Ubuntu Manpage: debsums - check the MD5 sums of installed Debian packages

NAME

       debsums - check the MD5 sums of installed Debian packages

SYNOPSIS

       debsums [options] [package|deb] ...

DESCRIPTION

       Verify    installed    Debian    package   files   against   MD5   checksum   lists   from
       /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.md5sums.

       debsums can generate checksum lists from deb archives for packages that don't include one.

OPTIONS

-a, --all
Also check configuration files (normally excluded).

-e, --config
Only check configuration files.

-c, --changed
Report changed file list to stdout (implies -s).

-l, --list-missing
List packages (or debs) which don't have an MD5 sums file.

-s, --silent
Only report errors.

-m, --md5sums=file
Read list of deb checksums from file.

-r, --root=dir
Root directory to check (default /).

-d, --admindir=dir
dpkg admin directory (default /var/lib/dpkg).

-p, --deb-path=dir[:dir...]
Directories in which to look for debs derived from the package name (default is the
current directory).

A useful value is /var/cache/apt/archives when using apt-get autoclean or not
clearing the cache at all. The command:

apt-get --reinstall -d install `debsums -l`

may be used to populate the cache with any debs not already in the cache.

Note: This doesn't work for CD-ROM and other local sources as packages are not
copied to /var/cache. Simple file sources (all debs in a single directory) should
be added to the -p list.

-g, --generate=[missing|all][,keep[,nocheck]]
Generate MD5 sums from deb contents. If the argument is a package name rather than
a deb archive, the program will look for a deb named package_version_arch.deb in
the directories given by the -p option.

missing
Generate MD5 sums from the deb for packages which don't provide one.

all Ignore the on disk sums and use the one supplied in the deb, or generated
from it if none exists.

keep Write the extracted/generated sums to /var/lib/dpkg/info/package.md5sums.

nocheck
Implies keep; the extracted/generated sums are not checked against the
installed package.

For backward compatibility, the short option -g is equivalent to
--generate=missing.

--no-locale-purge
Report missing locale files even if localepurge is configured.

--no-prelink
Report changed ELF files even if prelink is configured.

--ignore-permissions
Treat permission errors as warnings when running as non-root.

--help
--version
Print help and version information.

EXIT STATUS

       debsums returns 0 on success, or a combination* of the following values on error:

       1      A  specified  package  or  archive name was not installed, invalid or the installed
              version did not match the given archive.

       2      Changed or missing package files, or checksum mismatch on an archive.

       255    Invalid option.

       *If both of the first two conditions are true, the exit status will be 3.

EXAMPLES

       debsums foo bar
              Check the sums for installed packages foo and bar.

       debsums foo.deb bar.deb
              As above, using checksums from (or generated from) the archives.

       debsums -l
              List installed packages with no checksums.

       debsums -ca
              List changed package files from all installed packages with checksums.

       debsums -ce
              List changed configuration files.

       debsums -cagp /var/cache/apt/archives
              As above, using sums from cached debs where available.

       apt-get install --reinstall $(dpkg -S $(debsums -c) | cut -d : -f 1 | sort -u)
              Reinstalls packages with changed files.

RESULTS

       OK     The file's md5sum is good.

       FAILED The file's md5sum does not match.

       REPLACED
              The file has been replaced by a file from a different package.

NOTES

       The default installation of debsums package sets the debconf  boolean  value  debsums/apt-
       autogen to be "true".

       This will create /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/90debsums as:

              DPkg::Post-Invoke {
                  "debsums --generate=nocheck -sp /var/cache/apt/archives";
              };

       by  the  postinst  script  (>=2.0.7).  Every APT controlled package installation processes
       will execute this code fragment to generate the missing  md5sums  files  from  the  binary
       packages.

       In  order  to  create  md5sums  files  for  the  already  installed packages, you must run
       debsums_init once after the installation of debsums package.

ENVIRONMENT

       TMPDIR Directory for extracting information and contents from package  archives  (/tmp  by
              default).

CAVEATS

       While  in  general  the  program  may be run as a normal user, some packages contain files
       which are not globally readable so cannot be  checked.   Privileges  are  of  course  also
       required when generating sums with the keep option set.

       Files which have been replaced by another package may be erroneously reported as changed.

       debsums  is  intended  primarily  as  a  way of determining what installed files have been
       locally modified by the administrator or damaged by media errors and is of limited use  as
       a security tool.

       If  you  are  looking  for an integrity checker that can run from safe media, do integrity
       checks on checksum databases and can be easily configured to run periodically to warn  the
       admin of changes see other tools such as: aide, integrit, samhain, or tripwire.

AUTHOR

       Written by Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>.
       Based   on   a   program   by   Christoph  Lameter  <clameter@debian.org>  and  Petr  Cech
       <cech@debian.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2002  Brendan O'Dea <bod@debian.org>
       This is free software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.   There
       is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.