{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# dselect (man)\n\n## NAME\n\ndselect - Debian package management frontend\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\ndselect [option...] [command...]\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\ndselect is one of the primary user interfaces for managing packages on a Debian system. At\nthe dselect main menu, the system administrator can:\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS**\n- **DESCRIPTION**\n- **OPTIONS** (3 subsections)\n- **COMMANDS** (7 subsections)\n- **PACKAGE SELECTIONS MANAGEMENT** (9 subsections)\n- **EXIT STATUS**\n- **ENVIRONMENT**\n- **BUGS**\n- **SEE ALSO**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "dselect", "section": "", "mode": "man", "summary": "dselect - Debian package management frontend", "synopsis": "dselect [option...] [command...]", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [ { "flag": "-D", "long": "--debug", "arg": null, "description": "Turn on debugging. Debugging information is sent to file." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--expert", "arg": null, "description": "Turns on expert mode, i.e. doesn't display possibly annoying help messages. --color screenpart:[foreground],[background][:attr[+attr]...] --colour screenpart:[foreground],[background][:attr[+attr]...] Configures screen colors. This works only if your display supports colors. This option may be used multiple times (and is best used in dselect.cfg). Each use changes the color (and optionally, other attributes) of one part of the screen. The parts of the screen (from top to bottom) are: title The screen title. listhead The header line above the list of packages. list The scrolling list of packages (and also some help text). listsel The selected item in the list. pkgstate In the list of packages, the text indicating the current state of each package. pkgstatesel In the list of packages, the text indicating the current state of the currently selected package. infohead The header line that displays the state of the currently selected package. infodesc The package's short description. info Used to display package info such as the package's description. infofoot The last line of the screen when selecting packages. query Used to display query lines helpscreen Color of help screens. After the part of the screen comes a colon and the color specification. You can specify either the foreground color, the background color, or both, overriding the compiled-in colors. Use standard curses color names. Optionally, after the color specification is another colon, and an attribute specification. This is a list of one or more attributes, separated by plus (‘+’) characters. Available attributes include (not all of these will work on all terminals): normal, standout, underline, reverse, blink, bright, dim, bold -?, --help Print a brief help text and exit successfully." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--version", "arg": null, "description": "Print version information and exit successfully." } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "dpkg", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg/1/json" }, { "name": "apt", "section": "8", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/apt/8/json" }, { "name": "sources.list", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sources.list/5/json" }, { "name": "deb", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb/5/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 25, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "OPTIONS", "lines": 13, "subsections": [ { "name": "-D --debug", "lines": 2, "flag": "-D", "long": "--debug" }, { "name": "--expert", "lines": 58, "long": "--expert" }, { "name": "--version", "lines": 2, "long": "--version" } ] }, { "name": "COMMANDS", "lines": 4, "subsections": [ { "name": "access", "lines": 8 }, { "name": "update", "lines": 10 }, { "name": "select", "lines": 16 }, { "name": "install", "lines": 19 }, { "name": "config", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "remove", "lines": 2 }, { "name": "quit", "lines": 4 } ] }, { "name": "PACKAGE SELECTIONS MANAGEMENT", "lines": 1, "subsections": [ { "name": "Introduction", "lines": 14 }, { "name": "Screen layout", "lines": 9 }, { "name": "Package details view", "lines": 13 }, { "name": "Packages status list", "lines": 41 }, { "name": "Cursor and screen movement", "lines": 20 }, { "name": "Searching and sorting", "lines": 24 }, { "name": "Altering selections", "lines": 21 }, { "name": "Resolving depends and conflicts", "lines": 21 }, { "name": "Establishing the requested selections", "lines": 19 } ] }, { "name": "EXIT STATUS", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "ENVIRONMENT", "lines": 12, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "BUGS", "lines": 13, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "dselect - Debian package management frontend\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "dselect [option...] [command...]