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+<html>
+
+<head>
+
+<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+
+<title>The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ - Basics of the Debian package management system</title>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+<p><a name="ch-pkg_basics"></a></p>
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">previous</a> ]
+[ <a href="index.en.html#contents">Contents</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-basic_defs.en.html">1</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-getting.en.html">2</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-compat.en.html">3</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-software.en.html">4</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">5</a> ]
+[ 6 ]
+[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">7</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-uptodate.en.html">8</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-kernel.en.html">9</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-customizing.en.html">10</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-support.en.html">11</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-contributing.en.html">12</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-redistrib.en.html">13</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-nexttime.en.html">14</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html">15</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">next</a> ]
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h1>
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+<br>Chapter 6 - Basics of the Debian package management system
+</h1>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-package"></a>6.1 What is a Debian package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+Packages generally contain all of the files necessary to implement a set of
+related commands or features. There are two types of Debian packages:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<em>Binary packages</em>, which contain executables, configuration files,
+man/info pages, copyright information, and other documentation. These packages
+are distributed in a Debian-specific archive format (see <a
+href="#s-deb-format">What is the format of a Debian binary package?, Section
+6.2</a>); they are usually distinguished by having a '.deb' file extension.
+Binary packages can be unpacked using the Debian utility <samp>dpkg</samp>;
+details are given in its manual page.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<em>Source packages</em>, which consist of a <samp>.dsc</samp> file describing
+the source package (including the names of the following files), a
+<samp>.orig.tar.gz</samp> file that contains the original unmodified source in
+gzip-compressed tar format and usually a <samp>.diff.gz</samp> file that
+contains the Debian-specific changes to the original source. The utility
+<samp>dpkg-source</samp> packs and unpacks Debian source archives; details are
+provided in its manual page.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+Installation of software by the package system uses &quot;dependencies&quot;
+which are carefully designed by the package maintainers. These dependencies
+are documented in the <samp>control</samp> file associated with each package.
+For example, the package containing the GNU C compiler (<code>gcc</code>)
+&quot;depends&quot; on the package <code>binutils</code> which includes the
+linker and assembler. If a user attempts to install <code>gcc</code> without
+having first installed <code>binutils</code>, the package management system
+(dpkg) will send an error message that it also needs <code>binutils</code>, and
+stop installing <code>gcc</code>. (However, this facility can be overridden by
+the insistent user, see <code>dpkg(8)</code>.) See more in <a
+href="#s-depends">What is meant by saying that a package <em>Depends</em>,
+<em>Recommends</em>, <em>Suggests</em>, <em>Conflicts</em>, <em>Replaces</em>
+or <em>Provides</em> another package?, Section 6.9</a> below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Debian's packaging tools can be used to:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+manipulate and manage packages or parts of packages,
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+aid the user in the break-up of packages that must be transmitted through a
+limited-size medium such as floppy disks,
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+aid developers in the construction of package archives, and
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+aid users in the installation of packages which reside on a remote FTP site.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-deb-format"></a>6.2 What is the format of a Debian binary package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+A Debian &quot;package&quot;, or a Debian archive file, contains the executable
+files, libraries, and documentation associated with a particular suite of
+program or set of related programs. Normally, a Debian archive file has a
+filename that ends in <samp>.deb</samp>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The internals of this Debian binary packages format are described in the
+<code>deb(5)</code> manual page. This internal format is subject to change
+(between major releases of Debian GNU/Linux), therefore please always use
+<code>dpkg-deb(1)</code> for manipulating <samp>.deb</samp> files.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-pkgname"></a>6.3 Why are Debian package file names so long?</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Debian binary package file names conform to the following convention:
+&lt;foo&gt;_&lt;VersionNumber&gt;-&lt;DebianRevisionNumber&gt;.deb
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Note that <samp>foo</samp> is supposed to be the package name. As a check, one
+can learn the package name associated with a particular Debian archive file
+(.deb file) in one of these ways:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+inspect the &quot;Packages&quot; file in the directory where it was stored at a
+Debian FTP archive site. This file contains a stanza describing each package;
