1dpkg(1) dpkg suite dpkg(1)
2
6 dpkg - package manager for Debian
7
9 dpkg [option...] action
10
12 This manual is intended for users wishing to understand dpkg's command
13 line options and package states in more detail than that provided by
14 dpkg --help.
15 It should not be used by package maintainers wishing to understand how
17 dpkg will install their packages. The descriptions of what dpkg does
18 when installing and removing packages are particularly inadequate.
19
21 dpkg is a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages.
22 The primary and more user-friendly front-end for dpkg is aptitude(1).
23 dpkg itself is controlled entirely via command line parameters, which
24 consist of exactly one action and zero or more options. The action-
25 parameter tells dpkg what to do and options control the behavior of the
26 action in some way.
27 dpkg can also be used as a front-end to dpkg-deb(1) and dpkg-query(1).
29 The list of supported actions can be found later on in the ACTIONS
30 section. If any such action is encountered dpkg just runs dpkg-deb or
31 dpkg-query with the parameters given to it, but no specific options are
32 currently passed to them, to use any such option the back-ends need to
33 be called directly.
34
36 dpkg maintains some usable information about available packages. The
37 information is divided in three classes: states, selection states and
38 flags. These values are intended to be changed mainly with dselect.
39 Package states
41 not-installed
42 The package is not installed on your system.
43 config-files
45 Only the configuration files of the package exist on the system.
46 half-installed
48 The installation of the package has been started, but not
49 completed for some reason.
50 unpacked
52 The package is unpacked, but not configured.
53 half-configured
55 The package is unpacked and configuration has been started, but
56 not yet completed for some reason.
57 triggers-awaited
59 The package awaits trigger processing by another package.
60 triggers-pending
62 The package has been triggered.
63 installed
65 The package is correctly unpacked and configured.
66 Package selection states
68 install
69 The package is selected for installation.
70 hold A package marked to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless
72 forced to do that with option --force-hold.
73 deinstall
75 The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to
76 remove all files, except configuration files).
77 purge The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
79 everything from system directories, even configuration files).
80 unknown
82 The package selection is unknown. A package that is also in a
83 not-installed state, and with an ok flag will be forgotten in
84 the next database store.
85 Package flags
87 ok A package marked ok is in a known state, but might need further
88 processing.
89 reinstreq
91 A package marked reinstreq is broken and requires
92 reinstallation. These packages cannot be removed, unless forced
93 with option --force-remove-reinstreq.
94
96 -i, --install package-file...
97 Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is specified,
98 package-file must refer to a directory instead.
99 Installation consists of the following steps:
101 1. Extract the control files of the new package.
103 2. If another version of the same package was installed before
105 the new installation, execute prerm script of the old package.
106 3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.
108 4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back up the old
110 files, so that if something goes wrong, they can be restored.
111 5. If another version of the same package was installed before
113 the new installation, execute the postrm script of the old
114 package. Note that this script is executed after the preinst
115 script of the new package, because new files are written at the
116 same time old files are removed.
117 6. Configure the package. See --configure for detailed
119 information about how this is done.
120 --unpack package-file...
122 Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R
123 option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
124 instead.
125 --configure package...|-a|--pending
127 Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet
128 configured. If -a or --pending is given instead of package, all
129 unpacked but unconfigured packages are configured.
130 To reconfigure a package which has already been configured, try
132 the dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead.
133 Configuring consists of the following steps:
135 1. Unpack the conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
137 conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
138 2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
140 --triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
142 Processes only triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17). All pending
143 triggers will be processed. If package names are supplied only
144 those packages' triggers will be processed, exactly once each
145 where necessary. Use of this option may leave packages in the
146 improper triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can
147 be fixed later by running: dpkg --configure --pending.
148 -r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
150 Remove an installed package. This removes everything except
151 conffiles and other data cleaned up by the postrm script, which
152 may avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled
153 later (conffiles are configuration files that are listed in the
154 DEBIAN/conffiles control file). If there is no DEBIAN/conffiles
155 control file nor DEBIAN/postrm script, this command is
156 equivalent to calling --purge. If -a or --pending is given
157 instead of a package name, then all packages unpacked, but
158 marked to be removed in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed.
159 Removing of a package consists of the following steps:
161 1. Run prerm script
163 2. Remove the installed files
165 3. Run postrm script
167 -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
170 Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes
171 everything, including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up
172 from postrm. If -a or --pending is given instead of a package
173 name, then all packages unpacked or removed, but marked to be
174 purged in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.
