Notes on converting from RPM to DPKG

Some notes on making the transition from RPM (RedHat Package Manager, e.g. SuSE) to DPKG (Debian PacKaGe, e.g. Ubuntu).

Package status

rpm -q package_name
dpkg -l package_name

List files in package

rpm -ql package_name
rpm -qlf filename
dpkg -L package_name
dpkg -c filename

Info on package

rpm -qi package_name
rpm -qip package_file_name
rpm -qif filename
rpm -qf --changelog filename
apt-cache show package_name  [even if package not installed]
dpkg-query -l package_name
dpkg-query -s package_name
dpkg -s package_name

There is no single command for extracting a changelog from a Debian package.

Package owning file

rpm -qf filename
dpkg -S filename

List all installed packages

rpm -qa
dpkg -l
apt list --installed

Install package

rpm -i package_file_name
dpkg -i package_file_name       [no dependency checking]
apt-get install package_name    [will download package and dependencies]

Remove package

rpm -e package_name
apt-get purge package_name
dpkg --remove package_name

Mirroring repositories and architectures

One cannot successfully point apt at a repository which does not contain all the architectures which one claims to be using. So, for a machine which is natively amd64, and which has suffered

dpkg --add-architecture i386

attempts to point apt at a mirror containing amd64 only are unlikely to work.