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NAME | SYNOPSIS | WARNING | DESCRIPTION | INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES | ACTIONS | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | SECURITY | BUGS | EXAMPLES | ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY | SEE ALSO | AUTHORS | COLOPHON |
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dpkg(1) dpkg suite dpkg(1)
dpkg - package manager for Debian
dpkg [option...] action
This manual is intended for users wishing to understand dpkg's
command line options and package states in more detail than that
provided by dpkg --help.
It should not be used by package maintainers wishing to understand
how dpkg will install their packages. The descriptions of what
dpkg does when installing and removing packages are particularly
inadequate.
dpkg is a medium-level tool to install, build, remove and manage
Debian packages. The primary and more user-friendly front-end for
dpkg as a CLI (command-line interface) is apt(8) and as a TUI
(terminal user interface) is aptitude(8). dpkg itself is
controlled entirely via command line parameters, which consist of
exactly one action and zero or more options. The action-parameter
tells dpkg what to do and options control the behavior of the
action in some way.
dpkg can also be used as a front-end to dpkg-deb(1) and
dpkg-query(1). The list of supported actions can be found later
on in the ACTIONS section. If any such action is encountered dpkg
just runs dpkg-deb or dpkg-query with the parameters given to it,
but no specific options are currently passed to them, to use any
such option the back-ends need to be called directly.
dpkg maintains some usable information about available packages.
The information is divided in three classes: states, selection
states and flags. These values are intended to be changed mainly
with dselect.
Package states
not-installed
The package is not installed on your system.
config-files
Only the configuration files or the postrm script and the data
it needs to remove of the package exist on the system.
half-installed
The installation of the package has been started, but not
completed for some reason.
unpacked
The package is unpacked, but not configured.
half-configured
The package is unpacked and configuration has been started,
but not yet completed for some reason.
triggers-awaited
The package awaits trigger processing by another package.
triggers-pending
The package has been triggered.
installed
The package is correctly unpacked and configured.
Package selection states
install
The package is selected for installation.
hold
A package marked to be on hold is kept on the same version,
that is, no automatic new installs, upgrades or removals will
be performed on them, unless these actions are requested
explicitly, or are permitted to be done automatically with the
--force-hold option.
deinstall
The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to
remove all files, except configuration files).
purge
The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove
everything from system directories, even configuration files).
unknown
The package selection is unknown. A package that is also in a
not-installed state, and with an ok flag will be forgotten in
the next database store.
Package flags
ok A package marked ok is in a known state, but might need
further processing.
reinstreq
A package marked reinstreq is broken and requires
reinstallation. These packages cannot be removed, unless
forced with option --force-remove-reinstreq.
-i, --install package-file...
Install the package. If --recursive or -R option is
specified, package-file must refer to a directory instead.
Installation consists of the following steps:
1. Extract the control files of the new package.
2. If another version of the same package was installed
before the new installation, execute prerm script of the
old package.
3. Run preinst script, if provided by the package.
4. Unpack the new files, and at the same time back up the old
files, so that if something goes wrong, they can be
restored.
5. If another version of the same package was installed
before the new installation, execute the postrm script of
the old package. Note that this script is executed after
the preinst script of the new package, because new files
are written at the same time old files are removed.
6. Configure the package. See --configure for detailed
information about how this is done.
--unpack package-file...
Unpack the package, but don't configure it. If --recursive or
-R option is specified, package-file must refer to a directory
instead.
Will process triggers for Pre-Depends unless --no-triggers has
been specified.
--configure package...|-a|--pending
Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet
configured. If -a or --pending is given instead of package,
all unpacked but unconfigured packages are configured.
To reconfigure a package which has already been configured,
try the dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead (which is part of
the debconf project).
Configuring consists of the following steps:
1. Unpack the conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes
wrong.
2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
--triggers-only package...|-a|--pending
Processes only triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17). All pending
triggers will be processed. If package names are supplied
only those packages' triggers will be processed, exactly once
each where necessary. Use of this option may leave packages
in the improper triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states.
This can be fixed later by running: dpkg --configure
--pending.
-r, --remove package...|-a|--pending
Remove an installed package. This removes everything except
conffiles and other data cleaned up by the postrm script,
which may avoid having to reconfigure the package if it is
reinstalled later (conffiles are configuration files that are
listed in the DEBIAN/conffiles control file). If there is no
DEBIAN/conffiles control file nor DEBIAN/postrm script, this
command is equivalent to calling --purge. If -a or --pending
is given instead of a package name, then all packages
unpacked, but marked to be removed in file
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed.