175 Note: some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg because
177 they are created and handled separately through the
178 configuration scripts. In that case, dpkg won't remove them by
179 itself, but the package's postrm script (which is called by
180 dpkg), has to take care of their removal during purge. Of
181 course, this only applies to files in system directories, not
182 configuration files written to individual users' home
183 directories.
184 Purging of a package consists of the following steps:
186 1. Remove the package, if not already removed. See --remove for
188 detailed information about how this is done.
189 2. Run postrm script.
191 -V, --verify [package-name...]
193 Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if
194 omitted, by comparing information from the files installed by a
195 package with the files metadata information stored in the dpkg
196 database (since dpkg 1.17.2). The origin of the files metadata
197 information in the database is the binary packages themselves.
198 That metadata gets collected at package unpack time during the
199 installation process.
200 Currently the only functional check performed is an md5sum
202 verification of the file contents against the stored value in
203 the files database. It will only get checked if the database
204 contains the file md5sum. To check for any missing metadata in
205 the database, the --audit command can be used.
206 The output format is selectable with the --verify-format option,
208 which by default uses the rpm format, but that might change in
209 the future, and as such, programs parsing this command output
210 should be explicit about the format they expect.
211 -C, --audit [package-name...]
213 Performs database sanity and consistency checks for package-name
214 or all packages if omitted (per package checks since dpkg
215 1.17.10). For example, searches for packages that have been
216 installed only partially on your system or that have missing,
217 wrong or obsolete control data or files. dpkg will suggest what
218 to do with them to get them fixed.
219 --update-avail [Packages-file]
221 --merge-avail [Packages-file]
222 Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are
223 available. With action --merge-avail, old information is
224 combined with information from Packages-file. With action
225 --update-avail, old information is replaced with the information
226 in the Packages-file. The Packages-file distributed with Debian
227 is simply named «Packages». If the Packages-file argument is
228 missing or named «-» then it will be read from standard input
229 (since dpkg 1.17.7). dpkg keeps its record of available packages
230 in /var/lib/dpkg/available.
231 A simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the available
233 file is dselect update. Note that this file is mostly useless if
234 you don't use dselect but an APT-based frontend: APT has its own
235 system to keep track of available packages.
236 -A, --record-avail package-file...
238 Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages are available
239 with information from the package package-file. If --recursive
240 or -R option is specified, package-file must refer to a
241 directory instead.
242 --forget-old-unavail
244 Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget
245 uninstalled unavailable packages (since dpkg 1.15.4), but only
246 those that do not contain user information such as package
247 selections.
248 --clear-avail
250 Erase the existing information about what packages are
251 available.
252 --get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
254 Get list of package selections, and write it to stdout. Without
255 a pattern, non-installed packages (i.e. those which have been
256 previously purged) will not be shown.
257 --set-selections
259 Set package selections using file read from stdin. This file
260 should be in the format “package state”, where state is one of
261 install, hold, deinstall or purge. Blank lines and comment lines
262 beginning with ‘#’ are also permitted.
263 The available file needs to be up-to-date for this command to be
265 useful, otherwise unknown packages will be ignored with a
266 warning. See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands for
267 more information.
268 --clear-selections
270 Set the requested state of every non-essential package to
271 deinstall (since dpkg 1.13.18). This is intended to be used
272 immediately before --set-selections, to deinstall any packages
273 not in list given to --set-selections.
274 --yet-to-unpack
276 Searches for packages selected for installation, but which for
277 some reason still haven't been installed.
278 Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
280 package selections.
281 --predep-package
283 Print a single package which is the target of one or more
284 relevant pre-dependencies and has itself no unsatisfied pre-
285 dependencies.
286 If such a package is present, output it as a Packages file
288 entry, which can be massaged as appropriate.
289 Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
291 package selections.
292 Returns 0 when a package is printed, 1 when no suitable package
294 is available and 2 on error.
295 --add-architecture architecture
297 Add architecture to the list of architectures for which packages
298 can be installed without using --force-architecture (since dpkg
299 1.16.2). The architecture dpkg is built for (i.e. the output of
300 --print-architecture) is always part of that list.
