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 medium-level tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian
packages. The primary and more user-friendly front-end for dpkg as a
CLI (command-line interface) is apt(8) and as a TUI (terminal user
interface) is aptitude(8). 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
section. 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 or the postrm script and the data it
needs to remove of the package exist on the system.
half-installed
The installation of the package has been started, but not completed
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 kept on the same version, that is,
no automatic new installs, upgrades or removals will be performed on
them, unless these actions are requested explicitly, or are
permitted to be done automatically with the --force-hold option.
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).
unknown
The package selection is unknown. A package that is also in a not-
installed state, and with an ok flag will be forgotten in the next
database store.
Package flags
ok A package marked ok is in a known state, but might need further
processing.
reinstreq
A package marked reinstreq is broken and requires reinstallation.
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 package.
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 information
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.
Will process triggers for Pre-Depends unless --no-triggers has been
specified.
--configure package...|-a|--pending
Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet configured.
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 (which is part of the debconf
project).
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.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
--triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
Processes only triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17). 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 and other data cleaned up by the postrm script, 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 there is no DEBIAN/conffiles
control file nor DEBIAN/postrm script, this command is equivalent to
calling --purge. 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.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
-P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes
everything, including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up from
postrm. 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 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.
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.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
-V, --verify [package-name...]
Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if omitted,
by comparing information from the files installed by a package with
the files metadata information stored in the dpkg database (since
dpkg 1.17.2). 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
verification of the file contents 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 command can be used. This is only an integrity check
and should not be considered as any kind of security verification.
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.
-C, --audit [package-name...]
Performs database sanity and consistency checks for package-name or
all packages if omitted (per package checks since dpkg 1.17.10).
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.
--update-avail [Packages-file]
--merge-avail [Packages-file]
Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are available.
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 Packages-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 directory instead.
--forget-old-unavail
Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget
uninstalled unavailable packages (since dpkg 1.15.4), but only those
that do not contain user information such as package selections.
--clear-avail
Erase the existing information about what packages are available.
--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 warning.
See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands for more
information.
--clear-selections
Set the requested state of every non-essential package to deinstall
(since dpkg 1.13.18). 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.
Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
package selections.
--predep-package
Print a single package which is the target of one or more relevant
pre-dependencies and has itself no unsatisfied pre-dependencies.
If such a package is present, output it as a Packages file entry,
which can be massaged as appropriate.
Note: This command makes use of both the available file and the
package selections.
Returns 0 when a package is printed, 1 when no suitable package is
available and 2 on error.
--add-architecture architecture
Add architecture to the list of architectures for which packages can
be installed without using --force-architecture (since dpkg 1.16.2).
The architecture dpkg is built for (i.e. the output of
--print-architecture) 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 (since
dpkg 1.16.2). 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 (since dpkg
1.16.2).
--assert-help
Give help about the --assert-feature options (since dpkg 1.21.0).
--assert-feature
Asserts that dpkg supports the requested feature. Returns 0 if the
feature is fully supported, 1 if the feature is known but dpkg
cannot provide support for it yet, and 2 if the feature is unknown.
The current list of assertable features is:
support-predepends
Supports the Pre-Depends field (since dpkg 1.1.0).
working-epoch
Supports epochs in version strings (since dpkg 1.4.0.7).
long-filenames
Supports long filenames in deb(5) archives (since dpkg
1.4.1.17).
multi-conrep
Supports multiple Conflicts and Replaces (since dpkg 1.4.1.19).
multi-arch
Supports multi-arch fields and semantics (since dpkg 1.16.2).
versioned-provides
Supports versioned Provides (since dpkg 1.17.11).
protected-field
Supports the Protected field (since dpkg 1.20.1).
--validate-thing string
Validate that the thing string has a correct syntax (since dpkg
1.18.16). Returns 0 if the string is valid, 1 if the string is
invalid but might be accepted in lax contexts, and 2 if the string
is invalid. The current list of validatable things is:
pkgname
Validates the given package name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
trigname
Validates the given trigger name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
archname
Validates the given architecture name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
version
Validates the given version (since dpkg 1.18.16).
--compare-versions ver1 op ver2
Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg
returns true (0) if the specified condition is satisfied, and false
(1) 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 provided only for compatibility with control file syntax:
< << <= = >= >> >. The < and > operators are obsolete and should
not be used, due to confusing semantics. To illustrate: 0.1 < 0.1
evaluates to true.
-?, --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.