+the first field in each stanza is the formal package name.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+use the command <samp>dpkg --info foo_VVV-RRR.deb</samp> (where VVV and RRR are
+the version and revision of the package in question, respectively). This
+displays, among other things, the package name corresponding to the archive
+file being unpacked.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+The <samp>VVV</samp> component is the version number specified by the upstream
+developer. There are no standards in place here, so the version number may
+have formats as different as &quot;19990513&quot; and &quot;1.3.8pre1&quot;.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <samp>RRR</samp> component is the Debian revision number, and is specified
+by the Debian developer (or an individual user if he chooses to build the
+package himself). This number corresponds to the revision level of the Debian
+package, thus, a new revision level usually signifies changes in the Debian
+Makefile (<samp>debian/rules</samp>), the Debian control file
+(<samp>debian/control</samp>), the installation or removal scripts
+(<samp>debian/p*</samp>), or in the configuration files used with the package.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-controlfile"></a>6.4 What is a Debian control file?</h2>
+
+<p>
+Specifics regarding the contents of a Debian control file are provided in the
+Debian Policy Manual, section 5, see <a
+href="ch-support.en.html#s-debiandocs">What other documentation exists on and
+for a Debian system?, Section 11.1</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Briefly, a sample control file is shown below for the Debian package hello:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ Package: hello
+ Priority: optional
+ Section: devel
+ Installed-Size: 45
+ Maintainer: Adam Heath &lt;doogie@debian.org&gt;
+ Architecture: i386
+ Version: 1.3-16
+ Depends: libc6 (&gt;= 2.1)
+ Description: The classic greeting, and a good example
+ The GNU hello program produces a familiar, friendly greeting. It
+ allows nonprogrammers to use a classic computer science tool which
+ would otherwise be unavailable to them.
+ .
+ Seriously, though: this is an example of how to do a Debian package.
+ It is the Debian version of the GNU Project's `hello world' program
+ (which is itself an example for the GNU Project).
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+The Package field gives the package name. This is the name by which the
+package can be manipulated by the package tools, and usually similar to but not
+necessarily the same as the first component string in the Debian archive file
+name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Version field gives both the upstream developer's version number and (in
+the last component) the revision level of the Debian package of this program as
+explained in <a href="#s-pkgname">Why are Debian package file names so long?,
+Section 6.3</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Architecture field specifies the chip for which this particular binary was
+compiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Depends field gives a list of packages that have to be installed in order
+to install this package successfully.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Installed-Size indicates how much disk space the installed package will
+consume. This is intended to be used by installation front-ends in order to
+show whether there is enough disk space available to install the program.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Section line gives the &quot;section&quot; where this Debian package is
+stored at the Debian FTP sites. This is the name of a subdirectory (within one
+of the main directories, see <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-dirtree">What
+are all those directories at the Debian FTP archives?, Section 5.1</a>) where
+the package is stored.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Priority indicates how important is this package for installation, so that
+semi-intelligent software like dselect or console-apt can sort the package into
+a category of e.g. packages optionally installed. See <a
+href="#s-priority">What is an <em>Essential</em> <em>Required</em>,
+<em>Important</em>, <em>Standard</em>, <em>Optional</em>, or <em>Extra</em>
+package?, Section 6.7</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Maintainer field gives the e-mail address of the person who is currently
+responsible for maintaining this package.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Description field gives a brief summary of the package's features.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For more information about all possible fields a package can have, please see
+the Debian Policy Manual, section 5., &quot;Control files and their
+fields&quot;.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-conffile"></a>6.5 What is a Debian conffile?</h2>
+
+<p>
+Conffiles is a list of configuration files (usually placed in
+<samp>/etc</samp>) that the package management system will not overwrite when
+the package is upgraded. This ensures that local values for the contents of
+these files will be preserved, and is a critical feature enabling the in-place
+upgrade of packages on a running system.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To determine exactly which files are preserved during an upgrade, run:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg --status package
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+And look under &quot;Conffiles:&quot;.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-maintscripts"></a>6.6 What is a Debian preinst, postinst, prerm, and postrm script?</h2>
+
+<p>
+These files are executable scripts which are automatically run before or after
+a package is installed. Along with a file named <samp>control</samp>, all of
+these files are part of the &quot;control&quot; section of a Debian archive
+file.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The individual files are:
+</p>
+<dl>
+<dt>preinst</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+This script executes before that package will be unpacked from its Debian
+archive (&quot;.deb&quot;) file. Many 'preinst' scripts stop services for
+packages which are being upgraded until their installation or upgrade is
+completed (following the successful execution of the 'postinst' script).
