dpkg - Debian's package maintenance system
The primary interface for the dpkg suite is the ‘dselect’ program;
a more low-level and less user-friendly interface is available in
the form of the ‘dpkg’ command.
Releases
--------
The current legacy, stable and development releases can be found at:
For older releases check:
Mailing List
------------
The subscription interface and web archives can be found at:
The mailing list address is:
debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org
Source Repository
-----------------
Building from git source
------------------------
To prepare the source tree before starting the build process, some software
needs to be installed, additional software might provide optional features.
The minimum software required to build dpkg is:
C89 compiler with few C99 extensions (see doc/coding-style.txt)
GNU make
GNU autoconf >= 2.60
GNU automake >= 1.8
GNU gettext >= 0.18
pkg-config
flex
perl
To run the test suite («make check»):
TimeDate perl module
IO-String perl module
To enable optional functionality or programs, this software might be needed:
zlib (used instead of the command-line tool)
liblzma (from the xz project; used instead of the command-line tool)
libbzip2 (from the bzip2 project; used instead of the command-line tool)
libselinux (needed for SELinux support)
curses compatible library (needed for dselect)
To enable translated or additional («make doc») documentation this
software will be needed:
po4a >= 0.36.4
pod2man
doxygen
dot
To enable code coverage («./configure --enable-coverage; make coverage»)
this software is needed:
lcov (from the Linux Test Project)
Devel-Cover perl module
After installing the needed software, and running the following command on
the git tree:
$ autoreconf -f -i
the source should be equivalent to the distributed tar source.
Building from tar source
------------------------
The instructions to build the distributed source are included in the
INSTALL file.
The following configure options might be of interest to disable specific
programs:
--without-dselect
--without-start-stop-daemon
--without-update-alternatives
--without-install-info
And the following to disable modifications to the build flags:
--disable-compiler-warnings
--disable-compiler-optimisations
--disable-linker-optimisations
To see all available configuration options please run «./configure --help».