Removing of a package consists of the following steps:
1. Run prerm script.
2. Remove the installed files.
3. Run postrm script.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
-P, --purge package...|-a|--pending
Purge an installed or already removed package. This removes
everything, including conffiles, and anything else cleaned up
from postrm. If -a or --pending is given instead of a package
name, then all packages unpacked or removed, but marked to be
purged in file /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status, are purged.
Note: Some configuration files might be unknown to dpkg
because they are created and handled separately through the
configuration scripts. In that case, dpkg won't remove them
by itself, but the package's postrm script (which is called by
dpkg), has to take care of their removal during purge. Of
course, this only applies to files in system directories, not
configuration files written to individual users' home
directories.
Purging of a package consists of the following steps:
1. Remove the package, if not already removed. See --remove
for detailed information about how this is done.
2. Run postrm script.
Will process triggers unless --no-triggers has been specified.
-V, --verify [package-name...]
Verifies the integrity of package-name or all packages if
omitted, by comparing information from the files installed by
a package with the files metadata information stored in the
dpkg database (since dpkg 1.17.2). The origin of the files
metadata information in the database is the binary packages
themselves. That metadata gets collected at package unpack
time during the installation process.
Currently the only functional check performed is an md5sum
verification of the file contents against the stored value in
the files database. It will only get checked if the database
contains the file md5sum. To check for any missing metadata
in the database, the --audit command can be used. This is
only an integrity check and should not be considered as any
kind of security verification.
The output format is selectable with the --verify-format
option, which by default uses the rpm format, but that might
change in the future, and as such, programs parsing this
command output should be explicit about the format they
expect.
-C, --audit [package-name...]
Performs database sanity and consistency checks for
package-name or all packages if omitted (per package checks
since dpkg 1.17.10). For example, searches for packages that
have been installed only partially on your system or that have
missing, wrong or obsolete control data or files. dpkg will
suggest what to do with them to get them fixed.
--update-avail [Packages-file]
--merge-avail [Packages-file]
Update dpkg's and dselect's idea of which packages are
available. With action --merge-avail, old information is
combined with information from Packages-file. With action
--update-avail, old information is replaced with the
information in the Packages-file. The Packages-file
distributed with Debian is simply named «Packages». If the
Packages-file argument is missing or named «-» then it will be
read from standard input (since dpkg 1.17.7). dpkg keeps its
record of available packages in
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/available.
A simpler one-shot command to retrieve and update the
available file is dselect update. Note that this file is
mostly useless if you don't use dselect but an APT-based
frontend: APT has its own system to keep track of available
packages.
-A, --record-avail package-file...
Update dpkg and dselect's idea of which packages are available
with information from the package package-file. If
--recursive or -R option is specified, package-file must refer
to a directory instead.
--forget-old-unavail
Now obsolete and a no-op as dpkg will automatically forget
uninstalled unavailable packages (since dpkg 1.15.4), but only
those that do not contain user information such as package
selections.
--clear-avail
Erase the existing information about what packages are
available.
--get-selections [package-name-pattern...]
Get list of package selections, and write it to stdout.
Without a pattern, non-installed packages (i.e. those which
have been previously purged) will not be shown.
--set-selections
Set package selections using file read from stdin. This file
should be in the format “package state”, where state is one of
install, hold, deinstall or purge. Blank lines and comment
lines beginning with ‘#’ are also permitted.
The available file needs to be up-to-date for this command to
be useful, otherwise unknown packages will be ignored with a
warning. See the --update-avail and --merge-avail commands
for more information.
--clear-selections
Set the requested state of every non-essential package to
deinstall (since dpkg 1.13.18). This is intended to be used
immediately before --set-selections, to deinstall any packages
not in list given to --set-selections.
--yet-to-unpack
Searches for packages selected for installation, but which for
some reason still haven't been installed.
Note: This command makes use of both the available file and
the package selections.
--predep-package
Print a single package which is the target of one or more
relevant pre-dependencies and has itself no unsatisfied
pre-dependencies.
If such a package is present, output it as a Packages file
entry, which can be massaged as appropriate.
Note: This command makes use of both the available file and
the package selections.
Returns 0 when a package is printed, 1 when no suitable
package is available and 2 on error.
--add-architecture architecture
Add architecture to the list of architectures for which
packages can be installed without using --force-architecture
(since dpkg 1.16.2). The architecture dpkg is built for (i.e.
the output of --print-architecture) is always part of that
list.
