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(8).
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 or the postrm script and the data it
46 needs to remove of the package exist on the system.
47 half-installed
49 The installation of the package has been started, but not completed
50 for some reason.
51 unpacked
53 The package is unpacked, but not configured.
54 half-configured
56 The package is unpacked and configuration has been started, but not
57 yet completed for some reason.
58 triggers-awaited
60 The package awaits trigger processing by another package.
61 triggers-pending
63 The package has been triggered.
64 installed
66 The package is correctly unpacked and configured.
67 Package selection states
69 install
70 The package is selected for installation.
71 hold
73 A package marked to be on hold is kept on the same version, that
74 is, no automatic new installs, upgrades or removals will be
75 performed on them, unless these actions are requested explicitly,
76 or are permitted to be done automatically with the --force-hold
77 option.
78 deinstall
80 The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to remove
81 all files, except configuration files).
82 purge
84 The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
85 everything from system directories, even configuration files).
86 unknown
88 The package selection is unknown. A package that is also in a not-
89 installed state, and with an ok flag will be forgotten in the next
90 database store.
91 Package flags
93 ok A package marked ok is in a known state, but might need further
94 processing.
95 reinstreq
97 A package marked reinstreq is broken and requires reinstallation.
98 These packages cannot be removed, unless forced with option
99 --force-remove-reinstreq.
100
102 -i, --install package-file...
103 Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is specified,
104 package-file must refer to a directory instead.
105 Installation consists of the following steps:
107 1. Extract the control files of the new package.
109 2. If another version of the same package was installed before the
111 new installation, execute prerm script of the old package.
112 3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.
114 4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back up the old
116 files, so that if something goes wrong, they can be restored.
117 5. If another version of the same package was installed before the
119 new installation, execute the postrm script of the old package.
120 Note that this script is executed after the preinst script of the
121 new package, because new files are written at the same time old
122 files are removed.
123 6. Configure the package. See --configure for detailed information
125 about how this is done.
126 --unpack package-file...
128 Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R
129 option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
130 instead.
131 --configure package...|-a|--pending
133 Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet configured.
134 If -a or --pending is given instead of package, all unpacked but
135 unconfigured packages are configured.
136 To reconfigure a package which has already been configured, try the
138 dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead.
139 Configuring consists of the following steps:
141 1. Unpack the conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
143 conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
144 2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
146 --triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
148 Processes only triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17). All pending triggers
149 will be processed. If package names are supplied only those
150 packages' triggers will be processed, exactly once each where
151 necessary. Use of this option may leave packages in the improper
152 triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can be fixed
153 later by running: dpkg --configure --pending.
154 -r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
156 Remove an installed package. This removes everything except
157 conffiles and other data cleaned up by the postrm script, which may
158 avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled later
159 (conffiles are configuration files that are listed in the
160 DEBIAN/conffiles control file). If there is no DEBIAN/conffiles
161 control file nor DEBIAN/postrm script, this command is equivalent
162 to calling --purge. If -a or --pending is given instead of a
163 package name, then all packages unpacked, but marked to be removed
164 in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed.
165 Removing of a package consists of the following steps:
167 1. Run prerm script
169 2. Remove the installed files
171 3. Run postrm script
173 -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
175 Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes
176 everything, including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up from
177 postrm. If -a or --pending is given instead of a package name,
178 then all packages unpacked or removed, but marked to be purged in
179 file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.
180 Note: Some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg because
182 they are created and handled separately through the configuration
183 scripts. In that case, dpkg won't remove them by itself, but the
184 package's postrm script (which is called by dpkg), has to take care
185 of their removal during purge. Of course, this only applies to
186 files in system directories, not configuration files written to
187 individual users' home directories.
188 Purging of a package consists of the following steps:
190 1. Remove the package, if not already removed. See --remove for
192 detailed information about how this is done.
193 2. Run postrm script.
195 -V, --verify [package-name...]
197 Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if omitted,
198 by comparing information from the files installed by a package with
199 the files metadata information stored in the dpkg database (since
200 dpkg 1.17.2). The origin of the files metadata information in the
201 database is the binary packages themselves. That metadata gets
202 collected at package unpack time during the installation process.
