Login or Register to Ask a Question and Join Our Community


Shell Programming and Scripting

Help with scripting APT / dpkg in Debian 4

Login to Discuss or Reply to this Discussion in Our Community

 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Top Forums Shell Programming and Scripting Help with scripting APT / dpkg in Debian 4
# 1  
Old 10-20-2008
Help with scripting APT / dpkg in Debian 4
Hello,

I am attempting to write a (bash) shell script that will do some basic reporting based on the APT utilities and dpkg.

I need the following in the report:
Packages installed
(COLUMNS=200 dpkg -l | grep '/^ii/' > packages_installed)

Packages not installed
I suppose that I can do
COLUMNS=200 dpkg -l > packages_available
and then use cmp or diff to print a list of the differences which should just be the packages not installed

Packages with security updates
I'm drawing a blank on this one, maybe restricting sources to
deb Debian -- Security Information stable/updates main
and printing the output

Packages with updates
I think it's just
apt-get -u upgrade > packages_updates

Packages with new versions (including the distro)
apt-cache show?

The script should then print out in a legible form the different categories from the files created. I realize that there are some GUI's out there that do basically the same thing but this will run on servers. Ideally it should be dependent on the "standard" apt utilities.

Thanks for any input!
Login or Register to Ask a Question

Previous Thread | Next Thread

3 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. Ubuntu

Problem creating Desktop shortcuts through Debian dpkg installer scripts

Hi, I am creating a debian package (*.deb) for my application using the command I am using debian pre/post installer scripts to do certain tasks before/after installation/uninstallation. One such task is to create a shortcut on the user's desktop to launch my application. I am trying to do this... (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: royalibrahim
0 Replies

2. Linux

GPG error on Debian 4 using apt-get

Hello, I wish to update a debian 4.0 server we have but cannot get past the following error message. my keys are as follows: Any help would be good. (0 Replies)
Discussion started by: pobman
0 Replies

3. UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

Debian aptitude - apt-get problem

I've got a strange one. As root, in aptitude, I'll do an update successfully. Then I do an upgrade, the files download, the progress bar will not show total progress, just progress per file, then reset to 0% for the next file. When the files complete downloading, I hit a carrige return to go to... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: mikek147
1 Replies
Login or Register to Ask a Question

LEARN ABOUT LINUX

dpkg-scanpackages

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)