--remove-architecture architecture
Remove architecture from the list of architectures for which
packages can be installed without using --force-architecture
(since dpkg 1.16.2). If the architecture is currently in use
in the database then the operation will be refused, except if
--force-architecture is specified. The architecture dpkg is
built for (i.e. the output of --print-architecture) can never
be removed from that list.
--print-architecture
Print architecture of packages dpkg installs (for example,
“i386”).
--print-foreign-architectures
Print a newline-separated list of the extra architectures dpkg
is configured to allow packages to be installed for (since
dpkg 1.16.2).
--assert-help
Give help about the --assert-feature options (since dpkg
1.21.0).
--assert-feature
Asserts that dpkg supports the requested feature. Returns 0
if the feature is fully supported, 1 if the feature is known
but dpkg cannot provide support for it yet, and 2 if the
feature is unknown. The current list of assertable features
is:
support-predepends
Supports the Pre-Depends field (since dpkg 1.1.0).
working-epoch
Supports epochs in version strings (since dpkg 1.4.0.7).
long-filenames
Supports long filenames in deb(5) archives (since dpkg
1.4.1.17).
multi-conrep
Supports multiple Conflicts and Replaces (since dpkg
1.4.1.19).
multi-arch
Supports multi-arch fields and semantics (since dpkg
1.16.2).
versioned-provides
Supports versioned Provides (since dpkg 1.17.11).
protected-field
Supports the Protected field (since dpkg 1.20.1).
--validate-thing string
Validate that the thing string has a correct syntax (since
dpkg 1.18.16). Returns 0 if the string is valid, 1 if the
string is invalid but might be accepted in lax contexts, and 2
if the string is invalid. The current list of validatable
things is:
pkgname
Validates the given package name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
trigname
Validates the given trigger name (since dpkg 1.18.16).
archname
Validates the given architecture name (since dpkg
1.18.16).
version
Validates the given version (since dpkg 1.18.16).
--compare-versions ver1 op ver2
Compare version numbers, where op is a binary operator. dpkg
returns true (0) if the specified condition is satisfied, and
false (1) otherwise. There are two groups of operators, which
differ in how they treat an empty ver1 or ver2. These treat
an empty version as earlier than any version: lt le eq ne ge
gt. These treat an empty version as later than any version:
lt-nl le-nl ge-nl gt-nl. These are provided only for
compatibility with control file syntax: < << <= = >= >> >.
The < and > operators are obsolete and should not be used, due
to confusing semantics. To illustrate: 0.1 < 0.1 evaluates to
true.
-?, --help
Display a brief help message.
--force-help
Give help about the --force-thing options.
-Dh, --debug=help
Give help about debugging options.
--version
Display dpkg version information.
When used with --robot, the output will be the program version
number in a dotted numerical format, with no newline.
dpkg-deb actions
See dpkg-deb(1) for more information about the following
actions, and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg
front-end.
-b, --build directory [archive|directory]
Build a deb package.
-c, --contents archive
List contents of a deb package.
-e, --control archive [directory]
Extract control-information from a package.
-x, --extract archive directory
Extract the files contained by package.
-X, --vextract archive directory
Extract and display the filenames contained by a package.
-f, --field archive [control-field...]
Display control field(s) of a package.
--ctrl-tarfile archive
Output the control tar-file contained in a Debian package.
--fsys-tarfile archive
Output the filesystem tar-file contained by a Debian
package.
-I, --info archive [control-file...]
Show information about a package.
dpkg-query actions
See dpkg-query(1) for more information about the following
actions, and other actions and options not exposed by the dpkg
front-end.
-l, --list package-name-pattern...
List packages matching given pattern.
-s, --status package-name...
Report status of specified package.
-L, --listfiles package-name...
List files installed to your system from package-name.
-S, --search filename-search-pattern...
Search for a filename from installed packages.
-p, --print-avail package-name...
Display details about package-name, as found in
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/available. Users of APT-based
frontends should use apt show package-name instead.
All options can be specified both on the command line and in the
dpkg configuration file /usr/local/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg or fragment
files (with names matching this shell pattern '[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*') on
the configuration directory /usr/local/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/. Each
line in the configuration file is either an option (exactly the
same as the command line option but without leading hyphens) or a
comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).
--abort-after=number
Change after how many errors dpkg will abort. The default is
50.
-B, --auto-deconfigure
When a package is removed, there is a possibility that another
installed package depended on the removed package. Specifying
this option will cause automatic deconfiguration of the
package which depended on the removed package.
