bionic (1) dpkg-repack.1.gz

NAME

       dpkg-repack - put an unpacked .deb file back together

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-repack [option...] package-name...

DESCRIPTION

       dpkg-repack creates a .deb file out of a Debian package that has already been installed on your system.

       If  any  changes  have  been  made  to  the  package while it was unpacked (e.g.  conffiles files in /etc
       modified), the new package will inherit the changes. (There are exceptions to this, including changes  to
       configuration files that are not conffiles, including those managed by ucf.)

       This utility can make it easy to copy packages from one computer to another, or to recreate packages that
       are installed on your system, but no longer available elsewhere.

       Note: dpkg-repack will place the created package in the current directory.

OPTIONS

       --root=dir
              Take package from filesystem rooted on dir. This is useful  if,  for  example,  you  have  another
              computer  nfs  mounted  on  /mnt,  then  you  can use --root=/mnt to reassemble packages from that
              computer.

       --arch=architecture
              Make the package be for a specific architecture.  dpkg-repack might not be  able  to  tell  if  an
              installed  package  is  architecture  all  or is specific to the system's architecture, in case it
              lacks the Architecture field. If you know the package architecture, you can  use  this  option  to
              force dpkg-repack to use the right architecture.

       -d, --deb-option=option
              Pass option as build argument to dpkg-deb.  This option can be specified multiple times.

       --generate
              Generate  a  temporary  directory suitable for building a package from, but do not actually create
              the package. This is useful if you want to move files around in the package  before  building  it.
              The package can be built from this temporary directory by running "dpkg-deb --build dir ." as root
              (or by using fakroot -u), where dir is the generated directory.

       --tag=thing[,...]
              Specify a comma-separated list of things to tag in the package as  having  been  repackaged.   The
              current list of things to tag is:

              none   Tag nothing.  This can be specified first to be augmented by more specific things.

              description
                     Append  a  timestamped  "Repackaged  by  dpkg-repack" tagline to the package's control file
                     Description field.  This tag is enabled by default.

              version
                     Append a "+repack" tag to the package version.

              all    Tag everything.

       package-name
              The name of the package to attempt to repack. Multiple packages can be listed.

BUGS

       There is a tricky situation that can occur if you dpkg-repack a package that has modified conffiles.  The
       modified  conffiles  are  packed  up.  Now  if you install the package, dpkg(1) does not realize that the
       conffiles in it are modified. So if you later upgrade to a new  version  of  the  package,  dpkg(1)  will
       believe  that  the  old  (repacked)  package  has older conffiles than the new version, and will silently
       replace the conffiles with those in the package you are upgrading to.

       While dpkg-repack can be run under fakeroot(1) and will work most of the time, fakeroot -u must  be  used
       if  any  of  the  files  to be repacked are owned by non-root users. Otherwise the package will have them
       owned by root.  dpkg-repack will warn if you run it under fakeroot(1) without the -u flag.

SEE ALSO

       dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1), fakeroot(1).

AUTHOR

       Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>