Open Source Software

dpkg-scanpackages(1)



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  xz(1)  (generating  a
   Packages.xz file), 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 (the file can be
   compressed since dpkg 1.15.5); 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 since dpkg 1.15.5).   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.

   -h, --hash hash-list
          Only generate file hashes for the comma-specified list specified
          (since  dpkg 1.17.14).  The default is to generate all currently
          supported hashes.  Supported values: md5, sha1, sha256.

   -m, --multiversion
          Include all found packages in the output.

   -M, --medium id-string
          Add an X-Medium field containing the value id-string (since dpkg
          1.15.5).   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).



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