-Doctal, --debug=octal
Switch debugging on. octal is formed by bitwise-ORing desired
values together from the list below (note that these values
may change in future releases). -Dh or --debug=help display
these debugging values.
Number Description
1 Generally helpful progress information
2 Invocation and status of maintainer scripts
10 Output for each file processed
100 Lots of output for each file processed
20 Output for each configuration file
200 Lots of output for each configuration file
40 Dependencies and conflicts
400 Lots of dependencies/conflicts output
10000 Trigger activation and processing
20000 Lots of output regarding triggers
40000 Silly amounts of output regarding triggers
1000 Lots of drivel about for example the dpkg/info dir
2000 Insane amounts of drivel
--force-things
--no-force-things, --refuse-things
Force or refuse (no-force and refuse mean the same thing) to
do some things. things is a comma separated list of things
specified below. --force-help displays a message describing
them. Things marked with (*) are forced by default.
Warning: These options are mostly intended to be used by
experts only. Using them without fully understanding their
effects may break your whole system.
all:
Turns on (or off) all force options.
downgrade(*):
Install a package, even if newer version of it is already
installed.
Warning: At present dpkg does not do any dependency checking
on downgrades and therefore will not warn you if the
downgrade breaks the dependency of some other package. This
can have serious side effects, downgrading essential system
components can even make your whole system unusable. Use
with care.
configure-any:
Configure also any unpacked but unconfigured packages on
which the current package depends.
hold:
Allow automatic installs, upgrades or removals of packages
even when marked to be on “hold”. Note: When these actions
are requested explicitly, the “hold” package selection state
always gets ignored.
remove-reinstreq:
Remove a package, even if it's broken and marked to require
reinstallation. This may, for example, cause parts of the
package to remain on the system, which will then be
forgotten by dpkg.
remove-protected:
Remove, even if the package is considered protected (since
dpkg 1.20.1). Protected packages contain mostly important
system boot infrastructure or are used for custom
system-local meta-packages. Removing them might cause the
whole system to be unable to boot or lose required
functionality to operate, so use with caution.
remove-essential:
Remove, even if the package is considered essential.
Essential packages contain mostly very basic Unix commands,
required for the packaging system, for the operation of the
system in general or during boot (although the latter should
be converted to protected packages instead). Removing them
might cause the whole system to stop working, so use with
caution.
depends:
Turn all dependency problems into warnings. This affects
the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
depends-version:
Don't care about versions when checking dependencies. This
affects the Pre-Depends and Depends fields.
breaks:
Install, even if this would break another package (since
dpkg 1.14.6). This affects the Breaks field.
conflicts:
Install, even if it conflicts with another package. This is
dangerous, for it will usually cause overwriting of some
files. This affects the Conflicts field.
confmiss:
Always install the missing conffile without prompting. This
is dangerous, since it means not preserving a change
(removing) made to the file.
confnew:
If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
package did change, always install the new version without
prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in
which case the default action is preferred.
confold:
If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
package did change, always keep the old version without
prompting, unless the --force-confdef is also specified, in
which case the default action is preferred.
confdef:
If a conffile has been modified and the version in the
package did change, always choose the default action without
prompting. If there is no default action it will stop to
ask the user unless --force-confnew or --force-confold is
also given, in which case it will use that to decide the
final action.
confask:
If a conffile has been modified always offer to replace it
with the version in the package, even if the version in the
package did not change (since dpkg 1.15.8). If any of
--force-confnew, --force-confold, or --force-confdef is also
given, it will be used to decide the final action.
overwrite:
Overwrite one package's file with another's file.
overwrite-dir:
Overwrite one package's directory with another's file.
overwrite-diverted:
Overwrite a diverted file with an undiverted version.
statoverride-add:
Overwrite an existing stat override when adding it (since
dpkg 1.19.5).
statoverride-remove:
Ignore a missing stat override when removing it (since dpkg
1.19.5).
security-mac(*):
Use platform-specific Mandatory Access Controls (MAC) based
security when installing files into the filesystem (since
dpkg 1.19.5). On Linux systems the implementation uses
SELinux.
unsafe-io:
Do not perform safe I/O operations when unpacking (since
dpkg 1.15.8.6). Currently this implies not performing file
system syncs before file renames, which is known to cause
substantial performance degradation on some file systems,
unfortunately the ones that require the safe I/O on the
first place due to their unreliable behaviour causing
zero-length files on abrupt system crashes.
