Package maintenance at the command line
debman
You can use debman
(Figure 5) to quickly locate and display the man page associated with a particular package. The package is followed by the version, or, if you do not want a specific version, by a repetition of the package name. Any local environment variable like $MANPATH
is ignored. Instead, the specified package is extracted to a temporary directory and used to retrieve its man pages. With the -p
option, the named package will be downloaded from the repositories; the -f
option downloads the local .deb
file.
debmany
Using debmany
(Figure 6), you can create a list of man pages associated with a package and then select and display them one at a time. You can choose to display a page in a viewer of your choice that can read files with a .gz
extension using the -k
option in KDE's Plasma, the -g
option in Gnome, or the -x
option in Xfce, Gnome, or Plasma. Another viewer can also be set with -m VIEWER
. Similarly, although English is the default language, another language can be set using -l
followed by a standard two-letter abbreviation such as fr
for French or de
for German. With any of these options, you can also use -L LENGTH
to set a length limit specified in K
(kilobytes), M
(megabytes), G
(gigabytes), or T
(terabytes). Although, practically speaking, being text, man pages are short enough that the last three set no practical limit.
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/issues/2022/256/goody-bag/figure-6/799792-1-eng-US/Figure-6_large.png)
check-enhancements
The check-enhancements
script (Figure 7) lists any packages that add functionality to a package but are not required to run it. This relationship is indicated by the fact that, if the --verbose
option is used, results begin with "Could be enhanced by." The other options are --installed-packages
(-installed-packages
, -ip
, --ip
), which displays the enhancements for installed packages, and --installed-enhancements
(-installed-enhancements
, -ie
, --ie
), which displays results by enhancements. If no package or enhancement is entered, then the results for every package or enhancement are listed, a process that can take some time and may well be pointless, because the majority of packages on a typical system do not have enhancements. If an enhancement is available but uninstalled, a possible installation candidate is given.
« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.