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dselect

console Debian package handling frontend

dselect.8.man

1. dselect.8.man

Manpage of DSELECT

DSELECT

Section: Debian GNU/Linux (8)
Updated: January 2000
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NAME

dselect - console Debian package handling frontend

SYNOPSIS

dselect [--admindir <directory>] [--help] [--version] [--licence | --license] [--expert] [--debug <file> | -D <file>] [<action>]

DESCRIPTION

dselect is the primary user interface for installing, removing and managing Debian GNU/Linux packages. It is an front-end to dpkg(8). Normally dselect is invoked without parameters, but some commandline parameters are still available.

The usage of dselect is pretty self-explanatory, and an internal help-system is included, which describes the keystrokes and some general concepts. Read the help.

ACTIONS

Access: Chooses an access `method' to use to find package repository. By default, there exist several methods such as "floppy", "harddisk", "cdrom", but other packages you install can provide additional methods, e.g. "apt" or "multi_cd" etc.
Update: Updates list of packages available to dpkg/dselect with data from the chosen repository Packages file(s).
Select: Selects individual packages to install.
Install: Installs selected packages.
Config: Configures any previously not configured packages.
Remove: Removes or purges deselected packages.
Quit: Exit dselect (successfully).

OPTIONS

All options can be specified both on the commandline and in the dselect configuration file /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg. Each line in the configuration file is either an option (exactly the same as the commandline option but without leading dashes) or a comment (if it starts with a #).

--admindir <directory>: Changes the directory where the dpkg `status', `available' and similar files are located. This defaults to /var/lib/dpkg and normally there shouldn't be any need to change it.
--debug <file> | -D<file>: Turn on debugging. Debugging information is sent to <file>.
--expert: Turns on expert mode, i.e. doesn't display possibly annoying help messages.
--help: Print a brief help text and exit successfully.
--licence | --license: Displays the dselect copyright and license information and exits successfully.
--version: Print version information and exit successfully.

BUGS

The dselect package selection interface is confusing or even alarming to a new user.

dselect doesn't handle Recommends: field very well, and doesn't understand Replaces: at all.

There is no easy way to automatically download and install packages via anonymous FTP with default access methods (APT does this).

AUTHORS

dselect was written by Ian Jackson (ijackson@gnu.ai.mit.edu). Full list of contributors may be found in `dselect --license'.
This manual page was written by Juho Vuori <javuori@cc.helsinki.fi> and updated by Josip Rodin.