When used with --robot, the output will be the program version
number in a dotted numerical format, with no newline.
dpkg-deb actions
See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following actions,
and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
-b, --build directory [archive|directory]
Build a deb package.
-c, --contents archive
List contents of a deb package.
-e, --control archive [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.
--ctrl-tarfile archive
Output the control tar-file contained in a Debian package.
--fsys-tarfile archive
Output 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,
and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg front-end.
-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 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
without 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-ORing 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 for example 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 specified 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 serious 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:
Allow automatic installs, upgrades or removals of packages even
when marked to be on “hold”. Note: When these actions are
requested explicitly, the “hold” package selection state always
gets ignored.
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-protected:
Remove, even if the package is considered protected (since dpkg
1.20.1). Protected packages contain mostly important system boot
infrastructure or are used for custom system-local meta-packages.
Removing them might cause the whole system to be unable to boot or
lose required functionality to operate, so use with caution.
remove-essential:
Remove, even if the package is considered essential. Essential
packages contain mostly very basic Unix commands, required for the
packaging system, for the operation of the system in general or
during boot (although the latter should be converted to protected
packages instead). Removing them might cause the whole system to
stop working, so use with caution.
depends:
Turn all dependency problems into warnings. This affects the Pre-
Depends and Depends fields.
depends-version:
Don't care about versions when checking dependencies. This
affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
breaks:
Install, even if this would break another package (since dpkg
1.14.6). This affects the Breaks field.
conflicts:
Install, even if it conflicts with another package. This is
dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some files.
This affects the Conflicts field.
confmiss:
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 prompting, 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 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 (since dpkg 1.15.8). If any of --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.
statoverride-add:
Overwrite an existing stat override when adding it (since dpkg
1.19.5).
statoverride-remove:
Ignore a missing stat override when removing it (since dpkg
1.19.5).
security-mac(*):
Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) based
security when installing files into the filesystem (since dpkg
1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation uses SELinux.
unsafe-io:
Do not perform safe I/O operations when unpacking (since dpkg
1.15.8.6). 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.
script-chrootless:
Run maintainer scripts without chroot(2)ing into instdir even if
the package does not support this mode of operation (since dpkg
1.18.5).
Warning: This can destroy your host system, use with extreme care.
architecture:
Process even packages with wrong or no architecture.
bad-version:
Process even packages with wrong versions (since dpkg 1.16.1).
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). This affects the Pre-Depends, Depends and Breaks
fields.
--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 specified
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 actually 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 --record-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
Set the administrative directory to directory. This directory
contains many files that give information about status of installed
or uninstalled packages, etc. Defaults to «/var/lib/dpkg» if
DPKG_ADMINDIR has not been set.
--instdir=dir
Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory where
packages are to be installed. instdir is also the directory passed
to chroot(2) before running package's installation scripts, which
means that the scripts see instdir as a root directory. Defaults to
«/».
--root=dir
Set the root directory to directory, which sets the installation
directory to «dir» and the administrative directory 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 handles
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 and architecture of
the package is already installed.
Since dpkg 1.21.10, the architecture is also taken into account,
which makes it possible to cross-grade packages or install
additional co-installable instances with the same version, but
different architecture.
--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 actions (since dpkg 1.15.4), and add-architecture and
remove-architecture actions (since dpkg 1.17.19). 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.
The invoke hooks are not executed when --no-act is specified, or
when running as non-root without --force-not-root.
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 patterns
during install (since dpkg 1.15.8).
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 single
character (again, including ‘/’). And ‘[’ starts a character class,
which can contain a list of characters, ranges and complementations.
See glob(7) for detailed information about globbing. Note: The
current implementation might re-include more directories and
symlinks than needed, in particular when there is a more specific
re-inclusion, 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 interleaved
with each other. Both are processed in the given order, with the
last rule that matches a file name making the decision.
The filters are applied when unpacking the binary packages, and as
such only have knowledge of the type of object currently being
filtered (e.g. a normal file or a directory) and have not visibility
of what objects will come next. Because these filters have side
effects (in contrast to find(1) filters), excluding an exact
pathname that happens to be a directory object like /usr/share/doc
will not have the desired result, and only that pathname will be
excluded (which could be automatically reincluded if the code sees
the need). Any subsequent files contained within that directory
will fail to unpack.
Hint: make sure the globs are not expanded by your shell.
--verify-format format-name
Sets the output format for the --verify command (since dpkg 1.17.2).
