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 medium-level tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian
22 packages. The primary and more user-friendly front-end for dpkg as a
23 CLI (command-line interface) is apt(8) and as a TUI (terminal user
24 interface) is aptitude(8). dpkg itself is controlled entirely via
25 command line parameters, which consist of exactly one action and zero
26 or more options. The action-parameter tells dpkg what to do and options
27 control the behavior of the action in some way.
28 dpkg can also be used as a front-end to dpkg-deb(1) and dpkg-query(1).
30 The list of supported actions can be found later on in the ACTIONS
31 section. If any such action is encountered dpkg just runs dpkg-deb or
32 dpkg-query with the parameters given to it, but no specific options are
33 currently passed to them, to use any such option the back-ends need to
34 be called directly.
35
37 dpkg maintains some usable information about available packages. The
38 information is divided in three classes: states, selection states and
39 flags. These values are intended to be changed mainly with dselect.
40 Package states
42 not-installed
43 The package is not installed on your system.
44 config-files
46 Only the configuration files or the postrm script and the data it
47 needs to remove of the package exist on the system.
48 half-installed
50 The installation of the package has been started, but not completed
51 for some reason.
52 unpacked
54 The package is unpacked, but not configured.
55 half-configured
57 The package is unpacked and configuration has been started, but not
58 yet completed for some reason.
59 triggers-awaited
61 The package awaits trigger processing by another package.
62 triggers-pending
64 The package has been triggered.
65 installed
67 The package is correctly unpacked and configured.
68 Package selection states
70 install
71 The package is selected for installation.
72 hold
74 A package marked to be on hold is kept on the same version, that
75 is, no automatic new installs, upgrades or removals will be
76 performed on them, unless these actions are requested explicitly,
77 or are permitted to be done automatically with the --force-hold
78 option.
79 deinstall
81 The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to remove
82 all files, except configuration files).
83 purge
85 The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
86 everything from system directories, even configuration files).
87 unknown
89 The package selection is unknown. A package that is also in a not-
90 installed state, and with an ok flag will be forgotten in the next
91 database store.
92 Package flags
94 ok A package marked ok is in a known state, but might need further
95 processing.
96 reinstreq
98 A package marked reinstreq is broken and requires reinstallation.
99 These packages cannot be removed, unless forced with option
100 --force-remove-reinstreq.
101
103 -i, --install package-file...
104 Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is specified,
105 package-file must refer to a directory instead.
106 Installation consists of the following steps:
108 1. Extract the control files of the new package.
110 2. If another version of the same package was installed before the
112 new installation, execute prerm script of the old package.
113 3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.
115 4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back up the old
117 files, so that if something goes wrong, they can be restored.
118 5. If another version of the same package was installed before the
120 new installation, execute the postrm script of the old package.
121 Note that this script is executed after the preinst script of the
122 new package, because new files are written at the same time old
123 files are removed.
124 6. Configure the package. See --configure for detailed information
126 about how this is done.
127 --unpack package-file...
129 Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R
130 option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
131 instead.
132 Will process triggers for Pre-Depends unless --no-triggers has been
134 specified.
135 --configure package...|-a|--pending
137 Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet configured.
138 If -a or --pending is given instead of package, all unpacked but
139 unconfigured packages are configured.
140 To reconfigure a package which has already been configured, try the
142 dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead.
143 Configuring consists of the following steps:
145 1. Unpack the conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
147 conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
148 2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
150 Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
152 --triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
154 Processes only triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17). All pending triggers
155 will be processed. If package names are supplied only those
156 packages' triggers will be processed, exactly once each where
157 necessary. Use of this option may leave packages in the improper
158 triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can be fixed
159 later by running: dpkg --configure --pending.
160 -r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
162 Remove an installed package. This removes everything except
163 conffiles and other data cleaned up by the postrm script, which may
164 avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is reinstalled later
165 (conffiles are configuration files that are listed in the
166 DEBIAN/conffiles control file). If there is no DEBIAN/conffiles
167 control file nor DEBIAN/postrm script, this command is equivalent
168 to calling --purge. If -a or --pending is given instead of a
169 package name, then all packages unpacked, but marked to be removed
170 in file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed.