Note: For ext4, the main offender, consider using instead
the mount option nodelalloc, which will fix both the
performance degradation and the data safety issues, the
latter by making the file system not produce zero-length
files on abrupt system crashes with any software not doing
syncs before atomic renames.
Warning: Using this option might improve performance at the
cost of losing data, use with care.
script-chrootless:
Run maintainer scripts without chroot(2)ing into instdir
even if the package does not support this mode of operation
(since dpkg 1.18.5).
Warning: This can destroy your host system, use with extreme
care.
architecture:
Process even packages with wrong or no architecture.
bad-version:
Process even packages with wrong versions (since dpkg
1.16.1).
bad-path:
PATH is missing important programs, so problems are likely.
not-root:
Try to (de)install things even when not root.
bad-verify:
Install a package even if it fails authenticity check.
--ignore-depends=package,...
Ignore dependency-checking for specified packages (actually,
checking is performed, but only warnings about conflicts are
given, nothing else). This affects the Pre-Depends, Depends
and Breaks fields.
--no-act, --dry-run, --simulate
Do everything which is supposed to be done, but don't write
any changes. This is used to see what would happen with the
specified action, without actually modifying anything.
Be sure to give --no-act before the action-parameter, or you
might end up with undesirable results (e.g. dpkg --purge foo
--no-act will first purge package “foo” and then try to purge
package ”--no-act”, even though you probably expected it to
actually do nothing).
-R, --recursive
Recursively handle all regular files matching pattern *.deb
found at specified directories and all of its subdirectories.
This can be used with -i, -A, --install, --unpack and
--record-avail actions.
-G Don't install a package if a newer version of the same package
is already installed. This is an alias of --refuse-downgrade.
--admindir=dir
Set the administrative directory to directory. This directory
contains many files that give information about status of
installed or uninstalled packages, etc. Defaults to
«/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg» if DPKG_ADMINDIR has not been set.
--instdir=dir
Set the installation directory, which refers to the directory
where packages are to be installed. instdir is also the
directory passed to chroot(2) before running package's
installation scripts, which means that the scripts see instdir
as a root directory. Defaults to «/».
--root=dir
Set the root directory to directory, which sets the
installation directory to «dir» and the administrative
directory to «dir/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg».
-O, --selected-only
Only process the packages that are selected for installation.
The actual marking is done with dselect or by dpkg, when it
handles packages. For example, when a package is removed, it
will be marked selected for deinstallation.
-E, --skip-same-version
Don't install the package if the same version and architecture
of the package is already installed.
Since dpkg 1.21.10, the architecture is also taken into
account, which makes it possible to cross-grade packages or
install additional co-installable instances with the same
version, but different architecture.
--pre-invoke=command
--post-invoke=command
Set an invoke hook command to be run via “sh -c” before or
after the dpkg run for the unpack, configure, install,
triggers-only, remove and purge actions (since dpkg 1.15.4),
and add-architecture and remove-architecture actions (since
dpkg 1.17.19). This option can be specified multiple times.
The order the options are specified is preserved, with the
ones from the configuration files taking precedence. The
environment variable DPKG_HOOK_ACTION is set for the hooks to
the current dpkg action.
The invoke hooks are not executed when --no-act is specified,
or when running as non-root without --force-not-root.
Note: Front-ends might call dpkg several times per invocation,
which might run the hooks more times than expected.
--path-exclude=glob-pattern
--path-include=glob-pattern
Set glob-pattern as a path filter, either by excluding or
re-including previously excluded paths matching the specified
patterns during install (since dpkg 1.15.8).
Warning: Take into account that depending on the excluded
paths you might completely break your system, use with
caution.
The glob patterns use the same wildcards used in the shell,
were ‘*’ matches any sequence of characters, including the
empty string and also ‘/’. For example, «/usr/*/READ*»
matches «/usr/share/doc/package/README». As usual, ‘?’
matches any single character (again, including ‘/’). And ‘[’
starts a character class, which can contain a list of
characters, ranges and complementations. See glob(7) for
detailed information about globbing. Note: The current
implementation might re-include more directories and symlinks
than needed, in particular when there is a more specific
re-inclusion, to be on the safe side and avoid possible unpack
failures; future work might fix this.
This can be used to remove all paths except some particular
ones; a typical case is:
--path-exclude=/usr/share/doc/*
--path-include=/usr/share/doc/*/copyright
to remove all documentation files except the copyright files.
These two options can be specified multiple times, and
interleaved with each other. Both are processed in the given
order, with the last rule that matches a file name making the
decision.