The only currently supported output format is rpm, which consists of
a line for every path that failed any check. These lines have the
following format:
missing [c] pathname [(error-message)]
?M5?????? [c] pathname
The first 9 characters are used to report the checks result, either
a literal missing when the file is not present or its metadata
cannot be fetched, or one of the following special characters that
report the result for each check:
‘?’ Implies the check could not be done (lack of support, file
permissions, etc).
‘.’ Implies the check passed.
‘A-Za-z0-9’
Implies a specific check failed. The following positions and
alphanumeric characters are currently supported:
1 ‘?’
These checks are currently not supported, will always be
‘?’.
2 ‘M’
The file mode check failed (since dpkg 1.21.0). Because
pathname metadata is currently not tracked, this check can
only be partially emulated via a very simple heuristic for
pathnames that have a known digest, which implies they
should be regular files, where the check will fail if the
pathname is not a regular file on the filesystem. This
check will currently never succeed as it does not have
enough information available.
3 ‘5’
The digest check failed, which means the file contents have
changed. This is only an integrity check and should not be
considered as any kind of security verification.
4-9 ‘?’
These checks are currently not supported, will always be
‘?’.
The line is followed by a space and an attribute character. The
following attribute character is supported:
‘c’ The pathname is a conffile.
Finally followed by another space and the pathname.
In case the entry was of the missing type, and the file was not
actually present on the filesystem, then the line is followed by a
space and the error message enclosed within parenthesis.
--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' useredited
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), configure,
trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.
--status-logger=command
Send machine-readable package status and progress information to the
shell command's standard input, to be run via “sh -c” (since dpkg
1.16.0). This option can be specified multiple times. The output
format used is the same as in --status-fd.
The status loggers are not executed when --no-act is specified, or
when running as non-root without --force-not-root.
--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 startup type command
For each dpkg invocation where type is archives (with a command
of unpack or install) or packages (with a command of configure,
triggers-only, remove or purge).
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, configure,
trigproc, disappear, remove or purge.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS conffile filename decision
For conffile changes where decision is either install or keep.
--robot
Use a machine-readable output format. This provides an interface
for programs that need to parse the output of some of the commands
that do not otherwise emit a machine-readable output format. No
localization will be used, and the output will be modified to make
it easier to parse.
The only currently supported command is --version.
--no-pager
Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since dpkg
1.19.2).
--no-debsig
Do not try to verify package signatures.
--no-triggers
Do not run any triggers in this run (since dpkg 1.14.17), but
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 (since dpkg 1.14.17).
EXIT STATUS
0 The requested action was successfully performed. Or a check or
assertion command returned true.
1 A check or assertion command returned false.
2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or
interactions with the system, such as accesses to the database,
memory allocations, etc.
ENVIRONMENT
External environment
PATH
This variable is expected to be defined in the environment and point
to the system paths where several required programs are to be found.
If it's not set or the programs are not found, dpkg will abort.
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.
SHELL
The program dpkg will execute when starting a new interactive shell,
or when spawning a command via a shell.
PAGER
DPKG_PAGER
The program dpkg will execute when running a pager, which will be
executed with «$SHELL -c», for example when displaying the conffile
differences. If SHELL is not set, «sh» will be used instead.
The DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER environment variable (since dpkg
1.19.2). If none of the programs pointed by DPKG_PAGER or PAGER are
present, the following programs will be tried in order (since dpkg
1.22.12): the default pager pager, then less, more, and finally cat.
DPKG_COLORS
Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
values are: auto (default), always and never.
DPKG_NLS
If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n)
support (since dpkg 1.22.7). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
(default).
DPKG_DEBUG
Sets the debug mask (since dpkg 1.21.10) from an octal value. The
currently accepted flags are described in the --debug option.
DPKG_FORCE
Sets the force flags (since dpkg 1.19.5). When this variable is
present, no built-in force defaults will be applied. If the
variable is present but empty, all force flags will be disabled.
DPKG_ADMINDIR
If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been specified,
it will be used as the dpkg administrative directory (since dpkg
1.20.0).
DPKG_FRONTEND_LOCKED
Set by a package manager frontend to notify dpkg that it should not
acquire the frontend lock (since dpkg 1.19.1).
DPKG_PATH_PASSWD
Sets the pathname for the system passwd file. This path is relative
to the --root directory. The default is /etc/passwd.
Since dpkg 1.22.16.
