dpkg-scanpackages(1)            dpkg utilities            dpkg-scanpackages(1)



NAME
       dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files

SYNOPSIS
       dpkg-scanpackages  [option...] binary-dir [override-file [path-prefix]]
       > Packages

DESCRIPTION
       dpkg-scanpackages sorts through a tree of Debian  binary  packages  and
       creates  a  Packages file, used by apt(8), dselect(1), etc, to tell the
       user what packages are available for installation. These Packages files
       are  the  same  as those found on Debian archive sites and CD-ROMs. You
       might use dpkg-scanpackages yourself if making  a  directory  of  local
       packages to install on a cluster of machines.

       Note:  If  you  want to access the generated Packages file with apt you
       will probably need to compress the file  with  bzip2(1)  (generating  a
       Packages.bz2  file)  or  gzip(1)  (generating  a Packages.gz file). apt
       ignores uncompressed  Packages  files  except  on  local  access  (i.e.
       file:// sources).

       binary-dir  is  the  name of the tree of the binary packages to process
       (for example, contrib/binary-i386).  It is best to make  this  relative
       to  the root of the Debian archive, because every Filename field in the
       new Packages file will start with this string.

       override-file is the name of a file to read which contains  information
       about  how  the  package  fits  into the distribution (it can be a com-
       pressed file); see deb-override(5).

       path-prefix is an optional string  to  be  prepended  to  the  Filename
       fields.

       If  more  than one version of a package is found only the newest one is
       included in the output. If they have the same version and  only  differ
       in architecture only the first one found is used.

OPTIONS
       -t, --type type
              Scan for *.type packages, instead of *.deb.

       -e, --extra-override file
              Scan  file to find supplementary overrides (the file can be com-
              pressed). See deb-extra-override(5) for more information on  its
              format.

       -a, --arch arch
              Use  a pattern consisting of *_all.deb and *_arch.deb instead of
              scanning for all debs.

       -h, --hash hash-list
              Only generate file hashes for the  comma-specified  list  speci-
              fied.   The  default  is  to  generate  all  currently supported
              hashes.  Supported values: md5, sha1, sha256.

       -m, --multiversion
              Include all found packages in the output.

       -M, --medium id-string
              Add an X-Medium field containing the value id-string. This field
              is required if you want to generate Packages.cd files for use by
              the multicd access method of dselect.

       -?, --help
              Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
              Show the version and exit.

DIAGNOSTICS
       dpkg-scanpackages outputs the usual self-explanatory  errors.  It  also
       warns  about  packages  that  are in the wrong subdirectory, are dupli-
       cated, have a Filename field in their control file,  are  missing  from
       the  override  file, or have maintainer substitutions which do not take
       effect.

SEE ALSO
       dpkg(1), dselect(1), deb-override(5), deb-extra-override(5),
       dpkg-scansources(1).



Debian Project                    2012-05-07              dpkg-scanpackages(1)
