Debian package management
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APT
- the Debian APT = Advanced Packaging Tool
- apt-cache
- apt-get
- ...
apt-cache -- query the APT cache
apt-get -- APT package handling utility -- command-line interface
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/apt/apt-get.8.en.html
- https://manpages.debian.org/experimental/apt/apt-get.8.en.html
APT: resynchronising the package index files from their sources
$ sudo apt-get update
APT: installing ...
$ sudo apt-get install PACKAGE # do not *really* install the PACKAGE, # just download it to the default cache directory: $ sudo apt-get install --download-only PACKAGE # do not *really* install the PACKAGE, # just download it to the cache directory being specified (instead of /var/cache/apt/archives/): $ sudo apt-get install --download-only --option dir::cache=$HOME/tmp PACKAGE
APT: installing the newest versions of all packages currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated in /etc/apt/sources.list
$ sudo apt-get upgrade $ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
APT: removing ...
$ sudo apt-get remove PACKAGE $ sudo apt-get autoremove PACKAGE
apt-rdepends - performs ... dependency listings (also a reverse one)
$ apt-rdepends --reverse PACKAGE
In case of an optional resp. alternate dependency that's not shown (clearly).
which (installed?) package includes a certain FILE (utility, ...)?
$ apt-file search PATTERN
which files does a certain PACKAGE include?
$ apt-file list PACKAGE
dpkg, dpkg-query, dpkg-deb
dpkg
installing a Debian package
$ sudo dpkg --install PACKAGE.deb
dpkg-deb -- Debian package archive (.deb) manipulation tool
dpkg-deb packs, unpacks and provides information about Debian archives.
Use dpkg to install and remove packages from your system.
which files are included? will be created from this package file?
$ dpkg-deb --contents PACKAGE.deb
what's the official package name?
$ dpkg-deb --info PACKAGE.deb
what is the content of the ctrl-tarfile you can extract from PACKAGE.deb?
$ dpkg-deb --ctrl-tarfile PACKAGE.deb | tar tvf - drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2018-08-27 17:39 ./ -rw-r--r-- root/root 21773 2018-08-27 17:39 ./md5sums -rw-r--r-- root/root 229 2018-08-27 17:39 ./control -rw-r--r-- root/root 1071 2018-08-27 17:36 ./conffiles -rwxr-xr-x root/root 1228 2018-08-27 17:39 ./postinst
- PACKAGE.deb contains a tarball (ctrl-tarfile).
- the tarball contains ... .
what conffiles does PACKAGE.deb contain?
$ dpkg-deb --ctrl-tarfile PACKAGE.deb | tar xf - --to-stdout ./conffiles
- PACKAGE.deb contains a tarball (ctrl-tarfile),
- the tarball contains ./conffiles,
- ./conffiles is only a list of what is to be treated as conffiles, it does not contain the conffiles themselves, they are an ordinary part of PACKAGE.deb
dpkg-query
which packages are installed (together with a couple of details)?
$ dpkg-query --list
is there an installed package, that sounds like XYZ?
$ dpkg-query --list | fgrep XYZ
details of an installed package (that you know the name of, e.g. PACKAGE)
$ dpkg-query --list PACKAGE
all details of specified package
$ dpkg-query --status PACKAGE
what's the content of an installed package (e.g. PACKAGE)
$ dpkg-query --listfiles PACKAGE
which installed package includes a certain FILE (utility, ...)?
$ dpkg-query --search FILE
dpkg-source -- Debian source package (.dsc) manipulation tool
$ dpkg-source --extract ....dsc
needs a:
- *.dsc
- *.debian.tar.*
- *.orig.tar.*
rpm2deb -- converting packages from ... to ...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rpm_(software)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_(software)
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/alien/alien.1p.en.html
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/pseudo/fakeroot.1.en.html
- https://manpages.debian.org/unstable/fakeroot-ng/fakeroot.1.en.html
- https://www.howtoforge.com/converting_rpm_to_deb_with_alien : alien -k ... (important)
- https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/9714/what-is-the-need-for-fakeroot-command-in-linux#9720 (important)
- https://salsa.debian.org/perl-team/modules/packages/libdbd-oracle-perl/blob/master/debian/README -- Oracle's Instant Client package comes as RPM -- how to convert to .deb
alien --to-deb ...
this command line creates a Debian package from an RPM package
(using that e-mail address for the (local Debian) package maintainer).
CAVEAT: won't actually work, because creating a Debian package requires running this as root
$ env EMAIL='john.doe@COMPANY.com' alien --to-deb --keep-version ...
some command line parameters can only get passed to "alien" as environment variables.
fakeroot ...
you do not have root priviliges, but you need to pretend to have them for achieving certain goals like creating a Debian package:
$ fakeroot ...
special issues
fiddling with the tree before creating the .deb
$ env EMAIL='john.doe@COMPANY.com' alien --to-deb --keep-version ... $ cd ... # here you want to change a few bits $ sudo chown ... $ fakeroot debian/rules binary
open questions
- how to deal with dependencies specified within the RPM package?
- …
history of this article
This blog article got created 1st, but then the content got moved here to the wiki: