name>
. If you are unsure of the package name, you can get it from the list of packages
installed you can use
dpkg
to obtain.
Each software package may include a collection of files including executables, docu‐
mentation, default configuration files, and libraries as needed for the package. If you
want to view the contents of a package, you can use
dpkg -c
, where the
filename is the full name of the
.deb
file. In
Example 1-9
, you can see the partial con‐
tents of a log management package,
nxlog
. This package is not provided as part of the
Kali repository but is provided as a free download for the community edition. The
contents of this package include not only the files, but also permissions, including the
owner and group. You can also see the date and time associated with the file from the
package.
Example 1-9. Partial contents of nxlog package
root@rosebud:~# dpkg -c nxlog-ce_2.9.1716_debian_squeeze_amd64.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/
drwxr-xr-x root/root
0
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
-rw-r--r-- root/root
5328
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
pm_null.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root
42208
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
pm_pattern.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root
9400
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
pm_filter.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root
24248
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
pm_buffer.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root
11096
2016-07-05 08:32 ./usr/lib/nxlog/modules/processor/
pm_norepeat.so
One thing to take into account is that packages that you get in
.deb
files are generally
created for a particular distribution. This occurs because there are usually dependen‐
cies that the person or group creating the package knows the distribution can supply.
Other distributions may not have the right versions to satisfy the requirements for the
software package. If that’s the case, the software may not run correctly.
dpkg
will error
if the dependencies aren’t satisfied. You can force the install by using
--force-install
as
a command-line parameter in addition to
-i
, but although the software will install,
there is no guarantee that it will function correctly.
dpkg
has other capabilities that enable you to look into software packages, query
installed software, and more. The options listed previously will more than get you
started. With the extensive number of packages available in the Kali repository, it
would be unusual, though not impossible, that you would need to do any external
installations. It’s still useful to know about
dpkg
and its capabilities, however.
