.\" dpkg manual page - deb-preinst(5) .\" .\" Copyright © 2016 Guillem Jover .\" .\" This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify .\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by .\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or .\" (at your option) any later version. .\" .\" This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, .\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the .\" GNU General Public License for more details. .\" .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License .\" along with this program. If not, see . . .TH deb\-preinst 5 "2019-06-03" "1.19.7" "dpkg suite" .nh .SH NAME deb\-preinst \- package pre-installation maintainer script . .SH SYNOPSIS preinst . .SH DESCRIPTION A package can perform several pre-installation actions via maintainer scripts, by including an executable \fIpreinst\fP file in its control archive (i.e. \fIDEBIAN/preinst\fP during package creation). .PP The script can be called in the following ways: .TP \fInew-preinst\fP \fBinstall\fP Before the package is installed. .TP \fInew-preinst\fP \fBinstall\fP \fIold-version new-version\fP Before removed package is upgraded. .TP \fInew-preinst\fP \fBupgrade\fP \fIold-version new-version\fP Before the package is upgraded. .TP \fIold-preinst\fP \fBabort-upgrade\fP \fInew-version\fP If \fIpostrm\fP fails during upgrade or fails on failed upgrade. . .SH SEE ALSO .BR dpkg (1).