Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Files

Some important files used by the Debian package-management tools are described briefly here:

control

Comes with each package. Documents dependencies; contains the name and version of the package, a description, maintainer, installed size, the package priority, etc.

conffiles

Comes with each package. Contains a list of the configuration files associated with the package.

preinst, postinst, prerm, postrm

Scripts developers can include in a package to be run before installation, after installation, before removal, or after removal of the package.

/var/lib/dpkg/available

Contains information about packages available on the system.

/var/lib/dpkg/status

Contains information about the status of packages available on the system.

/etc/apt/sources.list

A list for APT of package sources, used to locate packages. The sources are listed one per line, in order of preference.

/etc/apt/apt.conf

The main APT configuration file.

/etc/apt/preferences

A preferences file that controls various aspects of APT, such as letting a user select the version or release of a package to install.

/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg

A configuration file containing default options for dpkg.

For a user, the important file is /etc/apt/sources.list. This file is where you set up the paths to the package archives, telling apt where to go to find packages. apt is installed with a default file. You aren’t required to modify the sources in the file, but you’ll probably want to change some sources or add additional ones at some point. You might also ...