/var/lib/dpkg/available

Example entry

The packages are separated by an empty line.

An entry for a package might looks like the following xxd/vim example.

Package: xxd
Source: vim
Version: 2:8.2.2434-3+deb11u1
Installed-Size: 239
Maintainer: Debian Vim Maintainers <team+vim@tracker.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Replaces: vim-common (<< 2:7.4.2347-1~)
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.4)
Breaks: vim-common (<< 2:7.4.2347-1~)
Description: tool to make (or reverse) a hex dump
Description-md5: d658dacad23806722eb421aab7cc53e5
Multi-Arch: foreign
Homepage: https://www.vim.org/
Section: editors
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/v/vim/xxd_8.2.2434-3+deb11u1_amd64.deb
Size: 192012
MD5sum: b94692cf8627729c55dd62e137433091
SHA256: 312e72745206a58d1152b55d38bfa05740d4244e1005f535ed0791af201f4b0d

Some (all?) entry names are optional.

Entry lines might span multiple lines (for example Tag).

An entire entry can be printed with dpkg --print-avail:

$ dpkg --print-avail vim-tiny

Print required packages

The following awk script prints the required packages:

awk '

   /Package/ {pkg =$2};
   /Source/  {src =$2};
   /Priority/{prio=$2};

   $0 == "" && prio == "required" {
        printf "%-30s %s\n", pkg, src;
        pkg=src=prio=""
   }

' /var/lib/dpkg/available

Modify the string required to important or optional to change the selected packages.

/var/lib/dpkg/available

Example entry

Print required packages

See also