DSELECT

DSELECT

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION OPTIONS BUGS SEE ALSO AUTHORS

NAME

dselect - console Debian package handling frontend

SYNOPSIS

dselect [unrenderable node]

DESCRIPTION

dselect is the primary user interface for installing, removing and managing Debian GNU/Linux packages. It is an front-end to __dpkg(8). Normally dselect__ is invoked without parameters, but some commandline parameters are still available.

The usage of dselect is pretty self-explanatory, and an internal help-system is included, which describes the keystrokes and some general concepts. Read the help.

ACTIONS

Access

Chooses an access `method' to use to find package repository. By default, there exist several methods such as

Update

Updates list of packages available to dpkg/dselect with data from the chosen repository Packages file(s).

Select

Selects individual packages to install.

Install

Installs selected packages.

Config

Configures any previously not configured packages.

Remove

Removes or purges deselected packages.

Quit

Exit dselect (successfully).

OPTIONS

All options can be specified both on the commandline and in the dselect configuration file /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg. Each line in the configuration file is either an option (exactly the same as the commandline option but without leading dashes) or a comment (if it starts with a #).

--admindir

Changes the directory where the dpkg `status', `available' and similar files are located. This defaults to /var/lib/dpkg and normally there shouldn't be any need to change it.

--debug

Turn on debugging. Debugging information is sent to

--expert

Turns on expert mode, i.e. doesn't display possibly annoying help messages.

--help

Print a brief help text and exit successfully.

--licence | --license

Displays the dselect copyright and license information and exits successfully.

--version

Print version information and exit successfully.

BUGS

The dselect package selection interface is confusing or even alarming to a new user.

dselect doesn't handle Recommends: field very well, and doesn't understand Replaces: at all.

There is no easy way to automatically download and install packages via anonymous FTP with default access methods (APT does this).

SEE ALSO

dpkg(8), deb(5).

AUTHORS

dselect was written by Ian Jackson (ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu). Full list of contributors may be found in `dselect --license'. This manual page was written by Juho Vuori