DEBSUMS(S)                User Commands                DEBSUMS(S)



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.

OPTIONS
       -a, --all
              Also check configuration files (normally excluded).

       -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 direc-
              tory).

              A  useful  value  is  /var/cache/apt/archives  when
              using  apt-get  autoclean or not clearing the cache
              at all.  And the command:

                     apt-get --reinstall -d install `debsums -l`

              may be used to populate the cache with any debs not
              already in the cache.

       -g, --generate=[missing|all][,keep[,nocheck]]
              Generate  MD5 sums from deb contents.  If the argu-
              ment is a package name rather than a  deb  archive,
              the  program will look for a deb named package_ver-
              sion_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 sup-
                     plied  in  the  deb, or generated from it if
                     none exists.

              keep   Write  the   extracted/generated   sums   to
                     /var/lib/dpkg/info/package.md5sums.

              nocheck
                     Implies  keep;  the extracted/generated sums
                     are not checked against the installed  pack-
                     age.

              For  backward compatibility, the short option -g is
              equivalent to --generate=missing.

       --help
       --version
              Print help and version information.

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 pack-
              ages with checksums.

       debsums -cagp /var/cache/apt/archives
              As  above, using sums from cached debs where avail-
              able.

       DPkg::Post-Invoke {
           "debsums --generate=nocheck -sp /var/cache/apt/archives";
       };
              /etc/apt/apt.conf  fragment  to  generate   missing
              checksums after upgrade/install.

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 read-
       able 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 reported as changed.

       debsums is of limited use as a security  tool  unless  the
       program  and  all  required  infrastructure  (dpkg,  perl,
       Digest::MD5, etc.) are  executed  from  known  safe  media
       (such  as a bootable rescue CD, see the --root option) and
       the checksums are take from  debs  (--generate=all)  which
       are  either on that media or validated using the --md5sums
       option.

AUTHOR
       Written by Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>.
       Based  on  a  program   by   Christoph   Lameter   <clame-
       ter@debian.org> and Petr Cech <cech@debian.org>.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2002  Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>
       This is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU
       General Public License.  There is NO  warranty;  not  even
       for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.



Debian                      2002/04/14                 DEBSUMS(S)