171 Removing of a package consists of the following steps:
173 1. Run prerm script
175 2. Remove the installed files
177 3. Run postrm script
179 Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
181 -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
183 Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes
184 everything, including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up from
185 postrm. If -a or --pending is given instead of a package name,
186 then all packages unpacked or removed, but marked to be purged in
187 file /var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.
188 Note: Some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg because
190 they are created and handled separately through the configuration
191 scripts. In that case, dpkg won't remove them by itself, but the
192 package's postrm script (which is called by dpkg), has to take care
193 of their removal during purge. Of course, this only applies to
194 files in system directories, not configuration files written to
195 individual users' home directories.
196 Purging of a package consists of the following steps:
198 1. Remove the package, if not already removed. See --remove for
200 detailed information about how this is done.
201 2. Run postrm script.
203 Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
205 -V, --verify [package-name...]
207 Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if omitted,
208 by comparing information from the files installed by a package with
209 the files metadata information stored in the dpkg database (since
210 dpkg 1.17.2). The origin of the files metadata information in the
211 database is the binary packages themselves. That metadata gets
212 collected at package unpack time during the installation process.
213 Currently the only functional check performed is an md5sum
215 verification of the file contents against the stored value in the
216 files database. It will only get checked if the database contains
217 the file md5sum. To check for any missing metadata in the database,
218 the --audit command can be used.
219 The output format is selectable with the --verify-format option,
221 which by default uses the rpm format, but that might change in the
222 future, and as such, programs parsing this command output should be
223 explicit about the format they expect.
224 -C, --audit [package-name...]
226 Performs database sanity and consistency checks for package-name or
227 all packages if omitted (per package checks since dpkg 1.17.10).
228 For example, searches for packages that have been installed only
229 partially on your system or that have missing, wrong or obsolete
230 control data or files. dpkg will suggest what to do with them to
231 get them fixed.
232 --update-avail [Packages-file]
234 --merge-avail [Packages-file]
235 Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are available.
236 With action --merge-avail, old information is combined with
237 information from Packages-file. With action --update-avail, old
238 information is replaced with the information in the Packages-file.
239 The Packages-file distributed with Debian is simply named
240 «Packages». If the Packages-file argument is missing or named «-»
241 then it will be read from standard input (since dpkg 1.17.7). dpkg
242 keeps its record of available packages in /var/lib/dpkg/available.
243 A simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the available
245 file is dselect update. Note that this file is mostly useless if
246 you don't use dselect but an APT-based frontend: APT has its own
247 system to keep track of available packages.
248 -A, --record-avail package-file...
250 Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages are available with
251 information from the package package-file. If --recursive or -R
252 option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
253 instead.
254 --forget-old-unavail
256 Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget
257 uninstalled unavailable packages (since dpkg 1.15.4), but only
258 those that do not contain user information such as package
259 selections.
260 --clear-avail
262 Erase the existing information about what packages are available.
263 --get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
265 Get list of package selections, and write it to stdout. Without a
266 pattern, non-installed packages (i.e. those which have been
267 previously purged) will not be shown.
268 --set-selections
270 Set package selections using file read from stdin. This file should
271 be in the format “package state”, where state is one of install,
272 hold, deinstall or purge. Blank lines and comment lines beginning
273 with ‘#’ are also permitted.
274 The available file needs to be up-to-date for this command to be
276 useful, otherwise unknown packages will be ignored with a warning.
277 See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands for more
278 information.
279 --clear-selections
281 Set the requested state of every non-essential package to deinstall
282 (since dpkg 1.13.18). This is intended to be used immediately
283 before --set-selections, to deinstall any packages not in list
284 given to --set-selections.
285 --yet-to-unpack
287 Searches for packages selected for installation, but which for some
288 reason still haven't been installed.
289 Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
291 package selections.
292 --predep-package
294 Print a single package which is the target of one or more relevant
295 pre-dependencies and has itself no unsatisfied pre-dependencies.
296 If such a package is present, output it as a Packages file entry,
298 which can be massaged as appropriate.
299 Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
301 package selections.
302 Returns 0 when a package is printed, 1 when no suitable package is
304 available and 2 on error.