The filters are applied when unpacking the binary packages,
and as such only have knowledge of the type of object
currently being filtered (e.g. a normal file or a directory)
and have not visibility of what objects will come next.
Because these filters have side effects (in contrast to
find(1) filters), excluding an exact pathname that happens to
be a directory object like /usr/share/doc will not have the
desired result, and only that pathname will be excluded (which
could be automatically reincluded if the code sees the need).
Any subsequent files contained within that directory will fail
to unpack.
Hint: make sure the globs are not expanded by your shell.
--verify-format format-name
Sets the output format for the --verify command (since dpkg
1.17.2).
The only currently supported output format is rpm, which
consists of a line for every path that failed any check.
These lines have the following format:
missing [c] pathname [(error-message)]
?M5?????? [c] pathname
The first 9 characters are used to report the checks result,
either a literal missing when the file is not present or its
metadata cannot be fetched, or one of the following special
characters that report the result for each check:
‘?’ Implies the check could not be done (lack of support, file
permissions, etc).
‘.’ Implies the check passed.
‘A-Za-z0-9’
Implies a specific check failed. The following positions
and alphanumeric characters are currently supported:
1 ‘?’
These checks are currently not supported, will always
be ‘?’.
2 ‘M’
The file mode check failed (since dpkg 1.21.0).
Because pathname metadata is currently not tracked,
this check can only be partially emulated via a very
simple heuristic for pathnames that have a known
digest, which implies they should be regular files,
where the check will fail if the pathname is not a
regular file on the filesystem. This check will
currently never succeed as it does not have enough
information available.
3 ‘5’
The digest check failed, which means the file contents
have changed. This is only an integrity check and
should not be considered as any kind of security
verification.
4-9 ‘?’
These checks are currently not supported, will always
be ‘?’.
The line is followed by a space and an attribute character.
The following attribute character is supported:
‘c’ The pathname is a conffile.
Finally followed by another space and the pathname.
In case the entry was of the missing type, and the file was
not actually present on the filesystem, then the line is
followed by a space and the error message enclosed within
parenthesis.
--status-fd n
Send machine-readable package status and progress information
to file descriptor n. This option can be specified multiple
times. The information is generally one record per line, in
one of the following forms:
status: package: status
Package status changed; status is as in the status file.
status: package : error : extended-error-message
An error occurred. Any possible newlines in
extended-error-message will be converted to spaces before
output.
status: file : conffile-prompt : 'real-old' 'real-new'
useredited distedited
User is being asked a conffile question.
processing: stage: package
Sent just before a processing stage starts. stage is one
of upgrade, install (both sent before unpacking),
configure, trigproc, disappear, remove, purge.
--status-logger=command
Send machine-readable package status and progress information
to the shell command's standard input, to be run via “sh -c”
(since dpkg 1.16.0). This option can be specified multiple
times. The output format used is the same as in --status-fd.
The status loggers are not executed when --no-act is
specified, or when running as non-root without
--force-not-root.
--log=filename
Log status change updates and actions to filename, instead of
the default /usr/local/var/log/dpkg.log. If this option is
given multiple times, the last filename is used. Log messages
are of the form:
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS startup type command
For each dpkg invocation where type is archives (with a
command of unpack or install) or packages (with a command
of configure, triggers-only, remove or purge).
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS status state pkg installed-version
For status change updates.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS action pkg installed-version
available-version
For actions where action is one of install, upgrade,
configure, trigproc, disappear, remove or purge.
YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS conffile filename decision
For conffile changes where decision is either install or
keep.
--robot
Use a machine-readable output format. This provides an
interface for programs that need to parse the output of some
of the commands that do not otherwise emit a machine-readable
output format. No localization will be used, and the output
will be modified to make it easier to parse.
The only currently supported command is --version.
--no-pager
Disables the use of any pager when showing information (since
dpkg 1.19.2).
--no-debsig
Do not try to verify package signatures.
--no-triggers
Do not run any triggers in this run (since dpkg 1.14.17), but
activations will still be recorded. If used with --configure
package or --triggers-only package then the named package
postinst will still be run even if only a triggers run is
needed. Use of this option may leave packages in the improper
triggers-awaited and triggers-pending states. This can be
fixed later by running: dpkg --configure --pending.
--triggers
Cancels a previous --no-triggers (since dpkg 1.14.17).
0 The requested action was successfully performed. Or a check
or assertion command returned true.
1 A check or assertion command returned false.
2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line
usage, or interactions with the system, such as accesses to
the database, memory allocations, etc.
