7.1.5 Other package management tools
7.1.5.1 dpkg-deb
This program manipulates Debian archive(.deb) files. Some common
uses are:
-
Find out all the options: dpkg-deb --help.
-
Determine what files are contained in a Debian archive file: dpkg-deb
--contents foo_VVV-RRR.deb)
-
Extract the files contained in a named Debian archive into a user specified
directory: dpkg-deb --extract foo_VVV-RRR.deb tmp extracts each of
the files in foo_VVV-RRR.deb into the directory tmp/.
This is convenient for examining the contents of a package in a localized
directory, without installing the package into the root file system.
Note that any packages that were merely unpacked using dpkg-deb
--extract will be incorrectly installed, you should use dpkg
--install instead.
More information is given in the manual page dpkg-deb(1).
7.1.5.2 dpkg-split
This program splits large package into smaller files (e.g., for writing onto a
set of floppy disks), and can also be used to merge a set of split files back
into a single file. It can only be used on a Debian system (i.e. a system
containing the dpkg package), since it calls the program
dpkg-deb to parse the debian package file into its component
records.
For example, to split a big .deb file into N parts,
-
Execute the command dpkg-split --split foo.deb. This will produce
N files each of approximately 460 KBytes long in the current directory.
-
Copy those N files to floppy disks.
-
Copy the contents of the floppy disks onto the hard disk of your choice on the
other machine.
-
Join those part-files together using dpkg-split --join
"foo*".