305 --add-architecture architecture
307 Add architecture to the list of architectures for which packages
308 can be installed without using --force-architecture (since dpkg
309 1.16.2). The architecture dpkg is built for (i.e. the output of
310 --print-architecture) is always part of that list.
311 --remove-architecture architecture
313 Remove architecture from the list of architectures for which
314 packages can be installed without using --force-architecture (since
315 dpkg 1.16.2). If the architecture is currently in use in the
316 database then the operation will be refused, except if
317 --force-architecture is specified. The architecture dpkg is built
318 for (i.e. the output of --print-architecture) can never be removed
319 from that list.
320 --print-architecture
322 Print architecture of packages dpkg installs (for example, “i386”).
323 --print-foreign-architectures
325 Print a newline-separated list of the extra architectures dpkg is
326 configured to allow packages to be installed for (since dpkg
327 1.16.2).
328 --assert-help
330 Give help about the --assert-feature options (since dpkg 1.21.0).
331 --assert-feature
333 Asserts that dpkg supports the requested feature. Returns 0 if the
334 feature is fully supported, 1 if the feature is known but dpkg
335 cannot provide support for it yet, and 2 if the feature is unknown.
336 The current list of assertable features is:
337 support-predepends
339 Supports the Pre-Depends field (since dpkg 1.1.0).
340 working-epoch
342 Supports epochs in version strings (since dpkg 1.4.0.7).
343 long-filenames
345 Supports long filenames in deb(5) archives (since dpkg
346 1.4.1.17).
347 multi-conrep
349 Supports multiple Conflicts and Replaces (since dpkg 1.4.1.19).
350 multi-arch
352 Supports multi-arch fields and semantics (since dpkg 1.16.2).
353 versioned-provides
355 Supports versioned Provides (since dpkg 1.17.11).
356 protected-field
358 Supports the Protected field (since dpkg 1.20.1).
359 --validate-thing string
361 Validate that the thing string has a correct syntax (since dpkg
362 1.18.16). Returns 0 if the string is valid, 1 if the string is
363 invalid but might be accepted in lax contexts, and 2 if the string
364 is invalid. The current list of validatable things is:
365 pkgname
367 Validates the given package name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
368 trigname
370 Validates the given trigger name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
371 archname
373 Validates the given architecture name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
374 version
376 Validates the given version (since dpkg 1.18.16).
377 --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
379 Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg
380 returns true (0) if the specified condition is satisfied, and false
381 (1) otherwise. There are two groups of operators, which differ in
382 how they treat an empty ver1 or ver2. These treat an empty version
383 as earlier than any version: lt le eq ne ge gt. These treat an
384 empty version as later than any version: lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl.
385 These are provided only for compatibility with control file syntax:
386 < << <= = >= >> >. The < and > operators are obsolete and should
387 not be used, due to confusing semantics. To illustrate: 0.1 < 0.1
388 evaluates to true.
389 -?, --help
391 Display a brief help message.
392 --force-help
394 Give help about the --force-thing options.
395 -Dh, --debug=help
397 Give help about debugging options.
398 --version
400 Display dpkg version information.
401 When used with --robot, the output will be the program version
403 number in a dotted numerical format, with no newline.
404 dpkg-deb actions
406 See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following actions,
407 and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
408 -b, --build directory [archive|directory]
410 Build a deb package.
411 -c, --contents archive
413 List contents of a deb package.
414 -e, --control archive [directory]
416 Extract control-information from a package.
417 -x, --extract archive directory
419 Extract the files contained by package.
420 -X, --vextract archive directory
422 Extract and display the filenames contained by a package.
423 -f, --field archive [control-field...]
425 Display control field(s) of a package.
426 --ctrl-tarfile archive
428 Output the control tar-file contained in a Debian package.
429 --fsys-tarfile archive
431 Output the filesystem tar-file contained by a Debian package.
432 -I, --info archive [control-file...]
434 Show information about a package.
435 dpkg-query actions
437 See dpkg-query(1) for more information about the following actions,
438 and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
439 -l, --list package-name-pattern...
441 List packages matching given pattern.
442 -s, --status package-name...
444 Report status of specified package.
445 -L, --listfiles package-name...
447 List files installed to your system from package-name.
448 -S, --search filename-search-pattern...