External environment
PATH
This variable is expected to be defined in the environment and
point to the system paths where several required programs are
to be found. If it's not set or the programs are not found,
dpkg will abort.
HOME
If set, dpkg will use it as the directory from which to read
the user specific configuration file.
TMPDIR
If set, dpkg will use it as the directory in which to create
temporary files and directories.
SHELL
The program dpkg will execute when starting a new interactive
shell, or when spawning a command via a shell.
PAGER
DPKG_PAGER
The program dpkg will execute when running a pager, which will
be executed with «$SHELL -c», for example when displaying the
conffile differences. If SHELL is not set, «sh» will be used
instead.
The DPKG_PAGER overrides the PAGER environment variable (since
dpkg 1.19.2). If none of the programs pointed by DPKG_PAGER
or PAGER are present, the following programs will be tried in
order (since dpkg 1.22.12): the default pager less, then less,
more, and finally cat.
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 1.22.7). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
(default).
DPKG_DEBUG
Sets the debug mask (since dpkg 1.21.10) from an octal value.
The currently accepted flags are described in the --debug
option.
DPKG_FORCE
Sets the force flags (since dpkg 1.19.5). When this variable
is present, no built-in force defaults will be applied. If
the variable is present but empty, all force flags will be
disabled.
DPKG_ADMINDIR
If set and the --admindir or --root options have not been
specified, it will be used as the dpkg administrative
directory (since dpkg 1.20.0).
DPKG_FRONTEND_LOCKED
Set by a package manager frontend to notify dpkg that it
should not acquire the frontend lock (since dpkg 1.19.1).
DPKG_PATH_PASSWD
Sets the pathname for the system passwd file. This path is
relative to the --root directory. The default is /etc/passwd.
Since dpkg 1.22.16.
DPKG_PATH_GROUP
Sets the pathname for the system group file. This path is
relative to the --root directory. The default is /etc/group.
Since dpkg 1.22.16.
Internal environment
LESS
Defined by dpkg to “-FRSXMQ”, if not already set, when
spawning a pager (since dpkg 1.19.2). To change the default
behavior, this variable can be preset to some other value
including an empty string, or the PAGER or DPKG_PAGER
variables can be set to disable specific options with «-+»,
for example DPKG_PAGER="less -+F".
DPKG_ROOT
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to
indicate which installation to act on (since dpkg 1.18.5).
The value is intended to be prepended to any path maintainer
scripts operate on. During normal operation, this variable is
empty. When installing packages into a different instdir,
dpkg normally invokes maintainer scripts using chroot(2) and
leaves this variable empty, but if --force-script-chrootless
is specified then the chroot(2) call is skipped and instdir is
non-empty.
DPKG_ADMINDIR
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to
indicate the dpkg administrative directory to use (since dpkg
1.16.0). This variable is always set to the current
--admindir value.
DPKG_FORCE
Defined by dpkg on the subprocesses environment to all the
currently enabled force option names separated by commas
(since dpkg 1.19.5).
DPKG_SHELL_REASON
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Current valid
value: conffile-prompt.
DPKG_CONFFILE_OLD
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path
to the old conffile.
DPKG_CONFFILE_NEW
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned on the conffile prompt to
examine the situation (since dpkg 1.15.6). Contains the path
to the new conffile.
DPKG_HOOK_ACTION
Defined by dpkg on the shell spawned when executing a hook
action (since dpkg 1.15.4). Contains the current dpkg action.
DPKG_RUNNING_VERSION
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
version of the currently running dpkg instance (since dpkg
1.14.17).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
(non-arch-qualified) package name being handled (since dpkg
1.14.17).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_PACKAGE_REFCOUNT
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
package reference count, i.e. the number of package instances
with a state greater than not-installed (since dpkg 1.17.2).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_ARCH
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
architecture the package got built for (since dpkg 1.15.4).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_NAME
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to the
name of the script running, one of preinst, postinst, prerm or
postrm (since dpkg 1.15.7).
DPKG_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG
Defined by dpkg on the maintainer script environment to a
value (‘0’ or ‘1’) noting whether debugging has been requested
(with the --debug option) for the maintainer scripts (since
dpkg 1.18.4).
/usr/local/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/[0-9a-zA-Z_-]*
Configuration fragment files (since dpkg 1.15.4).
/usr/local/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg
Configuration file with default options.
/usr/local/var/log/dpkg.log
Default log file (see /usr/local/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg and option
--log).
The other files listed below are in their default directories, see
option --admindir to see how to change locations of these files.