\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "dselect is one of the primary user interfaces for managing packages on a Debian system. At\nthe dselect main menu, the system administrator can:\n\n• Update the list of available package versions,\n\n• View the status of installed and available packages,\n\n• Alter package selections and manage dependencies,\n\n• Install new packages or upgrade to newer versions.\n\ndselect operates as a front-end to dpkg(1), the low-level Debian package handling tool. It\nfeatures a full-screen package selections manager with package depends and conflicts\nresolver. When run with administrator privileges, packages can be installed, upgraded and\nremoved. Various access methods can be configured to retrieve available package version\ninformation and installable packages from package repositories. Depending on the used access\nmethod, these repositories can be public archive servers on the internet, local archive\nservers or CD-ROMs. The recommended access method is apt, which is provided by the package\napt(8).\n\nNormally dselect is invoked without parameters. An interactive menu is presented, offering\nthe user a list of commands. If a command is given as argument, then that command is started\nimmediately. Several command line parameters are still available to modify the running\nbehaviour of dselect or show additional information about the program.\n", "subsections": [] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "All options can be specified both on the command line and in the dselect configuration file\n/etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg or the files on the configuration directory /etc/dpkg/dselect.cfg.d/.\nEach line in the configuration file is either an option (exactly the same as the command line\noption but without leading hyphens) or a comment (if it starts with a ‘#’).\n\n--admindir directory\nChanges the directory where the dpkg ‘status’, ‘available’ and similar files are located.\nThis defaults to /var/lib/dpkg and normally there shouldn't be any need to change it.\n\n--root directory\nSet the root directory to directory, which sets the administrative directory to\n«directory/var/lib/dpkg» (since dpkg 1.21.0).\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "-D --debug", "content": "Turn on debugging. Debugging information is sent to file.\n", "flag": "-D", "long": "--debug" }, { "name": "--expert", "content": "Turns on expert mode, i.e. doesn't display possibly annoying help messages.\n\n--color screenpart:[foreground],[background][:attr[+attr]...]\n--colour screenpart:[foreground],[background][:attr[+attr]...]\nConfigures screen colors. This works only if your display supports colors. This option\nmay be used multiple times (and is best used in dselect.cfg). Each use changes the color\n(and optionally, other attributes) of one part of the screen. The parts of the screen\n(from top to bottom) are:\n\ntitle\nThe screen title.\n\nlisthead\nThe header line above the list of packages.\n\nlist\nThe scrolling list of packages (and also some help text).\n\nlistsel\nThe selected item in the list.\n\npkgstate\nIn the list of packages, the text indicating the current state of each package.\n\npkgstatesel\nIn the list of packages, the text indicating the current state of the currently\nselected package.\n\ninfohead\nThe header line that displays the state of the currently selected package.\n\ninfodesc\nThe package's short description.\n\ninfo\nUsed to display package info such as the package's description.\n\ninfofoot\nThe last line of the screen when selecting packages.\n\nquery\nUsed to display query lines\n\nhelpscreen\nColor of help screens.\n\nAfter the part of the screen comes a colon and the color specification. You can specify\neither the foreground color, the background color, or both, overriding the compiled-in\ncolors. Use standard curses color names.\n\nOptionally, after the color specification is another colon, and an attribute\nspecification. This is a list of one or more attributes, separated by plus (‘+’)\ncharacters. Available attributes include (not all of these will work on all terminals):\nnormal, standout, underline, reverse, blink, bright, dim, bold\n\n-?, --help\nPrint a brief help text and exit successfully.\n", "long": "--expert" }, { "name": "--version", "content": "Print version information and exit successfully.\n", "long": "--version" } ] }, "COMMANDS": { "content": "When dselect is started it can perform the following commands, either directly if it was\nspecified on the command line or by prompting the user with a menu of available commands if\nrunning interactively:\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "access", "content": "Choose and configure an access method to access package repositories.