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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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+<!-- -*- DocBook -*- -->
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+<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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+ "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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+<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
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+]>
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+
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+<book lang="en">
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+
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+<title>dpkg technical manual</title>
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+
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+<bookinfo>
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+
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+<authorgroup>
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+ <author>
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+ <personname>Tom Lees</personname><email>tom@lpsg.demon.co.uk</email>
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+ </author>
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+</authorgroup>
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+
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+<releaseinfo>Version &apt-product-version;</releaseinfo>
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+
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+<abstract>
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+<para>
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+This document describes the minimum necessary workings for the APT dselect
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+replacement. It gives an overall specification of what its external interface
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+must look like for compatibility, and also gives details of some internal
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+quirks.
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+</para>
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+</abstract>
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+
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+<copyright><year>1997</year><holder>Tom Lees</holder></copyright>
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+
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+<legalnotice>
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+<title>License Notice</title>
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+<para>
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+APT and this document are free software; you can redistribute them and/or
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+modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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+the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
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+option) any later version.
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+</para>
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+<para>
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+For more details, on Debian systems, see the file
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+/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL for the full license.
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+</para>
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+</legalnotice>
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+
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+</bookinfo>
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+
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+<chapter id="ch1"><title>Quick summary of dpkg's external interface</title>
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+
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+<section id="control"><title>Control files</title>
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+<para>
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+The basic dpkg package control file supports the following major features:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+5 types of dependencies:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Pre-Depends, which must be satisfied before a package may be unpacked
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Depends, which must be satisfied before a package may be configured
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Recommends, to specify a package which if not installed may severely limit the
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+usefulness of the package
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Suggests, to specify a package which may increase the productivity of the
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+package
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Conflicts, to specify a package which must NOT be installed in order for the
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+package to be configured
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Breaks, to specify a package which is broken by the package and which should
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+therefore not be configured while broken
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+<para>
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+Each of these dependencies can specify a version and a depedency on that
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+version, for example "<= 0.5-1", "== 2.7.2-1", etc. The comparators
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+available are:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+"<<" - less than
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+"<=" - less than or equal to
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+">>" - greater than
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+">=" - greater than or equal to
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+"==" - equal to
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+The concept of "virtual packages", which many other packages may provide,
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+using the Provides mechanism. An example of this is the "httpd" virtual
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+package, which all web servers should provide. Virtual package names may be
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+used in dependency headers. However, current policy is that virtual packages
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+do not support version numbers, so dependencies on virtual packages with
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+versions will always fail.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Several other control fields, such as Package, Version, Description, Section,
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+Priority, etc., which are mainly for classification purposes. The package
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+name must consist entirely of lowercase characters, plus the characters '+',
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+'-', and '.'. Fields can extend across multiple lines - on the second and
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+subsequent lines, there is a space at the beginning instead of a field name
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+and a ':'. Empty lines must consist of the text " .", which will be ignored,
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+as will the initial space for other continuation lines. This feature is
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+usually only used in the Description field.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+</section>
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+
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+<section id="s1.2"><title>The dpkg status area</title>
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+<para>
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+The "dpkg status area" is the term used to refer to the directory where dpkg
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+keeps its various status files (GNU would have you call it the dpkg shared
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+state directory). This is always, on Debian systems, /var/lib/dpkg. However,
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+the default directory name should not be hard-coded, but #define'd, so that
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+alteration is possible (it is available via configure in dpkg 1.4.0.9 and
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+above). Of course, in a library, code should be allowed to override the
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+default directory, but the default should be part of the library (so that
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+the user may change the dpkg admin dir simply by replacing the library).
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+</para>
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+<para>
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+Dpkg keeps a variety of files in its status area. These are discussed later
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+on in this document, but a quick summary of the files is here:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+available - this file contains a concatenation of control information from all
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+the packages which dpkg knows about. This is updated using the dpkg commands
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+"--update-avail <file>", "--merge-avail <file>", and
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+"--clear-avail".
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+status - this file contains information on the following things for every
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+package:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Whether it is installed, not installed, unpacked, removed, failed
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+configuration, or half-installed (deconfigured in favour of another package).
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Whether it is selected as install, hold, remove, or purge.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+If it is "ok" (no installation problems), or "not-ok".
