| 1 | = What Is A Package = |
| 2 | |
| 3 | A Debian package consists of both its contents (generally, the files and directories it includes) and some metadata. There are both source and binary packages, which we will discuss in detail. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | Binary packages have the file extension `.deb`, and are managed with the `dpkg` command. Given a .deb file, `dpkg -c` will list the files in the package, and `dpkg -I` will display the package's "control" information. This is the metadata mentioned above. Let's look at an example: |
| 6 | |
| 7 | {{{ |
| 8 | |
| 9 | $ dpkg -I xterm_271-1ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb |
| 10 | new debian package, version 2.0. |
| 11 | size 565320 bytes: control archive= 8406 bytes. |
| 12 | 198 bytes, 6 lines conffiles |
| 13 | 1690 bytes, 35 lines control |
| 14 | 2031 bytes, 31 lines md5sums |
| 15 | 22146 bytes, 665 lines * postinst #!/bin/sh |
| 16 | 160 bytes, 5 lines * postrm #!/bin/sh |
| 17 | 21414 bytes, 647 lines * prerm #!/bin/sh |
| 18 | Package: xterm |
| 19 | Version: 271-1ubuntu2.1 |
| 20 | Architecture: amd64 |
| 21 | Maintainer: Ubuntu X-SWAT <ubuntu-x@lists.ubuntu.com> |
| 22 | Installed-Size: 1382 |
| 23 | Depends: xbitmaps, libc6 (>= 2.15), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.8.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libtinfo5, libutempter0 (>= 1.1.5), libx11-6, libxaw7, libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxmu6, libxt6 |
| 24 | Recommends: x11-utils |
| 25 | Suggests: xfonts-cyrillic |
| 26 | Provides: x-terminal-emulator |
| 27 | Section: x11 |
| 28 | Priority: optional |
| 29 | Multi-Arch: foreign |
| 30 | Homepage: http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html |
| 31 | Description: X terminal emulator |
| 32 | xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. It provides DEC VT102 |
| 33 | and Tektronix 4014 compatible terminals for programs that cannot use the |
| 34 | [truncated for brevity] |
| 35 | }}} |
| 36 | |