dpkg-deb(1) dpkg suite dpkg-deb(1)
NAME
dpkg-deb - Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-deb -b|--build directory [archive|directory]
dpkg-deb -I|--info archive [control-file-name ..]
dpkg-deb -f|--field archive [control-field-name ...]
dpkg-deb -c|--contents archive
dpkg-deb -W|--show [--showformat=format] archive
dpkg-deb -x|--extract|-X|--vextract archive directory
dpkg-deb -e|--control archive directory
dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile archive
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 dpkg-deb. dpkg will spot that you wanted dpkg-deb and
run it for you.
ACTION OPTIONS
--build, -b
Creates a debian archive from the filesystem tree stored in
directory. directory must have a DEBIAN subdirectory, which con
tains the control information files such as the control file
itself. This directory will not appear in the binary packages
filesystem archive, but instead the files in it will be put in
the binary packages control information area.
You can specify the compression level used by adding a -z#
option. dpkg-deb will pass that option on to gzip.
Unless you specify --nocheck, dpkg-deb will read DEBIAN/control
and parse it. It will check it for syntax errors and other prob
lems, 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 directory.deb.
If the archive to be created already exists it will be overwrit
ten.
If the second argument is a directory then dpkg-deb will write
to the file package_version_arch.deb, or 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).
--info, -I
Provides information about a binary package archive.
If no control-file-names are specified then it will print a sum
mary of the contents of the package as well as its control file.
If any control-file-names are specified then dpkg-deb will print
them in the order they were specified; if any of the components
werent present it will print an error message to stderr about
each one and exit with status 2.
--show, -W
Provides information about a binary package archive in the for
mat specified by the --showformat argument. The default format
displays the packages name and version on one line, seperated
by a tabulator.
--field, -f
Extracts control file information from a binary package archive.
If no control-file-fields 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 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.
--contents, -c
Lists the contents of the filesystem tree archive portion of the
package archive. It is currently produced in the format gener
ated by tars verbose listing.
--extract, -x, --vextract, -X
Extracts the filesystem tree from a package archive into the
specified directory.
--vextract (-X) prints a listing of the files extracted as it
goes, while --extract (-x) is silent unless an error occurs.
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.
--fsys-tarfile
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.
--control, -e
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.
--help, -h
Prints dpkg-debs usage message, giving a summary of its options
and their uses.
--version
Prints dpkg-debs version number.
--licence
Prints information about dpkg-debs copyright licensing and lack
of warranty. (The American spelling --license is also
supported).
OTHER 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 "${field-
name}" form, a list of the valid fields can be easily produced
using -I on the same package. A complete explanation of the for
matting options (including escape sequences and field tabbing)
can be found in the explanation of the --showformat option in
dpkg-query(1).
The default for this field is "${Package}\t${Version}\n".
--new Ensures that dpkg-deb builds a new format archive. This is the
default.
--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.
--nocheck
Inhibits dpkg-deb --builds usual checks on the proposed con
tents of an archive. You can build any archive you want, no mat
ter how broken, this way.
--debug, -D
Enables debugging output. This is not very interesting.
BUGS
dpkg-deb -I package1.deb package2.deb does the wrong thing.
There is no authentication on .deb files; in fact, there isnt 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
packages scripts run and its status and contents recorded.
SEE ALSO
deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg(1), dselect(1).
AUTHOR
dpkg-deb and this manpage were written by Ian Jackson. They are Copy
right (C) 1995-1996 by him and released under the GNU General Public
Licence; there is NO WARRANTY. See /usr/share/doc/dpkg/copyright and
/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for details.
Debian Project 2006-06-17 dpkg-deb(1)
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