wpkg --create-admindir

Submitted by Alexis Wilke on Thu, 12/13/2012 - 11:42
Options Comments
--admindir Define the administration directory, where the database of the installed packages resides.
--build [Only with --install] Using this command along the --install command is the same as doing --build-and-install.
--debug Define a set of flags of things to print out for debug purposes.
--dry-run Run all validations then exit.
--force-all Ignore all problems that can be bypassed.
--force-architecture Ignore architecture mismatch errors.
--force-breaks Allow the installation of packages that break others.
--force-configure-any Automatically configure packages that were only unpackaged earlier.
--force-conflicts Accept packages even if they are in conflict with others.
--force-depends Accept installing packages with missing dependencies.
--force-depends-version Accept installing packages with dependencies having incompatible versions.
--force-downgrade Allow a package to be dowgraded.
--force-hold Force an upgrade to occur even if one of the explicit packages is currently on hold.
--force-overwrite Allow a package to overwrite another's file(s).
--force-overwrite-dir Allow the system to overwrite directories with files and vice versa.
--instdir Define the installation directory, where the data files are installed on the target.
--interactive Allow wpkg to interactively request a username and password when necessary to access a remote drive.
--no-act Run all validations then exit.
--no-force-all Prevent any --force-... command line option from being used.
--no-force-architecture Prevent package with an incompatible architectures from being installed.
--no-force-breaks Prevent the installation of package if marked as breaking each others.
--no-force-configure-any Do no automatically configure packaages. If a dependency is an unpacked package, then the verification fails.
--no-force-conflicts Prevent incompatible packages from being installed along each others.
--no-force-depends Prevent packages with missing dependencies from being installed.
--no-force-depends-version Prevent installing packages if dependency versions are not compatible.
--no-force-downgrade Prevent a package from being downgraded (a smaller version cannot be installed.)
--no-force-hold Prevent upgrading a package if it is currently on hold.
--no-force-overwrite Forbid any package from overwriting any file while being installed.
--no-force-overwrite-dir Prevent the overwrite feature on directory.
--quiet Request for minimal output. For the --verify function this is the default behavior.
--recursive Recursively scan the --repository directories or remove all dependencies automatically.
--refuse-all Prevent all problems from ever being bypassed.
--refuse-architecture Prevent package with an incompatible architecture from being installed.
--refuse-breaks Prevent the installation of package if marked as breaking each others.
--refuse-configure-any Do no automatically configure packaages. If a dependency is an unpacked package, then the verification fails.
--refuse-conflicts Prevent incompatible packages from being installed along each others.
--refuse-depends Prevent packages with missing dependencies from being installed.
--refuse-depends-version Prevent installing packages if dependency versions are not compatible.
--refuse-downgrade Prevent a package from being downgraded (a smaller version cannot be installed.)
--refuse-hold Prevent an upgrade of a package that is on hold.
--refuse-overwrite Forbid any package from overwriting any file while being installed.
--refuse-overwrite-dir Prevent the overwrite feature on directory.
--repository List of directories used as repositories for package dependencies.
--root Define the installation root path.
--simulate Run all validations then exit.
--skip-same-version Do not reinstall a package if that same version is already installed.
--tracking-journal Specify the filename for the tracking journal that can be used to rollback changes made by installation commands.
--verify-fields Ensure fields validity before processing.
--verbose Display log information of level INFO.

 

The --create-admindir command is used to create a target directory. This is necessary before you can install a package on a target system1.

The command requires you to define at least the architecture of the target and the name and email address of the maintainer. Note that wpkg does not check the architecture of the target machine so you can really define any architecture on any computer. This is done on purpose so that way you can install a Windows 32 target on a Windows 64 computer or even a Linux server.

The command accepts one parameter which is a control file. You also want to use the --root or --admindir options to specify the destination of the database on your target. It is preferable to use --root so your database and installation remain together.

The following is an example of a control file one can use to create the administration folder2:

Architecture: mswindows-i386
Maintainer: John Smith <js@example.com>

The main architectures are mswindows-i386, mswindows-amd64, linux-i386, and linux-amd64. See the Architectures in wpkg page for additional information about architectures.

The fields that are supported in the core control file are:

wpkg automatically adds the Version field with the version of the libdebpackages database. This version is used to control how to handle the database in case a different version of wpkg is used than the one that was used to create the database. At this point this has not been necessary.

To get information about an existing target, use the --field command with the package named core:

wpkg -f core

The output includes a few additional fields such as X-Status and the list may grow as the target is being managed.

 
  • 1. Note that this may feel strange to a user who is used to install a Linux distribution. The fact is that this step is hidden from you as the distribution does it under the hood. With wpkg, you have to do this manually.
  • 2. There is a sample in the dev directory of the source project called sample.admindir which you can copy and edit for your own purposes.