NAME¶
dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files
SYNOPSIS¶
dpkg-scanpackages [
option...]
binary-dir
[
override-file [
path-prefix]]
> Packages
DESCRIPTION¶
dpkg-scanpackages sorts through a tree of Debian binary packages and
creates a Packages file, used by
apt(8),
dselect(1), etc, to
tell the user what packages are available for installation. These Packages
files are the same as those found on Debian archive sites and CD-ROMs. You
might use
dpkg-scanpackages yourself if making a directory of local
packages to install on a cluster of machines.
Note: If you want to access the generated Packages file with
apt
you will probably need to compress the file with
bzip2(1) (generating a
Packages.bz2 file) or
gzip(1) (generating a Packages.gz file). apt
ignores uncompressed Packages files except on local access (i.e.
file:// sources).
binary-dir is the name of the tree of the binary packages to process (for
example,
contrib/binary-i386). It is best to make this relative to the
root of the Debian archive, because every Filename field in the new Packages
file will start with this string.
override-file is the name of a file to read which contains information
about how the package fits into the distribution (it can be a compressed
file); see
deb-override(5).
path-prefix is an optional string to be prepended to the Filename fields.
If more than one version of a package is found only the newest one is included
in the output. If they have the same version and only differ in architecture
only the first one found is used.
OPTIONS¶
- -t, --type type
- Scan for *.type packages, instead of *.deb.
- -e, --extra-override file
- Scan file to find supplementary overrides (the file
can be compressed). See deb-extra-override(5) for more information
on its format.
- -a, --arch arch
- Use a pattern consisting of *_all.deb and
*_arch.deb instead of scanning for all debs.
- -m, --multiversion
- Include all found packages in the output.
- -M, --medium id-string
- Add an X-Medium field containing the value
id-string. This field is required if you want to generate
Packages.cd files for use by the multicd access method of
dselect.
- -?, --help
- Show the usage message and exit.
- --version
- Show the version and exit.
DIAGNOSTICS¶
dpkg-scanpackages outputs the usual self-explanatory errors. It also
warns about packages that are in the wrong subdirectory, are duplicated, have
a Filename field in their control file, are missing from the override file, or
have maintainer substitutions which do not take effect.
SEE ALSO¶
dpkg(1),
dselect(1),
deb-override(5),
deb-extra-override(5),
dpkg-scansources(1).