+</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+<dl>
+<dt>postinst</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+This script typically completes any required configuration of the package
+<samp>foo</samp> once <samp>foo</samp> has been unpacked from its Debian
+archive (&quot;.deb&quot;) file. Often, 'postinst' scripts ask the user for
+input, and/or warn the user that if he accepts default values, he should
+remember to go back and re-configure that package as the situation warrants.
+Many 'postinst' scripts then execute any commands necessary to start or restart
+a service once a new package has been installed or upgraded.
+</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+<dl>
+<dt>prerm</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+This script typically stops any daemons which are associated with a package.
+It is executed before the removal of files associated with the package.
+</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+<dl>
+<dt>postrm</dt>
+<dd>
+<p>
+This script typically modifies links or other files associated with
+<samp>foo</samp>, and/or removes files created by the package. (Also see <a
+href="#s-virtual">What is a Virtual Package?, Section 6.8</a>.)
+</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p>
+Currently all of the control files can be found in directory
+<samp>/var/lib/dpkg/info</samp>. The files relevant to package
+<samp>foo</samp> begin with the name &quot;foo&quot; and have file extensions
+of &quot;preinst&quot;, &quot;postinst&quot;, etc., as appropriate. The file
+<samp>foo.list</samp> in that directory lists all of the files that were
+installed with the package <samp>foo</samp>. (Note that the location of these
+files is a dpkg internal; you should not rely on it.)
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-priority"></a>6.7 What is an <em>Essential</em> <em>Required</em>, <em>Important</em>, <em>Standard</em>, <em>Optional</em>, or <em>Extra</em> package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+Each Debian package is assigned a <em>priority</em> by the distribution
+maintainers, as an aid to the package management system. The priorities are:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<strong>Required</strong>: packages that are necessary for the proper
+functioning of the system.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This includes all tools that are necessary to repair system defects. You must
+not remove these packages or your system may become totally broken and you may
+probably not even be able to use dpkg to put things back. Systems with only
+the Required packages are probably unusable, but they do have enough
+functionality to allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<strong>Important</strong> packages should be found on any Unix-like system.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Other packages which the system will not run well or be usable without will be
+here. This does <em>NOT</em> include Emacs or X11 or TeX or any other large
+applications. These packages only constitute the bare infrastructure.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<strong>Standard</strong> packages are standard on any Linux system, including
+a reasonably small but not too limited character-mode system. Tools are
+included to be able to browse the web (using w3m), send e-mail (with mutt) and
+download files from FTP servers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is what will install by default if users do not select anything else. It
+does not include many large applications, but it does include the Python
+interpreter and some server software like OpenSSH (for remote administration),
+Exim (for mail delivery, although it can be configured for local delivery
+only), an identd server (pidentd) and the RPC portmapper
+(<samp>portmap</samp>). It also includes some common generic documentation
+that most users will find helpful.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<strong>Optional</strong> packages include all those that you might reasonably
+want to install if you did not know what it was, or do not have specialized
+requirements.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This includes X11, a full TeX distribution, and lots of applications.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+<strong>Extra</strong>: packages that either conflict with others with higher
+priorities, are only likely to be useful if you already know what they are, or
+have specialized requirements that make them unsuitable for
+&quot;Optional&quot;.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+If you do a default Debian installation all the packages of priority
+<strong>Standard</strong> or higher will be installed in your system. If you
+select pre-defined tasks you will get lower priority packages too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Additionally, some packages are marked as <strong>Essential</strong> since they
+are absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of the system. The package
+management tools will refuse to remove these.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-virtual"></a>6.8 What is a Virtual Package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+A virtual package is a generic name that applies to any one of a group of
+packages, all of which provide similar basic functionality. For example, both
+the <samp>tin</samp> and <samp>trn</samp> programs are news readers, and should
+therefore satisfy any dependency of a program that required a news reader on a
+system, in order to work or to be useful. They are therefore both said to
+provide the &quot;virtual package&quot; called <samp>news-reader</samp>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Similarly, <samp>smail</samp> and <samp>sendmail</samp> both provide the