203 Currently the only functional check performed is an md5sum
205 verification of the file contents against the stored value in the
206 files database. It will only get checked if the database contains
207 the file md5sum. To check for any missing metadata in the database,
208 the --audit command can be used.
209 The output format is selectable with the --verify-format option,
211 which by default uses the rpm format, but that might change in the
212 future, and as such, programs parsing this command output should be
213 explicit about the format they expect.
214 -C, --audit [package-name...]
216 Performs database sanity and consistency checks for package-name or
217 all packages if omitted (per package checks since dpkg 1.17.10).
218 For example, searches for packages that have been installed only
219 partially on your system or that have missing, wrong or obsolete
220 control data or files. dpkg will suggest what to do with them to
221 get them fixed.
222 --update-avail [Packages-file]
224 --merge-avail [Packages-file]
225 Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are available.
226 With action --merge-avail, old information is combined with
227 information from Packages-file. With action --update-avail, old
228 information is replaced with the information in the Packages-file.
229 The Packages-file distributed with Debian is simply named
230 «Packages». If the Packages-file argument is missing or named «-»
231 then it will be read from standard input (since dpkg 1.17.7). dpkg
232 keeps its record of available packages in /var/lib/dpkg/available.
233 A simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the available
235 file is dselect update. Note that this file is mostly useless if
236 you don't use dselect but an APT-based frontend: APT has its own
237 system to keep track of available packages.
238 -A, --record-avail package-file...
240 Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages are available with
241 information from the package package-file. If --recursive or -R
242 option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
243 instead.
244 --forget-old-unavail
246 Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget
247 uninstalled unavailable packages (since dpkg 1.15.4), but only
248 those that do not contain user information such as package
249 selections.
250 --clear-avail
252 Erase the existing information about what packages are available.
253 --get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
255 Get list of package selections, and write it to stdout. Without a
256 pattern, non-installed packages (i.e. those which have been
257 previously purged) will not be shown.
258 --set-selections
260 Set package selections using file read from stdin. This file should
261 be in the format “package state”, where state is one of install,
262 hold, deinstall or purge. Blank lines and comment lines beginning
263 with ‘#’ are also permitted.
264 The available file needs to be up-to-date for this command to be
266 useful, otherwise unknown packages will be ignored with a warning.
267 See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands for more
268 information.
269 --clear-selections
271 Set the requested state of every non-essential package to deinstall
272 (since dpkg 1.13.18). This is intended to be used immediately
273 before --set-selections, to deinstall any packages not in list
274 given to --set-selections.
275 --yet-to-unpack
277 Searches for packages selected for installation, but which for some
278 reason still haven't been installed.
279 Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
281 package selections.
282 --predep-package
284 Print a single package which is the target of one or more relevant
285 pre-dependencies and has itself no unsatisfied pre-dependencies.
286 If such a package is present, output it as a Packages file entry,
288 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 is
294 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 (since
305 dpkg 1.16.2). If the architecture is currently in use in the
306 database then the operation will be refused, except if
307 --force-architecture is specified. The architecture dpkg is built
308 for (i.e. the output of --print-architecture) can never be removed
309 from that list.
310 --print-architecture
312 Print architecture of packages dpkg installs (for example, “i386”).
313 --print-foreign-architectures
315 Print a newline-separated list of the extra architectures dpkg is
316 configured to allow packages to be installed for (since dpkg
317 1.16.2).
318 --assert-feature
320 Asserts that dpkg supports the requested feature. Returns 0 if the
321 feature is fully supported, 1 if the feature is known but dpkg
322 cannot provide support for it yet, and 2 if the feature is unknown.
323 The current list of assertable features is:
324 support-predepends
326 Supports the Pre-Depends field (since dpkg 1.1.0).
327 working-epoch
329 Supports epochs in version strings (since dpkg 1.4.0.7).
330 long-filenames
332 Supports long filenames in deb(5) archives (since dpkg
333 1.4.1.17).
334 multi-conrep
336 Supports multiple Conflicts and Replaces (since dpkg 1.4.1.19).
337 multi-arch
339 Supports multi-arch fields and semantics (since dpkg 1.16.2).
340 versioned-provides
342 Supports versioned Provides (since dpkg 1.17.11).
343 protected-field
345 Supports the Protected field (since dpkg 1.20.1).
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 string
351 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 1.18.16).
