dpkg means Debian Package Manager. dpkg is a command line tool that can install, build, remove and manage Debian software packages. dpkg uses Aptitude (preferred and more user-friendly) as the front-end interface that performs all operations.
Some other tools such as dpkg-deb and dpkg-query also use dpkg as a front-end to perform certain operations.
Most system administrators now use tools such as Apt, Apt-Get and Aptitude to easily manage software without having to worry.
However, you still need to use dpkg to install certain software when necessary. Some other package management tools widely used on Linux systems include yum, dnf, apt-get, rpm, Zypper, pacman, urpmi, etc.
Now, I’m going to explain the most commonly used dpkg commands with some examples on a machine with Ubuntu 15.10.
1) The syntax of common dpkg commands and the location of dpkg files
The following is the syntax of common dpkg commands and the location of dpkg related files. If you want to learn more about it, these will definitely be of great benefit to you.
### dpkg 命令的语法 $ dpkg -[command] [.deb package name] $ dpkg -[command] [package name] ### dpkg 相关文件的位置 $ /var/lib/dpkg ### 这个文件包含了被 dpkg 命令（install、remove 等）所修改的包的信息 $ /var/lib/dpkg/status ### 这个文件包含了可用包的列表 $ /var/lib/dpkg/status
2) Install/upgrade software
In Debian-based systems, such as Debian, Mint, Ubuntu and elementryOS, use the following commands to install/upgrade the .deb software package. Here I am going to use the atom-amd64.deb file to install Atom. If Atom is already installed, it will be upgraded. Or a new Atom will be installed.
### 安装或升级 dpkg 软件包 $ sudo dpkg -i atom-amd64.deb Selecting previously unselected package atom. (Reading database ... 426102 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack atom-amd64.deb ... Unpacking atom (1.5.3) over (1.5.3) ... Setting up atom (1.5.3) ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.2~bzr0+15.10.20150627.1-0ubuntu1) ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu3) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.58ubuntu1) ...
3) Install software from folder
In Debian-based systems, use the following commands to install software one by one from the directory. This will install all software with a .deb extension in the /opt/software directory.
$ sudo dpkg -iR /opt/software Selecting previously unselected package atom. (Reading database ... 423303 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack /opt/software/atom-amd64.deb ... Unpacking atom (1.5.3) ... Setting up atom (1.5.3) ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.2~bzr0+15.10.20150627.1-0ubuntu1) ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu3) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.58ubuntu1) ...
4) Display the list of installed software
The following command can list all installed software in Debian system, and also display the software version and description information.
$ dpkg -l Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-===========================-==================================-============-================================================================ ii account-plugin-aim 3.12.10-0ubuntu2 amd64 Messaging account plugin for AIM ii account-plugin-facebook 0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1 all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon - facebook ii account-plugin-flickr 0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1 all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon - flickr ii account-plugin-google 0.12+15.10.20150723-0ubuntu1 all GNOME Control Center account plugin for single signon ii account-plugin-jabber 3.12.10-0ubuntu2 amd64 Messaging account plugin for Jabber/XMPP ii account-plugin-salut 3.12.10-0ubuntu2 amd64 Messaging account plugin for Local XMPP (Salut) . .
5) View the specified installed software
Use the following command to list the specified installed software, and the software version and description information will be displayed.
$ dpkg -l atom Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-==========-=========-===================-============================================ ii atom 1.5.3 amd64 A hackable text editor for the 21st Century.
6) View the software installation directory
The following command can view the software installation path on Debian-based systems.
$ dpkg -L atom /. /usr /usr/bin /usr/bin/atom /usr/share /usr/share/lintian /usr/share/lintian/overrides /usr/share/lintian/overrides/atom /usr/share/pixmaps /usr/share/pixmaps/atom.png /usr/share/doc
7) View the deb package contents
The following command can view the deb package contents. It will display a list of files in the .deb package.
$ dpkg -c atom-amd64.deb drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/bin/ -rwxr-xr-x root/root 3067 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/bin/atom drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/lintian/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/lintian/overrides/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 299 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/lintian/overrides/atom drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/pixmaps/ -rw-r--r-- root/root 643183 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/pixmaps/atom.png drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2016-02-13 02:13 ./usr/share/doc/ . .
8) Display detailed information of software
The following command can display detailed information of software, such as software name, software category, version, maintainer, software architecture, dependent software, software description, etc.
$ dpkg -s atom Package: atom Status: install ok installed Priority: optional Section: devel Installed-Size: 213496 Maintainer: GitHub <atom@github.com>Architecture: amd64 Version: 1.5.3 Depends: git, gconf2, gconf-service, libgtk2.0-0, libudev0 | libudev1, libgcrypt11 | libgcrypt20, libnotify4, libxtst6, libnss3, python, gvfs-bin, xdg-utils, libcap2 Recommends: lsb-release Suggests: libgnome-keyring0, gir1.2-gnomekeyring-1.0 Description: A hackable text editor for the 21st Century. Atom is a free and open source text editor that is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core.</atom@github.com>
9) Check which software the file belongs to
Use the following command to check which software the file belongs to.
$ dpkg -S /usr/bin/atom atom: /usr/bin/atom
10) Remove/Delete Software
The following command can be used to remove/delete an installed software, but does not delete the configuration file.
$ sudo dpkg -r atom (Reading database ... 426404 files and directories currently installed.) Removing atom (1.5.3) ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.2~bzr0+15.10.20150627.1-0ubuntu1) ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu3) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.58ubuntu1) ...
11) Cleaning software
The following command can be used to remove/delete all files including configuration files.
$ sudo dpkg -P atom (Reading database ... 426404 files and directories currently installed.) Removing atom (1.5.3) ... Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.2~bzr0+15.10.20150627.1-0ubuntu1) ... Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu3) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.58ubuntu1) ...
12) Learn more
Use the following command to view more information about dpkg.
$ dpkg -help 或 $ man dpkg
Start experiencing dpkg.
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