dpkg-scanpackages(1)						  dpkg utilities					      dpkg-scanpackages(1)

NAME

       dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-scanpackages [options] binary-dir [override-file [path-prefix]] > Packages

DESCRIPTION

       dpkg-scanpackages  sorts through a tree of Debian binary packages and creates a Packages file, used by apt(8), 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 dpkg-scanpackages yourself if making a directory of local packages to install on a cluster of machines.

       Note:  If  you  want to access the generated Packages file with apt you will probably need to compress the file with bzip2(1) (generating a
       Packages.bz2 file) or gzip(1) (generating a Packages.gz file). apt ignores  uncompressed  Packages  files  except  on  local  access  (i.e.
       file:// sources).

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

       overridefile is the name of a file to read which contains information about how the package fits into the distribution (it can  be  a  com-
       pressed file); see deb-override(5).

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

       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.

OPTIONS

       -t, --type type
	      Scan for *.type packages, instead of *.deb.

       -u, --udeb
	      Obsolete alias for -tudeb.

       -e, --extra-override file
	      Scan file to find supplementary overrides (the file can be compressed). See deb-extra-override(5) for more information on  its  for-
	      mat.

       -a, --arch arch
	      Use a pattern consisting of *_all.deb and *_arch.deb instead of scanning for all debs.

       -m, --multiversion
	      Include all found packages in the output.

       -M, --medium id-string
	      Add  an  X-Medium  field containing the value id-string. This field is required if you want to generate Packages.cd files for use by
	      the multicd access method of dselect.

       -h, --help
	      Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
	      Show the version and exit.

DIAGNOSTICS

       dpkg-scanpackages outputs the usual self-explanatory errors. It also warns about packages that are in the wrong	subdirectory,  are  dupli-
       cated,  have a Filename field in their control file, are missing from the override file, or have maintainer substitutions which do not take
       effect.

SEE ALSO

       dpkg(1), dselect(1), deb-override(5), deb-extra-override(5), dpkg-scansources(1).

Debian Project							    2009-10-01						      dpkg-scanpackages(1)