301 --remove-architecture architecture
303 Remove architecture from the list of architectures for which
304 packages can be installed without using --force-architecture
305 (since dpkg 1.16.2). If the architecture is currently in use in
306 the database then the operation will be refused, except if
307 --force-architecture is specified. The architecture dpkg is
308 built for (i.e. the output of --print-architecture) can never be
309 removed from that list.
310 --print-architecture
312 Print architecture of packages dpkg installs (for example,
313 “i386”).
314 --print-foreign-architectures
316 Print a newline-separated list of the extra architectures dpkg
317 is configured to allow packages to be installed for (since dpkg
318 1.16.2).
319 --assert-feature
321 Asserts that dpkg supports the requested feature. Returns 0 if
322 the feature is fully supported, 1 if the feature is known but
323 dpkg cannot provide support for it yet, and 2 if the feature is
324 unknown. The current list of assertable features is:
325 support-predepends
327 Supports the Pre-Depends field (since dpkg 1.1.0).
328 working-epoch
330 Supports epochs in version strings (since dpkg 1.4.0.7).
331 long-filenames
333 Supports long filenames in deb(5) archives (since dpkg
334 1.4.1.17).
335 multi-conrep
337 Supports multiple Conflicts and Replaces (since dpkg
338 1.4.1.19).
339 multi-arch
341 Supports multi-arch fields and semantics (since dpkg
342 1.16.2).
343 versioned-provides
345 Supports versioned Provides (since dpkg 1.17.11).
346 --validate-thing string
348 Validate that the thing string has a correct syntax (since dpkg
349 1.18.16). Returns 0 if the string is valid, 1 if the string is
350 invalid but might be accepted in lax contexts, and 2 if the
351 string is invalid. The current list of validatable things is:
352 pkgname
354 Validates the given package name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
355 trigname
357 Validates the given trigger name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
358 archname
360 Validates the given architecture name (since dpkg
361 1.18.16).
362 version
364 Validates the given version (since dpkg 1.18.16).
365 --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
367 Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg
368 returns true (0) if the specified condition is satisfied, and
369 false (1) otherwise. There are two groups of operators, which
370 differ in how they treat an empty ver1 or ver2. These treat an
371 empty version as earlier than any version: lt le eq ne ge gt.
372 These treat an empty version as later than any version: lt-nl
373 le-nl ge-nl gt-nl. These are provided only for compatibility
374 with control file syntax: < << <= = >= >> >. The < and >
375 operators are obsolete and should not be used, due to confusing
376 semantics. To illustrate: 0.1 < 0.1 evaluates to true.
377 -?, --help
379 Display a brief help message.
380 --force-help
382 Give help about the --force-thing options.
383 -Dh, --debug=help
385 Give help about debugging options.
386 --version
388 Display dpkg version information.
389 dpkg-deb actions
391 See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following
392 actions.
393 -b, --build directory [archive|directory]
395 Build a deb package.
396 -c, --contents archive
397 List contents of a deb package.
398 -e, --control archive [directory]
399 Extract control-information from a package.
400 -x, --extract archive directory
401 Extract the files contained by package.
402 -X, --vextract archive directory
403 Extract and display the filenames contained by a
404 package.
405 -f, --field archive [control-field...]
406 Display control field(s) of a package.
407 --ctrl-tarfile archive
408 Output the control tar-file contained in a Debian package.
409 --fsys-tarfile archive
410 Output the filesystem tar-file contained by a Debian package.
411 -I, --info archive [control-file...]
412 Show information about a package.
413 dpkg-query actions
416 See dpkg-query(1) for more information about the following
417 actions.
418 -l, --list package-name-pattern...
421 List packages matching given pattern.
422 -s, --status package-name...
423 Report status of specified package.
424 -L, --listfiles package-name...
425 List files installed to your system from package-name.
426 -S, --search filename-search-pattern...
427 Search for a filename from installed packages.
428 -p, --print-avail package-name...
429 Display details about package-name, as found in
430 /var/lib/dpkg/available. Users of APT-based frontends
431 should use apt-cache show package-name instead.
432
434 All options can be specified both on the command line and in the dpkg
435 configuration file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or fragment files (with names
436 matching this shell pattern '[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*') on the configuration
437 directory /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each line in the configuration file is
438 either an option (exactly the same as the command line option but
439 without leading hyphens) or a comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).
440 --abort-after=number
442 Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is 50.
443 -B, --auto-deconfigure
445 When a package is removed, there is a possibility that another
446 installed package depended on the removed package. Specifying
447 this option will cause automatic deconfiguration of the package
448 which depended on the removed package.
