dpkg(1)                           dpkg suite                           dpkg(1)



NAME
       dpkg - package manager for Debian

SYNOPSIS
       dpkg [option...] action

WARNING
       This  manual is intended for users wishing to understand dpkg's command
       line options and package states in more detail than  that  provided  by
       dpkg --help.

       It  should not be used by package maintainers wishing to understand how
       dpkg will install their packages. The descriptions of  what  dpkg  does
       when installing and removing packages are particularly inadequate.

DESCRIPTION
       dpkg  is  a  tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages.
       The primary and more user-friendly front-end for dpkg  is  aptitude(1).
       dpkg  itself  is controlled entirely via command line parameters, which
       consist of exactly one action and zero or  more  options.  The  action-
       parameter tells dpkg what to do and options control the behavior of the
       action in some way.

       dpkg can also be used as a front-end to dpkg-deb(1) and  dpkg-query(1).
       The list of supported actions can be found later on in the ACTIONS sec-
       tion. If any such action is encountered  dpkg  just  runs  dpkg-deb  or
       dpkg-query with the parameters given to it, but no specific options are
       currently passed to them, to use any such option the back-ends need  to
       be called directly.

INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES
       dpkg  maintains  some  usable information about available packages. The
       information is divided in three classes: states, selection  states  and
       flags. These values are intended to be changed mainly with dselect.

   Package states
       not-installed
              The package is not installed on your system.

       config-files
              Only the configuration files of the package exist on the system.

       half-installed
              The  installation  of the package has been started, but not com-
              pleted for some reason.

       unpacked
              The package is unpacked, but not configured.

       half-configured
              The package is unpacked and configuration has been started,  but
              not yet completed for some reason.

       triggers-awaited
              The package awaits trigger processing by another package.

       triggers-pending
              The package has been triggered.

       installed
              The package is correctly unpacked and configured.

   Package selection states
       install
              The package is selected for installation.

       hold   A  package  marked  to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless
              forced to do that with option --force-hold.

       deinstall
              The package is selected for  deinstallation  (i.e.  we  want  to
              remove all files, except configuration files).

       purge  The  package  is  selected  to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
              everything from system directories, even configuration files).

   Package flags
       reinst-required
              A package marked reinst-required is broken  and  requires  rein-
              stallation. These packages cannot be removed, unless forced with
              option --force-remove-reinstreq.

ACTIONS
       -i, --install package-file...
              Install the package. If --recursive or -R option  is  specified,
              package-file must refer to a directory instead.

              Installation consists of the following steps:

              1. Extract the control files of the new package.

              2.  If  another version of the same package was installed before
              the new installation, execute prerm script of the old package.

              3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.

              4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back  up  the  old
              files, so that if something goes wrong, they can be restored.

              5.  If  another version of the same package was installed before
              the new installation, execute the postrm script of the old pack-
              age.  Note that this script is executed after the preinst script
              of the new package, because new files are written  at  the  same
              time old files are removed.

              6.  Configure the package. See --configure for detailed informa-
              tion about how this is done.

       --unpack package-file...
              Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or -R
              option  is  specified,  package-file  must  refer to a directory
              instead.

       --configure package...|-a|--pending
              Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet  config-
              ured.   If  -a  or  --pending  is  given instead of package, all
              unpacked but unconfigured packages are configured.

              To reconfigure a package which has already been configured,  try
              the dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead.

              Configuring consists of the following steps:

              1.  Unpack  the  conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
              conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.

              2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.

       --triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
              Processes only triggers. All pending triggers will be processed.
              If package names are supplied only those packages' triggers will
              be processed, exactly once each where  necessary.  Use  of  this
              option  may  leave packages in the improper triggers-awaited and
              triggers-pending states. This can be  fixed  later  by  running:
              dpkg --configure --pending.

       -r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
              Remove  an  installed  package.  This  removes everything except
              conffiles, which may avoid having to reconfigure the package  if
              it  is reinstalled later (conffiles are configuration files that
              are listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles  control  file).   If  -a  or
              --pending  is given instead of a package name, then all packages
              unpacked, but marked to be removed in file /var/lib/dpkg/status,
              are removed.

