# deb-control

## NAME



           deb-control - Debian binary package control file format
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **DEBIAN/control**
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Each Debian binary package contains a **control** file in its **control**
           member, and its deb822(5) format is a subset of the **debian/control**
           template source control file in Debian source packages, see
           deb-src-control(5).
    
           This file contains a number of fields.  Each field begins with a
           tag, such as **Package** or **Version**(case insensitive), followed by a
           colon, and the body of the field (case sensitive unless stated
           otherwise).  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).
    


## FIELDS



           **Package:**_package-name_ (required)
               The value of this field determines the package name, and is
               used to generate file names by most installation tools.
    
           **Package-Type: deb** |**udeb** |_type_
               This field defines the type of the package.  **udeb** is for
               size-constrained packages used by the debian installer.  **deb**
               is the default value, it is assumed if the field is absent.
               More types might be added in the future.
    
           **Version:**_version-string_ (required)
               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(7).
    
               **Note** : On some vendors, dpkg has been made to permit native
               sources with non-native versions, making this incoherent and
               adding to the confusion of the concept, where in addition this
               tends to be a trap for accidental mistakes.
    
           **Maintainer:**_fullname-email_ (recommended)
               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_ (recommended)
            _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.
    
           **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.
    
               The accepted values are based on the specific distribution
               policy.
    
           **Priority:**_priority_
               Sets the importance of this package in relation to the system
               as a whole.  The known priorities are **required** , **important** ,
               **standard** , **optional** , **extra** , and **unknown** , but other values can
               be used as well.
    
               How to apply these values depends on the specific distribution
               policy.
    
           **Installed-Size:**_size_
               The approximate total size of the package's installed files,
               in KiB units.  The algorithm to compute the size is described
               in deb-substvars(5).
    
           **Protected: yes** |**no**
               This field is usually only needed when the answer is **yes**.  It
               denotes a package that is required mostly for proper booting
               of the system or used for custom system-local meta-packages.
               dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will not allow a
               **Protected** package to be removed (at least not without using
               one of the force options).
    
               Supported since dpkg 1.20.1.
    
           **Essential: yes** |**no**
               This field is usually only needed when the answer is **yes**.  It
               denotes a package that is required for the packaging system,
               for proper operation of the system in general or during boot
               (although the latter should be converted to **Protected** field
               instead).  dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will not
               allow an **Essential** package to be removed (at least not without
               using one of the force options).
    
           **Build-Essential: yes** |**no**
               This field is usually only needed when the answer is **yes** , and
               is commonly injected by the archive software.  It denotes a
               package that is required when building other packages.
    
           **Architecture:**_arch_ |**all**(required)
               The architecture specifies which type of hardware this package
               was compiled for.  Common architectures are **amd64** , **armel** ,
               **i386** , **powerpc** , etc.  Note that the **all** value 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: no** |**same** |**foreign** |**allowed**
               This field is used to indicate how this package should behave
               on a multi-arch installations.
    
               **no** This value is the default when the field is omitted, in
                   which case adding the field with an explicit **no** value is
                   generally not needed.
    
               **same**
                   This 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.
    
               **foreign**
                   This package is not co-installable with itself, but should
                   be allowed to satisfy a non-arch-qualified dependency of a
                   package of a different arch from itself (if a dependency
                   has an explicit arch-qualifier then the value **foreign** is
                   ignored).
    
               **allowed**
                   This allows reverse-dependencies to indicate in their
                   **Depends** field that they accept this package from a foreign
                   architecture by qualifying the package name with **:any** , but
                   has no effect otherwise.
    
           **Source:**_source-name_ [**(**_source-version_**)**]
               The name of the source package that this binary package came
               from, if it is different than the name of the package itself.
               If the source version differs from the binary version, then
               the _source-name_ will be followed by a _source-version_ in
               parenthesis.  This can happen for example on a binary-only
               non-maintainer upload, or when setting a different binary
               version via «**dpkg-gencontrol -v** ».
    
           **Subarchitecture:**_value_
           **Kernel-Version:**_value_
           **Installer-Menu-Item:**_value_
               These fields are used by the debian-installer and are usually
               not needed.  For more details about them, see
               <https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/raw/master/doc/devel/modules.txt>.
    
           **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 an architecture qualifier
           appended after a colon ‘**:** ’, optionally followed by a version
           number specification in parentheses.
    
           An architecture qualifier name can be a real Debian architecture
           name (since dpkg 1.16.5) or **any**(since dpkg 1.16.2).  If omitted,
           the default is the current binary package architecture.  A real
           Debian architecture name will match exactly that architecture for
           that package name, **any** will match any architecture for that
           package name if the package has been marked as **Multi-Arch:**
           **allowed**.
    
           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.
    
           The syntax of **Breaks** , **Conflicts** and **Replaces** 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 architecture qualifier can also be appended to the
           package name with the same syntax as above, but the default is **any**
           instead of the binary package architecture.  An optional version
           can also be given with the same syntax as above for the **Breaks** ,
           **Conflicts** and **Replaces** fields.
    
           **Enhances:**_package-list_
               This is a list of packages that this one enhances.  It is
               similar to **Suggests** but in the opposite direction.
    
           **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 **Provides** is a list of package names, separated by
           commas (and optional whitespace).  An optional architecture
           qualifier can also be appended to the package name with the same
           syntax as above.  If omitted, the default is the current binary
           package architecture.  An optional exact (equal to) version can
           also be given with the same syntax as above (honored since dpkg
           1.17.11).
    
           **Built-Using:**_package-list_
               This dependency field lists extra source packages that were
               used during the build of this binary package, for license
               compliance purposes.  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 comma-separated list of source package names with
               strict ‘**=** ’ version relationships enclosed within parenthesis.
               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.
    
           **Static-Built-Using:**_package-list_
               This dependency field lists extra source packages that were
               used during the build of this binary package, for static
               building purposes (for example linking against static
               libraries, builds for source-centered languages such as Go or
               Rust, usage of header-only C/C++ libraries, injecting data
               blobs into code, etc.).  This is useful to track whether this
               package might need to be rebuilt when source packages listed
               here have been updated, for example due to security updates.
               This field must be a comma-separated list of source package
               names with strict ‘**=** ’ version relationships enclosed within
               parenthesis.
    
               Supported since dpkg 1.21.3.
    
           **Built-For-Profiles:**_profile-list_ (obsolete)
               This field used to specify a whitespace separated list of
               build profiles that this binary packages was built with (since
               dpkg 1.17.2 until 1.18.18).  The information previously found
               in this field can now be found in the **.buildinfo** file, which
               supersedes it.
    
           **Auto-Built-Package:**_reason-list_
               This field specifies a whitespace separated list of reasons
               why this package was auto-generated.  Binary packages marked
               with this field will not appear in the _debian/control_ template
               source control file.  The only currently used reason is
               **debug-symbols**.
    
           **Build-Ids:**_elf-build-id-list_
               This field specifies a whitespace separated list of ELF
               build-ids.  These are unique identifiers for semantically
               identical ELF objects, for each of these within the package.
    
               The format or the way to compute each build-id is not defined
               by design.
    


## EXAMPLE



            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).
    


## BUGS



           The **Build-Ids** field uses a rather generic name out of its original
           context within an ELF object, which serves a very specific purpose
           and executable format.
    


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