449 -Doctal, --debug=octal
451 Switch debugging on. octal is formed by bitwise-oring desired
452 values together from the list below (note that these values may
453 change in future releases). -Dh or --debug=help display these
454 debugging values.
455 Number Description
457 1 Generally helpful progress information
458 2 Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
459 10 Output for each file processed
460 100 Lots of output for each file processed
461 20 Output for each configuration file
462 200 Lots of output for each configuration file
463 40 Dependencies and conflicts
464 400 Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
465 10000 Trigger activation and processing
466 20000 Lots of output regarding triggers
467 40000 Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
468 1000 Lots of drivel about e.g. the dpkg/info dir
469 2000 Insane amounts of drivel
470 --force-things
472 --no-force-things, --refuse-things
473 Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to do
474 some things. things is a comma separated list of things
475 specified below. --force-help displays a message describing
476 them. Things marked with (*) are forced by default.
477 Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts
479 only. Using them without fully understanding their effects may
480 break your whole system.
481 all: Turns on (or off) all force options.
483 downgrade(*): Install a package, even if newer version of it is
485 already installed.
486 Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking on
488 downgrades and therefore will not warn you if the downgrade
489 breaks the dependency of some other package. This can have
490 serious side effects, downgrading essential system components
491 can even make your whole system unusable. Use with care.
492 configure-any: Configure also any unpacked but unconfigured
494 packages on which the current package depends.
495 hold: Process packages even when marked “hold”.
497 remove-reinstreq: Remove a package, even if it's broken and
499 marked to require reinstallation. This may, for example, cause
500 parts of the package to remain on the system, which will then be
501 forgotten by dpkg.
502 remove-essential: Remove, even if the package is considered
504 essential. Essential packages contain mostly very basic Unix
505 commands. Removing them might cause the whole system to stop
506 working, so use with caution.
507 depends: Turn all dependency problems into warnings. This
509 affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
510 depends-version: Don't care about versions when checking
512 dependencies. This affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
513 breaks: Install, even if this would break another package (since
515 dpkg 1.14.6). This affects the Breaks field.
516 conflicts: Install, even if it conflicts with another package.
518 This is dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some
519 files. This affects the Conflicts field.
520 confmiss: Always install the missing conffile without prompting.
522 This is dangerous, since it means not preserving a change
523 (removing) made to the file.
524 confnew: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
526 package did change, always install the new version without
527 prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in
528 which case the default action is preferred.
529 confold: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
531 package did change, always keep the old version without
532 prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in
533 which case the default action is preferred.
534 confdef: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
536 package did change, always choose the default action without
537 prompting. If there is no default action it will stop to ask the
538 user unless --force-confnew or --force-confold is also been
539 given, in which case it will use that to decide the final
540 action.
541 confask: If a conffile has been modified always offer to replace
543 it with the version in the package, even if the version in the
544 package did not change (since dpkg 1.15.8). If any of
545 --force-confnew, --force-confold, or --force-confdef is also
546 given, it will be used to decide the final action.
547 overwrite: Overwrite one package's file with another's file.
549 overwrite-dir: Overwrite one package's directory with another's
551 file.
552 overwrite-diverted: Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted
554 version.
555 statoverride-add: Overwrite an existing stat override when
557 adding it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
558 statoverride-remove: Ignore a missing stat override when
560 removing it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
561 security-mac(*): Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls
563 (MAC) based security when installing files into the filesystem
564 (since dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation uses
565 SELinux.
566 unsafe-io: Do not perform safe I/O operations when unpacking
568 (since dpkg 1.15.8.6). Currently this implies not performing
569 file system syncs before file renames, which is known to cause
570 substantial performance degradation on some file systems,
571 unfortunately the ones that require the safe I/O on the first
572 place due to their unreliable behaviour causing zero-length
573 files on abrupt system crashes.
574 Note: For ext4, the main offender, consider using instead the
576 mount option nodelalloc, which will fix both the performance
577 degradation and the data safety issues, the latter by making the
578 file system not produce zero-length files on abrupt system
579 crashes with any software not doing syncs before atomic renames.
580 Warning: Using this option might improve performance at the cost
582 of losing data, use with care.
583 script-chrootless: Run maintainer scripts without chroot(2)ing
585 into instdir even if the package does not support this mode of
586 operation (since dpkg 1.18.5).