              Removing of a package consists of the following steps:

              1. Run prerm script

              2. Remove the installed files

              3. Run postrm script


       -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
              Purge  an  installed  or  already  removed package. This removes
              everything, including conffiles.  If -a or  --pending  is  given
              instead  of  a  package  name,  then  all  packages  unpacked or
              removed, but marked to be purged in  file  /var/lib/dpkg/status,
              are purged.

              Note:  some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg because
              they are created and handled separately through  the  configura-
              tion  scripts.  In  that case, dpkg won't remove them by itself,
              but the package's postrm script (which is called by  dpkg),  has
              to take care of their removal during purge. Of course, this only
              applies to files in system directories, not configuration  files
              written to individual users' home directories.

              Purging of a package consists of the following steps:

              1.  Remove the package, if not already removed. See --remove for
              detailed information about how this is done.

              2. Run postrm script.

       -V, --verify [package-name...]
              Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if  omit-
              ted,  by  comparing  information  from  the files installed by a
              package with the files metadata information stored in  the  dpkg
              database.  The  origin  of the files metadata information in the
              database is the binary packages themselves. That  metadata  gets
              collected   at  package  unpack  time  during  the  installation
              process.

              Currently the only functional check performed is an md5sum veri-
              fication against the stored value in the files database. It will
              only get checked if the database contains the  file  md5sum.  To
              check for any missing metadata in the database, the --audit com-
              mand can be used.

              The output format is selectable with the --verify-format option,
              which  by  default uses the rpm format, but that might change in
              the future, and as such, programs parsing  this  command  output
              should be explicit about the format they expect.

       --update-avail, --merge-avail [Packages-file]
              Update  dpkg's  and  dselect's idea of which packages are avail-
              able. With action --merge-avail,  old  information  is  combined
              with information from Packages-file. With action --update-avail,
              old information is replaced with the information  in  the  Pack-
              ages-file.  The  Packages-file distributed with Debian is simply
              named Packages. If the  Packages-file  argument  is  missing  or
              named  -  then  it  will be read from standard input (since dpkg
              1.17.7).  dpkg  keeps  its  record  of  available  packages   in
              /var/lib/dpkg/available.

              A  simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the available
              file is dselect update. Note that this file is mostly useless if
              you don't use dselect but an APT-based frontend: APT has its own
              system to keep track of available packages.

       -A, --record-avail package-file...
              Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages  are  available
              with  information  from the package package-file. If --recursive
              or -R option is specified, package-file must refer to  a  direc-
              tory instead.

       --forget-old-unavail
              Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget unin-
              stalled unavailable packages.

       --clear-avail
              Erase the existing information about what  packages  are  avail-
              able.

       -C, --audit [package-name...]
              Performs database sanity and consistency checks for package-name
              or all packages if omitted.  For example, searches for  packages
              that  have  been installed only partially on your system or that
              have missing, wrong or obsolete control data or files. dpkg will
              suggest what to do with them to get them fixed.

       --get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
              Get  list of package selections, and write it to stdout. Without
              a pattern, non-installed packages (i.e. those  which  have  been
              previously purged) will not be shown.

       --set-selections
              Set  package  selections  using  file read from stdin. This file
              should be in the format 'package state', where state is  one  of
              install, hold, deinstall or purge. Blank lines and comment lines
              beginning with '#' are also permitted.

              The available file needs to be up-to-date for this command to be
              useful,  otherwise unknown packages will be ignored with a warn-
              ing. See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands for  more
              information.

       --clear-selections
              Set  the requested state of every non-essential package to dein-
              stall.   This  is  intended  to  be  used   immediately   before
              --set-selections, to deinstall any packages not in list given to
              --set-selections.

       --yet-to-unpack
              Searches for packages selected for installation, but  which  for
              some reason still haven't been installed.

       --add-architecture architecture
              Add architecture to the list of architectures for which packages
              can be installed without using --force-architecture. The  archi-
              tecture  dpkg is built for (i.e. the output of --print-architec-
              ture) is always part of that list.

       --remove-architecture architecture
              Remove architecture from the list  of  architectures  for  which
              packages can be installed without using --force-architecture. If
              the architecture is currently in use in the  database  then  the
              operation  will  be  refused,  except if --force-architecture is
              specified. The architecture dpkg is built for (i.e.  the  output
              of --print-architecture) can never be removed from that list.

