passing a parameter into dpkg -i?

Question

Is there any way to pass a parameter into dpkg -i that can then be used by preinst and postinst? I've looked into this and was wondering if I could refer to these parameters with $1 or $2

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

No, you cannot pass a parameter that way.

You can set an environmental variable this way

$ VARIABLE=foo dpkg --install package.deb

or (much better) use debconf to ask questions to the user.