587 Warning: This can destroy your host system, use with extreme
589 care.
590 architecture: Process even packages with wrong or no
592 architecture.
593 bad-version: Process even packages with wrong versions (since
595 dpkg 1.16.1).
596 bad-path: PATH is missing important programs, so problems are
598 likely.
599 not-root: Try to (de)install things even when not root.
601 bad-verify: Install a package even if it fails authenticity
603 check.
604 --ignore-depends=package,...
607 Ignore dependency-checking for specified packages (actually,
608 checking is performed, but only warnings about conflicts are
609 given, nothing else). This affects the Pre-Depends, Depends and
610 Breaks fields.
611 --no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
613 Do everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write any
614 changes. This is used to see what would happen with the
615 specified action, without actually modifying anything.
616 Be sure to give --no-act before the action-parameter, or you
618 might end up with undesirable results. (e.g. dpkg --purge foo
619 --no-act will first purge package foo and then try to purge
620 package --no-act, even though you probably expected it to
621 actually do nothing)
622 -R, --recursive
624 Recursively handle all regular files matching pattern *.deb
625 found at specified directories and all of its subdirectories.
626 This can be used with -i, -A, --install, --unpack and
627 --record-avail actions.
628 -G Don't install a package if a newer version of the same package
630 is already installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.
631 --admindir=dir
633 Set the administrative directory to directory. This directory
634 contains many files that give information about status of
635 installed or uninstalled packages, etc. Defaults to
636 «/var/lib/dpkg».
637 --instdir=dir
639 Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory
640 where packages are to be installed. instdir is also the
641 directory passed to chroot(2) before running package's
642 installation scripts, which means that the scripts see instdir
643 as a root directory. Defaults to «/».
644 --root=dir
646 Set the root directory to directory, which sets the installation
647 directory to «dir» and the administrative directory to
648 «dir/var/lib/dpkg».
649 -O, --selected-only
651 Only process the packages that are selected for installation.
652 The actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it
653 handles packages. For example, when a package is removed, it
654 will be marked selected for deinstallation.
655 -E, --skip-same-version
657 Don't install the package if the same version of the package is
658 already installed.
659 --pre-invoke=command
661 --post-invoke=command
662 Set an invoke hook command to be run via “sh -c” before or after
663 the dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install, triggers-only,
664 remove, purge, add-architecture and remove-architecture dpkg
665 actions (since dpkg 1.15.4; add-architecture and
666 remove-architecture actions since dpkg 1.17.19). This option can
667 be specified multiple times. The order the options are specified
668 is preserved, with the ones from the configuration files taking
669 precedence. The environment variable DPKG_HOOK_ACTION is set
670 for the hooks to the current dpkg action. Note: front-ends might
671 call dpkg several times per invocation, which might run the
672 hooks more times than expected.
673 --path-exclude=glob-pattern
675 --path-include=glob-pattern
676 Set glob-pattern as a path filter, either by excluding or re-
677 including previously excluded paths matching the specified
678 patterns during install (since dpkg 1.15.8).
679 Warning: take into account that depending on the excluded paths
681 you might completely break your system, use with caution.
682 The glob patterns use the same wildcards used in the shell, were
684 ‘*’ matches any sequence of characters, including the empty
685 string and also ‘/’. For example, «/usr/*/READ*» matches
686 «/usr/share/doc/package/README». As usual, ‘?’ matches any
687 single character (again, including ‘/’). And ‘[’ starts a
688 character class, which can contain a list of characters, ranges
689 and complementations. See glob(7) for detailed information about
690 globbing. Note: the current implementation might re-include more
691 directories and symlinks than needed, to be on the safe side and
692 avoid possible unpack failures; future work might fix this.
693 This can be used to remove all paths except some particular
695 ones; a typical case is:
696 --path-exclude=/usr/share/doc/*
698 --path-include=/usr/share/doc/*/copyright
699 to remove all documentation files except the copyright files.
701 These two options can be specified multiple times, and
703 interleaved with each other. Both are processed in the given
704 order, with the last rule that matches a file name making the
705 decision.
706 The filters are applied when unpacking the binary packages, and
708 as such only have knowledge of the type of object currently
709 being filtered (e.g. a normal file or a directory) and have not
710 visibility of what objects will come next. Because these
711 filters have side effects (in contrast to find(1) filters),
712 excluding an exact pathname that happens to be a directory
713 object like /usr/share/doc will not have the desired result, and
714 only that pathname will be excluded (which could be
715 automatically reincluded if the code sees the need). Any
716 subsequent files contained within that directory will fail to
717 unpack.