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+It usually also contains the section and priority (so that dselect may classify
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+packages not in available)
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+For packages which did not initially appear in the "available" file when they
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+were installed, the other control information for them.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+<para>
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+The exact format for the "Status:" field is:
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+</para>
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+<screen>
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+ Status: Want Flag Status
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+</screen>
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+<para>
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+Where <replaceable>Want</replaceable> may be one of
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+<emphasis>unknown</emphasis>, <emphasis>install</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>hold</emphasis>, <emphasis>deinstall</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>purge</emphasis>. <replaceable>Flag</replaceable> may
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+be one of <emphasis>ok</emphasis>, <emphasis>reinstreq</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>hold</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>hold-reinstreq</emphasis>. <replaceable>Status</replaceable> may
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+be one of <emphasis>not-installed</emphasis>, <emphasis>unpacked</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>half-configured</emphasis>, <emphasis>installed</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>half-installed</emphasis> <emphasis>config-files</emphasis>,
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+<emphasis>post-inst-failed</emphasis>, <emphasis>removal-failed</emphasis>.
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+The states are as follows:-
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+</para>
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+<variablelist>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>not-installed</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+No files are installed from the package, it has no config files left, it
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+uninstalled cleanly if it ever was installed.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>unpacked</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+The basic files have been unpacked (and are listed in
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+/var/lib/dpkg/info/[package].list. There are config files present, but the
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+postinst script has _NOT_ been run.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>half-configured</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+The package was installed and unpacked, but the postinst script failed in some
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+way.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>installed</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+All files for the package are installed, and the configuration was also
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+successful.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>half-installed</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+An attempt was made to remove the packagem but there was a failure in the
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+prerm script.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>config-files</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+The package was "removed", not "purged". The config files are left, but
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+nothing else.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>post-inst-failed</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Old name for half-configured. Do not use.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+<varlistentry>
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+<term>removal-failed</term>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+Old name for half-installed. Do not use.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</varlistentry>
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+</variablelist>
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+<para>
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+The two last items are only left in dpkg for compatibility - they are
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+understood by it, but never written out in this form.
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+</para>
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+<para>
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+Please see the dpkg source code, <literal>lib/parshelp.c</literal>,
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+<emphasis>statusinfos</emphasis>, <emphasis>eflaginfos</emphasis> and
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+<emphasis>wantinfos</emphasis> for more details.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+info - this directory contains files from the control archive of every
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+package currently installed. They are installed with a prefix of
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+"<packagename>.". In addition to this, it also contains a file
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+called <package>.list for every package, which contains a list
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+of files. Note also that the control file is not copied into here; it
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+is instead found as part of status or available.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+methods - this directory is reserved for "method"-specific files - each
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+"method" has a subdirectory underneath this directory (or at least,
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+it can have). In addition, there is another subdirectory "mnt", where
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+misc. filesystems (floppies, CD-ROMs, etc.) are mounted.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+alternatives - directory used by the "update-alternatives" program. It
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+contains one file for each "alternatives" interface, which contains
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+information about all the needed symlinked files for each alternative.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+diversions - file used by the "dpkg-divert" program. Each diversion takes
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+three lines. The first is the package name (or ":" for user diversion), the
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+second the original filename, and the third the diverted filename.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+updates - directory used internally by dpkg. This is discussed later, in the
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+section <xref linkend="updates"/>.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+parts - temporary directory used by dpkg-split
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+</section>
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+
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+<section id="s1.3"><title>The dpkg library files</title>
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+<para>
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+These files are installed under /usr/lib/dpkg (usually), but
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+/usr/local/lib/dpkg is also a possibility (as Debian policy dictates). Under
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+this directory, there is a "methods" subdirectory. The methods subdirectory in
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+turn contains any number of subdirectories for each general method processor
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+(note that one set of method scripts can, and is, used for more than one of
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+the methods listed under dselect).
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+</para>
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+<para>
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+The following files may be found in each of these subdirectories:-
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+</para>
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+<itemizedlist>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+names - One line per method, two-digit priority to appear on menu at
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+beginning, followed by a space, the name, and then another space and
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+the short description.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+desc.<name> - Contains the long description displayed by dselect
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+when the cursor is put over the <name> method.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+setup - Script or program which sets up the initial values to be used
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+by this method. Called with first argument as the status area directory
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+(/var/lib/dpkg), second argument as the name of the method (as in the
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+directory name), and the third argument as the option (as in the names file).
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+install - Script/program called when the "install" option of dselect is run
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+with this method. Same arguments as for setup.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+<listitem>
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+<para>
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+update - Script/program called when the "update" option of dselect is
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+run. Same arguments as for setup/install.