361 version
363 Validates the given version (since dpkg 1.18.16).
364 --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
366 Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg
367 returns true (0) if the specified condition is satisfied, and false
368 (1) otherwise. There are two groups of operators, which differ in
369 how they treat an empty ver1 or ver2. These treat an empty version
370 as earlier than any version: lt le eq ne ge gt. These treat an
371 empty version as later than any version: lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl.
372 These are provided only for compatibility with control file syntax:
373 < << <= = >= >> >. The < and > operators are obsolete and should
374 not be used, due to confusing semantics. To illustrate: 0.1 < 0.1
375 evaluates to true.
376 -?, --help
378 Display a brief help message.
379 --force-help
381 Give help about the --force-thing options.
382 -Dh, --debug=help
384 Give help about debugging options.
385 --version
387 Display dpkg version information.
388 When used with --robot, the output will be the program version
390 number in a dotted numerical format, with no newline.
391 dpkg-deb actions
393 See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following actions,
394 and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
395 -b, --build directory [archive|directory]
397 Build a deb package.
398 -c, --contents archive
400 List contents of a deb package.
401 -e, --control archive [directory]
403 Extract control-information from a package.
404 -x, --extract archive directory
406 Extract the files contained by package.
407 -X, --vextract archive directory
409 Extract and display the filenames contained by a package.
410 -f, --field archive [control-field...]
412 Display control field(s) of a package.
413 --ctrl-tarfile archive
415 Output the control tar-file contained in a Debian package.
416 --fsys-tarfile archive
418 Output the filesystem tar-file contained by a Debian package.
419 -I, --info archive [control-file...]
421 Show information about a package.
422 dpkg-query actions
424 See dpkg-query(1) for more information about the following actions,
425 and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
426 -l, --list package-name-pattern...
428 List packages matching given pattern.
429 -s, --status package-name...
431 Report status of specified package.
432 -L, --listfiles package-name...
434 List files installed to your system from package-name.
435 -S, --search filename-search-pattern...
437 Search for a filename from installed packages.
438 -p, --print-avail package-name...
440 Display details about package-name, as found in
441 /var/lib/dpkg/available. Users of APT-based frontends should
442 use apt show package-name instead.
443
445 All options can be specified both on the command line and in the dpkg
446 configuration file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or fragment files (with names
447 matching this shell pattern '[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*') on the configuration
448 directory /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each line in the configuration file is
449 either an option (exactly the same as the command line option but
450 without leading hyphens) or a comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).
451 --abort-after=number
453 Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is 50.
454 -B, --auto-deconfigure
456 When a package is removed, there is a possibility that another
457 installed package depended on the removed package. Specifying this
458 option will cause automatic deconfiguration of the package which
459 depended on the removed package.
460 -Doctal, --debug=octal
462 Switch debugging on. octal is formed by bitwise-ORing desired
463 values together from the list below (note that these values may
464 change in future releases). -Dh or --debug=help display these
465 debugging values.
466 Number Description
468 1 Generally helpful progress information
469 2 Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
470 10 Output for each file processed
471 100 Lots of output for each file processed
472 20 Output for each configuration file
473 200 Lots of output for each configuration file
474 40 Dependencies and conflicts
475 400 Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
476 10000 Trigger activation and processing
477 20000 Lots of output regarding triggers
478 40000 Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
479 1000 Lots of drivel about e.g. the dpkg/info dir
480 2000 Insane amounts of drivel
481 --force-things
483 --no-force-things, --refuse-things
484 Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to do
485 some things. things is a comma separated list of things specified
486 below. --force-help displays a message describing them. Things
487 marked with (*) are forced by default.
488 Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts
490 only. Using them without fully understanding their effects may
491 break your whole system.
492 all: Turns on (or off) all force options.
494 downgrade(*): Install a package, even if newer version of it is
496 already installed.
497 Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking on
499 downgrades and therefore will not warn you if the downgrade breaks
500 the dependency of some other package. This can have serious side
501 effects, downgrading essential system components can even make your
502 whole system unusable. Use with care.
503 configure-any: Configure also any unpacked but unconfigured
505 packages on which the current package depends.
