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deb-control(5)			    Debian			deb-control(5)

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  pro‐
       cessing	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.

       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 for‐
	      mat and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(5).

       Maintainer: fullname-email (required)
	      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 (required)
	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.

       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).

       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
	      The  architecture	 specifies which type of hardware this package
	      was compiled for.	 Common architectures are amd64, armel,	 i386,
	      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|no
	      This field is used to indicate how this package should behave on
	      a multi-arch installations. The value same means that the	 pack‐
	      age  is  co-installable  with itself, but it must not be used to
	      satisfy the dependency of any package of a  different  architec‐
	      ture  from  itself.  The value foreign means that the 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).   The	value  allowed	allows
	      reverse-dependencies to indicate in  their  Depends  field  that
	      they  accept a package from a foreign architecture by qualifying
	      the package name with :any, but has no  effect  otherwise.   The
	      value no is the default when the field is omitted, in which case
	      adding the field with an explicit	 no  value  is	generally  not
	      needed.

       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/mod‐
	      ules.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 pack‐
	      ages 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 oppo‐
	      site, 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 pre‐
	      inst 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	 pack‐
	      age 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	 pack‐
       ages  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 (sep‐
       arated 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 main‐
	      tenance software will not allow broken packages  to  be  config‐
	      ured;  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  con‐
	      taining files with the same names. The package maintenance soft‐
	      ware 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.

       Provides: package-list
	      This is a list of virtual packages that this one provides.  Usu‐
	      ally  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-trans‐
	      port-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  syn‐
       tax as above (honored since dpkg 1.17.11).

       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  ar‐
	      chive 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).

Debian Project			  2013-12-20			deb-control(5)
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