\n\nBy default, dselect provides several methods such as multicd, mounted or ftp, but other\npackages may provide additional methods, eg. the apt access method provided by the apt(8)\npackage.\n\nThe use of the apt access method is strongly recommended.\n" }, { "name": "update", "content": "Refresh the available packages database.\n\nRetrieves a list of available package versions from the package repository, configured for\nthe current access method, and update the dpkg database. The package lists are commonly\nprovided by the repository as files named Packages or Packages.gz. These files can be\ngenerated by repository maintainers, using the program dpkg-scanpackages(1).\n\nDetails of the update command depend on the access method's implementation. Normally the\nprocess is straightforward and requires no user interaction.\n" }, { "name": "select", "content": "View or manage package selections and dependencies.\n\nThis is the main function of dselect. In the select screen, the user can review a list of all\navailable and installed packages. When run with administrator privileges, it is also possible\nto interactively change packages selection state. dselect tracks the implications of these\nchanges to other depending or conflicting packages.\n\nWhen a conflict or failed depends is detected, a dependency resolution subscreen is prompted\nto the user. In this screen, a list of conflicting or depending packages is shown, and for\neach package listed, the reason for its listing is shown. The user may apply the suggestions\nproposed by dselect, override them, or back out all the changes, including the ones that\ncreated the unresolved depends or conflicts.\n\nThe use of the interactive package selections management screen is explained in more detail\nbelow.\n" }, { "name": "install", "content": "Installs selected packages.\n\nThe configured access method will fetch installable or upgradable packages from the relevant\nrepositories and install these using dpkg. Depending on the implementation of the access\nmethod, all packages can be prefetched before installation, or fetched when needed. Some\naccess methods may also remove packages that were marked for removal.\n\nIf an error occurred during install, it is usually advisable to run install again. In most\ncases, the problems will disappear or be solved. If problems persist or the installation\nperformed was incorrect, please investigate into the causes and circumstances, and file a bug\nin the Debian bug tracking system. Instructions on how to do this can be found at\n or by reading the documentation for bug(1) or reportbug(1), if\nthese are installed.\n\nDetails of the install command depend on the access method's implementation. The user's\nattention and input may be required during installation, configuration or removal of\npackages. This depends on the maintainer scripts in the package. Some packages make use of\nthe debconf(1) library, allowing for more flexible or even automated installation setups.\n" }, { "name": "config", "content": "Configures any previously installed, but not fully configured packages.\n" }, { "name": "remove", "content": "Removes or purges installed packages, that are marked for removal.\n" }, { "name": "quit", "content": "Quit dselect.\n\nExits the program with zero (successful) error code.\n" } ] }, "PACKAGE SELECTIONS MANAGEMENT": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "Introduction", "content": "dselect directly exposes the administrator to some of the complexities involved with managing\nlarge sets of packages with many interdependencies. For a user who is unfamiliar with the\nconcepts and the ways of the Debian package management system, it can be quite overwhelming.\nAlthough dselect is aimed at easing package management and administration, it is only\ninstrumental in doing so and cannot be assumed to be a sufficient substitute for\nadministrator skill and understanding. The user is required to be familiar with the concepts\nunderlying the Debian packaging system. In case of doubt, consult the dpkg(1) manpage and\nthe distribution policy.\n\nUnless dselect is run in expert or immediate mode, a help screen is first displayed when\nchoosing this command from the menu. The user is strongly advised to study all of the\ninformation presented in the online help screens, when one pops up. The online help screens\ncan at any time be invoked with the ‘?’ key.\n" }, { "name": "Screen layout", "content": "The select screen is by default split in a top and a bottom half. The top half shows a list\nof packages. A cursor bar can select an individual package, or a group of packages, if\napplicable, by selecting the group header. The bottom half of the screen shows some details\nabout the package currently selected in the top half of the screen. The type of detail that\nis displayed can be varied.