dpkg is a package manager for Debian oriented system,

It is very useful tool for install, build, manage and remove packages. Also can support debian/Ubuntu based operating system, like Mint,kubuntu,etc. We cannot download and install packages automatically. This post describe how to maintain the dpkg on the system.

1. How to Install a Package:

 -i is to be install .deb package or we can use --install. For example,

# dpkg -i packagename.deb

dpkg -i firefox-mozilla-build_31.0-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

2. List Installed Packages:

List all the installed packages on your system use -l
 dpkg -l

or
dpkg --get-selections

3. Get Specific Installed package:

Do you like to view Specific package installed on your system,

dpkg -l | grep samba
ii  samba                                2:3.6.18-1ubuntu3                   i386         SMB/CIFS file, print, and login server for Unix
ii  samba-common                         2:3.6.18-1ubuntu3                   all          common files used by both the Samba server and client
ii  samba-common-bin                     2:3.6.18-1ubuntu3                   i386         common files used by both the Samba server and client

or

dpkg --get-selections | grep samba
samba                                           install
samba-common                                    install
samba-common-bin                                install

4. To check your installed package size:

echo "Space          Package Name" && echo " --------------------------"  &&  dpkg-query --show --showformat='${Package;}\t${Installed-Size}\n'|grep -v deinstall|awk '{ printf "%.2f MB \t %s \n", $2/(1024),$1}'|grep firefox

Space          Package Name
 --------------------------
60.30 MB         firefox
0.87 MB          firefox-locale-en
0.06 MB          kubuntu-firefox-installer

5. To know list of package content:

dpkg -c liblqr-1-0_0.4.1-2_i386.deb
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-08 20:34 ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-08 20:34 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-08 20:34 ./usr/lib/
drwxr-xr-x root/root         0 2012-06-08 20:34 ./usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/
-rw-r--r-- root/root     79312 2012-06-08 20:34 ./usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/liblqr-1.so.0.3.1

6. To Check Installed Package Location:

 To get list files installed to your system from package-name. For example use firefox,

dpkg -L firefox
/.
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/lib
/usr/lib/firefox-addons

7. Fix a broken package:

dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
If you may get an error same as above run the command
dpkg --configure -a

8. Determine whether a Package is installed or not:

dpkg -s samba
Package: samba
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: net
Installed-Size: 22064
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers
Architecture: i386
Version: 2:3.6.18-1ubuntu3
Replaces: samba-common (<= 2.0.5a-2)

9. Remove a Package:

Do you want to remove the Firefox from your system try with below command.
 
# sudo dpkg -r  package_name
sudo dpkg -r firefox

10. Find out dpkg version:

 dpkg --version
Debian `dpkg' package management program version 1.16.12 (i386).
This is free software; see the GNU General Public License version 2 or
later for copying conditions. There is NO warranty.

11. For more command:
dpkg --help

Just use the above dpkg  command with Enjoy!.