dpkg-name(1) dpkg suite dpkg-name(1)
NAME
dpkg-name - rename Debian packages to full package names
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-name [option...] [--] file...
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the dpkg-name program which provides an easy
way to rename Debian packages into their full package names. A full
package name consists of package_version_architecture.package-type as
specified in the control file of the package. The version part of the
filename consists of the upstream version information optionally
followed by a hyphen and the revision information. The package-type
part comes from that field if present or will fall back to deb.
OPTIONS
-a, --no-architecture
The destination filename will not have the architecture information.
-k, --symlink
Create a symlink, instead of moving.
-o, --overwrite
Existing files will be overwritten if they have the same name as the
destination filename.
-s, --subdir [dir]
Files will be moved into a subdirectory. If the directory given as
argument exists the files will be moved into that directory
otherwise the name of the target directory is extracted from the
section field in the control part of the package. The target
directory will be «unstable/binary-architecture/section». If the
section is not found in the control, then no-section is assumed, and
in this case, as well as for sections non-free and contrib the
target directory is «section/binary-architecture». The section
field is not required so a lot of packages will find their way to
the no-section area.
Warning: Use this option with care, it is messy.
-c, --create-dir
This option can used together with the -s option. If a target
directory isn't found it will be created automatically.
Warning: Use this option with care.
-?, --help
Show the usage message and exit.
-v, --version
Show the version and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
DEB_HOST_ARCH
Sets the host architecture. This affects the architecture name used
in the package filename.
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 1.19.0). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
(default).
BUGS
Some packages don't follow the name structure
package_version_architecture.deb. Packages renamed by dpkg-name will
follow this structure. Generally this will have no impact on how
packages are installed by dselect(1)/dpkg(1), but other installation
tools might depend on this naming structure.
EXAMPLES
dpkg-name bar-foo.deb
The file bar-foo.deb will be renamed to bar-foo_1.0-2_i386.deb or
something similar (depending on whatever information is in the
control part of bar-foo.deb).
find /root/debian/ -name '*.deb' | xargs -n 1 dpkg-name -a
All files with the extension deb in the directory /root/debian and
its subdirectory's will be renamed by dpkg-name if required into
names with no architecture information.
find -name '*.deb' | xargs -n 1 dpkg-name -a -o -s -c
Don't do this. Your archive will be messed up completely because a
lot of packages don't come with section information. Don't do this.
dpkg-deb --build debian-tmp && dpkg-name -o -s .. debian-tmp.deb
This can be used when building new packages.
SEE ALSO
deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1), find(1), xargs(1).
1.22.21 2025-06-30 dpkg-name(1)
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