       --print-architecture
              Print  architecture  of  packages  dpkg  installs  (for example,
              "i386").

       --print-foreign-architectures
              Print a newline-separated list of the extra  architectures  dpkg
              is configured to allow packages to be installed for.

       --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
              Compare  version  numbers,  where  op is a binary operator. dpkg
              returns success (zero result) if the specified condition is sat-
              isfied,  and  failure  (nonzero result) otherwise. There are two
              groups of operators, which differ in how  they  treat  an  empty
              ver1  or  ver2. These treat an empty version as earlier than any
              version: lt le eq ne ge gt. These  treat  an  empty  version  as
              later  than any version: lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl. These are pro-
              vided only for compatibility with control file syntax: < << <= =
              >= >> >.

       -?, --help
              Display a brief help message.

       --force-help
              Give help about the --force-thing options.

       -Dh, --debug=help
              Give help about debugging options.

       --version
              Display dpkg version information.

       dpkg-deb actions
              See   dpkg-deb(1)  for  more  information  about  the  following
              actions.

              -b, --build directory [archive|directory]
                  Build a deb package.
              -c, --contents archive
                  List contents of a deb package.
              -e, --control filename [directory]
                  Extract control-information from a package.
              -x, --extract archive directory
                  Extract the files contained by package.
              -X, --vextract archive directory
                  Extract and display the filenames contained by a
                  package.
              -f, --field  archive [control-field...]
                  Display control field(s) of a package.
              --fsys-tarfile archive
                  Display the filesystem tar-file contained by a
                  Debian package.
              -I, --info archive [control-file...]
                  Show information about a package.


       dpkg-query actions
              See dpkg-query(1)  for  more  information  about  the  following
              actions.


              -l, --list package-name-pattern...
                  List packages matching given pattern.
              -s, --status package-name...
                  Report status of specified package.
              -L, --listfiles package-name...
                  List files installed to your system from package-name.
              -S, --search filename-search-pattern...
                  Search for a filename from installed packages.
              -p, --print-avail package-name...
                  Display details about package-name, as found in
                  /var/lib/dpkg/available. Users of APT-based frontends
                  should use apt-cache show package-name instead.

OPTIONS
       All  options  can be specified both on the command line and in the dpkg
       configuration file /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or  fragment  files  (with  names
       matching  this  shell  pattern  '[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*')  on the configuration
       directory /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each line in the configuration file is
       either an option (exactly the same as the command line option but with-
       out leading hyphens) or a comment (if it starts with a #).

       --abort-after=number
              Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is 50.

       -B, --auto-deconfigure
              When a package is removed, there is a possibility  that  another
              installed  package  depended  on the removed package. Specifying
              this option will cause automatic deconfiguration of the  package
              which depended on the removed package.

       -Doctal, --debug=octal
              Switch  debugging  on. octal is formed by bitwise-orring desired
              values together from the list below (note that these values  may
              change  in  future  releases). -Dh or --debug=help display these
              debugging values.

                  Number   Description
                       1   Generally helpful progress information
                       2   Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
                      10   Output for each file processed
                     100   Lots of output for each file processed
                      20   Output for each configuration file
                     200   Lots of output for each configuration file
                      40   Dependencies and conflicts
                     400   Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
                   10000   Trigger activation and processing
                   20000   Lots of output regarding triggers
                   40000   Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
                    1000   Lots of drivel about e.g. the dpkg/info dir
                    2000   Insane amounts of drivel

       --force-things, --no-force-things, --refuse-things

              Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to  do
              some  things.  things is a comma separated list of things speci-
              fied below. --force-help displays  a  message  describing  them.
              Things marked with (*) are forced by default.

              Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by experts
              only. Using them without fully understanding their  effects  may
              break your whole system.

              all: Turns on (or off) all force options.

              downgrade(*):  Install a package, even if newer version of it is
              already installed.

              Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking  on
              downgrades  and  therefore  will  not  warn you if the downgrade
              breaks the dependency of some other package. This can have seri-
              ous  side  effects,  downgrading essential system components can
              even make your whole system unusable. Use with care.

              configure-any: Configure  also  any  unpacked  but  unconfigured
              packages on which the current package depends.

              hold: Process packages even when marked "hold".

              remove-reinstreq:  Remove  a  package,  even  if it's broken and
              marked to require reinstallation. This may, for  example,  cause
              parts of the package to remain on the system, which will then be
              forgotten by dpkg.

              remove-essential: Remove, even  if  the  package  is  considered
              essential.  Essential  packages  contain  mostly very basic Unix
              commands. Removing them might cause the  whole  system  to  stop
              working, so use with caution.

              depends: Turn all dependency problems into warnings.

              depends-version:  Don't care about versions when checking depen-
              dencies.

              breaks: Install, even if this would break another package.

              conflicts: Install, even if it conflicts with  another  package.
              This is dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some
              files.

              confmiss: If a conffile is missing and the version in the  pack-
              age  did  change,  always  install  the missing conffile without
              prompting. This is dangerous, since it means  not  preserving  a
              change (removing) made to the file.

              confnew:  If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
              package did change,  always  install  the  new  version  without
              prompting,  unless  the  --force-confdef  is  also specified, in
              which case the default action is preferred.

              confold: If a conffile has been modified and the version in  the
              package  did change, always keep the old version without prompt-
              ing, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in which case
              the default action is preferred.

              confdef:  If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
              package did change, always choose  the  default  action  without
              prompting. If there is no default action it will stop to ask the
              user unless --force-confnew  or  --force-confold  is  also  been
              given,  in  which  case  it  will  use  that to decide the final
              action.

              confask: If a conffile has been modified always offer to replace
              it  with  the version in the package, even if the version in the
              package  did   not   change.   If   any   of   --force-confmiss,
              --force-confnew,  --force-confold,  or  --force-confdef  is also
              given, it will be used to decide the final action.

              overwrite: Overwrite one package's file with another's file.

              overwrite-dir Overwrite one package's directory  with  another's
              file.

              overwrite-diverted: Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted
              version.

              unsafe-io: Do not perform safe I/O  operations  when  unpacking.
              Currently  this  implies not performing file system syncs before
              file renames, which is known to  cause  substantial  performance
              degradation  on  some  file systems, unfortunately the ones that
              require the safe I/O on the first place due to their  unreliable
              behaviour causing zero-length files on abrupt system crashes.

              Note:  For  ext4,  the main offender, consider using instead the
              mount option nodelalloc, which will  fix  both  the  performance
              degradation and the data safety issues, the latter by making the
              file system not  produce  zero-length  files  on  abrupt  system
              crashes with any software not doing syncs before atomic renames.

              Warning: Using this option might improve performance at the cost
              of losing data, use with care.

              architecture: Process even packages with wrong or  no  architec-
              ture.

              bad-version: Process even packages with wrong versions.

              bad-path:  PATH  is  missing important programs, so problems are
              likely.

              not-root: Try to (de)install things even when not root.

              bad-verify: Install a package  even  if  it  fails  authenticity
              check.


       --ignore-depends=package,...
              Ignore  dependency-checking  for  specified  packages (actually,
              checking is performed, but only  warnings  about  conflicts  are
              given, nothing else).

       --no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
              Do  everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write any
              changes. This is used to see what would happen with  the  speci-
              fied action, without actually modifying anything.

              Be  sure  to  give  --no-act before the action-parameter, or you
              might end up with undesirable results. (e.g.  dpkg  --purge  foo
              --no-act  will  first  purge  package  foo and then try to purge
              package --no-act, even though you probably expected it to  actu-
              ally do nothing)

       -R, --recursive
              Recursively  handle  all  regular  files  matching pattern *.deb
              found at specified directories and all  of  its  subdirectories.
              This  can  be  used with -i, -A, --install, --unpack and --avail
              actions.

       -G     Don't install a package if a newer version of the  same  package
              is already installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.

       --admindir=dir
              Change  default  administrative  directory,  which contains many
              files that give information about status of installed  or  unin-
              stalled packages, etc.  (Defaults to /var/lib/dpkg)

       --instdir=dir
              Change default installation directory which refers to the direc-
              tory where packages are to be installed.  instdir  is  also  the
              directory passed to chroot(2) before running package's installa-
              tion scripts, which means that the scripts see instdir as a root
              directory.  (Defaults to /)

       --root=dir
              Changing   root   changes   instdir   to  dir  and  admindir  to
              dir/var/lib/dpkg.

