NAME
dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
.
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-deb
[options]
command
.
DESCRIPTION
dpkg-deb
packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.
Use
dpkg
to install and remove packages from your system.
You can also invoke
dpkg-deb
by calling
dpkg
with whatever options you want to pass to
R dpkg-deb . dpkg
will spot that you wanted
dpkg-deb
and run it for you.
.
COMMANDS
R -b , --build directory [archive|directory]
Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in
R directory . directory
must have a
DEBIAN
subdirectory, which contains the control information files such
as the control file itself. This directory will
not
appear in the binary package's filesystem archive, but instead
the files in it will be put in the binary package's control
information area.
Unless you specify
R --nocheck , dpkg-deb
will read
DEBIAN/control
and parse it. It will check it for syntax errors and other problems,
and display the name of the binary package being built.
dpkg-deb
will also check the permissions of the maintainer scripts and other
files found in the
DEBIAN
control information directory.
If no
archive
is specified then
dpkg-deb
will write the package into the file
R directory .deb.
If the archive to be created already exists it will be overwritten.
If the second argument is a directory then
dpkg-deb
will write to the file
B package _ version _ arch .deb,
or
B package _ version .deb
if no
Architecture
field is present in the package control file. When a target directory
is specified, rather than a file, the
--nocheck
option may not be used (since
dpkg-deb
needs to read and parse the package control file to determine which
filename to use).
R -I , --info archive [control-file-name ...]
Provides information about a binary package archive.
If no
R control-file-name s
are specified then it will print a summary of the contents of the
package as well as its control file.
If any
R control-file-name s
are specified then
dpkg-deb
will print them in the order they were specified; if any of the
components weren't present it will print an error message to stderr
about each one and exit with status 2.
R -W , --show archive
Provides information about a binary package archive in the format
specified by the
--showformat
argument. The default format displays the package's name and version
on one line, seperated by a tabulator.
R -f , --field archive [control-field-name ...]
Extracts control file information from a binary package archive.
If no
R control-file-field s
are specified then it will print the whole control file.
If any are specified then
dpkg-deb
will print their contents, in the order in which they appear in the
control file. If more than one
R control-file-field
is specified then
dpkg-deb
will precede each with its field name (and a colon and space).
No errors are reported for fields requested but not found.
R -c , --contents archive
Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of the
package archive. It is currently produced in the format generated by
R tar 's
verbose listing.
R -x , --extract archive directory
Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the specified
directory.
Note that extracting a package to the root directory will
not
result in a correct installation! Use
dpkg
to install packages.
directory
(but not its parents) will be created if necessary.
R -X , --vextract archive directory
Is like
R --extract ( -x )
but prints a listing of the files extracted as it goes.
R --fsys-tarfile archive
Extracts the filesystem tree data from a binary package and sends it
to standard output in
tar
format. Together with
tar(1)
this can be used to extract a particular file from a package archive.
R -e , --control archive directory
Extracts the control information files from a package archive into the
specified directory.
If no directory is specified then a subdirectory
DEBIAN
in the current directory is used.
The target directory (but not its parents) will be created if
necessary.
R -h , --help
Show the usage message and exit.
R --version
Show the version and exit.
R --license , --licence
Show the copyright licensing terms and exit.
.
OPTIONS
--showformat=format
This option is used to specify the format of the output
--show
will produce. The format is a string that will be output for each package
listed.
The string may reference any status field using the
"${
field-name}" form, a list of the valid fields can be easily
produced using
-I
on the same package. A complete explanation of the formatting options
(including escape sequences and field tabbing) can be found in the
explanation of the
--showformat option in
dpkg-query(1).
The default for this field is "${Package}\t${Version}\n".
I -z compress_level
Specify which compression level to pass to the compressor backend program,
when building a package.
I -Z compress_type
Specify which compression type to use when building a package. Allowed
values are gzip, bzip2, lzma, and none (default
is gzip).
R --new
Ensures that
dpkg-deb
builds a `new' format archive. This is the default.
R --old
Forces
dpkg-deb
to build an `old' format archive. This old archive format is less
easily parsed by non-Debian tools and is now obsolete; its only use is
when building packages to be parsed by versions of dpkg older than
0.93.76 (September 1995), which was released as i386 a.out only.
R --nocheck
Inhibits
R dpkg-deb --build 's
usual checks on the proposed contents of an archive. You can build
any archive you want, no matter how broken, this way.
R -D , --debug
Enables debugging output. This is not very interesting.
.
BUGS
dpkg-deb -I
B package1 .deb
B package2 .deb
does the wrong thing.
There is no authentication on
.deb
files; in fact, there isn't even a straightforward checksum.
Do not attempt to use just
dpkg-deb
to install software! You must use
dpkg
proper to ensure that all the files are correctly placed and the
package's scripts run and its status and contents recorded.
.
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
dpkg-deb
and this manpage were written by Ian Jackson.
They are Copyright (C) 1995-1996 by him and released under the
GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later; there is NO WARRANTY. See
/usr/share/doc/dpkg/copyright
and
/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL
for details.