506 hold: Allow automatic installs, upgrades or removals of packages
508 even when marked to be on “hold”. Note: This does not prevent
509 these actions when requested explicitly.
510 remove-reinstreq: Remove a package, even if it's broken and marked
512 to require reinstallation. This may, for example, cause parts of
513 the package to remain on the system, which will then be forgotten
514 by dpkg.
515 remove-protected: Remove, even if the package is considered
517 protected (since dpkg 1.20.1). Protected packages contain mostly
518 important system boot infrastructure. Removing them might cause
519 the whole system to be unable to boot, so use with caution.
520 remove-essential: Remove, even if the package is considered
522 essential. Essential packages contain mostly very basic Unix
523 commands. Removing them might cause the whole system to stop
524 working, so use with caution.
525 depends: Turn all dependency problems into warnings. This affects
527 the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
528 depends-version: Don't care about versions when checking
530 dependencies. This affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
531 breaks: Install, even if this would break another package (since
533 dpkg 1.14.6). This affects the Breaks field.
534 conflicts: Install, even if it conflicts with another package. This
536 is dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some files.
537 This affects the Conflicts field.
538 confmiss: Always install the missing conffile without prompting.
540 This is dangerous, since it means not preserving a change
541 (removing) made to the file.
542 confnew: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
544 package did change, always install the new version without
545 prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which
546 case the default action is preferred.
547 confold: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
549 package did change, always keep the old version without prompting,
550 unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which case the
551 default action is preferred.
552 confdef: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
554 package did change, always choose the default action without
555 prompting. If there is no default action it will stop to ask the
556 user unless --force-confnew or --force-confold is also been given,
557 in which case it will use that to decide the final action.
558 confask: If a conffile has been modified always offer to replace it
560 with the version in the package, even if the version in the package
561 did not change (since dpkg 1.15.8). If any of --force-confnew,
562 --force-confold, or --force-confdef is also given, it will be used
563 to decide the final action.
564 overwrite: Overwrite one package's file with another's file.
566 overwrite-dir: Overwrite one package's directory with another's
568 file.
569 overwrite-diverted: Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted
571 version.
572 statoverride-add: Overwrite an existing stat override when adding
574 it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
575 statoverride-remove: Ignore a missing stat override when removing
577 it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
578 security-mac(*): Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls
580 (MAC) based security when installing files into the filesystem
581 (since dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation uses
582 SELinux.
583 unsafe-io: Do not perform safe I/O operations when unpacking (since
585 dpkg 1.15.8.6). Currently this implies not performing file system
586 syncs before file renames, which is known to cause substantial
587 performance degradation on some file systems, unfortunately the
588 ones that require the safe I/O on the first place due to their
589 unreliable behaviour causing zero-length files on abrupt system
590 crashes.
591 Note: For ext4, the main offender, consider using instead the mount
593 option nodelalloc, which will fix both the performance degradation
594 and the data safety issues, the latter by making the file system
595 not produce zero-length files on abrupt system crashes with any
596 software not doing syncs before atomic renames.
597 Warning: Using this option might improve performance at the cost of
599 losing data, use with care.
600 script-chrootless: Run maintainer scripts without chroot(2)ing into
602 instdir even if the package does not support this mode of operation
603 (since dpkg 1.18.5).
604 Warning: This can destroy your host system, use with extreme care.
606 architecture: Process even packages with wrong or no architecture.
608 bad-version: Process even packages with wrong versions (since dpkg
610 1.16.1).
611 bad-path: PATH is missing important programs, so problems are
613 likely.
614 not-root: Try to (de)install things even when not root.
616 bad-verify: Install a package even if it fails authenticity check.
618 --ignore-depends=package,...
620 Ignore dependency-checking for specified packages (actually,
621 checking is performed, but only warnings about conflicts are given,
622 nothing else). This affects the Pre-Depends, Depends and Breaks
623 fields.
624 --no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
626 Do everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write any
627 changes. This is used to see what would happen with the specified
628 action, without actually modifying anything.
629 Be sure to give --no-act before the action-parameter, or you might
631 end up with undesirable results. (e.g. dpkg --purge foo --no-act
632 will first purge package “foo” and then try to purge package
633 ”--no-act”, even though you probably expected it to actually do
634 nothing).
