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Debian Package

A Debian package is a file that ends in .deb and contains software for your Debian system.

Presentation

The MIME type is

 application/x-deb

You can select a default action like "install package (dpkg in a terminal)".

A Debian package is smart enough to know how to add itself to your system, remove itself, and even configure itself to your needs.

Every package comes with its own ?DebianPackageDocumentation.

What's in a name? Every package has a name, and there are certain rules for what can and can't be in it. See also PackageInstallTips.

Finding packages

Do you want to install a package but don't know how to find the name of it? Check out the debian package web page at http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages (or http://packages.debian.org/<name> if you know the package name). Remember to select the Debian release that you are running (eg. DebianStable, DebianTesting or DebianUnstable). The packages vary significantly between releases.

For a keyword search in the package descriptions, use apt-cache.

If you look specifically for alternatives to some windows programs see WinAppEquivalents.

If you wonder where a package you've got installed on your system has gone, when it becomes "obsolete" and unavailable, see http://ftp-master.debian.org/removals.txt to find out about removed packages.

Bugs

Unfortunately some packages are broken (sometimes in DebianUnstable, rarely in DebianTesting and never in DebianStable). If apt-get or aptitude fail to upgrade your system, first try updating dpkg, then perl, then apt.

If you think your package is just plain broken please submit a Debian bug (see reportbug)!

Source packages

A .deb is also known as a binary package. This means that the program inside the package is ready to run on your system.

There are also SourcePackages. One way to obtain these is with apt-get source <package name>. If you are trying to determine which compile-time options are enabled for a specific package (DebianPackageConfiguration), looking at the SourcePackage can be useful.

You can use http://packages.debian.org/src:<name> for the search on source package names.

Creating debian packages

Can't find a deb for some software you would like to install?

HowToPackageForDebian shows how to create your own package.

Building debian packages

To make sure that a debian package meets all build dependencies and is not influenced by anything specific to the user's environment, packages should be built in a chroot environment. Tools like pbuilder can be used for this.

When working on a package, a faster rebuild can be done with 'dpkg-buildpackage'. But then, all build-dependencies must be satisfied in the installation where the package is built. All necessary packages can be installed automatically with apt-get build-dep. A complete example for building the foo package looks like this:

 $ apt-get source foo
 $ cd foo-0.0.1
 $ sudo apt-get build-dep foo
 $ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

How to extract the content of a package

Do not attempt to use just dpkg-deb or the other commands in this page to install software ! You must use dpkg proper to ensure that all the files are correctly placed and the package's scripts run and its status and contents recorded.

 dpkg-deb -x file.deb dir

Virtual Package

www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ - Debian Policy Manual's Virtual packages

Sometimes, there are several packages which offer more-or-less the same functionality. In this case, it's useful to define a virtual package whose name describes that common functionality...


See also:


CategoryPackageManagement