450 Search for a filename from installed packages.
451 -p, --print-avail package-name...
453 Display details about package-name, as found in
454 /var/lib/dpkg/available. Users of APT-based frontends should
455 use apt show package-name instead.
456
458 All options can be specified both on the command line and in the dpkg
459 configuration file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or fragment files (with names
460 matching this shell pattern '[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*') on the configuration
461 directory /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each line in the configuration file is
462 either an option (exactly the same as the command line option but
463 without leading hyphens) or a comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).
464 --abort-after=number
466 Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is 50.
467 -B, --auto-deconfigure
469 When a package is removed, there is a possibility that another
470 installed package depended on the removed package. Specifying this
471 option will cause automatic deconfiguration of the package which
472 depended on the removed package.
473 -Doctal, --debug=octal
475 Switch debugging on. octal is formed by bitwise-ORing desired
476 values together from the list below (note that these values may
477 change in future releases). -Dh or --debug=help display these
478 debugging values.
479 Number Description
481 1 Generally helpful progress information
482 2 Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
483 10 Output for each file processed
484 100 Lots of output for each file processed
485 20 Output for each configuration file
486 200 Lots of output for each configuration file
487 40 Dependencies and conflicts
488 400 Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
489 10000 Trigger activation and processing
490 20000 Lots of output regarding triggers
491 40000 Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
492 1000 Lots of drivel about for example the dpkg/info dir
493 2000 Insane amounts of drivel
494 --force-things
496 --no-force-things, --refuse-things
497 Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to do
498 some things. things is a comma separated list of things specified
499 below. --force-help displays a message describing them. Things
500 marked with (*) are forced by default.
501 Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts
503 only. Using them without fully understanding their effects may
504 break your whole system.
505 all: Turns on (or off) all force options.
507 downgrade(*): Install a package, even if newer version of it is
509 already installed.
510 Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking on
512 downgrades and therefore will not warn you if the downgrade breaks
513 the dependency of some other package. This can have serious side
514 effects, downgrading essential system components can even make your
515 whole system unusable. Use with care.
516 configure-any: Configure also any unpacked but unconfigured
518 packages on which the current package depends.
519 hold: Allow automatic installs, upgrades or removals of packages
521 even when marked to be on “hold”. Note: When these actions are
522 requested explicitly, the “hold” package selection state always
523 gets ignored.
524 remove-reinstreq: Remove a package, even if it's broken and marked
526 to require reinstallation. This may, for example, cause parts of
527 the package to remain on the system, which will then be forgotten
528 by dpkg.
529 remove-protected: Remove, even if the package is considered
531 protected (since dpkg 1.20.1). Protected packages contain mostly
532 important system boot infrastructure or are used for custom system-
533 local meta-packages. Removing them might cause the whole system to
534 be unable to boot or lose required functionality to operate, so use
535 with caution.
536 remove-essential: Remove, even if the package is considered
538 essential. Essential packages contain mostly very basic Unix
539 commands, required for the packaging system, for the operation of
540 the system in general or during boot (although the latter should be
541 converted to protected packages instead). Removing them might
542 cause the whole system to stop working, so use with caution.
543 depends: Turn all dependency problems into warnings. This affects
545 the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
546 depends-version: Don't care about versions when checking
548 dependencies. This affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
549 breaks: Install, even if this would break another package (since
551 dpkg 1.14.6). This affects the Breaks field.
552 conflicts: Install, even if it conflicts with another package. This
554 is dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some files.
555 This affects the Conflicts field.
556 confmiss: Always install the missing conffile without prompting.
558 This is dangerous, since it means not preserving a change
559 (removing) made to the file.
560 confnew: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
562 package did change, always install the new version without
563 prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which
564 case the default action is preferred.
565 confold: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
567 package did change, always keep the old version without prompting,
568 unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which case the
569 default action is preferred.
570 confdef: If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
572 package did change, always choose the default action without
573 prompting. If there is no default action it will stop to ask the
574 user unless --force-confnew or --force-confold is also been given,
575 in which case it will use that to decide the final action.
576 confask: If a conffile has been modified always offer to replace it
578 with the version in the package, even if the version in the package
579 did not change (since dpkg 1.15.8). If any of --force-confnew,
580 --force-confold, or --force-confdef is also given, it will be used
581 to decide the final action.