+functionality of a mail transport agent. They are therefore said to provide
+the virtual package, &quot;mail transport agent&quot;. If either one is
+installed, then any program depending on the installation of a
+<samp>mail-transport-agent</samp> will be satisfied by the existence of this
+virtual package.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Debian provides a mechanism so that, if more than one package which provide the
+same virtual package is installed on a system, then system administrators can
+set one as the preferred package. The relevant command is
+<samp>update-alternatives</samp>, and is described further in <a
+href="ch-customizing.en.html#s-diverse">Some users like mawk, others like gawk;
+some like vim, others like elvis; some like trn, others like tin; how does
+Debian support diversity?, Section 10.10</a>.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-depends"></a>6.9 What is meant by saying that a package <em>Depends</em>, <em>Recommends</em>, <em>Suggests</em>, <em>Conflicts</em>, <em>Replaces</em> or <em>Provides</em> another package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+The Debian package system has a range of package &quot;dependencies&quot; which
+are designed to indicate (in a single flag) the level at which Program A can
+operate independently of the existence of Program B on a given system:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>depends</em> on Package B if B absolutely must be installed in
+order to run A. In some cases, A depends not only on B, but on a version of B.
+In this case, the version dependency is usually a lower limit, in the sense
+that A depends on any version of B more recent than some specified version.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>recommends</em> Package B, if the package maintainer judges that
+most users would not want A without also having the functionality provided by
+B.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>suggests</em> Package B if B contains files that are related to
+(and usually enhance) the functionality of A.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>conflicts</em> with Package B when A will not operate if B is
+installed on the system. Most often, conflicts are cases where A contains
+files which are an improvement over those in B. &quot;Conflicts&quot; are
+often combined with &quot;replaces&quot;.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>replaces</em> Package B when files installed by B are removed and
+(in some cases) over-written by files in A.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+Package A <em>provides</em> Package B when all of the files and functionality
+of B are incorporated into A. This mechanism provides a way for users with
+constrained disk space to get only that part of package A which they really
+need.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>
+More detailed information on the use of each these terms can be found in the
+Policy manual.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-pre-depends"></a>6.10 What is meant by Pre-Depends?</h2>
+
+<p>
+&quot;Pre-Depends&quot; is a special dependency. In the case of most packages,
+<samp>dpkg</samp> will unpack its archive file (i.e., its <samp>.deb</samp>
+file) independently of whether or not the files on which it depends exist on
+the system. Simplistically, unpacking means that <samp>dpkg</samp> will
+extract the files from the archive file that were meant to be installed on your
+file system, and put them in place. If those packages <em>depend</em> on the
+existence of some other packages on your system, <samp>dpkg</samp> will refuse
+to complete the installation (by executing its &quot;configure&quot; action)
+until the other packages are installed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However, for some packages, <samp>dpkg</samp> will refuse even to unpack them
+until certain dependencies are resolved. Such packages are said to
+&quot;Pre-depend&quot; on the presence of some other packages. The Debian
+project provided this mechanism to support the safe upgrading of systems from
+<samp>a.out</samp> format to <samp>ELF</samp> format, where the <em>order</em>
+in which packages were unpacked was critical. There are other large upgrade
+situations where this method is useful, e.g. the packages with the required
+priority and their LibC dependency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As before, more detailed information about this can be found in the Policy
+manual.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-pkgstatus"></a>6.11 What is meant by <em>unknown</em>, <em>install</em>, <em>remove</em> <em>purge</em> and <em>hold</em> in the package status?</h2>
+
+<p>
+These &quot;want&quot; flags tell what the user wanted to do with a package (as
+indicated either by the user's actions in the &quot;Select&quot; section of
+<samp>dselect</samp>, or by the user's direct invocations of
+<samp>dpkg</samp>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their meanings are:
+</p>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+unknown - the user has never indicated whether he wants the package
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+install - the user wants the package installed or upgraded
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+remove - the user wants the package removed, but does not want to remove any
+existing configuration files.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+purge - the user wants the package to be removed completely, including its
+configuration files.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+<ul>
+<li>
+<p>
+hold - the user wants this package not to be processed, i.e., he wants to keep
+the current version with the current status whatever that is.
