Re: Bug#2035: dpkg-deb and dpkg share the '-i' flag

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Susan G. Kleinmann writes ("Bug#2035: dpkg-deb and dpkg share the '-i' flag"):
> I had been under the impression that dpkg-deb was invoked when dpkg itself
> was called with certain flags.  If this is the plan, then the '-i' option
> to dpkg doesn't follow the plan.  Here are the ambiguities:
> 
> dpkg -i <deb>         installs a debian archive
> dpkg -I <deb>         prints out an info file.
> dpkg --info <deb>     prints out an info file.
> 
> BUT:
> 
> dpkg-deb -i <deb>     prints out an info file.
> dpkg-deb -I <deb>     prints out an info file.
> dpkg-deb --info <deb> prints out an info file.

That was put in for backward compatibility with very old versions of
dpkg-deb.  I'l withdraw it in the next version (1.0.9).

> The current man page for dpkg-deb says that one can get info output by
> using '-i' or '--info'.  The Usage statement for dpkg-deb says that one
> can get info output by using '-I' or '--info'.  Apparently, they are both
> right (at present).

The manpage is wrong, I've fixed it.

Thanks,
Ian.