582 overwrite: Overwrite one package's file with another's file.
584 overwrite-dir: Overwrite one package's directory with another's
586 file.
587 overwrite-diverted: Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted
589 version.
590 statoverride-add: Overwrite an existing stat override when adding
592 it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
593 statoverride-remove: Ignore a missing stat override when removing
595 it (since dpkg 1.19.5).
596 security-mac(*): Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls
598 (MAC) based security when installing files into the filesystem
599 (since dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation uses
600 SELinux.
601 unsafe-io: Do not perform safe I/O operations when unpacking (since
603 dpkg 1.15.8.6). Currently this implies not performing file system
604 syncs before file renames, which is known to cause substantial
605 performance degradation on some file systems, unfortunately the
606 ones that require the safe I/O on the first place due to their
607 unreliable behaviour causing zero-length files on abrupt system
608 crashes.
609 Note: For ext4, the main offender, consider using instead the mount
611 option nodelalloc, which will fix both the performance degradation
612 and the data safety issues, the latter by making the file system
613 not produce zero-length files on abrupt system crashes with any
614 software not doing syncs before atomic renames.
615 Warning: Using this option might improve performance at the cost of
617 losing data, use with care.
618 script-chrootless: Run maintainer scripts without chroot(2)ing into
620 instdir even if the package does not support this mode of operation
621 (since dpkg 1.18.5).
622 Warning: This can destroy your host system, use with extreme care.
624 architecture: Process even packages with wrong or no architecture.
626 bad-version: Process even packages with wrong versions (since dpkg
628 1.16.1).
629 bad-path: PATH is missing important programs, so problems are
631 likely.
632 not-root: Try to (de)install things even when not root.
634 bad-verify: Install a package even if it fails authenticity check.
636 --ignore-depends=package,...
638 Ignore dependency-checking for specified packages (actually,
639 checking is performed, but only warnings about conflicts are given,
640 nothing else). This affects the Pre-Depends, Depends and Breaks
641 fields.
642 --no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
644 Do everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write any
645 changes. This is used to see what would happen with the specified
646 action, without actually modifying anything.
647 Be sure to give --no-act before the action-parameter, or you might
649 end up with undesirable results. (e.g. dpkg --purge foo --no-act
650 will first purge package “foo” and then try to purge package
651 ”--no-act”, even though you probably expected it to actually do
652 nothing).
653 -R, --recursive
655 Recursively handle all regular files matching pattern *.deb found
656 at specified directories and all of its subdirectories. This can be
657 used with -i, -A, --install, --unpack and --record-avail actions.
658 -G Don't install a package if a newer version of the same package is
660 already installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.
661 --admindir=dir
663 Set the administrative directory to directory. This directory
664 contains many files that give information about status of installed
665 or uninstalled packages, etc. Defaults to «/var/lib/dpkg» if
666 DPKG_ADMINDIR has not been set.
667 --instdir=dir
669 Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory where
670 packages are to be installed. instdir is also the directory passed
671 to chroot(2) before running package's installation scripts, which
672 means that the scripts see instdir as a root directory. Defaults
673 to «/».
674 --root=dir
676 Set the root directory to directory, which sets the installation
677 directory to «dir» and the administrative directory to
678 «dir/var/lib/dpkg».
679 -O, --selected-only
681 Only process the packages that are selected for installation. The
682 actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it handles
683 packages. For example, when a package is removed, it will be marked
684 selected for deinstallation.
685 -E, --skip-same-version
687 Don't install the package if the same version and architecture of
688 the package is already installed.
689 Since dpkg 1.21.10, the architecture is also taken into account,
691 which makes it possible to cross-grade packages or install
692 additional co-installable instances with the same version, but
693 different architecture.
694 --pre-invoke=command
696 --post-invoke=command
697 Set an invoke hook command to be run via “sh -c” before or after
698 the dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install, triggers-only,
699 remove, purge, add-architecture and remove-architecture dpkg
700 actions (since dpkg 1.15.4; add-architecture and remove-
701 architecture actions since dpkg 1.17.19). This option can be
702 specified multiple times. The order the options are specified is
703 preserved, with the ones from the configuration files taking
704 precedence. The environment variable DPKG_HOOK_ACTION is set for
705 the hooks to the current dpkg action.
