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(1).)

       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).