\n\nPressing the ‘I’ key toggles a full-screen display of the packages list, an enlarged view of\nthe package details, or the equally split screen.\n" }, { "name": "Package details view", "content": "The package details view by default shows the extended package description for the package\nthat is currently selected in the packages status list. The type of detail can be toggled by\npressing the ‘i’ key. This alternates between:\n\n• the extended description\n\n• the control information for the installed version\n\n• the control information for the available version\n\nIn a dependency resolution screen, there is also the possibility of viewing the specific\nunresolved depends or conflicts related to the package and causing it to be listed.\n" }, { "name": "Packages status list", "content": "The main select screen displays a list of all packages known to the Debian package management\nsystem. This includes packages installed on the system and packages known from the available\npackages database.\n\nFor every package, the list shows the package's status, priority, section, installed and\navailable architecture, installed and available versions, the package name and its short\ndescription, all in one line. By pressing the ‘A’ key, the display of the installed and\navailable architecture can be toggled between on an off. By pressing the ‘V’ key, the\ndisplay of the installed and available version can be toggled between on an off. By pressing\nthe ‘v’ key, the package status display is toggled between verbose and shorthand. Shorthand\ndisplay is the default.\n\nThe shorthand status indication consists of four parts: an error flag, which should normally\nbe clear, the current status, the last selection state and the current selection state. The\nfirst two relate to the actual state of the package, the second pair are about the selections\nset by the user.\n\nThese are the meanings of the shorthand package status indicator codes:\n\nError flag:\n\nempty no error\nR serious error, needs reinstallation;\n\nInstalled state:\n\nempty not installed;\n* fully installed and configured;\n- not installed but some config files may remain;\nU unpacked but not yet configured;\nC half-configured (an error happened);\nI half-installed (an error happened).\n\nCurrent and requested selections:\n\n* marked for installation or upgrade;\n- marked for removal, configuration files remain;\n= on hold: package will not be processed at all;\nmarked for purge, also remove configuration;\nn package is new and has yet to be marked.\n" }, { "name": "Cursor and screen movement", "content": "The package selection list and the dependency conflict resolution screens can be navigated\nusing motion commands mapped to the following keys:\n\np, Up, k move cursor bar up\nn, Down, j move cursor bar down\nP, Pgup, Backspace scroll list 1 page up\nN, Pgdn, Space scroll list 1 page down\n^p scroll list 1 line up\n^n scroll list 1 line down\nt, Home jump to top of list\ne, End jump to end of list\nu scroll info 1 page up\nd scroll info 1 page down\n^u scroll info 1 line up\n^d scroll info 1 line down\nB, Left-arrow pan display 1/3 screen left\nF, Right-arrow pan display 1/3 screen right\n^b pan display 1 character left\n^f pan display 1 character right\n" }, { "name": "Searching and sorting", "content": "The list of packages can be searched by package name. This is done by pressing ‘/’, and\ntyping a simple search string. The string is interpreted as a regex(7) regular expression.\nIf you add ‘/d’ to the search expression, dselect will also search in descriptions. If you\nadd ‘/i’ the search will be case insensitive. You may combine these two suffixes like this:\n‘/id’. Repeated searching is accomplished by repeatedly pressing the ‘n’ or ‘\\’ keys, until\nthe wanted package is found. If the search reaches the bottom of the list, it wraps to the\ntop and continues searching from there.\n\nThe list sort order can be varied by pressing the ‘o’ and ‘O’ keys repeatedly. The following\nnine sort orderings can be selected:\n\nalphabet\npriority+section\nsection+priority\navailable\navailable+priority\navailable+section\nstatus\nstatus+priority\nstatus+section\n\nWhere not listed above explicitly, alphabetic order is used as the final subordering sort\nkey.\n" }, { "name": "Altering selections", "content": "The requested selection state of individual packages may be altered with the following\ncommands:\n\n+, Insert install or upgrade\n=, H hold in present state and version\n:, G unhold: upgrade or leave uninstalled\n-, Delete remove, but leave configuration\nremove & purge configuration\n\nWhen the change request results in one or more unsatisfied depends or conflicts, dselect\nprompts the user with a dependency resolution screen. This will be further explained below.