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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 unpacked and configured OK.

   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, -P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
	      Remove  an  installed  package. -r or --remove remove everything
	      except conffiles. This may avoid having to reconfigure the pack‐
	      age  if  it  is  reinstalled later. (Conffiles are configuration
	      files that are listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles control file).  -P
	      or  --purge  removes  everything,	 including conffiles. If -a or
	      --pending is given instead of a package name, then all  packages
	      unpacked,	  but	marked	 to  be	 removed  or  purged  in  file
	      /var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed or purged, respectively. Note:
	      some  configuration  files might be unknown to dpkg because they
	      are created and handled  separately  through  the	 configuration
	      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.

	      Removing of a package consists of the following steps:

	      1. Run prerm script

	      2. Remove the installed files

	      3. Run postrm script

       -V, --verify [package-name...]
	      Verifies	the integrity of package-name or all packages if omit‐
	      ted, by comparing information from the installed paths with  the
	      database metadata.

	      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.	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
	      Searches for packages that have been installed only partially on
	      your  system. dpkg will suggest what to do with them to get them
	      working.

       --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 and purge dpkg actions. This option can be specified mul‐
	      tiple 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 invocation, 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 the specific check results,  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 only
	      functional check is an md5sum verification denoted with a '5' on
	      the  third  character.  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:
	    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			  2013-07-28			       dpkg(1)
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