NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

dpkg-split(1)                    dpkg suite                    dpkg-split(1)

NAME         top

       dpkg-split - Debian package archive split/join tool

SYNOPSIS         top

       dpkg-split [option...] command

DESCRIPTION         top

       dpkg-split splits Debian binary package files into smaller parts and
       reassembles them again, to support the storage of large package files
       on small media such as floppy disks.
       It can be operated manually using the --split, --join and --info
       options.
       It also has an automatic mode, invoked using the --auto option, where
       it maintains a queue of parts seen but not yet reassembled and
       reassembles a package file when it has seen all of its parts. The
       --listq and --discard options allow the management of the queue.
       All splitting, joining and queueing operations produce informative
       messages on standard output; these may safely be ignored.

COMMANDS         top

       -s, --split complete-archive [prefix]
              Splits a single Debian binary package into several parts.
              The parts are named prefix.NofM.deb where N is the part
              number, starting at 1, and M is the total number of parts
              (both in decimal).
              If no prefix is supplied then the complete-archive filename is
              taken, including directory, with any trailing .deb removed.
       -j, --join part...
              Joins the parts of a package file together, reassembling the
              original file as it was before it was split.
              The part files given as arguments must be all the parts of
              exactly the same original binary file. Each part must occur
              exactly once in the argument list, though the parts to not
              need to be listed in order.
              The parts must of course all have been generated with the same
              part size specified at split time, which means that they must
              usually have been generated by the same invocation of
              dpkg-split --split.
              The parts' filenames are not significant for the reassembly
              process.
              By default the output file is called package_version_arch.deb.
       -I, --info part...
              Prints information, in a human-readable format, about the part
              file(s) specified. Arguments which are not binary package
              parts produce a message saying so instead (but still on
              standard output).
       -a, --auto -o complete-output part
              Automatically queue parts and reassemble a package if
              possible.
              The part specified is examined, and compared with other parts
              of the same package (if any) in the queue of packages file
              parts.
              If all parts of the package file of which part is a part are
              available then the package is reassembled and written to
              complete-output (which should not usually already exist,
              though this is not an error).
              If not then the part is copied into the queue and complete-
              output is not created.
              If part is not a split binary package part then dpkg-split
              will exit with status 1; if some other trouble occurs then it
              will exit with status 2.
              The --output or -o option must be supplied when using --auto.
              (If this were not mandatory the calling program would not know
              what output file to expect.)
       -l, --listq
              Lists the contents of the queue of packages to be reassembled.
              For each package file of which parts are in the queue the
              output gives the name of the package, the parts in the queue,
              and the total number of bytes stored in the queue.
       -d, --discard [package...]
              This discards parts from the queue of those waiting for the
              remaining parts of their packages.
              If no package is specified then the queue is cleared
              completely; if any are specified then only parts of the
              relevant package(s) are deleted.
       -?, --help
              Show the usage message and exit.
       --version
              Show the version and exit.

OPTIONS         top

       --depotdir directory
              Specifies an alternative directory for the queue of parts
              awaiting automatic reassembly. The default is
              /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg.
       -S, --partsize kibibytes
              Specifies the maximum part size when splitting, in kibibytes
              (1024 bytes). The default is 450 KiB.
       -o, --output complete-output
              Specifies the output file name for a reassembly.
              This overrides the default for a manual reassembly (--join)
              and is mandatory for an automatic queue-or-reassemble
              (--auto).
       -Q, --npquiet
              When doing automatic queue-or-reassembly dpkg-split usually
              prints a message if it is given a part that is not a binary
              package part. This option suppresses this message, to allow
              programs such as dpkg to cope with both split and unsplit
              packages without producing spurious messages.
       --msdos
              Forces the output filenames generated by --split to be msdos-
              compatible.
              This mangles the prefix - either the default derived from the
              input filename or the one supplied as an argument:
              alphanumerics are lowercased, plus signs are replaced by x's
              and all other characters are discarded.
              The result is then truncated as much as is necessary, and
              filenames of the form prefixNofM.deb are generated.

EXIT STATUS         top

       0      The requested split, merge, or other command succeeded.
              --info commands count as successful even if the files are not
              binary package parts.
       1      Only occurs with --auto and indicates that the part file was
              not a binary package part.
       2      Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line
              usage, a file that looked like a package part file but was
              corrupted, or interactions with the system, such as accesses
              to the database, memory allocations, etc.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
              If set, it will be used as the timestamp (as seconds since the
              epoch) in the deb-split(5)'s ar(5) container.

FILES         top

       /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/parts
              The default queue directory for part files awaiting automatic
              reassembly.
              The filenames used in this directory are in a format internal
              to dpkg-split and are unlikely to be useful to other programs,
              and in any case the filename format should not be relied upon.

BUGS         top

       Full details of the packages in the queue are impossible to get
       without digging into the queue directory yourself.
       There is no easy way to test whether a file that may be a binary
       package part is one.

SEE ALSO         top

       deb(5), deb-control(5), dpkg-deb(1), dpkg(1).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, see 
       ⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩.  This page
       was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨git://git.debian.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you dis‐
       cover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
       you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
1.18.15-3-ga2ef                  1970-01-01                    dpkg-split(1)

Pages that refer to this page: deb-split(5)