Re: using dpkg to "see" the contents of a package

[Amos Shapira <amos@gezernet.co.il>]

In message <m0xX6ZL-000ZAiC@bobspc> you write:
|     Look at the results of dpkg-deb --help.  The -c or -I options may
|be what you want.

'dpkg -c package.deb' is the command the original poster is looking for.

The nice thing about .deb files is that they use standard UNIX formats -
ar(1) and tar(1), so you can do something like:

|butch| ar tv dpkg_1.4.0.19.deb
rw-r--r-- 0/0      4 Jul 14 08:52 1997 debian-binary
rw-r--r-- 0/0   4043 Jul 14 08:52 1997 control.tar.gz
rw-r--r-- 0/0 464058 Jul 14 08:52 1997 data.tar.gz
|butch| ar p dpkg_1.4.0.19.deb data.tar.gz | tar ztvf - | head 
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:50 ./
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:51 etc/
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:48 etc/dpkg/
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:51 etc/alternatives/
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:51 usr/
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:48 usr/doc/
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:51 usr/doc/dpkg/
-rw-r--r-- klee/klee      1810 1997-07-14 08:51 usr/doc/dpkg/copyright
drwxr-xr-x klee/klee         0 1997-07-14 08:51 usr/doc/dpkg/packaging.html/
-rw-r--r-- klee/klee      5920 1997-07-14 08:51 usr/doc/dpkg/packaging.html/index.html
|butch| 

Isn't UNIX lovely? :-)

(The advantage?  I was able to manipulate .deb files under SGI IRIX
because of this fact)

Cheers,

--Amos

--Amos Shapira                    | "Of course Australia was marked for
133 Shlomo Ben-Yosef st.          |  glory, for its people had been chosen
Jerusalem 93 805                  |  by the finest judges in England."
ISRAEL        amos@gezernet.co.il |                     -- Anonymous


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