635 -R, --recursive
637 Recursively handle all regular files matching pattern *.deb found
638 at specified directories and all of its subdirectories. This can be
639 used with -i, -A, --install, --unpack and --record-avail actions.
640 -G Don't install a package if a newer version of the same package is
642 already installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.
643 --admindir=dir
645 Set the administrative directory to directory. This directory
646 contains many files that give information about status of installed
647 or uninstalled packages, etc. Defaults to «/var/lib/dpkg».
648 --instdir=dir
650 Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory where
651 packages are to be installed. instdir is also the directory passed
652 to chroot(2) before running package's installation scripts, which
653 means that the scripts see instdir as a root directory. Defaults
654 to «/».
655 --root=dir
657 Set the root directory to directory, which sets the installation
658 directory to «dir» and the administrative directory to
659 «dir/var/lib/dpkg».
660 -O, --selected-only
662 Only process the packages that are selected for installation. The
663 actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it handles
664 packages. For example, when a package is removed, it will be marked
665 selected for deinstallation.
666 -E, --skip-same-version
668 Don't install the package if the same version of the package is
669 already installed.
670 --pre-invoke=command
672 --post-invoke=command
673 Set an invoke hook command to be run via “sh -c” before or after
674 the dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install, triggers-only,
675 remove, purge, add-architecture and remove-architecture dpkg
676 actions (since dpkg 1.15.4; add-architecture and remove-
677 architecture actions since dpkg 1.17.19). This option can be
678 specified multiple times. The order the options are specified is
679 preserved, with the ones from the configuration files taking
680 precedence. The environment variable DPKG_HOOK_ACTION is set for
681 the hooks to the current dpkg action.
682 Note: Front-ends might call dpkg several times per invocation,
684 which might run the hooks more times than expected.
685 --path-exclude=glob-pattern
687 --path-include=glob-pattern
688 Set glob-pattern as a path filter, either by excluding or re-
689 including previously excluded paths matching the specified patterns
690 during install (since dpkg 1.15.8).
691 Warning: Take into account that depending on the excluded paths you
693 might completely break your system, use with caution.
694 The glob patterns use the same wildcards used in the shell, were
696 ‘*’ matches any sequence of characters, including the empty string
697 and also ‘/’. For example, «/usr/*/READ*» matches
698 «/usr/share/doc/package/README». As usual, ‘?’ matches any single
699 character (again, including ‘/’). And ‘[’ starts a character
700 class, which can contain a list of characters, ranges and
701 complementations. See glob(7) for detailed information about
702 globbing. Note: The current implementation might re-include more
703 directories and symlinks than needed, to be on the safe side and
704 avoid possible unpack failures; future work might fix this.
705 This can be used to remove all paths except some particular ones; a
707 typical case is:
708 --path-exclude=/usr/share/doc/*
710 --path-include=/usr/share/doc/*/copyright
711 to remove all documentation files except the copyright files.
713 These two options can be specified multiple times, and interleaved
715 with each other. Both are processed in the given order, with the
716 last rule that matches a file name making the decision.
717 The filters are applied when unpacking the binary packages, and as
719 such only have knowledge of the type of object currently being
720 filtered (e.g. a normal file or a directory) and have not
721 visibility of what objects will come next. Because these filters
722 have side effects (in contrast to find(1) filters), excluding an
723 exact pathname that happens to be a directory object like
724 /usr/share/doc will not have the desired result, and only that
725 pathname will be excluded (which could be automatically reincluded
726 if the code sees the need). Any subsequent files contained within
727 that directory will fail to unpack.
728 Hint: make sure the globs are not expanded by your shell.
730 --verify-format format-name
732 Sets the output format for the --verify command (since dpkg
733 1.17.2).
734 The only currently supported output format is rpm, which consists
736 of a line for every path that failed any check. The lines start
737 with 9 characters to report each specific check result, a ‘?’
738 implies the check could not be done (lack of support, file
739 permissions, etc), ‘.’ implies the check passed, and an
740 alphanumeric character implies a specific check failed; the md5sum
741 verification failure (the file contents have changed) is denoted
742 with a ‘5’ on the third character. The line is followed by a space
743 and an attribute character (currently ‘c’ for conffiles), another
744 space and the pathname.