+</p>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-puttingonhold"></a>6.12 How do I put a package on hold?</h2>
+
+<p>
+There are three ways of holding back packages, with dpkg, aptitude or with
+dselect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With dpkg, you just have to export the list of package selections, with:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg --get-selections \* &gt; selections.txt
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Then edit the resulting file <code>selections.txt</code>, change the line
+containing the package you wish to hold, e.g. <code>libc6</code>, from this:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ libc6 install
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+to this:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ libc6 hold
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+Save the file, and reload it into dpkg database with:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg --set-selections &lt; selections.txt
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+With aptitude, you can hold a package using
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ aptitude hold package_name
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+and remove the hold with
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ aptitude unhold package_name
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+With dselect, you just have to enter the [S]elect screen, find the package you
+wish to hold in its present state, and press the `=' key (or `H'). The changes
+will go live immediately after you exit the [S]elect screen.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-sourcepkgs"></a>6.13 How do I install a source package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+Debian source packages can't actually be &quot;installed&quot;, they are just
+unpacked in whatever directory you want to build the binary packages they
+produce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Source packages are distributed on most of the same mirrors where you can
+obtain the binary packages. If you set up your APT's
+<code>sources.list(5)</code> to include the appropriate &quot;deb-src&quot;
+lines, you'll be able to easily download any source packages by running
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ apt-get source foo
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+To help you in actually building the source package, Debian source package
+provide the so-called build-dependencies mechanism. This means that the source
+package maintainer keeps a list of other packages that are required to build
+their package. To see how this is useful, run
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ apt-get build-dep foo
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+before building the source.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-sourcebuild"></a>6.14 How do I build binary packages from a source package?</h2>
+
+<p>
+You will need all of foo_*.dsc, foo_*.tar.gz and foo_*.diff.gz to compile the
+source (note: there is no .diff.gz for some packages that are native to
+Debian).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once you have them (<a href="#s-sourcepkgs">How do I install a source package?,
+Section 6.13</a>), if you have the <code>dpkg-dev</code> package installed, the
+following command:
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg-source -x foo_version-revision.dsc
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+will extract the package into a directory called <samp>foo-version</samp>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If you want just to compile the package, you may cd into
+<samp>foo-version</samp> directory and issue the command
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+to build the package (note that this also requires the <code>fakeroot</code>
+package), and then
+</p>
+
+<pre>
+ dpkg -i ../foo_version-revision_arch.deb
+</pre>
+
+<p>
+to install the newly-built package(s).
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<h2><a name="s-creatingdebs"></a>6.15 How do I create Debian packages myself?</h2>
+
+<p>
+For more detailed description on this, read the New Maintainers' Guide,
+available in the <code>maint-guide</code> package, or at <code><a
+href="http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide">http://www.debian.org/doc/devel-manuals#maint-guide</a></code>.
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">previous</a> ]
+[ <a href="index.en.html#contents">Contents</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-basic_defs.en.html">1</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-getting.en.html">2</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-compat.en.html">3</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-software.en.html">4</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-ftparchives.en.html">5</a> ]
+[ 6 ]
+[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">7</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-uptodate.en.html">8</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-kernel.en.html">9</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-customizing.en.html">10</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-support.en.html">11</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-contributing.en.html">12</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-redistrib.en.html">13</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-nexttime.en.html">14</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html">15</a> ]
+[ <a href="ch-pkgtools.en.html">next</a> ]
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+The Debian GNU/Linux FAQ
+</p>
+
+<address>
+version 3.1.5, 17 January 2007<br>
+<br>
+Authors are listed at <a href="ch-faqinfo.en.html#s-authors">Debian FAQ Authors</a><br>
+<br>
+</address>
+<hr>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>
+