NAME

       dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-scanpackages [option...] 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).

       binary-dir 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.

       override-file 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).

       path-prefix 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.

       -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.

       -?, --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).