NAME¶
deb-control - Debian packages' master control file format
SYNOPSIS¶
control
DESCRIPTION¶
Each Debian package contains the master `control' file, which contains a number
of fields, or comments when the line starts with
'#'. Each field begins
with a tag, such as
Package or
Version (case insensitive),
followed by a colon, and the body of the field. Fields are delimited only by
field tags. In other words, field text may be multiple lines in length, but
the installation tools will generally join lines when processing the body of
the field (except in the case of the
Description field, see below).
REQUIRED FIELDS¶
- Package: package-name
- The value of this field determines the package name, and is
used to generate file names by most installation tools.
- Version: version-string
- Typically, this is the original package's version number in
whatever form the program's author uses. It may also include a Debian
revision number (for non-native packages). The exact format and sorting
algorithm are described in deb-version(5).
- Maintainer: fullname-email
- Should be in the format `Joe Bloggs
<jbloggs@foo.com>', and is typically the person who created the
package, as opposed to the author of the software that was packaged.
- Description: short-description
- long-description
The format for the package description is a short brief summary on the first
line (after the "Description" field). The following lines should
be used as a longer, more detailed description. Each line of the long
description must be preceded by a space, and blank lines in the long
description must contain a single '.' following the preceding space.
OPTIONAL FIELDS¶
- Section: section
- This is a general field that gives the package a category
based on the software that it installs. Some common sections are `utils',
`net', `mail', `text', `x11' etc.
- Priority: priority
- Sets the importance of this package in relation to the
system as a whole. Common priorities are `required', `standard',
`optional', `extra' etc.
In Debian, the
Section and
Priority fields have a defined set of
accepted values based on the Policy Manual. A list of these values can be
obtained from the latest version of the
debian-policy package.
- Essential: yes|no
- This field is usually only needed when the answer is
yes. It denotes a package that is required for proper operation of
the system. Dpkg or any other installation tool will not allow an
Essential package to be removed (at least not without using one of
the force options).
- Architecture: arch|all
- The architecture specifies which type of hardware this
package was compiled for. Common architectures are `i386', `m68k',
`sparc', `alpha', `powerpc' etc. Note that the all option is meant
for packages that are architecture independent. Some examples of this are
shell and Perl scripts, and documentation.
- Origin: name
- The name of the distribution this package is originating
from.
- Bugs: url
- The url of the bug tracking system for this package.
The current used format is bts-type://bts-address,
like debbugs://bugs.debian.org.
- Homepage: url
- The upstream project home page url.
- Tag: tag-list
- List of tags describing the qualities of the package. The
description and list of supported tags can be found in the debtags
package.
- Multi-Arch:
same|foreign|allowed
- This field is used to indicate how this package should
behave on a multi-arch installations. The value same means that the
package is co-installable with itself, but it must not be used to satisfy
the dependency of any package of a different architecture from itself. The
value foreign means that the package is not co-installable with
itself, but should be allowed to satisfy the dependency of a package of a
different arch from itself. The value allowed allows
reverse-dependencies to indicate in their Depends field that they accept a
package from a foreign architecture, but has no effect otherwise.
- Source: source-name
- The name of the source package that this binary package
came from, if different than the name of the package itself.
- Subarchitecture: value
- Kernel-Version: value
- Installer-Menu-Item: value
- These fields are used by the debian-installer and are
usually not needed. See /usr/share/doc/debian-installer/devel/modules.txt
from the debian-installer package for more details about them.
- Depends: package-list
- List of packages that are required for this package to
provide a non-trivial amount of functionality. The package maintenance
software will not allow a package to be installed if the packages listed
in its Depends field aren't installed (at least not without using
the force options). In an installation, the postinst scripts of packages
listed in Depends: fields are run before those of the packages which
depend on them. On the opposite, in a removal, the prerm script of a
package is run before those of the packages listed in its Depends:
field.
- Pre-Depends: package-list
- List of packages that must be installed and
configured before this one can be installed. This is usually used in the
case where this package requires another package for running its preinst
script.
- Recommends: package-list
- Lists packages that would be found together with this one
in all but unusual installations. The package maintenance software will
warn the user if they install a package without those listed in its
Recommends field.
- Suggests: package-list
- Lists packages that are related to this one and can perhaps
enhance its usefulness, but without which installing this package is
perfectly reasonable.
The syntax of
Depends,
Pre-Depends,
Recommends and
Suggests fields is a list of groups of alternative packages. Each group
is a list of packages separated by vertical bar (or `pipe') symbols, `|'. The
groups are separated by commas. Commas are to be read as `AND', and pipes as
`OR', with pipes binding more tightly. Each package name is optionally
followed by a version number specification in parentheses.
A version number may start with a `>>', in which case any later version
will match, and may specify or omit the Debian packaging revision (separated
by a hyphen). Accepted version relationships are ">>" for
greater than, "<<" for less than, ">=" for
greater than or equal to, "<=" for less than or equal to, and
"=" for equal to.
- Breaks: package-list
- Lists packages that this one breaks, for example by
exposing bugs when the named packages rely on this one. The package
maintenance software will not allow broken packages to be configured;
generally the resolution is to upgrade the packages named in a
Breaks field.
- Conflicts: package-list
- Lists packages that conflict with this one, for example by
containing files with the same names. The package maintenance software
will not allow conflicting packages to be installed at the same time. Two
conflicting packages should each include a Conflicts line
mentioning the other.
- Replaces: package-list
- List of packages files from which this one replaces. This
is used for allowing this package to overwrite the files of another
package and is usually used with the Conflicts field to force
removal of the other package, if this one also has the same files as the
conflicted package.
- Provides: package-list
- This is a list of virtual packages that this one provides.
Usually this is used in the case of several packages all providing the
same service. For example, sendmail and exim can serve as a mail server,
so they provide a common package (`mail-transport-agent') on which other
packages can depend. This will allow sendmail or exim to serve as a valid
option to satisfy the dependency. This prevents the packages that depend
on a mail server from having to know the package names for all of them,
and using `|' to separate the list.
The syntax of
Breaks,
Conflicts,
Replaces and
Provides is a list of package names, separated by commas (and optional
whitespace). In the
Breaks and
Conflicts fields, the comma
should be read as `OR'. An optional version can also be given with the same
syntax as above for the
Breaks,
Conflicts and
Replaces
fields.
- Built-Using: package-list
- This field lists extra source packages that were used
during the build of this binary package. This is an indication to the
archive maintenance software that these extra source packages must be kept
whilst this binary package is maintained. This field must be a list of
source package names with strict (=) version relationships. Note that the
archive maintenance software is likely to refuse to accept an upload which
declares a Built-Using relationship which cannot be satisfied
within the archive.
EXAMPLE¶
# Comment
Package: grep
Essential: yes
Priority: required
Section: base
Maintainer: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>
Architecture: sparc
Version: 2.4-1
Pre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0.105)
Provides: rgrep
Conflicts: rgrep
Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
The GNU family of grep utilities may be the "fastest grep in the west".
GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about
twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper
search for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being
considered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to
look at every character. The result is typically many times faster
than Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing
will run more slowly, however).
SEE ALSO¶
deb(5),
deb-version(5),
debtags(1),
dpkg(1),
dpkg-deb(1).