dpkg

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Available Packages File Management Options

dpkg and dselect both use the available packages information found in the file

/var/lib/dpkg/available. This file is constructed from the Packages file found

in the binary, contrib, and non free sections of these archives. There are several

tools that dpkg provides, as options, for creating and managing this file.

  clear avail

dpkg will clear the available packages file of all information when given this

option. There are times when the current file has been corrupted or otherwise

broken in some fashion. This can happen for a number of reasons.

The most common reason is that it has gotten updated from a  broken  Pack 

ages file. In extreme cases, changes to the file format have resulted in files that

failed to work with the old version of dpkg. This requires that the new version

be installed before the file can be fixed. Cleaning out this file allows the up 

grade to go forward. Once completed the available file can again be updated

with the new Packages format and the installation may progress unhindered.

Executing the command:

dpkg   clear avail

is a way to clean the slate and start over from scratch and will typically be

followed by a dpkg   merge avail command.

 A |   avail 

This will add the package information, found in the .deb file pointed to by

, to the available file. So the command:

dpkg  A /usr/local/Debian/archive/joe 2.8 7.deb