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
compressed 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 format.
-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
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).