9

I am new in Ubuntu. I have a trusty version. I do not get the meaning of the file status. I'va figured it out running the command:

apt-cache policy postgresql-9.6

and I got this output:

postgresql-9.6:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: (none)
  Version table:
     9.6.2-1.pgdg14.04+1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

What does it mean "Break" and "Replace" on file /var/lib/dpkg/status?

Glori P.
  • 193

2 Answers2

9

I came to this question when I needed to find what repository given version comes from, and it looks like /var/lib/dpkg/status means currently installed package, and in the OP's example it show that the version is installed, but not currently available from any repository.

This is output I get when the package is available:

# apt-cache policy dpkg
dpkg:
  Installed: 1.16.18
  Candidate: 1.16.18
  Version table:
 *** 1.16.18 0
        500 http://repo/mirror/debian/ wheezy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.16.17 0
        500 http://repo/mirror/debian/ wheezy-security/main amd64 Packages
che
  • 243
6

Some details can be found at https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_the_dpkg_command

As best as I can tell from reading that, the status file contains status information (of course) about packages.

Based on looking at my own status file, most packages seem to have "Status: install ok installed" (I've found thousands of these). I assume this means that those packages are installed properly. I have a couple dozen or so packages that have some other package.

allyourcode
  • 218