Manual: dpkg-vendor

dpkg-vendor(1)						 dpkg suite					      dpkg-vendor(1)

NAME
       dpkg-vendor - queries information about distribution vendors

SYNOPSIS
       dpkg-vendor [option...] command

DESCRIPTION
       dpkg-vendor is a tool to query information about vendors listed in /etc/dpkg/origins.  /etc/dpkg/origins/default
       contains information about the current vendor.

       The origin files provide metadata about specific vendors, such as their URL or where to file bug reports, and are
       usually used both to determine the behavior of tools and resulting contents during package builds targeting a
       specific vendor, and to describe the provenance of packages.

       Packages can explicitly declare their vendor by including an Origin field, otherwise the vendor for a package without
       such field is assumed to be the one pointed to by the default origin symbolic link.

       The default symbolic link is also used to denote the origin of the current installation managed by dpkg, be that a
       full distribution or an overlay on top of an existing base system that contains either no packaging system or a
       native one.

       This program was introduced in dpkg 1.15.1.

COMMANDS
       --is vendor
	   Exits with 0 if the current vendor is vendor.  Otherwise exits with 1.

       --derives-from vendor
	   Exits  with	0 if the current vendor distribution is a derivative of vendor, otherwise exits with 1.	 It uses the
	   Parent field to browse all ancestors of the current vendor.

       --query field
	   Print on standard output the value of the vendor-specific field for the current vendor.

       --help
	   Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
	   Show the version and exit.

OPTIONS
       --vendor vendor
	   Assumes the current vendor is vendor instead of discovering	it  with  the  DEB_VENDOR  environment	variable  or
	   /etc/dpkg/origins/default.

ENVIRONMENT
       DEB_VENDOR
	   This	 setting  defines  the	current	 vendor.   If  not  set,  it  will  discover  the  current vendor by reading
	   /etc/dpkg/origins/default.

       DPKG_COLORS
	   Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
	   If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known as internationalization
	   (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are: 0 and 1 (default).

FILES
   Packaging support
       /usr/share/dpkg/vendor.mk
	   Makefile snippet that sets the current vendor and its parent into variables, and provides make  macros  to  check
	   for derivatives (since dpkg 1.16.1).

SEE ALSO
       deb-origin(5).

1.23.7							 2026-03-31					      dpkg-vendor(1)