dpkg

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Force Options

Force options are used to override the default behavior of dpkg. These options

should be used with some forethought, due to the potentially dangerous nature

of these commands. Each of these commands forces dpkg to perform in a way

that is foreign to its normal behavior. This opens possibilities for damage to

the system that are otherwise well contained.

The force options have two actions:

  force  which reduces errors on  to warnings

  refuse  stops execution on encountering errors on 

  no force  ==   refuse 

thus each of the options in this section can be preceded by either of the above

prefixes.

downgrade

Install the selected package even when the current installed package is a newer

version than the one to be installed. This option is enabled by default.

configure any

Configure any other packages, as well as this one, that this package depends

upon, which is currently only unpacked and not yet configured.

remove reinstreq

Even if the package has been marked for required re installation this force

option will allow its removal. It is understood that under some circumstances

this will result in files being left behind without dpkg's knowledge.