Debian Package Management:-

.deb is the extension

Installation:-

apt-get install packagename

for installing from the repository.

Examples for package installation:-

dpkg --status package - To determine exactly which files are preserved during an upgrade.

dpkg -i package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb - Install package file

dpkg -R /usr/local/src - Install all packages recursively

dpkg --unpack package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb - Unpack the package, but don't configure it.

dpkg --configure package - Configure the unpackaged package

dpkg -r package - Remove an installed package, but leave the config file intact

dpkg -P package - Purge an installed package, including the config files.

dpkg -C package - Searches for packages that have been installed only partially on your system

dpkg -c package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb / dpkg --contents - List contents of package_2.0.2-1_i386.deb

dpkg -l mp3 - List packages matching the word mp3

dpkg -l - List all installed packages, along with package version and short description

dpkg -L package - List files installed to your system from package

dpkg -S 'search pattern' - Search for a filename from installed packages.

dpkg -p package - Display details about package.

dpkg --fsys-tarfile package_2.0.1-i86.deb | tar -xf - config.conf - Extract a single file named config.conf from the package.

Building binary packages from a source debian package:-

You will need all of package_*.dsc, package_*.tar.gz and package_*.diff.gz to compile the source. If there is no, package_*.diff.gz, don't panic. It's "OK".

Make sure dpkg-dev and fakeroot package is installed and dpkg-source command is available. After that,

dpkg-source -x package_version-revision.dsc

will extract the package into a directory called package-version.

If you want just to compile the package, you may cd into package-version directory and issue the command

dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b