15 dpkg commands to Manage Debian based

Linux Servers

dpkg is the package manager for Debian based Linux servers. We can

manage an installed package in Ubuntu/Debian Linux server by using dpkg
command, Below commands with options applies for Ubuntu Linux version
12.0 and above.

The configuration file of dpkg will reside under /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg and the
log will be saved under /var/log/dpkg.log.

Interested in reading about Yum commands?

 30 Yum command for Package Management in Linux
 Using AppStream with yum in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Let’s go through one by one with example about dpkg.

List all installed dpkg packages in Debian

Servers
Here “less” is a simple text reader used to scroll through the list of
packages in a new buffer that opens in the existing terminal window. The
list will not be mixed with other terminal commands and output. Hit ‘q’ to
return to the terminal prompt. See “man less” for more info.

# sudo dpkg -l | less

Check if the dpkg package is installed or
not
To check whether a package is installed or not by using option “-l”.

# sudo dpkg -l {package_name}

# sudo dpkg -l skype

Search for a package and do a grep to find the required package.

# sudo dpkg -l | grep {keywords}

# sudo dpkg -l | grep ruby

Display information about a deb package

Here -I stands for information, To get information about a specific package.

# dpkg -I {package_name}
# dpkg -I skypeforlinux-64.deb

See whether a deb package is installed

or not
Show the location where the package is installed. The “-S” (capital S)
stands for “search”

# sudo dpkg -S {package_name}

# sudo dpkg -S ruby

Check Whether it is installed and get more information about the package.
The status “installed” is the package which correctly unpacked and
configured.
# sudo dpkg-query -s ruby

Install a *.deb package from a specified

location
To install a downloaded .deb extension package use option “-i”. Or install
all packages recursively from a directory.

# sudo dpkg -R --install {package_location}

# sudo dpkg -i skypeforlinux-64.deb
# sudo dpkg -i -R /root/dpkg_downloads

Reconfigure an already installed package

To dpkg-reconfigure command will reconfigure already installed package in
the system

# sudo dpkg-reconfigure skypeforlinux-64.deb

# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -R /root/dpkg_downloads

Remove a package and its configuration

files
To remove any one of installed package use “-r” or we can use the capital
“-P” to purge the same.

# sudo dpkg -r skypeforlinux-64.deb

# sudo dpkg -P skypeforlinux-64.deb

Locating an Installed package

Print the location of installed files of specific package.
# sudo dpkg -L skypeforlinux-64.deb

To view the content of a package

Print all the content of a .deb package using “-c”, Use -c (lowercase c) to
show the content.

# sudo dpkg -c {package_name}

# sudo dpkg -c skypeforlinux-64.deb

Extract the *.deb package file

To extract the files contained by a .deb package use -x (lowercase x).

# dpkg -x {package_name} {location_were_to_extract}

# dpkg -x skypeforlinux-64.deb /home/linuxsysadmins/

Extract and display the filenames

contained in a package
The .deb package can be extracted and display the filenames contained by
a package by using a -X (uppercase X).

# dpkg -X {package_name} {location_were_to_extract}

# dpkg -X skypeforlinux-64.deb /home/linuxsysadmins/

Sanity and Consistency Checks for all

Packages
Check for any issue with installed packages by running an audit. In case if
any package has issue like dependencies or version compatibility it will
report the same.
# sudo dpkg --audit

Unpacking a .deb Package

Unpacking a package without configuring it. In your requirement to unpack
a whole bunch of package under any directory use recursive using option
“-R”.

# sudo dpkg --unpack skypeforlinux-64.deb

# sudo dpkg --unpack -R /root/dpkg_downloads

To check for selected but not installed

packages
Searches for packages selected for installation but which for some reason
not yet got installed.

# sudo dpkg --yet-to-unpack

Performing a Dry Run

Perform an installation with “–dry-run” to show what will happen if we use
“-i”. This can be replaced with any command to see the output without
making any changes to the server.

# sudo dpkg --dry-run -i skypeforlinux-64.deb

That’s it. we will update the article frequently with more command usage.

If you are using Yum it’s better to have a read.

 30 Yum command for Package Management in Linux
 Using AppStream with yum in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Conclusion:
To manage a Debian based package in Ubuntu/Debian Linux we can use
“dpkg” command. In our next article let’s go through any other article
related to Linux setup till then subscribe to our newsletter and keep you
updated.