apt-get, aptitude, synaptic all use dpkg and actually the hard work is always dpkg responsibility. Using dpkg -i packagename from terminal will add information in /var/lib/dpkg files and will check out for missing dependencies, but it will not sort out dependencies. dpkg will show the missing dependencies and will leave the package not configured till the dependencies are manually installed with dpkg or apt-get -f install is executed. Or you should download all dependencies in a folder and use dpkg -i -R to install them all.jamesbond wrote:IIRC the non-updatable package list is in apt-get, not in dpkg --- dpkg allows you to do *anything*.
apt-get, synaptic, aptitude will install/uninstall all dependencies automatically by only one package name given in the command, but the actual work is for dpkg again. I might missing something since I'm not dpkg specialist but this is from my experience.
I think leaving to the user the responsibility to keep dpkg database safe is a big risk. At least pet2deb converter should come with red color warning use this at your own risk. Breaking dpkg database makes the main advantage useless. This risk should be kept at minimum.
Toni