1deb-control(5) dpkg suite deb-control(5)
2
6 deb-control - Debian binary packages' master control file format
7
9 DEBIAN/control
10
12 Each Debian binary package contains a control file in its control
13 member, and its deb822(5) format is a subset of the master
14 debian/control file in Debian source packages, see deb-src-control(5).
15 This file contains a number of fields. Each field begins with a tag,
17 such as Package or Version (case insensitive), followed by a colon, and
18 the body of the field (case sensitive unless stated otherwise). Fields
19 are delimited only by field tags. In other words, field text may be
20 multiple lines in length, but the installation tools will generally
21 join lines when processing the body of the field (except in the case of
22 the Description field, see below).
23
25 Package: package-name (required)
26 The value of this field determines the package name, and is used to
27 generate file names by most installation tools.
28 Package-Type: deb|udeb|type
30 This field defines the type of the package. udeb is for size-
31 constrained packages used by the debian installer. deb is the
32 default value, it is assumed if the field is absent. More types
33 might be added in the future.
34 Version: version-string (required)
36 Typically, this is the original package's version number in
37 whatever form the program's author uses. It may also include a
38 Debian revision number (for non-native packages). The exact format
39 and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).
40 Maintainer: fullname-email (recommended)
42 Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@foo.com>”, and is
43 typically the person who created the package, as opposed to the
44 author of the software that was packaged.
45 Description: short-description (recommended)
47 long-description
48 The format for the package description is a short brief summary on
49 the first line (after the Description field). The following lines
50 should be used as a longer, more detailed description. Each line of
51 the long description must be preceded by a space, and blank lines
52 in the long description must contain a single ‘.’ following the
53 preceding space.
54 Section: section
56 This is a general field that gives the package a category based on
57 the software that it installs. Some common sections are utils,
58 net, mail, text, x11, etc.
59 Priority: priority
61 Sets the importance of this package in relation to the system as a
62 whole. Common priorities are required, standard, optional, extra,
63 etc.
64 The Section and Priority fields usually have a defined set of accepted
66 values based on the specific distribution policy.
67 Installed-Size: size
69 The approximate total size of the package's installed files, in KiB
70 units. The algorithm to compute the size is described in
71 deb-substvars(5).
72 Protected: yes|no
74 This field is usually only needed when the answer is yes. It
75 denotes a package that is required for proper booting of the
76 system. dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will not allow a
77 Protected package to be removed (at least not without using one of
78 the force options).
79 Supported since dpkg 1.20.1.
81 Essential: yes|no
83 This field is usually only needed when the answer is yes. It
84 denotes a package that is required for proper operation of the
85 system. dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will not allow an
86 Essential package to be removed (at least not without using one of
87 the force options).
88 Build-Essential: yes|no
90 This field is usually only needed when the answer is yes, and is
91 commonly injected by the archive software. It denotes a package
92 that is required when building other packages.
93 Architecture: arch|all (required)
95 The architecture specifies which type of hardware this package was
96 compiled for. Common architectures are amd64, armel, i386,
97 powerpc, etc. Note that the all value is meant for packages that
98 are architecture independent. Some examples of this are shell and
99 Perl scripts, and documentation.
100 Origin: name
102 The name of the distribution this package is originating from.
103 Bugs: url
105 The url of the bug tracking system for this package. The current
106 used format is bts-type://bts-address, like
107 debbugs://bugs.debian.org.
108 Homepage: url
110 The upstream project home page url.
111 Tag: tag-list
113 List of tags describing the qualities of the package. The
114 description and list of supported tags can be found in the debtags
115 package.
116 Multi-Arch: no|same|foreign|allowed
118 This field is used to indicate how this package should behave on a
119 multi-arch installations.
120 no This value is the default when the field is omitted, in which
122 case adding the field with an explicit no value is generally
123 not needed.
124 same
126 This package is co-installable with itself, but it must not be
127 used to satisfy the dependency of any package of a different
128 architecture from itself.
