status

Stores both the current and wanted state of a package. Has a copy of the package control information for installed packages.

Package: emacs19
Status: purge ok not-installed
Priority: optional
Section: editors

Status has three entries
wanted state (unknown, install, hold, deinstall, purge)
error state (ok, reinstreq)
current state (not-installed, unpacked, half-configured, installed, half-installed, config-files)