Table of Contents
Introduction to dpkg
dpkg is a package management tool to install, build, remove, query and manage packages in Debian-based systems. The primary front-end for dpkg is aptitude. dpkg only works with .deb package files, so you need to have .deb files in your system. The .deb file contains the installation packages of software for Debian-based Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and Debian.
Different examples to use dpkg command
Only users with root privilege can execute dpkg command. You can find .deb packages at debian.org, or you can download using the following command.
# apt-get download package_name
In this article, we will learn to use dpkg command to manage software packages in Debian-based Linux distributions.
1. dpkg command to install a package
To install a Debian package, you can use -i or --install option followed by .deb package.
# dpkg -i deb_packagename
OR
# dpkg --install deb_packagename
Sample Output:
2. Check if a package is installed or not using dpkg command
-s or --status option prints the status of a package showing if a package is installed or not in your system.
# dpkg -s package_name
OR
# dpkg --status package_name
Sample Output:
3. Remove an installed package with dpkg command
You can use this command to uninstall a package from the system. It removes an installed package, not a .deb file.
# dpkg -r package_name
OR
# dpkg --remove package_name
Sample Output:
4. Remove an installed package along with configuration files
-r option removes a package but not configuration files. You can use -P or --purge option instead to remove a package along with configuration files.
# dpkg -P package_name
OR
# dpkg --purge package_name
Sample Output:
5. dpkg command to view the list of installed packages
To get the list of all installed deb packages in your system, you can use this command.
# dpkg -l
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg -l Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-===============================-====================-====================-================ ii a11y-profile-manager-indicator 0.1.10-0ubuntu3 i386 Accessibility Profile Manager - Unity desktop indicator ii account-plugin-facebook 0.12+16.04.20160126- all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon - facebook ii account-plugin-flickr 0.12+16.04.20160126- all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon - flickr ii account-plugin-google 0.12+16.04.20160126- all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon ii accountsservice 0.6.40-2ubuntu11.3 i386 query and manipulate user account information ii acl 2.2.52-3 i386 Access control list utilities ii acpi-support 0.142 i386 scripts for handling many ACPI events ii appstream 0.9.4-1ubuntu4 i386 Software component index ii apt 1.2.27 i386 commandline package manager ii apt-transport-https 1.2.27 i386 https download transport for APT ii apt-utils 1.2.27 i386 package management related utility programs ii bzip2 1.0.6-8 i386 high-quality block-sorting file compressor - utilities ...
You can specify the package name and list the particular package only.
root@golinux:~# dpkg -l python
Sample Output:
If you don't recall the package name then you can list all the packages and grep for your package
deepak@ubuntu:~$ dpkg -l | grep python ri libpython-stdlib:amd64 2.7.15~rc1-1 amd64 interactive high-level object-oriented language (default python version) ii libpython2.7:amd64 2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6 amd64 Shared Python runtime library (version 2.7) ii libpython2.7-minimal:amd64 2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6 amd64 Minimal subset of the Python language (version 2.7) ii libpython2.7-stdlib:amd64 2.7.17-1~18.04ubuntu1.6 amd64 Interactive high-level object-oriented language (standard library, version 2.7) ...
6. List contents of deb package with dpkg command
You can use -c or --contents option to list and view the contents of a deb package.
# dpkg -c deb_packagefile
OR
# dpkg --contents deb_packagefile
Sample Output:
7. dpkg command to get the information of deb package
If you want to get the information of a deb package before installing it, you can use the following command.
# dpkg -I deb_packagename
OR
# dpkg --info deb_packagename
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg -I scythe_0.994-3_i386.deb new debian package, version 2.0. size 17952 bytes: control archive=831 bytes. 647 bytes, 14 lines control 466 bytes, 7 lines md5sums Package: scythe Version: 0.994-3 Architecture: i386 Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com> Original-Maintainer: Debian Med Packaging Team <debian-med-packaging@lists.alioth.debian.org> Installed-Size: 48 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4) Section: science Priority: optional Homepage: https://github.com/vsbuffalo/scythe Description: Bayesian adaptor trimmer for sequencing reads Scythe uses a Naive Bayesian approach to classify contaminant substrings in sequence reads. It considers quality information, which can make it robust in picking out 3'-end adapters, which often include poor quality bases.
