Debian Software Package Management(dpkg) in Linux - GeeksforGeeks

01 Feb, 2021
In Linux, there are a lot of different distributions and each of these distributions has a different package type.  For example .rpm or Red hat Package Manager is used as the package in the Linux distribution. A package is the compressed version of the software. In this article, we will go through the Debian package which is used by Ubuntu. D package or Debian Package is used to install and download the software in Debian based Linux systems. Debian files end with .deb extension.
1. Installing a stand-alone package using the Debian package
To install a package -i flag is used. To download a stand-alone package using the Debian package, this command is used:
sudo dpkg -i name_of_package.deb
Example: To download standalone package for the open-source text editor, atom
sudo dpkg -i atom-amd64.deb
2. Removing a package using the Debian package
To remove a package -r flag is used 
sudo dpkg -r name_of_package
Example: To remove the package for the text editor “atom”
sudo dpkg -r atom
Note: -P flag helps to remove everything including conf files.
dpkg -P [package-name]
dpkg -P googler_3.3.0-1_all.deb
3. Listing the debian packages
To list all the Debian packages -l flag is used.
dpkg -l
The above line would give the output similar to the one shown below:
To find a particular package use the grep command: 
dpkg -l | grep name_of_package.
The output of this command would look similar to the one shown below:
4. List the dpkg commands available
-help option lists all the available dpkg commands
dpkg –help
Output of this command would look similar to the one shown below:
5. View the content of a particular package
To view the content of the particular package -c flag is used
dpkg -c [name of the package]
dpkg -c flashplugin-nonfree_3.2_i386.deb
Output of this command would look similar to the one shown below:
6. Print architecture of dpkg installs
–print-architecture command prints the architecture of dpkg installs
dpkg --print-architecture
Output could be amd64, i386, etc.
For example, the output produced by the above code is as shown:
7. Unpack a package
–unpack flag helps us unpack the package.
dpkg --unpack [package-name]
dpkg --unpack flashplugin-nonfree_3.2_i386.deb
The output would look as shown below:
The package can be later configured using –configure flag.
dpkg --configure [package-name]
dpkg --configure flashplugin-nonfree
8. Check if the package is installed or not
To check if a particular package is installed or not -s flag is used.
dpkg -s [package-name]
dpkg -s git
The output would look as shown below:
9. Reconfigure the installed package
To reconfigure the already installed package dpkg-reconfigure command is used
dpkg-reconfigure [package-name]
Locate the installed package
The location of the installed package can be found using -L flag.
dpkg -L [package-name]
dpkg -L git
The output would look as shown below:
10. Check for any issue with the installed package
–audit flag would be used to check for the issues with the package.
dpkg --audit
11. Erase information 
–clear-avail – Erases available information about the current packages
dpkg –-clear-avail
12. Display dpkg version
dpkg –version is used to display dpkg version information.
sudo dpkg --version
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