Penguin
Annotated edit history of dpkg-deb(1) version 4, including all changes. View license author blame.
Rev Author # Line
1 perry 1 DPKG-DEB
2 !!!DPKG-DEB
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 ACTION OPTIONS
7 OTHER OPTIONS
8 BUGS
9 SEE ALSO
10 AUTHOR
11 ----
12 !!NAME
13
14
15 dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
16 !!SYNOPSIS
17
18
19 __dpkg-deb -b__|__--build__ ''directory''
20 [[''archive''|''directory'']__
21 dpkg-deb -I__|__--info__ ''archive''
22 [[''control-file-name'' ..]__
23 dpkg-deb -f__|__--field__ ''archive''
24 [[''control-field-name'' ...]__
25 dpkg-deb -c__|__--contents__ ''archive''__
26 dpkg-deb -x__|__--extract__|__-X__|__--vextract__
27 ''archive directory''__
28 dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile__ ''archive''__
29 dpkg-deb --control__ ''archive directory''
30 !!DESCRIPTION
31
32
33 __dpkg-deb__ packs, unpacks and provides information
34 about Debian archives.
35
36
37 Use __dpkg__ to install and remove packages from your
38 system.
39
40
41 You can also invoke __dpkg-deb__ by calling __dpkg__
42 with whatever options you want to pass to __dpkg-deb__.
43 __dpkg__ will spot that you wanted __dpkg-deb__ and
44 run it for you.
45 !!ACTION OPTIONS
46
47
48 __--build__, __-b__
49
50
51 Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in
52 ''directory''. ''directory'' must have a __DEBIAN__
53 subdirectory, which contains the control information files
54 such as the control file itself. This directory will
55 ''not'' appear in the binary package's filesystem
56 archive, but instead the files in it will be put in the
57 binary package's control information area.
58
59
60 You can specify the compressionlevel used by adding a
61 __-z#__ option. __dpkg-deb__ will pass that option on
62 to gzip.
63
64
65 Unless you specify __--nocheck__, __dpkg-deb__ will
66 read __DEBIAN/control__ and parse it. It will check it
67 for syntax errors and other problems, and display the name
68 of the binary package being built. __dpkg-deb__ will also
69 check the permissions of the maintainer scripts and other
70 files found in the __DEBIAN__ control information
71 directory.
72
73
74 If no ''archive'' is specified then __dpkg-deb__ will
75 write the package into the file
76 ''directory''__.deb__.
77
78
79 If the archive to be created already exists it will be
80 overwritten.
81
82
83 If the second argument is a directory then __dpkg-deb__
84 will write to the file
85 ''package''_____''version''_____''arch''__.deb__,
86 or ''package''_____''version''__.deb__ if no
87 __Architecture__ field is present in the package control
88 file. When a target directory is specified, rather than a
89 file, the __--nocheck__ option may not be used (since
90 __dpkg-deb__ needs to read and parse the package control
91 file to determine which filename to use).
92
93
94 __--info__, __-I__
95
96
97 Provides information about a binary package
98 archive.
99
100
101 If no ''control-file-name''s are specified then it will
102 print a summary of the contents of the package as well as
103 its control file.
104
105
106 If any ''control-file-name''s are specified then
107 __dpkg-deb__ will print them in the order they were
108 specified; if any of the components weren't present it will
109 print an error message to stderr about each one and exit
110 with status 2.
111
112
113 __--field__, __-f__
114
115
116 Extracts control file information from a binary package
117 archive.
118
119
120 If no __control-file-field__s are specified then it will
121 print the whole control file.
122
123
124 If any are specified then __dpkg-deb__ will print their
125 contents, in the order in which they appear in the control
126 file. If more than one __control-file-field__ is
127 specified then __dpkg-deb__ will precede each with its
128 field name (and a colon and space).
129
130
131 No errors are reported for fields requested but not
132 found.
133
134
135 __--contents__, __-c__
136
137
138 Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of
139 the package archive. It is currently produced in the format
140 generated by __tar__'s verbose listing.
141
142
143 __--extract__, __-x__, __--vextract__,
144 __-X__
145
146
147 Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the
148 specified directory.
149
150
151 __--vextract__ (__-X__) prints a listing of the files
152 extracted as it goes, while __--extract__ (__-x__) is
153 silent unless an error occurs.
154
155
156 Note that extracting a package to the root directory will
157 ''not'' result in a correct installation ! Use
158 __dpkg__ to install packages.
159
160
161 ''directory'' (but not its parents) will be created if
162 necessary.
163
164
165 __--fsys-tarfile__
166
167
168 Extracts the filesystem tree data from a binary package and
169 sends it to standard output in __tar__ format. Together
170 with __tar__ this can be used to extract a particular
171 file from a package archive.
172
173
174 __--control__, __-e__
175
176
177 Extracs the control information files from a package archive
178 into the specified directory.
179
180
181 If no directory is specified then a subdirectory
182 __DEBIAN__ in the current directory is used.
183
184
185 The target directory (but not its parents) will be created
186 if necessary.
187
188
189 __--help__, __-h__
190
191
192 Prints __dpkg-deb__'s usage message, giving a summary of
193 its options and their uses.
194
195
196 __--version__
197
198
199 Prints __dpkg-deb__'s version number.
200
201
202 __--licence__
203
204
205 Prints information about __dpkg-deb__'s copyright
206 licensing and lack of warranty. (The American spelling
207 __--license__ is also supported.)
208 !!OTHER OPTIONS
209
210
211 __--new__
212
213
214 Ensures that __dpkg-deb__ builds a `new' format archive.
215 This is the default.
216
217
218 __--old__
219
220
221 Forces __dpkg-deb__ to build an `old' format archive.
222 This old archive format is less easily parsed by non-Debian
223 tools and is now obsolete; its only use is when building
224 packages to be parsed by versions of dpkg older than 0.93.76
225 (September 1995), which was released as i386 a.out
226 only.
227
228
229 __--nocheck__
230
231
232 Inhibits __dpkg-deb --build__'s usual checks on the
233 proposed contents of an archive. You can build any archive
234 you want, no matter how broken, this way.
235
236
237 __--debug__, __-D__
238
239
240 Enables debugging output. This is not very
241 interesting.
242 !!BUGS
243
244
245 __dpkg-deb -I__ ''package1''__.deb__
246 ''package2''__.deb__ does the wrong
247 thing.
248
249
250 There is no authentication on __.deb__ files; in fact,
251 there isn't even a straightforward checksum.
252
253
254 Do not attempt to use just __dpkg-deb__ to install
255 software ! You must use __dpkg__ proper to ensure that
256 all the files are correctly placed and the package's scripts
257 run and its status and contents recorded.
258 !!SEE ALSO
259
260
4 perry 261 deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg(8),
1 perry 262 dselect(8).
263 !!AUTHOR
264
265
266 __dpkg-deb__ and this manpage were written by Ian
267 Jackson. They are Copyright (C)1995-1996 by him and released
268 under the GNU General Public Licence; there is NO WARRANTY.
269 See __/usr/share/doc/dpkg/copyright__ and
270 __/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL__ for
271 details.
272 ----
This page is a man page (or other imported legacy content). We are unable to automatically determine the license status of this page.