DEBSUMS(1) General Commands Manual DEBSUMS(1)
NAME
debsums - check the MD5 sums of installed Debian packages
SYNOPSIS
debsums [options] [package|deb] ...
DESCRIPTION
Verify installed Debian package files against MD5 checksum lists from
/var/lib/dpkg/info/*.md5sums.
debsums can generate checksum lists from deb archives for packages that
don't include one.
OPTIONS
-a, --all
Also check configuration files (normally excluded).
-e, --config
Only check configuration files.
-c, --changed
Report changed file list to stdout (implies -s).
-l, --list-missing
List packages (or debs) which don't have an MD5 sums file.
-s, --silent
Only report errors.
-m, --md5sums=file
Read list of deb checksums from file.
-r, --root=dir
Root directory to check (default /).
-d, --admindir=dir
dpkg admin directory (default /var/lib/dpkg).
-p, --deb-path=dir[:dir...]
Directories in which to look for debs derived from the package
name (default is the current directory).
A useful value is /var/cache/apt/archives when using apt-get au-
toclean or not clearing the cache at all. The command:
apt-get --reinstall -d install `debsums -l`
may be used to populate the cache with any debs not already in
the cache.
Note: This doesn't work for CD-ROM and other local sources as
packages are not copied to /var/cache. Simple file sources (all
debs in a single directory) should be added to the -p list.
-g, --generate=[missing|all][,nocheck]
Generate MD5 sums from deb contents. If the argument is a pack-
age name rather than a deb archive, the program will look for a
deb named package_version_arch.deb in the directories given by
the -p option.
missing
Generate MD5 sums from the deb for packages which don't
provide one.
all Ignore the on disk sums and use the one supplied in the
deb, or generated from it if none exists.
nocheck
The extracted/generated sums are not checked against the
installed package.
For backward compatibility, the short option -g is equivalent to
--generate=missing.
--no-locale-purge
Report missing locale files even if localepurge is configured.
--no-prelink
Report changed ELF files even if prelink is configured.
--ignore-permissions
Treat permission errors as warnings when running as non-root.
--ignore-obsolete
Ignore obsolete conffiles.
--help
--version
Print help and version information.
EXIT STATUS
debsums returns 0 on success, or a combination* of the following values
on error:
1 A specified package or archive name was not installed, invalid or
the installed version did not match the given archive.
2 Changed or missing package files, or checksum mismatch on an
archive.
255 Invalid option.
*If both of the first two conditions are true, the exit status will be
3.
EXAMPLES
debsums foo bar
Check the sums for installed packages foo and bar.
debsums foo.deb bar.deb
As above, using checksums from (or generated from) the archives.
debsums -l
List installed packages with no checksums.
debsums -ca
List changed package files from all installed packages with
checksums.
debsums -ce
List changed configuration files.
debsums -cagp /var/cache/apt/archives
As above, using sums from cached debs where available.
apt-get install --reinstall $(dpkg -S $(debsums -c) | cut -d : -f 1 |
sort -u)
Reinstalls packages with changed files.
RESULTS
OK The file's MD5 sum is good.
FAILED The file's MD5 sum does not match.
REPLACED
The file has been replaced by a file from a different package.
SEE ALSO
md5sum(1),
ENVIRONMENT
TMPDIR Directory for extracting information and contents from package
archives (/tmp by default).
CAVEATS
While in general the program may be run as a normal user, some packages
contain files which are not globally readable so cannot be checked.
Privileges are of course also required when generating sums with the
keep option set.
Files which have been replaced by another package may be erroneously re-
ported as changed.
debsums is intended primarily as a way of determining what installed
files have been locally modified by the administrator or damaged by me-
dia errors and is of limited use as a security tool.
If you are looking for an integrity checker that can run from safe me-
dia, do integrity checks on checksum databases and can be easily config-
ured to run periodically to warn the admin of changes see other tools
such as: aide, integrit, samhain, or tripwire.
AUTHOR
Written by Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>.
Based on a program by Christoph Lameter <clameter@debian.org> and Petr
Cech <cech@debian.org>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2002 Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>
This is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Pub-
lic License. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
User Commands Debian DEBSUMS(1)
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