Further to my previous post, As far as I can find out dselect and dpkg use /var/lib/dpkg/available for there package list but apt uses the various files in......... /var/lib/apt/lists on my system these are.... dl.google.com_linux_earth_deb_dists_stable_Release dl.google.com_linux_earth_deb_dists_stable_Release.gpg dl.google.com_linux_earth_deb_dists_stable_main_binary-i386_Packages ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_InRelease ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_binary-i386_Packages.IndexDiff ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_i18n_Translation-en ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_contrib_i18n_Translation-en.IndexDiff ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_binary-i386_Packages.IndexDiff ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_i18n_Translation-en ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_main_i18n_Translation-en.IndexDiff ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_binary-i386_Packages.IndexDiff ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en ftp.debian.org_debian_dists_testing_non-free_i18n_Translation-en.IndexDiff I assume all use /var/lib/dpkg/status, because different lists are used the system can get out of step. Further more it seems as apt is more likely omit packages from its lists. I have never had dpkg and apt report the same number of packages, you can get close, currently the list of installed packages for both differs by 2 2815 for apt 2817 for dpkg. Interestingly "apt-move sync" which is supposed to produce a local mirror of all installed packages on your system only produced 2400 odd packages for the above system. I have no idea what debians package system thinks its doing. Note: this is what I call "getting out of step", on an initial install all the above numbers _nearly_ match. Why anyone in debian though it was a great idea to have two separate non-synced package lists is beyond "this little black duck". Lindsay