[Techtalk] Debian dpkg translation, pleeez!

[Hamster]

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 11:14:11 -0800
Carla Schroder <carla at bratgrrl.com> 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:
 
These three lines:

> 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)

Is the key to understanding the first three columns of the output.

> ||/ 
> +++-
> ii  

These three columns display various letters here. The ||/ is ASCII art
pointing to the description.

So the very first column is explained by the very first line:
> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold

This tells you that if the letter displayed in the first column is a "u" is
means the desired status is unknown. If the letter is an "i" its installed.
If the letter is an "r" its removed.

"Desired" means you've asked dpkg to do something to this package, this is
what you asked.

The second column is explained by the second line.
>Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed

Once again, if the letter in the second column is "n", its not installed,
an "i" it is installed, "c" means config files are present etc etc etc.

Status means "the actual status of the package" and while *usually* it has
the same value of desired, that's not always the case.

The third column is defined by the third row:
>Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems

And works the same way. This column displays what errors there are

The very last line:
> (Status,Err:uppercase=bad)
Means that an uppercase letter in either the Status or Error columns (2nd,
3rd) means Bad News.

Does that help?

Hamster