Package: dpkg Version: 1.19.4 Severity: minor File: /usr/share/man/man1/dpkg.1.gz
(In fact the unknown state is the majority state of dpkg -l \* Anyway, there it is: $ dpkg -l|sed q Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold ^^^^^^^ ) --- dpkg.1 2019-01-23 20:06:39.000000000 +0800 +++ dpkg.1.NEW 2019-02-15 21:43:38.673454219 +0800 @@ -59,10 +59,12 @@ . .SH INFORMATION ABOUT PACKAGES \fBdpkg\fP maintains some usable information about available -packages. The information is divided in three classes: \fBstates\fP, -\fBselection states\fP and \fBflags\fP. These values are intended to -be changed mainly with \fBdselect\fP. -.SS Package states +packages. The information is divided in three classes: \fBpackage installation states\fP, +\fBpackage selection states\fP, and \fBflags\fP, +and are ultimately stored in fields 2, 3 and 1 of the Status lines in /var/lib/dpkg/status, +and are the "Status", "Desired", and "Err?" columns seen with -l. +The package selection states are intended to be changed mainly with \fBdselect\fP. +.SS Package installation states .TP .B not\-installed The package is not installed on your system. @@ -105,6 +107,9 @@ .B purge The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove everything from system directories, even configuration files). +.TP +.B unknown +The package is selection state is unknown. .SS Package flags .TP .B ok @@ -1005,7 +1010,7 @@ \fB\-\-admindir\fP to see how to change locations of these files. .TP .I /var/lib/dpkg/available -List of available packages. +List of available packages. (Actually no longer updated since 2014.) .TP .I /var/lib/dpkg/status Statuses of available packages. This file contains information about