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+</para>
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+</listitem>
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+</itemizedlist>
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+</section>
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+
|
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+<section id="s1.4"><title>The "dpkg" command-line utility</title>
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+
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+<section id="s1.4.1"><title>"Documented" command-line interfaces</title>
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+<para>
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+As yet unwritten. You can refer to the other manuals for now. See
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+<citerefentry><refentrytitle>dpkg</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
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+</para>
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+</section>
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+
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|
+<section id="s1.4.2"><title>Environment variables which dpkg responds to</title>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+DPKG_NO_TSTP - if set to a non-null value, this variable causes dpkg to run a
|
|
|
+child shell process instead of sending itself a SIGTSTP, when the user selects
|
|
|
+to background the dpkg process when it asks about conffiles.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+SHELL - used to determine which shell to run in the case when DPKG_NO_TSTP
|
|
|
+is set.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+CC - used as the C compiler to call to determine the target architecture. The
|
|
|
+default is "gcc".
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+PATH - dpkg checks that it can find at least the following files in the path
|
|
|
+when it wants to run package installation scripts, and gives an error if it
|
|
|
+cannot find all of them:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+ldconfig
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+start-stop-daemon
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+install-info
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+update-rc.d
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s1.4.3"><title>Assertions</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The dpkg utility itself is required for quite a number of packages, even if
|
|
|
+they have been installed with a tool totally separate from dpkg. The reason
|
|
|
+for this is that some packages, in their pre-installation scripts, check that
|
|
|
+your version of dpkg supports certain features. This was broken from the
|
|
|
+start, and it should have actually been a control file header "Dpkg-requires",
|
|
|
+or similar. What happens is that the configuration scripts will abort or
|
|
|
+continue according to the exit code of a call to dpkg, which will stop them
|
|
|
+from being wrongly configured.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+These special command-line options, which simply return as true or false are
|
|
|
+all prefixed with "--assert-". Here is a list of them (without the prefix):-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+support-predepends - Returns success or failure according to whether a version
|
|
|
+of dpkg which supports predepends properly (1.1.0 or above) is installed,
|
|
|
+according to the database.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+working-epoch - Return success or failure according to whether a version of
|
|
|
+dpkg which supports epochs in version properly (1.4.0.7 or above) is installed,
|
|
|
+according to the database.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Both these options check the status database to see what version of the
|
|
|
+"dpkg" package is installed, and check it against a known working version.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s1.4.4"><title>--predep-package</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+This strange option is described as follows in the source code:
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<screen>
|
|
|
+/* Print a single package which:
|
|
|
+ * (a) is the target of one or more relevant predependencies.
|
|
|
+ * (b) has itself no unsatisfied pre-dependencies.
|
|
|
+ * If such a package is present output is the Packages file entry,
|
|
|
+ * which can be massaged as appropriate.
|
|
|
+ * Exit status:
|
|
|
+ * 0 = a package printed, OK
|
|
|
+ * 1 = no suitable package available
|
|
|
+ * 2 = error
|
|
|
+ */
|
|
|
+</screen>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+On further inspection of the source code, it appears that what is does is
|
|
|
+this:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Looks at the packages in the database which are selected as "install",
|
|
|
+and are installed.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+It then looks at the Pre-Depends information for each of these packages
|
|
|
+from the available file. When it find a package for which any of the
|
|
|
+pre-dependencies are not satisfied, it breaks from the loop through the
|
|
|
+packages.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+It then looks through the unsatisfied pre-dependencies, and looks for
|
|
|
+packages which would satisfy this pre-dependency, stopping on the first
|
|
|
+it finds. If it finds none, it bombs out with an error.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+It then continues this for every dependency of the initial package.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Eventually, it writes out the record of all the packages to satisfy the
|
|
|
+pre-dependencies. This is used by the disk method to make sure that its
|
|
|
+dependency ordering is correct. What happens is that all pre-depending
|
|
|
+packages are first installed, then it runs dpkg -iGROEB on the directory,
|
|
|
+which installs in the order package files are found. Since pre-dependencies
|
|
|
+mean that a package may not even be unpacked unless they are satisfied, it
|
|
|
+is necessary to do this (usually, since all the package files are unpacked
|
|
|
+in one phase, the configured in another, this is not needed).
