If you have a package file containing a package you want to
install, the simplest way to install the package is to use the
dpkg command:
dpkg --install
packagefile
where
packagefile stands for the name
of the package file, which generally ends with the characters
.deb. If all the prerequisite packages have
already been installed and if the package does not conflict with any
installed packages, the command will unpack the package files, move
them to their proper locations, and execute the scripts necessary to
configure the package.
If your system lacks a prerequisite package or if the specified
package conflicts with a package installed on your system,
dpkg will report the error and terminate. If the
problem is the lack of one or more prerequisite packages, you can
obtain and install them, and then install the desired package. If the
problem is a package conflict, you must decide which of the
conflicting packages you want. If you decide to remove an installed
package, you can do so using the technique described in the following
subsection.
To remove an installed package, use the command
dpkg --remove
package
This command does not remove package configuration files, which
may facilitate subsequent re-installation of the package. If you want
to remove the configuration files as well, use the command:
dpkg --purge
package
The Debian package management facility maintains a database that
contains information about installed packages. You can use the
dpkg command to query this database.
To print the description of a package, issue the following
command:
dpkg --print-avail
package
where
package specifies the name of
the package. For example, to print the description of the package
gnome-guile, issue the command:
dpkg --print-avail gnome-guile
To list known packages by name, issue the following
command:
dpkg -l
pattern
where
pattern is a single-quoted
string that specifies a pattern. Only packages with names matching the
pattern will be listed. The pattern can include wildcards characters
such as an asterisk (*), which substitutes for any string of
characters. For example, the pattern
'apache*'
matches package names beginning with
apache.
The listing presents the following information:
-
Selection status
-
Indicates the selection status
established using
dselect, which may be any one
of:
-
Unknown
-
Indicates that the selection status is not known.
-
Install
-
Indicates that the package is marked for installation.
-
Remove
-
Indicates that the package is marked for removal.
-
Purge
-
Indicates that the package and its configuration files are
marked for removal.
-
Status
-
Indicates the installation status of the
package, which may be any one of:
-
Not installed
-
Indicates that the package has not been installed.
-
Installed
-
Indicates that the package has been successfully installed.
-
Config-files
-
Indicates that only the package's configuration files are
currently installed.
-
Unpacked
-
Indicates that the package has been unpacked, in preparation for
installation.
-
Failed-config
-
Indicates that the package has been installed, but its
configuration script failed.
-
Half-installed
-
Indicates that an attempt to install the package failed.
-
Error
-
Indicates the error status of the
package, which may be one or more of:
-
None
-
Indicates no error is associated with the package.
-
Hold
-
Indicates that the package has been placed on hold, so that it
can be neither installed nor removed.
-
Reinstallation required
-
Indicates that the package must be re-installed.
-
Name
-
Gives the name of the package.
-
Version
-
Gives the version number of the package.
-
Description
-
Gives a brief description of the
package. Descriptions are generally available only for installed
packages.
If the command produces too much output to conveniently view,
pipe its result through the
more command, which
lets you page through the output:
dpkg -l
pattern | more
If you want to view only installed packages, issue a command
such as:
dpkg -l
pattern | grep '^i' | more
For example, to view installed packages with names beginning
with
gnome, issue the following command:
dpkg -l 'gnome*' | grep '^i' | more
The pattern
'*' matches any package name, so
the following command prints information about every installed
package:
dpkg -l '*' | grep '^i' | more
To report the status of a package, issue the following command:
dpkg --status
package
where
package specifies the name of
the package.
For example, to report the status of the
gnome-guile package, issue the command:
dpkg --status gnome-guile
To list the files installed from a specified package, issue the
command:
dpkg --listfiles
package
where
package specifies the name of
the package.
For example, to list the files installed from the
gnome-guile package, issue the command:
dpkg --listfiles gnome-guile
