dpkg-scanpackages(1)                                                dpkg suite                                                dpkg-scanpackages(1)

NAME

       dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-scanpackages [option...] binary-path [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 xz(1) (generating a
       Packages.xz file), 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).

       binary-path 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.

       override-file is the name of a file to read which contains information about how the package fits into the distribution (the  file  can  be
       compressed since dpkg 1.15.5); see deb-override(5).

       path-prefix 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.

       -e, --extra-override file
              Scan file to find supplementary overrides (the file can be compressed  since  dpkg  1.15.5).   See  deb-extra-override(5)  for  more
              information on its format.

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

       -h, --hash hash-list
              Only  generate  file  hashes  for the comma-specified list specified (since dpkg 1.17.14).  The default is to generate all currently
              supported hashes.  Supported values: md5, sha1, sha256.

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

       -M, --medium id-string
              Add an X-Medium field containing the value id-string (since  dpkg  1.15.5).   This  field  is  required  if  you  want  to  generate
              Packages.cd files for use by the multicd access method of dselect.

       -?, --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
       duplicated, 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).

1.19.0.5                                                            2018-04-16                                                dpkg-scanpackages(1)