dpkg-query

Section: dpkg suite (1)
Updated: 2007-03-06
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NAME

dpkg-query - a tool to query the dpkg database

SYNOPSIS

dpkg-query [option...] command

DESCRIPTION

dpkg-query is a tool to show information about packages listed in the dpkg database.

COMMANDS

-l, --list package-name-pattern ...

List packages matching given pattern. If no package-name-pattern is given, list all packages in /var/lib/dpkg/status, excluding the ones marked with state purge. Normal shell wildchars are allowed in package-name-pattern. Please note you will probably have to quote package-name-pattern to prevent the shell from performing filename expansion. For example this will list all package names starting with ``libc6'':


  dpkg-query -l 'libc6*'

The output format of this option is not configurable, but varies automatically to fit the terminal width. It is intended for human readers, and is not easily machine-readable. See -W (--show) and --showformat for a way to configure the output format.

-W, --show package-name-pattern ...

Just like the --list option this will list all packages matching the given pattern. However the output can be customized using the --showformat option. The default output format gives one line per matching package, each line having the name and installed version of the package, separated by a tab.

-s, --status package-name ...

Report status of specified package. This just displays the entry in the installed package status database.

-L, --listfiles package-name ...

List files installed to your system from package-name. However, note that files created by package-specific installation-scripts are not listed.

-S, --search filename-search-pattern ...

Search for a filename from installed packages. All standard shell wildchars can be used in the pattern. This command will not list extra files created by maintainer scripts, nor will it list alternatives.

-p, --print-avail package-name

Display details about package-name, as found in /var/lib/dpkg/available.

-h, --help

Show the usage message and exit.

--version

Show the version and exit.

--license, --licence

Show the copyright licensing terms and exit.

OPTIONS

--admindir=dir

Change the location of the dpkg database. The default location is /var/lib/dpkg.

-f, --showformat=format

This option is used to specify the format of the output --show will produce. The format is a string that will be output for each package listed.

In the format string, "\" introduces escapes:


    \n  newline

    \r  carriage return

    \t  tab

"\" before any other character suppresses any special meaning of the following character, which is useful for "\" and "$".

Package information can be included by inserting variable references to package fields using the syntax "${field[;width]}". Fields are printed right-aligned unless the width is negative in which case left alignment will be used. The following fields are recognised:


    Architecture

    Bugs

    Conffiles

    Config-Version

    Conflicts

    Breaks

    Depends

    Description

    Enhances

    Essential

    Filename

    Installed-Size

    MD5sum

    MSDOS-Filename

    Maintainer

    Origin

    Package

    Pre-Depends

    Priority

    Provides

    Recommends

    Replaces

    Revision

    Section

    Size

    Source

    Status

    Suggests

    Version

The default format string is "${Package}\t${Version}\n". Actually, all other fields found in the status file (i.e. user defined fields) can be requested, too. They will be printed as-is, though, no conversion nor error checking is done on them. To get the name of the dpkg maintainer and the installed version, you could run:


  dpkg-query -W -f='${Package} ${Version}\t${Maintainer}\n' dpkg

ENVIRONMENT

COLUMNS: This setting influences the output of the --list option by changing the width of its output.

AUTHOR

This is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or later for copying conditions. There is NO warranty.

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 22:13:52 GMT, February 02, 2008