NAME

       dpkg-name - rename Debian packages to full package names

SYNOPSIS

       dpkg-name [option...]  [--] file...

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents the dpkg-name program which provides an easy way to rename Debian packages
       into their full package names.  A full package name consists of package_version_architecture.package-type
       as specified in the control file of the package.  The version part of the filename consists of the
       upstream version information optionally followed by a hyphen and the revision information.  The package-
       type part comes from that field if present or will fall back to deb.

OPTIONS

       -a, --no-architecture
           The destination filename will not have the architecture information.

       -k, --symlink
           Create a symlink, instead of moving.

       -o, --overwrite
           Existing files will be overwritten if they have the same name as the destination filename.

       -s, --subdir [dir]
           Files will be moved into a subdirectory.  If the directory given as argument exists the files will be
           moved  into  that  directory otherwise the name of the target directory is extracted from the section
           field   in   the   control   part   of   the    package.     The    target    directory    will    be
           «unstable/binary-architecture/section».   If the section is not found in the control, then no-section
           is assumed, and in this case, as well as for sections non-free and contrib the  target  directory  is
           «section/binary-architecture».   The  section  field  is  not required so a lot of packages will find
           their way to the no-section area.

           Warning: Use this option with care, it is messy.

       -c, --create-dir
           This option can used together with the -s option.  If a target  directory  isn't  found  it  will  be
           created automatically.

           Warning: Use this option with care.

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

       -v, --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT

       DEB_HOST_ARCH
           Sets the host architecture.  This affects the architecture name used in the package filename.

       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).

BUGS

       Some packages don't follow the name  structure  package_version_architecture.deb.   Packages  renamed  by
       dpkg-name  will  follow this structure.  Generally this will have no impact on how packages are installed
       by dselect(1)/dpkg(1), but other installation tools might depend on this naming structure.

EXAMPLES

       dpkg-name bar-foo.deb
           The file bar-foo.deb will be renamed to bar-foo_1.0-2_i386.deb or  something  similar  (depending  on
           whatever information is in the control part of bar-foo.deb).

       find /root/debian/ -name '*.deb' | xargs -n 1 dpkg-name -a
           All files with the extension deb in the directory /root/debian and its subdirectory's will be renamed
           by dpkg-name if required into names with no architecture information.

       find -name '*.deb' | xargs -n 1 dpkg-name -a -o -s -c
           Don't  do  this.  Your archive will be messed up completely because a lot of packages don't come with
           section information.  Don't do this.

       dpkg-deb --build debian-tmp && dpkg-name -o -s .. debian-tmp.deb
           This can be used when building new packages.

SEE ALSO

       deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1), find(1), xargs(1).

1.22.21                                            2025-10-16                                       dpkg-name(1)