NAME

       dpkg-scanpackages - create Packages index files

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-scanpackages [option...] binary-path [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 media discs.  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(8) you will probably need to compress
       the file with xz(1) (generating a Packages.xz file), bzip2(1) (generating a Packages.bz2 file) or gzip(1)
       (generating a Packages.gz file).  apt(8) ignores uncompressed Packages files except on local access (i.e.
       file:// sources).

       binary-path 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 (the file can be compressed since dpkg 1.15.5); 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 since dpkg 1.15.5).  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.

       -h, --hash hash-list
           Only generate file hashes for the comma-specified list specified (since dpkg 1.17.14).  The default
           is to generate all currently supported hashes.  Supported values: md5, sha1, sha256.

       -m, --multiversion
           Include all found packages in the output.

       -M, --medium id-string
           Add an X-Medium field containing the value id-string (since dpkg 1.15.5).  This field is required if
           you want to generate Packages.cd files for use by the media access method of dselect.

       -?, --help
           Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       DPKG_COLORS
           Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently accepted values are: auto (default), always
           and never.

       DPKG_NLS
           If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known as
           internationalization (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are: 0 and 1
           (default).

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).