NAME
DPKG::Packages::Parser - Parses the Debian Packages file.
SYNOPSIS
use v5.40;
use DPKG::Packages::Parser;
#
my $p = DPKG::Packages::Parser->new(file => "Packages");
$p->parse(); # Parse all fields
my $package = $p->get_package('perl');
say $package->{Description};
#
# If you only need one or several fields, you can pass an array of field names.
# This is significantly faster.
$p->parse('Filename'); # We're only interested in the Filename of each package.
my $libperl_pkg = $p->get_package('libperl5.36');
say $libperl_pkg->{Filename};DESCRIPTION
DPKG::Packages::Parser is parser for the Debian 'Packages' file. It aims to provide a fast and simple implementation.
METHODS
- new(file => 'Packages')
-
Creates a new DPKG::Packages::Parser object. Creating the object does not parse the file automatically. For this call the
parse()method. - parse([@fields])
-
Reads the file from disk and parses the entire file. You can optionally pass a list of fields that you're interested in. This speeds up processing and keeps the amount of memory lower than retaining all the fields.
Note that when passing a list of fields, the
Packagename will always be included in the result, even if you don't pass it along.This function returns
1on success or croaks if the file is not readable. - get_package('perl')
-
Takes one argument, the name of the Debian package, and returns a hashref containing all information about the package OR a hashref containing the specified fields that were given during the parse phase.
Below you can see the parsed result for the Perl package in Debian 12. (I shortened the Provides array a bit for brevity, you get the point..)
Each package name that is refered is a hash with four fields to retain all information. The value will be undef for the fields that were not available.
The Debian packages format also allows
ORstatements. If those are encountered, it will generate an array of two or more items to reflect theOR. (The OR condition is not specified explicitely)$VAR1 = { 'Architecture' => 'amd64', 'Recommends' => [ { 'arch' => undef, 'op' => undef, 'name' => 'netbase', 'version' => undef } ], 'Pre-Depends' => [ { 'name' => 'dpkg', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '>=', 'version' => '1.17.17' } ], 'Section' => 'perl', 'Size' => '238900', 'Description' => 'Larry Wall\'s Practical Extraction and Report Language', 'Installed-Size' => '670', 'Build-Essential' => 'yes', 'SHA256' => 'afa50ec7d9b1a407cd0187dae033644ef13578d4f3792435e0c41b962ffec0c4', 'Conflicts' => [ { 'name' => 'libjson-pp-perl', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '<<', 'version' => '2.27200-2' } ], 'Description-md5' => '603cb1e5fe66da8106c364f4e9b84082', 'Depends' => [ { 'version' => '5.36.0-7+deb12u3', 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'perl-base' }, { 'name' => 'perl-modules-5.36', 'op' => '>=', 'arch' => undef, 'version' => '5.36.0-7+deb12u3' }, { 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'libperl5.36', 'version' => '5.36.0-7+deb12u3' } ], 'Package' => 'perl', 'Multi-Arch' => 'allowed', 'Replaces' => [ { 'version' => '5.36.0-2', 'name' => 'perl-base', 'op' => '<<', 'arch' => undef }, { 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '<<', 'name' => 'perl-modules', 'version' => '5.22.0~' } ], 'Maintainer' => 'Niko Tyni <ntyni@debian.org>', 'Tag' => [ 'devel::interpreter', 'devel::lang:perl', 'devel::library', 'implemented-in::c', 'implemented-in::perl', 'interface::commandline', 'role::devel-lib', 'role::metapackage', 'role::program' ], 'Version' => '5.36.0-7+deb12u3', 'Provides' => [ { 'name' => 'libansicolor-perl', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '=', 'version' => '5.01' }, { 'version' => '2.40', 'name' => 'libarchive-tar-perl', 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef }, { 'version' => '1.02', 'name' => 'libattribute-handlers-perl', 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef }, { 'name' => 'libautodie-perl', 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef, 'version' => '2.34' }, # I removed some Packages for brevity in between here { 'op' => '=', 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'podlators-perl', 'version' => '4.14' } ], 'Filename' => 'pool/main/p/perl/perl_5.36.0-7+deb12u3_amd64.deb', 'Breaks' => [ { 'version' => '0.22.10', 'op' => '<<', 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'apt-show-versions' }, { 'name' => 'libdist-inkt-perl', 'op' => '<<', 'arch' => undef, 'version' => '0.024-5' }, { 'version' => '1.35-3', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '<<', 'name' => 'libmarc-charset-perl' }, { 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '<<', 'name' => 'libperl-dev', 'version' => '5.24.0~' }, { 'version' => '5.36.0-1', 'name' => 'perl-doc', 'op' => '<<', 'arch' => undef }, { 'name' => 'perl-modules-5.22', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => undef, 'version' => undef }, { 'op' => undef, 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'perl-modules-5.24', 'version' => undef }, { 'arch' => undef, 'op' => '<<', 'name' => 'perl-modules-5.26', 'version' => '5.26.2-5' } ], 'Priority' => 'standard', 'Suggests' => [ { 'version' => undef, 'arch' => undef, 'op' => undef, 'name' => 'perl-doc' }, [ { 'op' => undef, 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'libterm-readline-gnu-perl', 'version' => undef }, { 'name' => 'libterm-readline-perl-perl', 'arch' => undef, 'op' => undef, 'version' => undef } ], { 'version' => undef, 'op' => undef, 'arch' => undef, 'name' => 'make' }, { 'version' => undef, 'name' => 'libtap-harness-archive-perl', 'op' => undef, 'arch' => undef } ], 'Homepage' => 'http://dev.perl.org/perl5/', 'MD5sum' => 'ecd2edf27d8e7a67795e81e1756de5f4' };If you had passed a list of fields, for example: Size and MD5sum, the result would be:
$VAR1 = { 'Size' => '238900', 'MD5sum' => 'ecd2edf27d8e7a67795e81e1756de5f4', 'Package' => 'perl' };
AUTHOR
Adriaan Dens <adri@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2026- Adriaan Dens
LICENSE
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.