129 foreign
131 This package is not co-installable with itself, but should be
132 allowed to satisfy a non-arch-qualified dependency of a package
133 of a different arch from itself (if a dependency has an
134 explicit arch-qualifier then the value foreign is ignored).
135 allowed
137 This allows reverse-dependencies to indicate in their Depends
138 field that they accept this package from a foreign architecture
139 by qualifying the package name with :any, but has no effect
140 otherwise.
141 Source: source-name [(source-version)]
143 The name of the source package that this binary package came from,
144 if it is different than the name of the package itself. If the
145 source version differs from the binary version, then the source-
146 name will be followed by a source-version in parenthesis. This can
147 happen for example on a binary-only non-maintainer upload, or when
148 setting a different binary version via «dpkg-gencontrol -v».
149 Subarchitecture: value
151 Kernel-Version: value
152 Installer-Menu-Item: value
153 These fields are used by the debian-installer and are usually not
154 needed. See /usr/share/doc/debian-installer/devel/modules.txt from
155 the debian-installer package for more details about them.
156 Depends: package-list
158 List of packages that are required for this package to provide a
159 non-trivial amount of functionality. The package maintenance
160 software will not allow a package to be installed if the packages
161 listed in its Depends field aren't installed (at least not without
162 using the force options). In an installation, the postinst scripts
163 of packages listed in Depends fields are run before those of the
164 packages which depend on them. On the opposite, in a removal, the
165 prerm script of a package is run before those of the packages
166 listed in its Depends field.
167 Pre-Depends: package-list
169 List of packages that must be installed and configured before this
170 one can be installed. This is usually used in the case where this
171 package requires another package for running its preinst script.
172 Recommends: package-list
174 Lists packages that would be found together with this one in all
175 but unusual installations. The package maintenance software will
176 warn the user if they install a package without those listed in its
177 Recommends field.
178 Suggests: package-list
180 Lists packages that are related to this one and can perhaps enhance
181 its usefulness, but without which installing this package is
182 perfectly reasonable.
183 The syntax of Depends, Pre-Depends, Recommends and Suggests fields is a
185 list of groups of alternative packages. Each group is a list of
186 packages separated by vertical bar (or “pipe”) symbols, ‘|’. The
187 groups are separated by commas. Commas are to be read as “AND”, and
188 pipes as “OR”, with pipes binding more tightly. Each package name is
189 optionally followed by an architecture qualifier appended after a colon
190 ‘:’, optionally followed by a version number specification in
191 parentheses.
192 An architecture qualifier name can be a real Debian architecture name
194 (since dpkg 1.16.5) or any (since dpkg 1.16.2). If omitted, the
195 default is the current binary package architecture. A real Debian
196 architecture name will match exactly that architecture for that package
197 name, any will match any architecture for that package name if the
198 package has been marked as Multi-Arch: allowed.
199 A version number may start with a ‘>>’, in which case any later version
201 will match, and may specify or omit the Debian packaging revision
202 (separated by a hyphen). Accepted version relationships are ‘>>’ for
203 greater than, ‘<<’ for less than, ‘>=’ for greater than or equal to,
204 ‘<=’ for less than or equal to, and ‘=’ for equal to.
205 Breaks: package-list
207 Lists packages that this one breaks, for example by exposing bugs
208 when the named packages rely on this one. The package maintenance
209 software will not allow broken packages to be configured; generally
210 the resolution is to upgrade the packages named in a Breaks field.
211 Conflicts: package-list
213 Lists packages that conflict with this one, for example by
214 containing files with the same names. The package maintenance
215 software will not allow conflicting packages to be installed at the
216 same time. Two conflicting packages should each include a Conflicts
217 line mentioning the other.
218 Replaces: package-list
220 List of packages files from which this one replaces. This is used
221 for allowing this package to overwrite the files of another package
222 and is usually used with the Conflicts field to force removal of
223 the other package, if this one also has the same files as the
224 conflicted package.
