[Techtalk] Debian dpkg translation, pleeez!

[Laurel Fan]

On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 11:14:11AM -0800, Carla Schroder wrote:
> OK, I've studied the docs and the man pages, and I swear this is still a big 
> mystery. Please o gurus, what do these lines mean:

> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
> | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
> |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err:uppercase=bad)

These lines are a key to the actual information, and are supposed to
point to the columns below.  The first column is what is "Desired",
the second column is the actual "Status", and the third column tells
you whether there were any errors.

The letters in the Desired column could mean unknown (indicated by
'u'), install (indicated by 'i'), etc...

> And what is their relationship to
> 
> ||/ Name               Version            Description
> +++-==================-==================-====
> ii  tuxkart            0.2.0-3            A 3D go-kart racing game.

You want it to be Installed, it is Installed, and there are no errors.

You'll also see rc (Desired=r, Status=c) if you remove packages but do
not purge them; that means that you wanted the package removed, so
everything except for the config files have been removed.

Other states are less likely.. they'll happen if there are errors, or
during an apt-get.

-- 
laurel at sdf.lonestar.org
http://dreadnought.gorgorg.org