745 --status-fd n
747 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
748 file descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple times. The
749 information is generally one record per line, in one of the
750 following forms:
751 status: package: status
753 Package status changed; status is as in the status file.
754 status: package : error : extended-error-message
756 An error occurred. Any possible newlines in extended-error-
757 message will be converted to spaces before output.
758 status: file : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new' useredited
760 distedited
761 User is being asked a conffile question.
762 processing: stage: package
764 Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is one of
765 upgrade, install (both sent before unpacking), configure,
766 trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.
767 --status-logger=command
769 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
770 the shell command's standard input, to be run via “sh -c” (since
771 dpkg 1.16.0). This option can be specified multiple times. The
772 output format used is the same as in --status-fd.
773 --log=filename
775 Log status change updates and actions to filename, instead of the
776 default /var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is given multiple times,
777 the last filename is used. Log messages are of the form:
778 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS startup type command
780 For each dpkg invocation where type is archives (with a command
781 of unpack or install) or packages (with a command of configure,
782 triggers-only, remove or purge).
783 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status state pkg installed-version
785 For status change updates.
786 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS action pkg installed-version available-version
788 For actions where action is one of install, upgrade, configure,
789 trigproc, disappear, remove or purge.
790 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS conffile filename decision
792 For conffile changes where decision is either install or keep.
793 --robot
795 Use a machine-readable output format. This provides an interface
796 for programs that need to parse the output of some of the commands
797 that do not otherwise emit a machine-readable output format. No
798 localization will be used, and the output will be modified to make
799 it easier to parse.
800 The only currently supported command is --version.
802 --no-pager
804 Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since dpkg
805 1.19.2).
806 --no-debsig
808 Do not try to verify package signatures.
809 --no-triggers
811 Do not run any triggers in this run (since dpkg 1.14.17), but
812 activations will still be recorded. If used with --configure
813 package or --triggers-only package then the named package postinst
814 will still be run even if only a triggers run is needed. Use of
815 this option may leave packages in the improper triggers-awaited and
816 triggers-pending states. This can be fixed later by running: dpkg
817 --configure --pending.
818 --triggers
820 Cancels a previous --no-triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17).
821
823 0 The requested action was successfully performed. Or a check or
824 assertion command returned true.
825 1 A check or assertion command returned false.
827 2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or
829 interactions with the system, such as accesses to the database,
830 memory allocations, etc.
831
833 External environment
834 PATH
835 This variable is expected to be defined in the environment and
836 point to the system paths where several required programs are to be
837 found. If it's not set or the programs are not found, dpkg will
838 abort.
839 HOME
841 If set, dpkg will use it as the directory from which to read the
842 user specific configuration file.
843 TMPDIR
845 If set, dpkg will use it as the directory in which to create
846 temporary files and directories.
847 SHELL
849 The program dpkg will execute when starting a new interactive
850 shell, or when spawning a command via a shell.
851 PAGER
853 DPKG_PAGER
854 The program dpkg will execute when running a pager, which will be
855 executed with «$SHELL -c», for example when displaying the conffile
856 differences. If SHELL is not set, «sh» will be used instead. The
857 DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER environment variable (since dpkg
858 1.19.2).
859 DPKG_COLORS
861 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
862 values are: auto (default), always and never.
863 DPKG_FORCE
865 Sets the force flags (since dpkg 1.19.5). When this variable is
866 present, no built-in force defaults will be applied. If the
867 variable is present but empty, all force flags will be disabled.
868 DPKG_ADMINDIR
870 If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been
871 specified, it will be used as the dpkg administrative directory
872 (since dpkg 1.20.0).
873 DPKG_FRONTEND_LOCKED
875 Set by a package manager frontend to notify dpkg that it should not
876 acquire the frontend lock (since dpkg 1.19.1).
877 Internal environment
879 LESS
880 Defined by dpkg to “-FRSXMQ”, if not already set, when spawning a
881 pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default behavior, this
882 variable can be preset to some other value including an empty
883 string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER variables can be set to disable
884 specific options with «-+», for example DPKG_PAGER="less -+F".
885 DPKG_ROOT
887 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
888 which installation to act on (since dpkg 1.18.5). The value is
889 intended to be prepended to any path maintainer scripts operate on.