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</chapter>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<chapter id="ch2"><title>dpkg-deb and .deb file internals</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+This chapter describes the internals to the "dpkg-deb" tool, which is used by
|
|
|
+"dpkg" as a back-end. dpkg-deb has its own tar extraction functions, which is
|
|
|
+the source of many problems, as it does not support long filenames, using
|
|
|
+extension blocks.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s2.1"><title>The .deb archive format</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The main principal of the new-format Debian archive (I won't describe the old
|
|
|
+format - for that have a look at deb-old.5), is that the archive really is an
|
|
|
+archive - as used by "ar" and friends. However, dpkg-deb uses this format
|
|
|
+internally, rather than calling "ar". Inside this archive, there are usually
|
|
|
+the following members:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+debian-binary
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+control.tar.gz
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+data.tar.gz
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The debian-binary member consists simply of the string "2.0", indicating
|
|
|
+the format version. control.tar.gz contains the control files (and scripts),
|
|
|
+and the data.tar.gz contains the actual files to populate the filesystem
|
|
|
+with. Both tarfiles extract straight into the current directory. Information
|
|
|
+on the tar formats can be found in the GNU tar info page. Since dpkg-deb
|
|
|
+calls "tar -cf" to build packages, the Debian packages use the GNU extensions.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s2.2"><title>The dpkg-deb command-line</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+dpkg-deb documents itself thoroughly with its '--help' command-line
|
|
|
+option. However, I am including a reference to these for
|
|
|
+completeness. dpkg-deb supports the following options:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--build (-b) <dir> - builds a .deb archive, takes a directory which
|
|
|
+contains all the files as an argument. Note that the directory
|
|
|
+<dir>/DEBIAN will be packed separately into the control archive.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--contents (-c) <debfile> - Lists the contents of the "data.tar.gz"
|
|
|
+member.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--control (-e) <debfile> - Extracts the control archive into a directory
|
|
|
+called DEBIAN. Alternatively, with another argument, it will extract it into a
|
|
|
+different directory.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--info (-I) <debfile> - Prints the contents of the "control" file in the
|
|
|
+control archive to stdout. Alternatively, giving it other arguments will cause
|
|
|
+it to print the contents of those files instead.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--field (-f) <debfile> <field> ... - Prints any number of fields
|
|
|
+from the "control" file. Giving it extra arguments limits the fields it prints
|
|
|
+to only those specified. With no command-line arguments other than a filename,
|
|
|
+it is equivalent to -I and just the .deb filename.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--extract (-x) <debfile> <dir> - Extracts the data archive of a
|
|
|
+debian package under the directory <dir>.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--vextract (-X) <debfile> <dir> - Same as --extract, except it
|
|
|
+is equivalent of giving tar the '-v' option - it prints the filenames as it
|
|
|
+extracts them.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--fsys-tarfile <debfile> - This option outputs a gunzip'd version of
|
|
|
+data.tar.gz to stdout.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--new - sets the archive format to be used to the new Debian format
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--old - sets the archive format to be used to the old Debian format
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--debug - Tells dpkg-deb to produce debugging output
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--nocheck - Tells dpkg-deb not to check the sanity of the control file
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--help (-h) - Gives a help message
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--version - Shows the version number
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+--licence/--license (UK/US spellings) - Shows a brief outline of the GPL
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s2.2.1"><title>Internal checks used by dpkg-deb when building packages</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Here is a list of the internal checks used by dpkg-deb when building
|
|
|
+packages. It is in the order they are done.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+First, the output Debian archive argument, if it is given, is checked using
|
|
|
+stat. If it is a directory, an internal flag is set. This check is only made
|
|
|
+if the archive name is specified explicitly on the command-line. If the
|
|
|
+argument was not given, the default is the directory name, with ".deb"
|
|
|
+appended.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Next, the control file is checked, unless the --nocheck flag was specified on
|
|
|
+the command-line. dpkg-deb will bomb out if the second argument to --build was
|
|
|
+a directory, and --nocheck was specified. Note that dpkg-deb will not be able
|
|
|
+to determine the name of the package in this case. In the control file, the
|
|
|
+following things are checked:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The package name is checked to see if it contains any invalid characters (see
|
|
|
+<xref linkend="control"/> for this).