718 Hint: make sure the globs are not expanded by your shell.
720 --verify-format format-name
722 Sets the output format for the --verify command (since dpkg
723 1.17.2).
724 The only currently supported output format is rpm, which
726 consists of a line for every path that failed any check. The
727 lines start with 9 characters to report each specific check
728 result, a ‘?’ implies the check could not be done (lack of
729 support, file permissions, etc), ‘.’ implies the check passed,
730 and an alphanumeric character implies a specific check failed;
731 the md5sum verification failure (the file contents have changed)
732 is denoted with a ‘5’ on the third character. The line is
733 followed by a space and an attribute character (currently ‘c’
734 for conffiles), another space and the pathname.
735 --status-fd n
737 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
738 file descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple times.
739 The information is generally one record per line, in one of the
740 following forms:
741 status: package: status
743 Package status changed; status is as in the status file.
744 status: package : error : extended-error-message
746 An error occurred. Any possible newlines in extended-
747 error-message will be converted to spaces before output.
748 status: file : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new'
750 useredited distedited
751 User is being asked a conffile question.
752 processing: stage: package
754 Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is one
755 of upgrade, install (both sent before unpacking),
756 configure, trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.
757 --status-logger=command
759 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
760 the shell command's standard input, to be run via “sh -c” (since
761 dpkg 1.16.0). This option can be specified multiple times. The
762 output format used is the same as in --status-fd.
763 --log=filename
765 Log status change updates and actions to filename, instead of
766 the default /var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is given multiple
767 times, the last filename is used. Log messages are of the form:
768 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS startup type command
770 For each dpkg invocation where type is archives (with a
771 command of unpack or install) or packages (with a command
772 of configure, triggers-only, remove or purge).
773 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status state pkg installed-version
775 For status change updates.
776 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS action pkg installed-version available-
778 version
779 For actions where action is one of install, upgrade,
780 configure, trigproc, disappear, remove or purge.
781 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS conffile filename decision
783 For conffile changes where decision is either install or
784 keep.
785 --no-pager
787 Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since
788 dpkg 1.19.2).
789 --no-debsig
791 Do not try to verify package signatures.
792 --no-triggers
794 Do not run any triggers in this run (since dpkg 1.14.17), but
795 activations will still be recorded. If used with --configure
796 package or --triggers-only package then the named package
797 postinst will still be run even if only a triggers run is
798 needed. Use of this option may leave packages in the improper
799 triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can be fixed
800 later by running: dpkg --configure --pending.
801 --triggers
803 Cancels a previous --no-triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17).
804
806 0 The requested action was successfully performed. Or a check or
807 assertion command returned true.
808 1 A check or assertion command returned false.
810 2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage,
812 or interactions with the system, such as accesses to the
813 database, memory allocations, etc.
814
816 External environment
817 PATH This variable is expected to be defined in the environment and
818 point to the system paths where several required programs are to
819 be found. If it's not set or the programs are not found, dpkg
820 will abort.
821 HOME If set, dpkg will use it as the directory from which to read the
823 user specific configuration file.
824 TMPDIR If set, dpkg will use it as the directory in which to create
826 temporary files and directories.
827 SHELL The program dpkg will execute when starting a new interactive
829 shell, or when spawning a command via a shell.
830 PAGER
832 DPKG_PAGER
833 The program dpkg will execute when running a pager, for example
834 when displaying the conffile differences. If SHELL is not set,
835 «sh» will be used instead. The DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER
836 environment variable (since dpkg 1.19.2).
837 DPKG_COLORS
839 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
840 values are: auto (default), always and never.
841 DPKG_FORCE
843 Sets the force flags (since dpkg 1.19.5). When this variable is
844 present, no built-in force defaults will be applied. If the
845 variable is present but empty, all force flags will be disabled.
846 DPKG_FRONTEND_LOCKED
848 Set by a package manager frontend to notify dpkg that it should
849 not acquire the frontend lock (since dpkg 1.19.1).
850 Internal environment
852 LESS Defined by dpkg to “-FRSXMQ”, if not already set, when spawning
853 a pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default behavior,
854 this variable can be preset to some other value including an
855 empty string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER variables can be set to
856 disable specific options with «-+», for example DPKG_PAGER="less
857 -+F".
