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.TH dpkg\-scanpackages 1 "2009-10-01" "Debian Project" "dpkg utilities"

.SH NAME

dpkg\-scanpackages \- create Packages index files

.

.SH SYNOPSIS

.B dpkg\-scanpackages

.RI [ options ]

.I binary-dir

.RI [ override-file

.RI [ path-prefix ]]

.B >

.I Packages

.

.SH DESCRIPTION

.B dpkg\-scanpackages

sorts through a tree of Debian binary packages and creates a Packages

file, used by

.BR apt (8),

.BR dselect (1),

etc, to tell the user what packages are available for installation. These

Packages files are the same as those found on Debian archive sites

and CD-ROMs. You might use

.B dpkg\-scanpackages

yourself if making a directory of local packages to install on a cluster

of machines.

.PP

.B Note:

If you want to access the generated Packages file with

.B apt

you will probably need to compress the file with

.BR bzip2 (1)

(generating a Packages.bz2 file) or

.BR gzip (1)

(generating a Packages.gz file). apt ignores uncompressed Packages

files except on local access (i.e.

.B file://

sources).

.PP

.I binarydir

is the name of the tree of the binary packages to process (for example,

.BR contrib/binary\-i386 ).

It is best to make this relative to the root of the Debian archive,

because every Filename field in the new Packages file will start with

this string.

.PP

.I overridefile

is the name of a file to read which contains information about how the

package fits into the distribution (it can be a compressed file); see

.BR deb\-override (5).

.PP

.I pathprefix

is an optional string to be prepended to the Filename fields.

.PP

If more than one version of a package is found only the newest one

is included in the output. If they have the same version and only

differ in architecture only the first one found is used.

.

.SH OPTIONS

.TP

.BR \-t ", " \-\-type " \fItype\fP"

Scan for *.\fItype\fP packages, instead of *.deb.

.TP

.BR \-u ", " \-\-udeb

\fBObsolete\fP alias for \fB-tudeb\fP.

.TP

.BR \-e ", " \-\-extra\-override " \fIfile\fP"

Scan \fIfile\fP to find supplementary overrides (the file can be

compressed). See

.BR deb\-extra\-override (5)

for more information on its format.

.TP

.BR \-a ", " \-\-arch " \fIarch\fP"

Use a pattern consisting of \fI*_all.deb\fP and \fI*_arch.deb\fP instead of

scanning for all debs.

.TP

.BR \-m ", " \-\-multiversion

Include all found packages in the output.

.TP

.BR \-M ", " \-\-medium " \fIid\-string\fP"

Add an X-Medium field containing the value \fIid\-string\fP. This field

is required if you want to generate \fBPackages.cd\fP files for use

by the multicd access method of dselect.

.TP

.BR \-h ", " \-\-help

Show the usage message and exit.

.TP

.BR \-\-version

Show the version and exit.

.

.SH DIAGNOSTICS

.B dpkg\-scanpackages

outputs the usual self-explanatory errors. It also warns about packages

that are in the wrong subdirectory, are duplicated, have a Filename

field in their control file, are missing from the override file, or have

maintainer substitutions which do not take effect.

.

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR dpkg (1),

.BR dselect (1),

.BR deb\-override (5),

.BR deb\-extra\-override (5),

.BR dpkg\-scansources (1).