706 Note: Front-ends might call dpkg several times per invocation,
708 which might run the hooks more times than expected.
709 --path-exclude=glob-pattern
711 --path-include=glob-pattern
712 Set glob-pattern as a path filter, either by excluding or re-
713 including previously excluded paths matching the specified patterns
714 during install (since dpkg 1.15.8).
715 Warning: Take into account that depending on the excluded paths you
717 might completely break your system, use with caution.
718 The glob patterns use the same wildcards used in the shell, were
720 ‘*’ matches any sequence of characters, including the empty string
721 and also ‘/’. For example, «/usr/*/READ*» matches
722 «/usr/share/doc/package/README». As usual, ‘?’ matches any single
723 character (again, including ‘/’). And ‘[’ starts a character
724 class, which can contain a list of characters, ranges and
725 complementations. See glob(7) for detailed information about
726 globbing. Note: The current implementation might re-include more
727 directories and symlinks than needed, in particular when there is a
728 more specific re-inclusion, to be on the safe side and avoid
729 possible unpack failures; future work might fix this.
730 This can be used to remove all paths except some particular ones; a
732 typical case is:
733 --path-exclude=/usr/share/doc/*
735 --path-include=/usr/share/doc/*/copyright
736 to remove all documentation files except the copyright files.
738 These two options can be specified multiple times, and interleaved
740 with each other. Both are processed in the given order, with the
741 last rule that matches a file name making the decision.
742 The filters are applied when unpacking the binary packages, and as
744 such only have knowledge of the type of object currently being
745 filtered (e.g. a normal file or a directory) and have not
746 visibility of what objects will come next. Because these filters
747 have side effects (in contrast to find(1) filters), excluding an
748 exact pathname that happens to be a directory object like
749 /usr/share/doc will not have the desired result, and only that
750 pathname will be excluded (which could be automatically reincluded
751 if the code sees the need). Any subsequent files contained within
752 that directory will fail to unpack.
753 Hint: make sure the globs are not expanded by your shell.
755 --verify-format format-name
757 Sets the output format for the --verify command (since dpkg
758 1.17.2).
759 The only currently supported output format is rpm, which consists
761 of a line for every path that failed any check. These lines have
762 the following format:
763 missing [c] pathname [(error-message)]
766 ??5?????? [c] pathname
767 The first 9 characters are used to report the checks result, either
769 a literal missing when the file is not present or its metadata
770 cannot be fetched, or one of the following special characters that
771 report the result for each check:
772 ‘?’ Implies the check could not be done (lack of support, file
774 permissions, etc).
775 ‘.’ Implies the check passed.
777 ‘A-Za-z0-9’
779 Implies a specific check failed. The following positions and
780 alphanumeric characters are currently supported:
781 1 ‘?’
783 These checks are currently not supported, will always be
784 ‘?’.
785 2 ‘M’
787 The file mode check failed (since dpkg 1.21.0). Because
788 pathname metadata is currently not tracked, this check can
789 only be partially emulated via a very simple heuristic for
790 pathnames that have a known digest, which implies they
791 should be regular files, where the check will fail if the
792 pathname is not a regular file on the filesystem. This
793 check will currently never succeed as it does not have
794 enough information available.
795 3 ‘5’
797 The digest check failed, which means the file contents have
798 changed.
799 4-9 ‘?’
801 These checks are currently not supported, will always be
802 ‘?’.
803 The line is followed by a space and an attribute character. The
805 following attribute character is supported:
806 ‘c’ The pathname is a conffile.
808 Finally followed by another space and the pathname.
810 In case the entry was of the missing type, and the file was not
812 actually present on the filesystem, then the line is followed by a
813 space and the error message enclosed within parenthesis.
814 --status-fd n
816 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
817 file descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple times. The
818 information is generally one record per line, in one of the
819 following forms:
820 status: package: status
822 Package status changed; status is as in the status file.
823 status: package : error : extended-error-message
825 An error occurred. Any possible newlines in extended-error-
826 message will be converted to spaces before output.
