Anyone good with dpkg/apt

[Paul Lussier]

> On Wednesday 21 March 2007 12:06 pm, Steven W. Orr wrote:
>> I need to see the list of files in an uninstalled package. The rpm equiv
>> would be

"Michael ODonnell" <michael.odonnell at comcast.net> writes:

>    ar tv somePackage.deb               # What's in the .deb ?

Neil Joseph Schelly <neil at jenandneil.com> writes:

> Install apt-file, which will build a searchable index of all files
> in the APT repositories.

"Seth Cohn" <sethcohn at gnuhampshire.org> writes:

> all debs have a file which is generated upon installation:
>
> /var/lib/dpkg/info/[packagename].list
>
> Just view that, and it's the list of what files are(were) in the package.

Oh, and if you *have* the .deb, there's also:

 dpkg-deb --contents package.deb


Among other things, dpkg-deb is really just a nice wrapper around ar and tar.  Use the following options:

 --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.

 --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.

For those still reading this thread and who may care, here's a list of
dpkg and apt related commands currently installed on my home system:

  apt                   apt-file              apt-key
  apt-cache             apt-ftparchive        apt-rdepends
  apt-cdrom             apt-get               apt-show-versions
  apt-config            apt-index-watcher     apt-sortpkgs
  apt-extracttemplates  aptitude              

  dpkg-architecture    dpkg-genbuilddeps    dpkg-reconfigure
  dpkg-buildpackage    dpkg-genchanges      dpkg-scanpackages
  dpkg-checkbuilddeps  dpkg-gencontrol      dpkg-scansources
  dpkg-deb             dpkg-name            dpkg-shlibdeps
  dpkg-depcheck        dpkg-parsechangelog  dpkg-source
  dpkg-distaddfile     dpkg-preconfigure    dpkg-split
  dpkg-divert          dpkg-query           dpkg-statoverride

One of the *really* nice things about debian is how they've managed to
replace a nice small tool like rpm with about 50 *different* tools all
with somewhat overlapping capabilities, arcane and difficult to
remember names, and strange options.  Oh, and all of these tools must
be installed individually and seperately...  Yes, a major coup for the
debian folks there! ;)

-- 
Seeya,
Paul
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