DPKG_PATH_GROUP
Sets the pathname for the system group file. This path is relative
to the --root directory. The default is /etc/group.
Since dpkg 1.22.16.
Internal environment
LESS
Defined by dpkg to “-FRSXMQ”, if not already set, when spawning a
pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default behavior, this
variable can be preset to some other value including an empty
string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER variables can be set to disable
specific options with «-+», for example DPKG_PAGER="less -+F".
DPKG_ROOT
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate
which installation to act on (since dpkg 1.18.5). The value is
intended to be prepended to any path maintainer scripts operate on.
During normal operation, this variable is empty. When installing
packages into a different instdir, dpkg normally invokes maintainer
scripts using chroot(2) and leaves this variable empty, but if
--force-script-chrootless is specified then the chroot(2) call is
skipped and instdir is non-empty.
DPKG_ADMINDIR
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to indicate the
dpkg administrative directory to use (since dpkg 1.16.0). This
variable is always set to the current --admindir value.
DPKG_FORCE
Defined by dpkg on the subprocesses environment to all the currently
enabled force option names separated by commas (since dpkg 1.19.5).
DPKG_SHELL_REASON
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Current valid value:
conffile-prompt.
DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). 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 (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path to the
new conffile.
DPKG_HOOK_ACTION
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned when executing a hook action
(since dpkg 1.15.4). Contains the current dpkg action.
DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the version
of the currently running dpkg instance (since dpkg 1.14.17).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the (non-
arch-qualified) package name being handled (since dpkg 1.14.17).
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 (since dpkg 1.15.4).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the name of
the script running, one of preinst, postinst, prerm or postrm (since
dpkg 1.15.7).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to a value (‘0’
or ‘1’) noting whether debugging has been requested (with the
--debug option) for the maintainer scripts (since dpkg 1.18.4).
FILES
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
Configuration fragment files (since dpkg 1.15.4).
/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
Configuration file with default options.
/var/log/dpkg.log
Default log file (see /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg 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 PACKAGES" 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 format and contents of a binary package are described in deb(5).
Filesystem filenames
During unpacking and configuration dpkg uses various filenames for
backup and rollback purposes. The following is a simplified explanation
of how these filenames get used during package installation.
*.dpkg-new
During unpack, dpkg extracts new filesystem objects into
pathname.dpkg-new (except for existing directories or symlinks to
directories which get skipped), once that is done and after having
performed backups of the old objects, the objects get renamed to
pathname.
*.dpkg-tmp
During unpack, dpkg makes backups of the old filesystem objects into
pathname.dpkg-tmp after extracting the new objects. These backups
are performed as either a rename for directories (but only if they
switch file type), a new symlink copy for symlinks, or a hard link
for any other filesystem object, except for conffiles which get no
backups because they are processed at a later stage.
In case of needing to rollback, these backups get used to restore
the previous contents of the objects. These get removed
automatically after the installation is complete.
*.dpkg-old
During configuration, when installing a new version, dpkg can make a
backup of the previous modified conffile into pathname.dpkg-old.
*.dpkg-dist
During configuration, when keeping the old version, dpkg can make a
backup of the new unmodified conffile into pathname.dpkg-dist.
SECURITY
Any operation that needs write access to the database or the filesystem
is considered a privileged operation that might allow root escalation.
These operations must never be delegated to an untrusted user or be done
on untrusted packages, as that might allow root access to the system.
Some operations (such as package verification) might need root
privileges to be able to access files on the filesystem that would
otherwise be inaccessible due to restricted permissions, but should
otherwise work normally and produce appropriate messages in those cases.
Query operations should never require root, and delegating their
execution to unprivileged users via some gain-root command can have
security implications (such as privilege escalation), for example when a
pager is automatically invoked by the tool.
See also the SECURITY section of the dpkg-deb(1) and dpkg-split(1)
manual pages.
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 vim neovim | less
To search the listing of packages yourself:
dpkg --print-avail | less
To remove an installed neovim package:
dpkg -r neovim
To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or media
disc. When using an archive based on a pool structure, knowing the
archive area and the name of the package is enough to infer the
pathname:
dpkg -i /media/bdrom/pool/main/v/vim/vim_9.0.2018-1_amd64.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#set-selections> for
more details), for example:
apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-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
packages. 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
following packages: apt, aptitude and debsig-verify.
SEE ALSO
aptitude(8), apt(8), 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.
1.22.21 2025-06-30 dpkg(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:52:26 CET 2025.