827 status: file : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new' useredited
829 distedited
830 User is being asked a conffile question.
831 processing: stage: package
833 Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is one of
834 upgrade, install (both sent before unpacking), configure,
835 trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.
836 --status-logger=command
838 Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
839 the shell command's standard input, to be run via “sh -c” (since
840 dpkg 1.16.0). This option can be specified multiple times. The
841 output format used is the same as in --status-fd.
842 --log=filename
844 Log status change updates and actions to filename, instead of the
845 default /var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is given multiple times,
846 the last filename is used. Log messages are of the form:
847 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS startup type command
849 For each dpkg invocation where type is archives (with a command
850 of unpack or install) or packages (with a command of configure,
851 triggers-only, remove or purge).
852 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status state pkg installed-version
854 For status change updates.
855 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS action pkg installed-version available-version
857 For actions where action is one of install, upgrade, configure,
858 trigproc, disappear, remove or purge.
859 YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS conffile filename decision
861 For conffile changes where decision is either install or keep.
862 --robot
864 Use a machine-readable output format. This provides an interface
865 for programs that need to parse the output of some of the commands
866 that do not otherwise emit a machine-readable output format. No
867 localization will be used, and the output will be modified to make
868 it easier to parse.
869 The only currently supported command is --version.
871 --no-pager
873 Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since dpkg
874 1.19.2).
875 --no-debsig
877 Do not try to verify package signatures.
878 --no-triggers
880 Do not run any triggers in this run (since dpkg 1.14.17), but
881 activations will still be recorded. If used with --configure
882 package or --triggers-only package then the named package postinst
883 will still be run even if only a triggers run is needed. Use of
884 this option may leave packages in the improper triggers-awaited and
885 triggers-pending states. This can be fixed later by running: dpkg
886 --configure --pending.
887 --triggers
889 Cancels a previous --no-triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17).
890
892 0 The requested action was successfully performed. Or a check or
893 assertion command returned true.
894 1 A check or assertion command returned false.
896 2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or
898 interactions with the system, such as accesses to the database,
899 memory allocations, etc.
900
902 External environment
903 PATH
904 This variable is expected to be defined in the environment and
905 point to the system paths where several required programs are to be
906 found. If it's not set or the programs are not found, dpkg will
907 abort.
908 HOME
910 If set, dpkg will use it as the directory from which to read the
911 user specific configuration file.
912 TMPDIR
914 If set, dpkg will use it as the directory in which to create
915 temporary files and directories.
916 SHELL
918 The program dpkg will execute when starting a new interactive
919 shell, or when spawning a command via a shell.
920 PAGER
922 DPKG_PAGER
923 The program dpkg will execute when running a pager, which will be
924 executed with «$SHELL -c», for example when displaying the conffile
925 differences. If SHELL is not set, «sh» will be used instead. The
926 DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER environment variable (since dpkg
927 1.19.2).
928 DPKG_COLORS
930 Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
931 values are: auto (default), always and never.
932 DPKG_DEBUG
934 Sets the debug mask (since dpkg 1.21.10) from an octal value. The
935 currently accepted flags are described in the --debug option.
936 DPKG_FORCE
938 Sets the force flags (since dpkg 1.19.5). When this variable is
939 present, no built-in force defaults will be applied. If the
940 variable is present but empty, all force flags will be disabled.
941 DPKG_ADMINDIR
943 If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been
944 specified, it will be used as the dpkg administrative directory
945 (since dpkg 1.20.0).
946 DPKG_FRONTEND_LOCKED
948 Set by a package manager frontend to notify dpkg that it should not
949 acquire the frontend lock (since dpkg 1.19.1).
950 Internal environment
952 LESS
953 Defined by dpkg to “-FRSXMQ”, if not already set, when spawning a
954 pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default behavior, this
955 variable can be preset to some other value including an empty
956 string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER variables can be set to disable
957 specific options with «-+», for example DPKG_PAGER="less -+F".
958 DPKG_ROOT
960 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
961 which installation to act on (since dpkg 1.18.5). The value is
962 intended to be prepended to any path maintainer scripts operate on.
