dpkg (short for Debian PacKaGe) is the base of the Debian package management system. It was created by Ian Jackson in 1993. dpkg is similar to RPM, as it is used to install, remove, and provide information about .deb packages. Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a software product. ... Illustration of a package management system being used to download new software. ... A website (or Web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets and hosted on a particular domain or subdomain on the World Wide Web. ... Debian is a project based around the development of a free, complete operating system through the collaboration of volunteers from around the world. ... Illustration of a package management system being used to download new software. ... Ian W. Jackson is a long time Free Software author and Debian developer. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... RPM Package Manager (originally Red Hat Package Manager, abbreviated RPM) is a package management system. ... deb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. ... A software package is a bundle of one or several files that either are necessary for the execution of a computer program, or add features for a program already installed on the computer or network of computers. ...

dpkg itself is a low level tool; higher level tools, such as APT, are used to fetch packages from remote locations or deal with complex package relations. Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a package management system used by Debian and its derivatives. ...

The Debian package "dpkg" provides the dpkg program, as well as several others necessary for run-time functioning of the packaging system, including dpkg-statoverride, dpkg-divert and update-alternatives. It also includes the programs such as start-stop-daemon and install-info, and the latter is kept mostly due to backwards compatibility (it is developed and distributed separately nowadays). The Debian package "dpkg-dev" includes the numerous build tools described below.

ipkg is a dpkg-inspired package management system for storage-constrained Linux installations. Illustration of a package management system being used to download new software. ...

Creating debs

debs are usually built by calling dpkg-buildpackage. dpkg-buildpackage reads several files to figure out how to build the package. These files are located in the debian subdirectory of a source tree.

There are four required files. The copyright file contains license terms. The control file contains the package name, description, and dependencies. The rules file is a Makefile that has rules for building a debian package. Programs from the debhelper program suite are often called in the rules file. In addition, some packages include Makefile snippets from CDBS, greatly simplifying the rules file. Finally there is the changelog file, which, predictably, contains the changelog. Most packages also include other files for doing various things. debhelper is a suite of programs originally written by Joey Hess that help a Debian packager write a rules files. ... CDBS is a system that greatly aids in the creation of dpkgs, which are software packages that make the installation of software much easier on Debian GNU/Linux and its derivatives. ...

Once a Debian package is built, it can be checked for common problems using the lintian tool. lintian is a helper tool in used in conjunction with dpkg, the Debian package management system. ...

dpkg build tools

Debian has a series of tools that have to be called to construct a package. They are the following:

• dpkg-source packs and unpacks the source files of a Debian package.
• dpkg-deb packs and unpacks binary packages
• dpkg-gencontrol reads the information from an unpacked Debian tree source and generates a binary package control package, creating an entry for this in Debian/files.
• dpkg-shlibdeps calculates the dependencies of runs with respect to libraries.
• dpkg-genchanges reads the information from an unpacked Debian tree source that once constructed creates a control file (.changes).
• dpkg-buildpackage is a control script that can be used to construct the package automatically.
• dpkg-distaddfile adds a file input to debian/files.
• dpkg-parsechangelog reads the changes file (changelog) of an unpacked Debian tree source and creates a conveniently prepared output with the information for those changes.

See also

Free software Portal

Image File history File links Portal. ...

External links

• Debian's dpkg package
• Debian dpkg mailing list