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/available
List of available packages.
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status
Statuses of available packages. This file contains
information about whether a package is marked for removing or
not, whether it is installed or not, etc. See section
"INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES" for more info.
The status file is backed up daily in /usr/local/var/backups.
It can be useful if it's lost or corrupted due to filesystems
troubles.
The format and contents of a binary package are described in
deb(5).
Filesystem filenames
During unpacking and configuration dpkg uses various filenames for
backup and rollback purposes. The following is a simplified
explanation of how these filenames get used during package
installation.
*.dpkg-new
During unpack, dpkg extracts new filesystem objects into
pathname.dpkg-new (except for existing directories or symlinks
to directories which get skipped), once that is done and after
having performed backups of the old objects, the objects get
renamed to pathname.
*.dpkg-tmp
During unpack, dpkg makes backups of the old filesystem
objects into pathname.dpkg-tmp after extracting the new
objects. These backups are performed as either a rename for
directories (but only if they switch file type), a new symlink
copy for symlinks, or a hard link for any other filesystem
object, except for conffiles which get no backups because they
are processed at a later stage.
In case of needing to rollback, these backups get used to
restore the previous contents of the objects. These get
removed automatically after the installation is complete.
*.dpkg-old
During configuration, when installing a new version, dpkg can
make a backup of the previous modified conffile into
pathname.dpkg-old.
*.dpkg-dist
During configuration, when keeping the old version, dpkg can
make a backup of the new unmodified conffile into
pathname.dpkg-dist.
Any operation that needs write access to the database or the
filesystem is considered a privileged operation that might allow
root escalation. These operations must never be delegated to an
untrusted user or be done on untrusted packages, as that might
allow root access to the system.
Some operations (such as package verification) might need root
privileges to be able to access files on the filesystem that would
otherwise be inaccessible due to restricted permissions, but
should otherwise work normally and produce appropriate messages in
those cases.
Query operations should never require root, and delegating their
execution to unprivileged users via some gain-root command can
have security implications (such as privilege escalation), for
example when a pager is automatically invoked by the tool.
See also the SECURITY section of the dpkg-deb(1) and dpkg-split(1)
manual pages.
--no-act usually gives less information than might be helpful.
To list installed packages related to the editor vi(1) (note that
dpkg-query does not load the available file anymore by default,
and the dpkg-query --load-avail option should be used instead for
that):
dpkg -l '*vi*'
To see the entries in /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/available of two
packages:
dpkg --print-avail vim neovim | less
To search the listing of packages yourself:
dpkg --print-avail | less
To remove an installed neovim package:
dpkg -r neovim
To install a package, you first need to find it in an archive or
media disc. When using an archive based on a pool structure,
knowing the archive area and the name of the package is enough to
infer the pathname:
dpkg -i /media/bdrom/pool/main/v/vim/vim_9.0.2018-1_amd64.deb
To make a local copy of the package selection states:
dpkg --get-selections >myselections
You might transfer this file to another computer, and after having
updated the available file there with your package manager
frontend of choice (see
<https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#set-selections> for more
details), for example:
apt-cache dumpavail | dpkg --merge-avail
you can install it with:
dpkg --clear-selections
dpkg --set-selections <myselections
Note that this will not actually install or remove anything, but
just set the selection state on the requested packages. You will
need some other application to actually download and install the
requested packages. For example, run apt-get dselect-upgrade.
Ordinarily, you will find that dselect(1) provides a more
convenient way to modify the package selection states.
Additional functionality can be gained by installing any of the
following packages: apt, aptitude and debsig-verify.
aptitude(8), apt(8), dselect(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-query(1),
deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg.cfg(5), and dpkg-reconfigure(8).
See /usr/local/share/doc/dpkg/THANKS for the list of people who
have contributed to dpkg.
This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see
⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩. This
page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At
that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2025-08-06.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
1.22.19-74-gf1ca0 2025-05-18 dpkg(1)
Pages that refer to this page: dpkg-architecture(1), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg-divert(1), dpkg-name(1), dpkg-query(1), dpkg-realpath(1), dpkg-scanpackages(1), dpkg-split(1), dpkg-statoverride(1), dpkg-trigger(1), dselect(1), systemd-analyze(1), deb-conffiles(5), deb-control(5), deb-md5sums(5), deb-postinst(5), deb-postrm(5), deb-preinst(5), deb-prerm(5), deb-substvars(5), deb-triggers(5), dpkg.cfg(5), deb-version(7)
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