distributions: UBUNTU vs DEBIAN

[Carroll Grigsby]

Daniel Carrera wrote:
> Matthew R. Dempsky wrote:
> 
>>> $ sudo dpkg -l ubuntu-desktop
>>
>>
>>     ^^^^
>>
>> You don't need to be root to run ``dpkg -l''.
> 
> 
> That, I didn't know. Thanks.
> 
>>> Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
>>> |Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
>>> |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: 
>>> uppercase=bad)
>>> ||/ Name            Version         Description
>>> +++-===============-===============-============================================== 
>>>
>>> pn  ubuntu-desktop  <none>          (no description available)
>>>
>>> Not sure what "pn" means.
>>
>>
>> The p stands for purge, the n stands for not installed.  See the 
>> Desired= and Status= comments at the top of the output.
> 
> 
> I see the Desired= and Status= comments, but I can't make sense of them. 
> For exxample, it says "Not", "Installed", "Failed-config" and 
> "Half-installed". Those are not mutually compatible AFAICS.
> 
> Best,
> Daniel.

Daniel:
Have you looked at man dpkg and info dpkg?
-- cmg