Original author(s) | Ian Murdock |
---|---|
Developer(s) | The Debian Project |
Initial release | January 1994[1] |
Stable release | 1.21.22[2] ![]() |
Preview release | 1.22.7[3] ![]() |
Repository | |
Written in | C, C++, Perl[4] |
Operating system | Unix-like |
Available in | 42 languages[5] |
Type | Package manager |
License | GPLv2 |
Website | wiki |
dpkg is the software at the base of the package management system in the free operating system Debian and its numerous derivatives. dpkg
is used to install, remove, and provide information about .deb packages.
dpkg
(Debian Package) itself is a low-level tool. APT (Advanced Package Tool), a higher-level tool, is more commonly used than dpkg
as it can fetch packages from remote locations and deal with complex package relations, such as dependency resolution. Frontends for APT, like aptitude (ncurses) and synaptic (GTK), are used for their friendlier interfaces.
The Debian package "dpkg" provides the dpkg
program, as well as several other programs necessary for run-time functioning of the packaging system, including dpkg-deb
, dpkg-split
, dpkg-query
, dpkg-statoverride
, dpkg-divert
and dpkg-trigger
.[6] It also includes the programs such as update-alternatives
and start-stop-daemon
. The install-info
program used to be included as well, but was later removed[7] as it is now developed and distributed separately.[8] The Debian package "dpkg-dev" includes the numerous build tools described below.
first-release
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).