       -O, --selected-only
              Only process the packages that are  selected  for  installation.
              The actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it han-
              dles packages. For example, when a package is removed,  it  will
              be marked selected for deinstallation.

       -E, --skip-same-version
              Don't  install the package if the same version of the package is
              already installed.

       --pre-invoke=command
       --post-invoke=command
              Set an invoke hook command to be run via "sh -c" before or after
              the  dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install, triggers-only,
              remove, purge,  add-architecture  and  remove-architecture  dpkg
              actions.  This option can be specified multiple times. The order
              the options are specified is preserved, with the ones  from  the
              configuration files taking precedence.  The environment variable
              DPKG_HOOK_ACTION is set  for  the  hooks  to  the  current  dpkg
              action. Note: front-ends might call dpkg several times per invo-
              cation, which might run the hooks more times than expected.

       --path-exclude=glob-pattern
       --path-include=glob-pattern
              Set glob-pattern as a path filter, either by  excluding  or  re-
              including  previously excluded paths matching the specified pat-
              terns during install.

              Warning: take into account that depending on the excluded  paths
              you might completely break your system, use with caution.

              The glob patterns use the same wildcards used in the shell, were
              '*' matches any sequence  of  characters,  including  the  empty
              string   and  also  '/'.  For  example,  '/usr/*/READ*'  matches
              '/usr/share/doc/package/README'.  As usual, '?' matches any sin-
              gle character (again, including '/'). And '[' starts a character
              class, which can contain a list of characters, ranges  and  com-
              plementations.  See glob(7) for detailed information about glob-
              bing. Note: the current  implementation  might  re-include  more
              directories and symlinks than needed, to be on the safe side and
              avoid possible unpack failures, future work might fix this.

              This can be used to remove  all  paths  except  some  particular
              ones; a typical case is:

              --path-exclude=/usr/share/doc/*
              --path-include=/usr/share/doc/*/copyright

              to remove all documentation files except the copyright files.

              These  two  options  can be specified multiple times, and inter-
              leaved with each other. Both are processed in the  given  order,
              with the last rule that matches a file name making the decision.

       --verify-format format-name
              Sets the output format for the --verify command.

              The  only  currently  supported output format is rpm, which con-
              sists of a line for every path that failed any check. The  lines
              start  with 9 characters to report each specific check result, a
              '?' implies the check could not be done (lack of  support,  file
              permissions,  etc),  '.'   implies  the  check  passed,  and  an
              alphanumeric character implies  a  specific  check  failed;  the
              md5sum  verification  is denoted with a '5' on the third charac-
              ter. The line is followed by a space and an attribute  character
              (currently 'c' for conffiles), another space and the pathname.

       --status-fd n
              Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
              file descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple  times.
              The  information is generally one record per line, in one of the
              following forms:

              status: package: status
                     Package status changed; status is as in the status file.

              status: package : error : extended-error-message
                     An error occurred. Any  possible  newlines  in  extended-
                     error-message will be converted to spaces before output.

              status:  file  : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new' usered-
              ited distedited
                     User is being asked a conffile question.

              processing: stage: package
                     Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is  one
                     of upgrade, install (both sent before unpacking), config-
                     ure, trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.

       --status-logger=command
              Send machine-readable package status and progress information to
              the shell command's standard input. This option can be specified
              multiple times. The output format used is the same as in  --sta-
              tus-fd.

       --log=filename
              Log  status  change  updates and actions to filename, instead of
              the default /var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is given  multiple
              times,  the  last filename is used. Log messages are of the form
              `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status  state  pkg  installed-version'  for
              status   change   updates;   `YYYY-MM-DD   HH:MM:SS  action  pkg
              installed-version available-version' for actions where action is
              one of install, upgrade, remove, purge; and `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
              conffile filename decision' for conffile changes where  decision
              is either install or keep.

       --no-debsig
              Do not try to verify package signatures.

