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 (Actually no longer updated since 2014.)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