858 DPKG_ROOT
860 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
861 which installation to act on (since dpkg 1.18.5). The value is
862 intended to be prepended to any path maintainer scripts operate
863 on. During normal operation, this variable is empty. When
864 installing packages into a different instdir, dpkg normally
865 invokes maintainer scripts using chroot(2) and leaves this
866 variable empty, but if --force-script-chrootless is specified
867 then the chroot(2) call is skipped and instdir is non-empty.
868 DPKG_ADMINDIR
870 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
871 the dpkg administrative directory to use (since dpkg 1.16.0).
872 This variable is always set to the current --admindir value.
873 DPKG_FORCE
875 Defined by dpkg on the subprocesses environment to all the
876 currently enabled force option names separated by commas (since
877 dpkg 1.19.5).
878 DPKG_SHELL_REASON
880 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
881 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Current valid value:
882 conffile-prompt.
883 DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
885 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
886 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
887 the old conffile.
888 DPKG_CONFFILE_NEW
890 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
891 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
892 the new conffile.
893 DPKG_HOOK_ACTION
895 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned when executing a hook
896 action (since dpkg 1.15.4). Contains the current dpkg action.
897 DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
899 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
900 version of the currently running dpkg instance (since dpkg
901 1.14.17).
902 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
904 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
905 (non-arch-qualified) package name being handled (since dpkg
906 1.14.17).
907 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE_REFCOUNT
909 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
910 package reference count, i.e. the number of package instances
911 with a state greater than not-installed (since dpkg 1.17.2).
912 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
914 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
915 architecture the package got built for (since dpkg 1.15.4).
916 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
918 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the name
919 of the script running, one of preinst, postinst, prerm or postrm
920 (since dpkg 1.15.7).
921 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG
923 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to a value
924 (‘0’ or ‘1’) noting whether debugging has been requested (with
925 the --debug option) for the maintainer scripts (since dpkg
926 1.18.4).
927
929 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
930 Configuration fragment files (since dpkg 1.15.4).
931 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
933 Configuration file with default options.
934 /var/log/dpkg.log
936 Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg and option --log).
937 The other files listed below are in their default directories, see
939 option --admindir to see how to change locations of these files.
940 /var/lib/dpkg/available
942 List of available packages.
943 /var/lib/dpkg/status
945 Statuses of available packages. This file contains information
946 about whether a package is marked for removing or not, whether
947 it is installed or not, etc. See section INFORMATION ABOUT
948 PACKAGES for more info.
949 The status file is backed up daily in /var/backups. It can be
951 useful if it's lost or corrupted due to filesystems troubles.
952 The format and contents of a binary package are described in deb(5).
954
956 --no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.
957
959 To list installed packages related to the editor vi(1) (note that
960 dpkg-query does not load the available file anymore by default, and the
961 dpkg-query --load-avail option should be used instead for that):
962 dpkg -l '*vi*'
963 To see the entries in /var/lib/dpkg/available of two packages:
965 dpkg --print-avail elvis vim | less
966 To search the listing of packages yourself:
968 less /var/lib/dpkg/available
969 To remove an installed elvis package:
971 dpkg -r elvis
972 To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or CDROM.
974 The available file shows that the vim package is in section editors:
975 cd /media/cdrom/pool/main/v/vim
976 dpkg -i vim_4.5-3.deb
977 To make a local copy of the package selection states:
979 dpkg --get-selections >myselections
980 You might transfer this file to another computer, and after having
982 updated the available file there with your package manager frontend of
983 choice (see https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ for more details),
984 for example:
985 apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-avail
986 or with dpkg 1.17.6 and earlier:
987 avail=`mktemp`
988 apt-cache dumpavail >"$avail"
989 dpkg --merge-avail "$avail"
990 rm "$avail"
991 you can install it with:
992 dpkg --clear-selections
993 dpkg --set-selections <myselections
994 Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but just
996 set the selection state on the requested packages. You will need some
997 other application to actually download and install the requested
998 packages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.
999 Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more convenient
1001 way to modify the package selection states.
1002
1004 Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the
1005 following packages: apt, aptitude and debsums.
1006
1008 aptitude(1), apt(1), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1), deb(5),
1009 deb-control(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).
1010
1012 See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who have
1013 contributed to dpkg.
10141.19.7 2019-06-03 dpkg(1)