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The priority field is checked to see if it uses standard values, and
|
|
|
+user-defined values are warned against. However, note that this check is now
|
|
|
+redundant, since the control file no longer contains the priority - the
|
|
|
+changes file now does this.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The control file fields are then checked against the standard list of fields
|
|
|
+which appear in control files, and any "user-defined" fields are reported as
|
|
|
+warnings.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+dpkg-deb then checks that the control file contains a valid version number.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+After this, in the case where a directory was specified to build the .deb file
|
|
|
+in, the filename is created as "directory/pkg_ver.deb" or
|
|
|
+"directory/pkg_ver_arch.deb", depending on whether the control file contains
|
|
|
+an architecture field.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Next, dpkg-deb checks for the <dir>/DEBIAN directory. It complains if it
|
|
|
+doesn't exist, or if it has permissions < 0755, or > 0775.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+It then checks that all the files in this subdir are either symlinks or plain
|
|
|
+files, and have permissions between 0555 and 0775.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+<listitem>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The conffiles file is then checked to see if the filenames are too
|
|
|
+long. Warnings are produced for each that is. After this, it checks
|
|
|
+that the package provides initial copies of each of these conffiles,
|
|
|
+and that they are all plain files.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</listitem>
|
|
|
+</itemizedlist>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</chapter>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<chapter id="ch3"><title>dpkg internals</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+This chapter describes the internals of dpkg itself. Although the low-level
|
|
|
+formats are quite simple, what dpkg does in certain cases often does not make
|
|
|
+sense.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="updates"><title>Updates</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+This describes the /var/lib/dpkg/updates directory. The function of this
|
|
|
+directory is somewhat strange, and seems only to be used internally. A
|
|
|
+function called cleanupdates is called whenever the database is scanned. This
|
|
|
+function in turn uses
|
|
|
+<citerefentry><refentrytitle>scandir</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
|
|
|
+to sort the files in this directory. Files who names do not consist entirely
|
|
|
+of digits are discarded. dpkg also causes a fatal error if any of the
|
|
|
+filenames are different lengths.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+After having scanned the directory, dpkg in turn parses each file the same way
|
|
|
+it parses the status file (they are sorted by the scandir to be in numerical
|
|
|
+order). After having done this, it then writes the status information back to
|
|
|
+the "status" file, and removes all the "updates" files.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+These files are created internally by dpkg's "checkpoint" function, and are
|
|
|
+cleaned up when dpkg exits cleanly.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Juding by the use of the updates directory I would call it a Journal. Inorder
|
|
|
+to efficiently ensure the complete integrity of the status file dpkg will
|
|
|
+"checkpoint" or journal all of it's activities in the updates directory. By
|
|
|
+merging the contents of the updates directory (in order!!) against the original
|
|
|
+status file it can get the precise current state of the system, even in the
|
|
|
+event of a system failure while dpkg is running.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+The other option would be to sync-rewrite the status file after each operation,
|
|
|
+which would kill performance.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+It is very important that any program that uses the status file abort if the
|
|
|
+updates directory is not empty! The user should be informed to run dpkg
|
|
|
+manually (what options though??) to correct the situation.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s3.2"><title>What happens when dpkg reads the database</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+First, the status file is read. This gives dpkg an initial idea of the
|
|
|
+packages that are there. Next, the updates files are read in, overriding the
|
|
|
+status file, and if necessary, the status file is re-written, and updates files
|
|
|
+are removed. Finally, the available file is read. The available file is read
|
|
|
+with flags which preclude dpkg from updating any status information from it,
|
|
|
+though - installed version, etc., and is also told to record that the packages
|
|
|
+it reads this time are available, not installed.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+More information on updates is given above.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+<section id="s3.3"><title>How dpkg compares version numbers</title>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Version numbers consist of three parts: the epoch, the upstream version, and
|
|
|
+the Debian revision. Dpkg compares these parts in that order. If the epochs
|
|
|
+are different, it returns immediately, and so on.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+However, the important part is how it compares the versions which are
|
|
|
+essentially stored as just strings. These are compared in two distinct
|
|
|
+parts: those consisting of numerical characters (which are evaluated, and
|
|
|
+then compared), and those consisting of other characters. When comparing
|
|
|
+non-numerical parts, they are compared as the character values (ASCII),
|
|
|
+but non-alphabetical characters are considered "greater than" alphabetical
|
|
|
+ones. Also note that longer strings (after excluding differences where
|
|
|
+numerical values are equal) are considered "greater than" shorter ones.
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<para>
|
|
|
+Here are a few examples of how these rules apply:-
|
|
|
+</para>
|
|
|
+<screen>
|
|
|
+15 > 10
|
|
|
+0010 == 10
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+d.r > dsr
|
|
|
+32.d.r == 0032.d.r
|
|
|
+d.rnr < d.rnrn
|
|
|
+</screen>
|
|
|
+</section>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</chapter>
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+</book>
|