1deb-src-control(5) dpkg suite deb-src-control(5)
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6 deb-src-control - Debian source packages' master control file format
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9 debian/control
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12 Each Debian source package contains the master «control» file, which
13 contains at least 2 paragraphs, separated by a blank line. The first
14 paragraph lists all information about the source package in general,
15 while each following paragraph describes exactly one binary package.
16 Each paragraph consists of at least one field. A field starts with a
17 fieldname, such as Package or Section (case insensitive), followed by a
18 colon, the body of the field and a newline. Multi-line fields are also
19 allowed, but each supplementary line, without a fieldname, should start
20 with at least one space. The content of the multi-line fields is
21 generally joined to a single line by the tools (except in the case of
22 the Description field, see below). To insert empty lines into a multi-
23 line field, insert a dot after the space. Lines starting with a ‘#’
24 are treated as comments.
25
27 Source: source-package-name (required)
28 The value of this field is the name of the source package, and
29 should match the name of the source package in the
30 debian/changelog file. A package name must consist only of lower
31 case letters (a-z), digits (0-9), plus (+) and minus (-) signs,
32 and periods (.). Package names must be at least two characters
33 long and must start with an alphanumeric character.
34 Maintainer: fullname-email (recommended)
37 Should be in the format «Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@foo.com>», and
38 references the person who currently maintains the package, as
39 opposed to the author of the software or the original packager.
40 Uploaders: fullname-email
43 Lists all the names and email addresses of co-maintainers of the
44 package, in the same format as the Maintainer field. Multiple
45 co-maintainers should be separated by a comma.
46 Standards-Version: version-string
49 This documents the most recent version of the distribution
50 policy standards this package complies with.
51 Homepage: url
54 The upstream project home page URL.
55 Bugs: url
58 The url of the bug tracking system for this package. The current
59 used format is bts-type://bts-address, like
60 debbugs://bugs.debian.org. This field is usually not needed.
61 Vcs-Arch: url
64 Vcs-Bzr: url
65 Vcs-Cvs: url
66 Vcs-Darcs: url
67 Vcs-Git: url
68 Vcs-Hg: url
69 Vcs-Mtn: url
70 Vcs-Svn: url
71 The url of the Version Control System repository used to
72 maintain this package. Currently supported are Arch, Bzr
73 (Bazaar), Cvs, Darcs, Git, Hg (Mercurial), Mtn (Monotone) and
74 Svn (Subversion). Usually this field points to the latest
75 version of the package, such as the main branch or the trunk.
76 Vcs-Browser: url
79 The url of a webinterface to browse the Version Control System
80 repository.
81 Origin: name
84 The name of the distribution this package is originating from.
85 This field is usually not needed.
86 Section: section
89 This is a general field that gives the package a category based
90 on the software that it installs. Some common sections are
91 utils, net, mail, text, x11, etc.
92 Priority: priority
95 Sets the importance of this package in relation to the system as
96 a whole. Common priorities are required, standard, optional,
97 extra, etc.
98 The Section and Priority fields usually have a defined set of
100 accepted values based on the specific distribution policy.
101 Build-Depends: package-list
104 A list of packages that need to be installed and configured to
105 be able to build from source package. These dependencies need
106 to be satisfied when building binary architecture dependent or
107 independent packages and source packages. Including a
108 dependency in this field does not have the exact same effect as
109 including it in both Build-Depends-Arch and Build-Depends-Indep,
110 because the dependency also needs to be satisfied when building
111 the source package.
112 Build-Depends-Arch: package-list
114 Same as Build-Depends, but they are only needed when building
115 the architecture dependent packages. The Build-Depends are also
116 installed in this case. This field is supported since dpkg
117 1.16.4; in order to build with older dpkg versions,
118 Build-Depends should be used instead.
119 Build-Depends-Indep: package-list
122 Same as Build-Depends, but they are only needed when building
123 the architecture independent packages. The Build-Depends are
124 also installed in this case.
