A package manager is a program that installs and uninstalls software, and
keeps track of all the components each piece of software needs.
Dpkg is the Ubuntu package manager dpkg is a medium-level tool to
install, build, remove and manage Ubuntu packages. The primary and more
user-friendly front-end for dpkg is dselect.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.
Now we will see all the available commands for dpkg with examples
1) Install a package
Syntax
dpkg -i <.deb file name>
Example
dpkg -i avg71flm_r28-1_i386.deb
2) Install all packages recursively from a directory
Syntax
dpkg -R
Example
dpkg -R /usr/local/src
3) Unpack the package, but don’t configure it.
Syntax
dpkg --unpack package_file
If you use -R option is specified, package_file must refer to a
directory instead.
Example
dpkg --unpack avg71flm_r28-1_i386.deb
4) Reconfigure an unpacked package
Syntax
dpkg --configure package
If -a is given instead of package, all unpacked but uncon-figured
packages are configured.
Example
dpkg --configure avg71flm_r28-1_i386.deb
5) Remove an installed package except configuration files
Syntax
dpkg -r
Example
dpkg -r avg71flm_r28-1_i386.deb
6) Remove an installed package including configuration files
Syntax
dpkg -P
If you use -a is given instead of a package name, then all packages
unpacked, but marked to be removed or purged in file
/var/lib/dpkg/status, are removed or purged, respectively.
Example
dpkg -P avg71flm
7) Replace available packages info
Syntax
dpkg --update-avail <Packages-file>
With this option old information is replaced with the information in
the Packages-file.
Merge with info from file
Syntax
dpkg --merge-avail <Packages-file>
With this option old informa-tion is combined with information
from Packages-file.
The Packages-file distributed with Debian is simply named
Packages.dpkg keeps its record of available packages in
/var/lib/dpkg/available.
9) Update dpkg and dselect’s idea of which packages are
available with information from the package pack-age_file.
Syntax
dpkg -A package_file
10) Forget about uninstalled unavailable packages.
Syntax
dpkg --forget-old-unavail
11) Erase the existing information about what packages are available.
Syntax
dpkg --clear-avail
12) Searches for packages that have been installed only partially on
your system.
Syntax
dpkg -C
13) Compare Package versions version numbers
Syntax
dpkg --compare-versions ver1 op ver2
14) Display a brief help message.
Syntax
dpkg --help
15) Display dpkg licence.
Syntax
dpkg --licence (or) dpkg --license
16) Display dpkg version information.
Syntax
dpkg --version
17) Build a deb package.
Syntax
dpkg -b directory [filename]
18) List contents of a deb package.
Syntax
dpkg -c filename
19) Show information about a package.
Syntax
dpkg -I filename [control-file]
20) List packages matching given pattern.
Syntax
dpkg -l package-name-pattern
Example
dpkg -l vim
21) List all installed packages, along with package version and short
description
Syntax
dpkg -l
22) Report status of specified package.
Syntax
dpkg -s package-name
Example
dpkg -s ssh
23) List files installed to your system from package.
Syntax
dpkg -L package-Name
Example
dpkg -L nagios2
24) Search for a filename from installed packages.
Syntax
dpkg -S filename-search-pattern
Example
dpkg -S /sbin/ifconfig
25) Display details about package
Syntax
dpkg -p package-name
Example
dpkg -p nagios2
Please check if this is any help for you.
Regards.
×