On Sun, Jul 01, 2001 at 06:33:18PM +1000, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > dpkg -s | --status package-name ... > Report status of specified package. This just disĀ > plays the entry in the installed package status > database. > > This seems fairly clear(?).
After reading the description (even now, knowing what the switch does), it still doesn't tell anything, since the terminology is misleading. Furthermore, the two sentences describe the same thing, with the latter just being more obfuscated than the previous one. Term 'status' is used to describe two separate things in dpkg. dpkg -l gives a status column: Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed This lead me to think of the -s switch as something to do with that information. A better explanation might go somehow like this: "Display specific information of an installed package, such as its installed size, maintainer, version, dependencies, and description." That way the description would probably better use the terminology familiar to the users (as opposed to dpkg developers). Hm. Maybe I should file a bug report on this... Best regards and thanks for the food of thought :-), -- Matti Airas CBM, NSLEP, VHF, J-6, remailers, Small Pox, [EMAIL PROTECTED] redheads, Salsa, FLETC, NAVCOMPARS, quiche, +358 50 34 64 256 Field Security Division (M52), NSAS, CIM, http://www.iki.fi/mairas/ DCJFTF, MD5, Yukon, Tess, Keyhole, LASINT,