890 During normal operation, this variable is empty. When installing
891 packages into a different instdir, dpkg normally invokes maintainer
892 scripts using chroot(2) and leaves this variable empty, but if
893 --force-script-chrootless is specified then the chroot(2) call is
894 skipped and instdir is non-empty.
895 DPKG_ADMINDIR
897 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
898 the dpkg administrative directory to use (since dpkg 1.16.0). This
899 variable is always set to the current --admindir value.
900 DPKG_FORCE
902 Defined by dpkg on the subprocesses environment to all the
903 currently enabled force option names separated by commas (since
904 dpkg 1.19.5).
905 DPKG_SHELL_REASON
907 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
908 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Current valid value:
909 conffile-prompt.
910 DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
912 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
913 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
914 the old conffile.
915 DPKG_CONFFILE_NEW
917 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
918 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
919 the new conffile.
920 DPKG_HOOK_ACTION
922 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned when executing a hook action
923 (since dpkg 1.15.4). Contains the current dpkg action.
924 DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
926 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the version
927 of the currently running dpkg instance (since dpkg 1.14.17).
928 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
930 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the (non-
931 arch-qualified) package name being handled (since dpkg 1.14.17).
932 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE_REFCOUNT
934 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the package
935 reference count, i.e. the number of package instances with a state
936 greater than not-installed (since dpkg 1.17.2).
937 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
939 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
940 architecture the package got built for (since dpkg 1.15.4).
941 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
943 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the name of
944 the script running, one of preinst, postinst, prerm or postrm
945 (since dpkg 1.15.7).
946 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG
948 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to a value
949 (‘0’ or ‘1’) noting whether debugging has been requested (with the
950 --debug option) for the maintainer scripts (since dpkg 1.18.4).
951
953 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
954 Configuration fragment files (since dpkg 1.15.4).
955 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
957 Configuration file with default options.
958 /var/log/dpkg.log
960 Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg and option --log).
961 The other files listed below are in their default directories, see
963 option --admindir to see how to change locations of these files.
964 /var/lib/dpkg/available
966 List of available packages.
967 /var/lib/dpkg/status
969 Statuses of available packages. This file contains information
970 about whether a package is marked for removing or not, whether it
971 is installed or not, etc. See section INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES
972 for more info.
973 The status file is backed up daily in /var/backups. It can be
975 useful if it's lost or corrupted due to filesystems troubles.
976 The format and contents of a binary package are described in deb(5).
978
980 --no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.
981
983 To list installed packages related to the editor vi(1) (note that dpkg-
984 query does not load the available file anymore by default, and the
985 dpkg-query --load-avail option should be used instead for that):
986 dpkg -l '*vi*'
988 To see the entries in /var/lib/dpkg/available of two packages:
990 dpkg --print-avail elvis vim | less
992 To search the listing of packages yourself:
994 less /var/lib/dpkg/available
996 To remove an installed elvis package:
998 dpkg -r elvis
1000 To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or CDROM.
1002 The available file shows that the vim package is in section editors:
1003 cd /media/cdrom/pool/main/v/vim
1005 dpkg -i vim_4.5-3.deb
1006 To make a local copy of the package selection states:
1008 dpkg --get-selections> myselections
1010 You might transfer this file to another computer, and after having
1012 updated the available file there with your package manager frontend of
1013 choice (see <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ> for more details),
1014 for example:
1015 apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-avail
1017 or with dpkg 1.17.6 and earlier:
1019 avail=$(mktemp)
1021 apt-cache dumpavail> "$avail"
1022 dpkg --merge-avail "$avail"
1023 rm "$avail"
1024 you can install it with:
1026 dpkg --clear-selections
1028 dpkg --set-selections <myselections
1029 Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but just
1031 set the selection state on the requested packages. You will need some
1032 other application to actually download and install the requested
1033 packages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.
1034 Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more convenient
1036 way to modify the package selection states.
1037
1039 Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the
1040 following packages: apt, aptitude and debsums.
1041
1043 aptitude(8), apt(8), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1), deb(5),
1044 deb-control(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).
1045
1047 See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who have
1048 contributed to dpkg.
10491.20.9 2021-04-13 dpkg(1)