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 fakeroot -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).