963 During normal operation, this variable is empty. When installing
964 packages into a different instdir, dpkg normally invokes maintainer
965 scripts using chroot(2) and leaves this variable empty, but if
966 --force-script-chrootless is specified then the chroot(2) call is
967 skipped and instdir is non-empty.
968 DPKG_ADMINDIR
970 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
971 the dpkg administrative directory to use (since dpkg 1.16.0). This
972 variable is always set to the current --admindir value.
973 DPKG_FORCE
975 Defined by dpkg on the subprocesses environment to all the
976 currently enabled force option names separated by commas (since
977 dpkg 1.19.5).
978 DPKG_SHELL_REASON
980 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
981 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Current valid value:
982 conffile-prompt.
983 DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
985 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
986 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
987 the old conffile.
988 DPKG_CONFFILE_NEW
990 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
991 examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to
992 the new conffile.
993 DPKG_HOOK_ACTION
995 Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned when executing a hook action
996 (since dpkg 1.15.4). Contains the current dpkg action.
997 DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
999 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the version
1000 of the currently running dpkg instance (since dpkg 1.14.17).
1001 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
1003 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the (non-
1004 arch-qualified) package name being handled (since dpkg 1.14.17).
1005 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE_REFCOUNT
1007 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the package
1008 reference count, i.e. the number of package instances with a state
1009 greater than not-installed (since dpkg 1.17.2).
1010 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
1012 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
1013 architecture the package got built for (since dpkg 1.15.4).
1014 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
1016 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the name of
1017 the script running, one of preinst, postinst, prerm or postrm
1018 (since dpkg 1.15.7).
1019 DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG
1021 Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to a value
1022 (‘0’ or ‘1’) noting whether debugging has been requested (with the
1023 --debug option) for the maintainer scripts (since dpkg 1.18.4).
1024
1026 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
1027 Configuration fragment files (since dpkg 1.15.4).
1028 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
1030 Configuration file with default options.
1031 /var/log/dpkg.log
1033 Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg and option --log).
1034 The other files listed below are in their default directories, see
1036 option --admindir to see how to change locations of these files.
1037 /var/lib/dpkg/available
1039 List of available packages.
1040 /var/lib/dpkg/status
1042 Statuses of available packages. This file contains information
1043 about whether a package is marked for removing or not, whether it
1044 is installed or not, etc. See section INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES
1045 for more info.
1046 The status file is backed up daily in /var/backups. It can be
1048 useful if it's lost or corrupted due to filesystems troubles.
1049 The format and contents of a binary package are described in deb(5).
1051
1053 --no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.
1054
1056 To list installed packages related to the editor vi(1) (note that dpkg-
1057 query does not load the available file anymore by default, and the
1058 dpkg-query --load-avail option should be used instead for that):
1059 dpkg -l '*vi*'
1061 To see the entries in /var/lib/dpkg/available of two packages:
1063 dpkg --print-avail elvis vim | less
1065 To search the listing of packages yourself:
1067 less /var/lib/dpkg/available
1069 To remove an installed elvis package:
1071 dpkg -r elvis
1073 To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or CDROM.
1075 The available file shows that the vim package is in section editors:
1076 cd /media/cdrom/pool/main/v/vim
1078 dpkg -i vim_4.5-3.deb
1079 To make a local copy of the package selection states:
1081 dpkg --get-selections> myselections
1083 You might transfer this file to another computer, and after having
1085 updated the available file there with your package manager frontend of
1086 choice (see <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#set-selections> for
1087 more details), for example:
1088 apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-avail
1090 or with dpkg 1.17.6 and earlier:
1092 avail=$(mktemp)
1094 apt-cache dumpavail> "$avail"
1095 dpkg --merge-avail "$avail"
1096 rm "$avail"
1097 you can install it with:
1099 dpkg --clear-selections
1101 dpkg --set-selections <myselections
1102 Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but just
1104 set the selection state on the requested packages. You will need some
1105 other application to actually download and install the requested
1106 packages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.
1107 Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more convenient
1109 way to modify the package selection states.
1110
1112 Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the
1113 following packages: apt, aptitude and debsums.
1114
1116 aptitude(8), apt(8), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1), deb(5),
1117 deb-control(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).
1118
1120 See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who have
1121 contributed to dpkg.
11221.21.21 2023-02-25 dpkg(1)