will print their contents, in
79 the order in which they appear in the control file. If more than
80 one control-field-name is specified then dpkg-deb will precede
81 each with its field name (and a colon and space).
82 No errors are reported for fields requested but not found.
84 -c, --contents archive
86 Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of the
87 package archive. It is currently produced in the format
88 generated by tar's verbose listing.
89 -x, --extract archive directory
91 Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the
92 specified directory.
93 Note that extracting a package to the root directory will not
95 result in a correct installation! Use dpkg to install packages.
96 directory (but not its parents) will be created if necessary,
98 and its permissions modified to match the contents of the
99 package.
100 -X, --vextract archive directory
102 Is like --extract (-x) with --verbose (-v) which prints a
103 listing of the files extracted as it goes.
104 -R, --raw-extract archive directory
106 Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into a
107 specified directory, and the control information files into a
108 DEBIAN subdirectory of the specified directory (since dpkg
109 1.16.1).
110 The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if
112 necessary.
113 The input archive is not (currently) processed sequentially, so
115 reading it from standard input («-») is not supported.
116 --ctrl-tarfile archive
118 Extracts the control data from a binary package and sends it to
119 standard output in tar format (since dpkg 1.17.14). Together
120 with tar(1) this can be used to extract a particular control
121 file from a package archive. The input archive will always be
122 processed sequentially.
123 --fsys-tarfile archive
125 Extracts the filesystem tree data from a binary package and
126 sends it to standard output in tar format. Together with tar(1)
127 this can be used to extract a particular file from a package
128 archive. The input archive will always be processed
129 sequentially.
130 -e, --control archive [directory]
132 Extracts the control information files from a package archive
133 into the specified directory.
134 If no directory is specified then a subdirectory DEBIAN in the
136 current directory is used.
137 The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if
139 necessary.
140 -?, --help
142 Show the usage message and exit.
143 --version
145 Show the version and exit.
146
148 --showformat=format
149 This option is used to specify the format of the output --show
150 will produce. The format is a string that will be output for
151 each package listed.
152 The string may reference any status field using the “${field-
154 name}” form, a list of the valid fields can be easily produced
155 using -I on the same package. A complete explanation of the
156 formatting options (including escape sequences and field
157 tabbing) can be found in the explanation of the --showformat
158 option in dpkg-query(1).
159 The default for this field is “${Package}\t${Version}\n”.
161 -zcompress-level
163 Specify which compression level to use on the compressor
164 backend, when building a package (default is 9 for gzip, 6 for
165 xz). The accepted values are 0-9 with: 0 being mapped to
166 compressor none for gzip. Before dpkg 1.16.2 level 0 was
167 equivalent to compressor none for all compressors.
168 -Scompress-strategy
170 Specify which compression strategy to use on the compressor
171 backend, when building a package (since dpkg 1.16.2). Allowed
172 values are none (since dpkg 1.16.4), filtered, huffman, rle and
173 fixed for gzip (since dpkg 1.17.0) and extreme for xz.
174 -Zcompress-type
176 Specify which compression type to use when building a package.
177 Allowed values are gzip, xz (since dpkg 1.15.6), and none
178 (default is xz).
179 --[no-]uniform-compression
181 Specify that the same compression parameters should be used for
182 all archive members (i.e. control.tar and data.tar; since dpkg
183 1.17.6). Otherwise only the data.tar member will use those
184 parameters. The only supported compression types allowed to be
185 uniformly used are none, gzip and xz. The
186 --no-uniform-compression option disables uniform compression
187 (since dpkg 1.19.0). Uniform compression is the default (since
188 dpkg 1.19.0).
189 --root-owner-group
191 Set the owner and group for each entry in the filesystem tree
192 data to root with id 0 (since dpkg 1.19.0).
193 Note: This option can be useful for rootless builds (see
195 rootless-builds.txt), but should not be used when the entries
196 have an owner or group that is not root. Support for these will
197 be added later in the form of a meta manifest.
198 --deb-format=format
200 Set the archive format version used when building (since dpkg
201 1.17.0). Allowed values are 2.0 for the new format, and
202 0.939000 for the old one (default is 2.0).
203 The old archive format is less easily parsed by non-Debian tools
205 and is now obsolete; its only use is when building packages to
206 be parsed by versions of dpkg older than 0.93.76 (September
207 1995), which was released as i386 a.out only.
208 --nocheck
210 Inhibits dpkg-deb --build's usual checks on the proposed
211 contents of an archive. You can build any archive you want, no
212 matter how broken, this way.
213 -v, --verbose
215 Enables verbose output (since dpkg 1.16.1). This currently only
216 affects --extract making it behave like --vextract.
217 -D, --debug
219 Enables debugging output. This is not very interesting.
220
222 0 The requested action was successfully performed.
223 2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage,
225 or interactions with the system, such as accesses to the
226 database, memory allocations, etc.
227
229 DPKG_COLORS
230 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
231 values are: auto (default), always and never.
232 TMPDIR If set, dpkg-deb will use it as the directory in which to create
234 temporary files and directories.
235 SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
237 If set, it will be used as the timestamp (as seconds since the
238 epoch) in the deb(5)'s ar(5) container and used to clamp the
239 mtime in the tar(5) file entries.
240
242 Do not attempt to use just dpkg-deb to install software! You must use
243 dpkg proper to ensure that all the files are correctly placed and the
244 package's scripts run and its status and contents recorded.
245
247 dpkg-deb -I package1.deb package2.deb does the wrong thing.
248 There is no authentication on .deb files; in fact, there isn't even a
250 straightforward checksum. (Higher level tools like APT support
251 authenticating .deb packages retrieved from a given repository, and
252 most packages nowadays provide an md5sum control file generated by
253 debian/rules. Though this is not directly supported by the lower level
254 tools.)
255
257 deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg(1), dselect(1).
2581.19.7 2019-06-03 dpkg-deb(1)