125 Build-Conflicts: package-list
128 A list of packages that should not be installed when the package
129 is built, for example because they interfere with the build
130 system used. Including a dependency in this list has the same
131 effect as including it in both Build-Conflicts-Arch and
132 Build-Conflicts-Indep, with the additional effect of being used
133 for source-only builds.
134 Build-Conflicts-Arch: package-list
137 Same as Build-Conflicts, but only when building the architecture
138 dependent packages. This field is supported since dpkg 1.16.4;
139 in order to build with older dpkg versions, Build-Conflicts
140 should be used instead.
141 Build-Conflicts-Indep: package-list
144 Same as Build-Conflicts, but only when building the architecture
145 independent packages.
146 The syntax of the Build-Depends, Build-Depends-Arch and
149 Build-Depends-Indep fields is a list of groups of alternative packages.
150 Each group is a list of packages separated by vertical bar (or “pipe”)
151 symbols, ‘|’. The groups are separated by commas. Commas are to be
152 read as “AND”, and pipes as “OR”, with pipes binding more tightly.
153 Each package name is optionally followed by an architecture qualifier
154 appended after a colon ‘:’, optionally followed by a version number
155 specification in parentheses, an architecture specification in square
156 brackets, and a restriction formula consisting of one or more lists of
157 profile names in angle brackets.
158 The syntax of the Build-Conflicts, Build-Conflicts-Arch and
160 Build-Conflicts-Indep fields is a list of comma-separated package
161 names, where the comma is read as an “AND”. Specifying alternative
162 packages using a “pipe” is not supported. Each package name is
163 optionally followed by a version number specification in parentheses,
164 an architecture specification in square brackets, and a restriction
165 formula consisting of one or more lists of profile names in angle
166 brackets.
167 An architecture qualifier name can be a real Debian architecture name
169 (since dpkg 1.16.5), any (since dpkg 1.16.2) or native (since dpkg
170 1.16.5). If omitted, the default for Build-Depends fields is the
171 current host architecture, the default for Build-Conflicts fields is
172 any. A real Debian architecture name will match exactly that
173 architecture for that package name, any will match any architecture for
174 that package name if the package is marked with Multi-Arch: allowed,
175 and native will match the current build architecture if the package is
176 not marked with Multi-Arch: foreign.
177 A version number may start with a ‘>>’, in which case any later version
179 will match, and may specify or omit the Debian packaging revision
180 (separated by a hyphen). Accepted version relationships are ‘>>’ for
181 greater than, ‘<<’ for less than, ‘>=’ for greater than or equal to,
182 ‘<=’ for less than or equal to, and ‘=’ for equal to.
183 An architecture specification consists of one or more architecture
185 names, separated by whitespace. Exclamation marks may be prepended to
186 each of the names, meaning “NOT”.
187 A restriction formula consists of one or more restriction lists,
189 separated by whitespace. Each restriction list is enclosed in angle
190 brackets. Items in the restriction list are build profile names,
191 separated by whitespace and can be prefixed with an exclamation mark,
192 meaning “NOT”. A restriction formula represents a disjunctive normal
193 form expression.
194 Note that dependencies on packages in the build-essential set can be
196 omitted and that declaring build conflicts against them is impossible.
197 A list of these packages is in the build-essential package.
198
202 Note that the Priority, Section and Homepage fields can also be in a
203 binary paragraph to override the global value from the source package.
204 Package: binary-package-name (required)
207 This field is used to name the binary package name. The same
208 restrictions as to a source package name apply.
209 Architecture: arch|all|any (required)
212 The architecture specifies on which type of hardware this
213 package runs. For packages that run on all architectures, use
214 the any value. For packages that are architecture independent,
215 such as shell and Perl scripts or documentation, use the all
216 value. To restrict the packages to a certain set of
217 architectures, specify the architecture names, separated by a
218 space. It's also possible to put architecture wildcards in that
219 list (see dpkg-architecture(1) for more information about them).
220 Build-Profiles: restriction-formula
223 This field specifies the conditions for which this binary
224 package does or does not build. To express that condition, the
225 same restriction formula syntax from the Build-Depends field is
226 used.