       --no-triggers
              Do  not  run any triggers in this run (activations will still be
              recorded).  If used with --configure package or  --triggers-only
              package  then  the named package postinst will still be run even
              if only a triggers run is needed. Use of this option  may  leave
              packages  in  the improper triggers-awaited and triggers-pending
              states. This can be fixed later  by  running:  dpkg  --configure
              --pending.

       --triggers
              Cancels a previous --no-triggers.

ENVIRONMENT
       HOME   If set, dpkg will use it as the directory from which to read the
              user specific configuration file.

       TMPDIR If set, dpkg will use it as the directory  in  which  to  create
              temporary files and directories.

       PAGER  The program dpkg will execute when displaying the conffiles.

       SHELL  The program dpkg will execute when starting a new shell.

       COLUMNS
              Sets  the number of columns dpkg should use when displaying for-
              matted text. Currently only used by -l.

       DPKG_SHELL_REASON
              Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile  prompt  to
              examine the situation. Current valid value: conffile-prompt.

       DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
              Defined  by  dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
              examine the situation. Contains the path to the old conffile.

       DPKG_CONFFILE_NEW
              Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile  prompt  to
              examine the situation. Contains the path to the new conffile.

       DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
              Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the ver-
              sion of the currently running dpkg instance.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
              Defined by dpkg on the  maintainer  script  environment  to  the
              (non-arch-qualified) package name being handled.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE_REFCOUNT
              Defined  by  dpkg  on  the  maintainer script environment to the
              package reference count, i.e. the number  of  package  instances
              with a state greater than not-installed. Since dpkg 1.17.2.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
              Defined  by  dpkg  on  the  maintainer script environment to the
              architecture the package got built for.

       DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
              Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the name
              of the script running (preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm).

FILES
       /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
              Configuration fragment files.

       /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
              Configuration file with default options.

       /var/log/dpkg.log
              Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg(5) and option --log).

       The  other  files  listed  below  are in their default directories, see
       option --admindir to see how to change locations of these files.

       /var/lib/dpkg/available
              List of available packages.

       /var/lib/dpkg/status
              Statuses of available packages. This file  contains  information
              about  whether  a package is marked for removing or not, whether
              it is installed or not, etc. See section INFORMATION ABOUT PACK-
              AGES for more info.

              The  status  file  is backed up daily in /var/backups. It can be
              useful if it's lost or corrupted due to filesystems troubles.

       The following files are components of a binary package. See deb(5)  for
       more information about them:
              control
              conffiles
              preinst
              postinst
              prerm
              postrm
              triggers

BUGS
       --no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.

EXAMPLES
       To  list  installed  packages  related  to  the editor vi(1) (note that
       dpkg-query does not load the available file anymore by default, and the
       dpkg-query --load-avail option should be used instead for that):
            dpkg -l '*vi*'

       To see the entries in /var/lib/dpkg/available of two packages:
            dpkg --print-avail elvis vim | less

       To search the listing of packages yourself:
            less /var/lib/dpkg/available

       To remove an installed elvis package:
            dpkg -r elvis

       To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or CDROM.
       The available file shows that the vim package is in section "editors":
            cd /media/cdrom/pool/main/v/vim
            dpkg -i vim_4.5-3.deb

       To make a local copy of the package selection states:
            dpkg --get-selections >myselections

       You might transfer this file to  another  computer,  and  after  having
       updated  the available file there with your package manager frontend of
       choice (see https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ for  more  details),
       for example:
            apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-avail
       or with dpkg 1.17.6 and earlier:
            avail=`mktemp`
            apt-cache dumpavail >"$avail"
            dpkg --merge-avail "$avail"
            rm "$avail"
       you can install it with:
            dpkg --clear-selections
            dpkg --set-selections <myselections

       Note  that  this will not actually install or remove anything, but just
       set the selection state on the requested packages. You will  need  some
       other  application to actually download and install the requested pack-
       ages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.

       Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides  a  more  convenient
       way to modify the package selection states.

ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY
       Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the follow-
       ing packages: apt, aptitude and debsums.

SEE ALSO
       aptitude(1), apt(1), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1), deb(5),
       deb-control(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).

AUTHORS
       See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who have
       contributed to dpkg.



Debian Project                    2014-08-16                           dpkg(1)