8. dpkg command to extract the files of a package
You can use -x option to extract the files contained by a deb package. You need to specify the directory where files are to be extracted.
# dpkg -x deb_packagename /path/to/directory
Sample Output:
-X option will extract and display the filenames contained by a package.
# dpkg -X deb_packagename /path/to/directory
9. Unpack the package, but don’t configure with dpkg command
--unpack option is used to unpack the package, but it will not configure or install the package.
# dpkg --unpack deb_packagename
Sample Output:
Now, let's see the status of a package scythe.
10. dpkg command to reconfigure an unpacked package
You can use --configure option to reconfigure a package that was unpacked but not configured yet.
# dpkg --configure package_name
Sample Output:
11. Search partially installed packages with dpkg command
-C or --audit option searches for packages that have been installed only partially on your system.
# dpkg -C
OR
# dpkg --audit
Sample Output:
12. dpkg command to list all files of installed package
You can use -L option to list all files of a particular installed package.
# dpkg -L package_name
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg -L gcc /. /usr /usr/bin /usr/bin/c89-gcc /usr/bin/c99-gcc /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/cpp /usr/share/man /usr/share/man/man1 /usr/share/man/man1/c99-gcc.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/c89-gcc.1.gz /usr/bin/gcc-nm /usr/bin/gcov /usr/bin/i686-linux-gnu-gcc /usr/bin/i686-linux-gnu-gcc-ranlib /usr/bin/i686-linux-gnu-gcc-ar /usr/bin/gcc ...
13. Search for a filename from installed packages with dpkg command
-S option allows you to search for a filename from installed packages. It prints the list of every file that contains the matching pattern.
# dpkg -S filename_pattern
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg -S php app-install-data: /usr/share/app-install/desktop/slbackup-php:slbackup-php.desktop app-install-data: /usr/share/app-install/desktop/gphpedit:gphpedit.desktop humanity-icon-theme: /usr/share/icons/Humanity/mimes/48/gnome-mime-application-x-php.svg lintian: /usr/share/lintian/checks/phppear.pm apg: /usr/share/doc/apg/php.tar.gz humanity-icon-theme: /usr/share/icons/Humanity/mimes/16/gnome-mime-application-x-php.svg humanity-icon-theme: /usr/share/icons/Humanity/mimes/48/application-x-php.svg libgtksourceview-3.0-common: /usr/share/gtksourceview-3.0/language-specs/php.lang unity-asset-pool: /usr/share/icons/unity-icon-theme/places/svg/service-phpdocumentation.svg app-install-data: /usr/share/app-install/icons/gphpedit.png ...
14. Update package information with dpkg command
With option --update-avail, old information is replaced with the available information in the packages file.
# dpkg --update-avail package_name
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg --update-avail scythe_0.994-3_i386.deb
Replacing available packages info, using scythe_0.994-3_i386.deb.
15. dpkg command to forget uninstalled and unavailable packages
--forget-old-unavail command will automatically forget uninstalled and unavailable packages but only those that do not contain user information such as package selections.
# dpkg --forget-old-unavail
Sample Output:
root@golinux:~# dpkg --forget-old-unavail
dpkg: warning: obsolete '--forget-old-unavail' option; unavailable packages are automatically cleaned up
16. Erase the existing information of packages using dpkg command
You can use --clear-avail option to erase the existing information about what packages are available.
$ sudo dpkg --clear-avail
Conclusion
dpkg is a command line tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages. Although the primary and more user-friendly front-end for dpkg is apt. 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.
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