dpkg-deb
Section: dpkg suite (1)
Updated: 2011-08-14
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NAME
dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-deb
[
option...]
command
DESCRIPTION
dpkg-deb
packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.
Use
dpkg
to install and remove packages from your system.
You can also invoke
dpkg-deb
by calling
dpkg
with whatever options you want to pass to
dpkg-deb. dpkg
will spot that you wanted
dpkg-deb
and run it for you.
COMMANDS
- -b, --build directory [archive|directory]
-
Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in
directory. directory
must have a
DEBIAN
subdirectory, which contains the control information files such
as the control file itself. This directory will
not
appear in the binary package's filesystem archive, but instead
the files in it will be put in the binary package's control
information area.
Unless you specify
--nocheck, dpkg-deb
will read
DEBIAN/control
and parse it. It will check it for syntax errors and other problems,
and display the name of the binary package being built.
dpkg-deb
will also check the permissions of the maintainer scripts and other
files found in the
DEBIAN
control information directory.
If no
archive
is specified then
dpkg-deb
will write the package into the file
directory.deb.
If the archive to be created already exists it will be overwritten.
If the second argument is a directory then
dpkg-deb
will write to the file
package_version_arch.deb,
or
package_version.deb
if no
Architecture
field is present in the package control file. When a target directory
is specified, rather than a file, the
--nocheck
option may not be used (since
dpkg-deb
needs to read and parse the package control file to determine which
filename to use).
- -I, --info archive [control-file-name...]
-
Provides information about a binary package archive.
If no
control-file-names
are specified then it will print a summary of the contents of the
package as well as its control file.
If any
control-file-names
are specified then
dpkg-deb
will print them in the order they were specified; if any of the
components weren't present it will print an error message to stderr
about each one and exit with status 2.
- -W, --show archive
-
Provides information about a binary package archive in the format
specified by the
--showformat
argument. The default format displays the package's name and version
on one line, separated by a tabulator.
- -f, --field archive [control-field-name...]
-
Extracts control file information from a binary package archive.
If no
control-file-fields
are specified then it will print the whole control file.
If any are specified then
dpkg-deb
will print their contents, in the order in which they appear in the
control file. If more than one
control-file-field
is specified then
dpkg-deb
will precede each with its field name (and a colon and space).
No errors are reported for fields requested but not found.
- -c, --contents archive
-
Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of the
package archive. It is currently produced in the format generated by
tar's
verbose listing.
- -x, --extract archive directory
-
Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the specified
directory.
Note that extracting a package to the root directory will
not
result in a correct installation! Use
dpkg
to install packages.
directory
(but not its parents) will be created if necessary, and its permissions
modified to match the contents of the package.
- -X, --vextract archive directory
-
Is like
--extract (-x)
with
--verbose (-v)
which prints a listing of the files extracted as it goes.
- -R, --raw-extract archive directory
-
Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into a specified
directory, and the control information files into a DEBIAN subdirectory
of the specified directory.
The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if necessary.
- --fsys-tarfile archive
-
Extracts the filesystem tree data from a binary package and sends it
to standard output in
tar
format. Together with
tar(1)
this can be used to extract a particular file from a package archive.
The input archive will always be processed sequentially.
- -e, --control archive [directory]
-
Extracts the control information files from a package archive into the
specified directory.
If no directory is specified then a subdirectory
DEBIAN
in the current directory is used.
The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if
necessary.
- -h, --help
-
Show the usage message and exit.
- --version
-
Show the version and exit.
OPTIONS
- --showformat=format
-
This option is used to specify the format of the output --show
will produce. The format is a string that will be output for each package
listed.
The string may reference any status field using the
"${field-name}" form, a list of the valid fields can be easily
produced using
-I
on the same package. A complete explanation of the formatting options
(including escape sequences and field tabbing) can be found in the
explanation of the --showformat option in
dpkg-query(1).
The default for this field is "${Package}\t${Version}\n".
- -zcompress-level
-
Specify which compression level to use on the compressor backend, when
building a package (default is 9 for gzip and bzip2, 6 for xz and lzma).
- -Zcompress-type
-
Specify which compression type to use when building a package. Allowed
values are gzip, xz, bzip2, lzma, and none
(default is gzip).
- --new
-
Ensures that
dpkg-deb
builds a `new' format archive. This is the default.
- --old
-
Forces
dpkg-deb
to build an `old' format archive. This old archive format is less
easily parsed by non-Debian tools and is now obsolete; its only use is
when building packages to be parsed by versions of dpkg older than
0.93.76 (September 1995), which was released as i386 a.out only.
- --nocheck
-
Inhibits
dpkg-deb --build's
usual checks on the proposed contents of an archive. You can build
any archive you want, no matter how broken, this way.
- -v, --verbose
-
Enables verbose output. This currently only affects --extract making
it behave like --vextract.
- -D, --debug
-
Enables debugging output. This is not very interesting.
ENVIRONMENT
- TMPDIR
-
If set, dpkg-deb will use it as the directory in which to create
temporary files and directories.
BUGS
dpkg-deb -I
package1.deb
package2.deb
does the wrong thing.
There is no authentication on
.deb
files; in fact, there isn't even a straightforward checksum.
(Higher level tools like APT support authenticating .deb packages
retrieved from a given repository, and most packages nowadays provide an
md5sum control file generated by debian/rules. Though this is not directly
supported by the lower level tools.)
Do not attempt to use just
dpkg-deb
to install software! You must use
dpkg
proper to ensure that all the files are correctly placed and the
package's scripts run and its status and contents recorded.
SEE ALSO
deb(5),
deb-control(5),
dpkg(1),
dselect(1).
AUTHOR
Copyright © 1995-1996 Ian Jackson
This is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or
later for copying conditions. There is NO WARRANTY.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- COMMANDS
-
- OPTIONS
-
- ENVIRONMENT
-
- BUGS
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- AUTHOR
-
© Andrew Scott 2006 -
2024,
All Rights Reserved