1dpkg-scanpackages(1) dpkg suite dpkg-scanpackages(1)
2
6 dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files
7
9 dpkg-scanpackages [option...] binary-path [override-file [path-prefix]]
10 > Packages
11
13 dpkg-scanpackages sorts through a tree of Debian binary packages and
14 creates a Packages file, used by apt(8), dselect(1), etc, to tell the
15 user what packages are available for installation. These Packages files
16 are the same as those found on Debian archive sites and CD-ROMs. You
17 might use dpkg-scanpackages yourself if making a directory of local
18 packages to install on a cluster of machines.
19 Note: If you want to access the generated Packages file with apt(8) you
21 will probably need to compress the file with xz(1) (generating a
22 Packages.xz file), bzip2(1) (generating a Packages.bz2 file) or gzip(1)
23 (generating a Packages.gz file). apt(8) ignores uncompressed Packages
24 files except on local access (i.e. file:// sources).
25 binary-path is the name of the tree of the binary packages to process
27 (for example, contrib/binary-i386). It is best to make this relative
28 to the root of the Debian archive, because every Filename field in the
29 new Packages file will start with this string.
30 override-file is the name of a file to read which contains information
32 about how the package fits into the distribution (the file can be
33 compressed since dpkg 1.15.5); see deb-override(5).
34 path-prefix is an optional string to be prepended to the Filename
36 fields.
37 If more than one version of a package is found only the newest one is
39 included in the output. If they have the same version and only differ
40 in architecture only the first one found is used.
41
43 -t, --type type
44 Scan for *.type packages, instead of *.deb.
45 -e, --extra-override file
47 Scan file to find supplementary overrides (the file can be
48 compressed since dpkg 1.15.5). See deb-extra-override(5) for more
49 information on its format.
50 -a, --arch arch
52 Use a pattern consisting of *_all.deb and *_arch.deb instead of
53 scanning for all debs.
54 -h, --hash hash-list
56 Only generate file hashes for the comma-specified list specified
57 (since dpkg 1.17.14). The default is to generate all currently
58 supported hashes. Supported values: md5, sha1, sha256.
59 -m, --multiversion
61 Include all found packages in the output.
62 -M, --medium id-string
64 Add an X-Medium field containing the value id-string (since dpkg
65 1.15.5). This field is required if you want to generate
66 Packages.cd files for use by the media access method of dselect.
67 -?, --help
69 Show the usage message and exit.
70 --version
72 Show the version and exit.
73
75 DPKG_COLORS
76 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
77 values are: auto (default), always and never.
78 DPKG_NLS
80 If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
81 Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n)
82 support (since dpkg 1.19.0). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
83 (default).
84
86 dpkg-scanpackages outputs the usual self-explanatory errors. It also
87 warns about packages that are in the wrong subdirectory, are
88 duplicated, have a Filename field in their control file, are missing
89 from the override file, or have maintainer substitutions which do not
90 take effect.
91
93 dpkg(1), dselect(1), deb-override(5), deb-extra-override(5), dpkg-
94 scansources(1).
951.21.9 2022-07-01 dpkg-scanpackages(1)