\n\nIt is also possible to apply these commands to groups of package selections, by pointing the\ncursor bar onto a group header. The exact grouping of packages is dependent on the current\nlist ordering settings.\n\nProper care should be taken when altering large groups of selections, because this can\ninstantaneously create large numbers of unresolved depends or conflicts, all of which will be\nlisted in one dependency resolution screen, making them very hard to handle. In practice,\nonly hold and unhold operations are useful when applied to groups.\n" }, { "name": "Resolving depends and conflicts", "content": "When the change request results in one or more unsatisfied depends or conflicts, dselect\nprompts the user with a dependency resolution screen. First however, an informative help\nscreen is displayed.\n\nThe top half of this screen lists all the packages that will have unresolved depends or\nconflicts, as a result of the requested change, and all the packages whose installation can\nresolve any of these depends or whose removal can resolve any of the conflicts. The bottom\nhalf defaults to show the depends or conflicts that cause the currently selected package to\nbe listed.\n\nWhen the sublist of packages is displayed initially, dselect may have already set the\nrequested selection status of some of the listed packages, in order to resolve the depends or\nconflicts that caused the dependency resolution screen to be displayed. Usually, it is best\nto follow up the suggestions made by dselect.\n\nThe listed packages' selection state may be reverted to the original settings, as they were\nbefore the unresolved depends or conflicts were created, by pressing the ‘R’ key. By\npressing the ‘D’ key, the automatic suggestions are reset, but the change that caused the\ndependency resolution screen to be prompted is kept as requested. Finally, by pressing ‘U’,\nthe selections are again set to the automatic suggestion values.\n" }, { "name": "Establishing the requested selections", "content": "By pressing enter, the currently displayed set of selections is accepted. If dselect detects\nno unresolved depends as a result of the requested selections, the new selections will be\nset. However, if there are any unresolved depends, dselect will again prompt the user with a\ndependency resolution screen.\n\nTo alter a set of selections that creates unresolved depends or conflicts and forcing dselect\nto accept it, press the ‘Q’ key. This sets the selections as specified by the user,\nunconditionally. Generally, don't do this unless you've read the fine print.\n\nThe opposite effect, to back out any selections change requests and go back to the previous\nlist of selections, is attained by pressing the ‘X’ or escape keys. By repeatedly pressing\nthese keys, any possibly detrimental changes to the requested package selections can be\nbacked out completely to the last established settings.\n\nIf you mistakenly establish some settings and wish to revert all the selections to what is\ncurrently installed on the system, press the ‘C’ key. This is somewhat similar to using the\nunhold command on all packages, but provides a more obvious panic button in cases where the\nuser pressed enter by accident.\n" } ] }, "EXIT STATUS": { "content": "0 The requested command was successfully performed.\n\n2 Fatal or unrecoverable error due to invalid command-line usage, or interactions with the\nsystem, such as accesses to the database, memory allocations, etc.\n", "subsections": [] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "DPKGROOT\nIf set and the --root option has not been specified, it will be used as the filesystem\nroot directory (since dpkg 1.21.0).\n\nDPKGADMINDIR\nIf set and the --admindir option has not been specified, it will be used as the dpkg\ndatabase directory (since dpkg 1.21.0).\n\nHOME\nIf set, dselect will use it as the directory from which to read the user specific\nconfiguration file.\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "The dselect package selection interface is confusing to some new users. Reportedly, it even\nmakes seasoned kernel developers cry.\n\nThe documentation is lacking.\n\nThere is no help option in the main menu.\n\nThe visible list of available packages cannot be reduced.\n\nThe built in access methods can no longer stand up to current quality standards. Use the\naccess method provided by apt(8), it is not only not broken, it is also much more flexible\nthan the built in access methods.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "dpkg(1), apt(8), sources.list(5), deb(5).\n\n\n\n1.21.1 2025-09-09 dselect(1)", "subsections": [] } } } }