225 The syntax of Breaks, Conflicts and Replaces is a list of package
227 names, separated by commas (and optional whitespace). In the Breaks
228 and Conflicts fields, the comma should be read as “OR”. An optional
229 architecture qualifier can also be appended to the package name with
230 the same syntax as above, but the default is any instead of the binary
231 package architecture. An optional version can also be given with the
232 same syntax as above for the Breaks, Conflicts and Replaces fields.
233 Enhances: package-list
235 This is a list of packages that this one enhances. It is similar
236 to Suggests but in the opposite direction.
237 Provides: package-list
239 This is a list of virtual packages that this one provides. Usually
240 this is used in the case of several packages all providing the same
241 service. For example, sendmail and exim can serve as a mail
242 server, so they provide a common package (“mail-transport-agent”)
243 on which other packages can depend. This will allow sendmail or
244 exim to serve as a valid option to satisfy the dependency. This
245 prevents the packages that depend on a mail server from having to
246 know the package names for all of them, and using ‘|’ to separate
247 the list.
248 The syntax of Provides is a list of package names, separated by commas
250 (and optional whitespace). An optional architecture qualifier can also
251 be appended to the package name with the same syntax as above. If
252 omitted, the default is the current binary package architecture. An
253 optional exact (equal to) version can also be given with the same
254 syntax as above (honored since dpkg 1.17.11).
255 Built-Using: package-list
257 This dependency field lists extra source packages that were used
258 during the build of this binary package, for license compliance
259 purposes. This is an indication to the archive maintenance
260 software that these extra source packages must be kept whilst this
261 binary package is maintained. This field must be a comma-separated
262 list of source package names with strict ‘=’ version relationships
263 enclosed within parenthesis. Note that the archive maintenance
264 software is likely to refuse to accept an upload which declares a
265 Built-Using relationship which cannot be satisfied within the
266 archive.
267 Static-Built-Using: package-list
269 This dependency field lists extra source packages that were used
270 during the build of this binary package, for static building
271 purposes (for example linking against static libraries, builds for
272 source-centered languages such as Go or Rust, usage of header-only
273 C/C++ libraries, injecting data blobs into code, etc.). This is
274 useful to track whether this package might need to be rebuilt when
275 source packages listed here have been updated, for example due to
276 security updates. This field must be a comma-separated list of
277 source package names with strict ‘=’ version relationships enclosed
278 within parenthesis.
279 Supported since dpkg 1.21.3.
281 Built-For-Profiles: profile-list (obsolete)
283 This field used to specify a whitespace separated list of build
284 profiles that this binary packages was built with (since dpkg
285 1.17.2 until 1.18.18). The information previously found in this
286 field can now be found in the .buildinfo file, which supersedes it.
287 Auto-Built-Package: reason-list
289 This field specifies a whitespace separated list of reasons why
290 this package was auto-generated. Binary packages marked with this
291 field will not appear in the debian/control master source control
292 file. The only currently used reason is debug-symbols.
293 Build-Ids: elf-build-id-list
295 This field specifies a whitespace separated list of ELF build-ids.
296 These are unique identifiers for semantically identical ELF
297 objects, for each of these within the package.
298 The format or the way to compute each build-id is not defined by
300 design.
301
303 Package: grep
304 Essential: yes
305 Priority: required
306 Section: base
307 Maintainer: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>
308 Architecture: sparc
309 Version: 2.4-1
310 Pre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0.105)
311 Provides: rgrep
312 Conflicts: rgrep
313 Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
314 The GNU family of grep utilities may be the "fastest grep in the west".
315 GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about
316 twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper
317 search for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being
318 considered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to
319 look at every character. The result is typically many times faster
320 than Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing
321 will run more slowly, however).
322
324 The Build-Ids field uses a rather generic name out of its original
325 context within an ELF object, which serves a very specific purpose and
326 executable format.
327
329 deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb(5), deb-version(7), debtags(1),
330 dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1).
3311.21.8 2022-05-25 deb-control(5)