227 If a binary package paragraph does not contain this field, then
229 it implicitly means that it builds with all build profiles
230 (including none at all).
231 In other words, if a binary package paragraph is annotated with
233 a non-empty Build-Profiles field, then this binary package is
234 generated if and only if the condition expressed by the
235 conjunctive normal form expression evaluates to true.
236 Package-Type: deb|udeb
239 This field defines the type of the package. udeb is for size-
240 constrained packages used by the debian installer. deb is the
241 default value, it is assumed if the field is absent. More types
242 might be added in the future.
243 Subarchitecture: value
246 Kernel-Version: value
247 Installer-Menu-Item: value
248 These fields are used by the debian-installer and are usually
249 not needed. See
250 /usr/share/doc/debian-installer/devel/modules.txt from the
251 debian-installer package for more details about them.
252 Essential: yes|no
255 Build-Essential: yes|no
256 Multi-Arch: same|foreign|allowed|no
257 Tag: tag-list
258 Description: short-description (recommended)
259 These fields are described in the deb-control(5) manual page, as
260 they are copied literally to the control file of the binary
261 package.
262 Depends: package-list
265 Pre-Depends: package-list
266 Recommends: package-list
267 Suggests: package-list
268 Breaks: package-list
269 Enhances: package-list
270 Replaces: package-list
271 Conflicts: package-list
272 Provides: package-list
273 Built-Using: package-list
274 These fields declare relationships between packages. They are
275 discussed in the deb-control(5) manpage.
276
279 It is allowed to add additional user-defined fields to the control
280 file. The tools will ignore these fields. If you want the fields to be
281 copied over to the output files, such as the binary packages, you need
282 to use a custom naming scheme: the fields should start with an X,
283 followed by zero or more of the letters BCS and a hyphen.
284 B The field will appear in the control file in the binary package,
287 see deb-control(5).
288 S The field will appear in the source package control file, see
290 dsc(5).
291 C The field will appear in the upload control (.changes) file, see
293 deb-changes(5).
294 Note that the X[BCS]- prefixes are stripped when the fields are copied
297 over to the output files. A field XC-Approved-By will appear as
298 Approved-By in the changes file and will not appear in the binary or
299 source package control files.
300 Take into account that these user-defined fields will be using the
302 global namespace, which might at some point in the future collide with
303 officially recognized fields. To avoid such potential situation you can
304 prefix those fields with Private-, such as XB-Private-New-Field.
305
308 # Comment
309 Source: dpkg
310 Section: admin
311 Priority: required
312 Maintainer: Dpkg Developers <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>
313 # this field is copied to the binary and source packages
314 XBS-Upstream-Release-Status: stable
315 Homepage: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg
316 Vcs-Browser: https://git.dpkg.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git
317 Vcs-Git: https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git
318 Standards-Version: 3.7.3
319 Build-Depends: pkg-config, debhelper (>= 4.1.81),
320 libselinux1-dev (>= 1.28-4) [!linux-any]
321 Package: dpkg-dev
323 Section: utils
324 Priority: optional
325 Architecture: all
326 # this is a custom field in the binary package
327 XB-Mentoring-Contact: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
328 Depends: dpkg (>= 1.14.6), perl5, perl-modules, cpio (>= 2.4.2-2),
329 bzip2, lzma, patch (>= 2.2-1), make, binutils, libtimedate-perl
330 Recommends: gcc | c-compiler, build-essential
331 Suggests: gnupg, debian-keyring
332 Conflicts: dpkg-cross (<< 2.0.0), devscripts (<< 2.10.26)
333 Replaces: manpages-pl (<= 20051117-1)
334 Description: Debian package development tools
335 This package provides the development tools (including dpkg-source)
336 required to unpack, build and upload Debian source packages.
337 .
338 Most Debian source packages will require additional tools to build;
339 for example, most packages need make and the C compiler gcc.
340
344 deb-control(5), deb-version(5), dpkg-source(1)
3451.18.25 2018-06-26 deb-src-control(5)