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10 <title>Debian Policy Manual</title>
11 <author><qref id="authors">The Debian Policy Mailing List</qref></author>
12 <version>version &version;, &date;</version>
15 This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian
16 GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and
17 contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of
18 the operating system, as well as technical requirements that
19 each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution.
24 Copyright © 1996,1997,1998 Ian Jackson
25 and Christian Schwarz.
28 This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or
29 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
30 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
31 2, or (at your option) any later version.
35 This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
36 <em>without any warranty</em>; without even the implied
37 warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular
38 purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more
43 A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as
44 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL</file> in the Debian GNU/Linux
45 distribution or on the World Wide Web at
46 <url id="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
47 name="the GNU General Public Licence">. You can also
48 obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
49 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
57 <heading>About this manual</heading>
59 <heading>Scope</heading>
61 This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian
62 GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and
63 contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of the
64 operating system, as well as technical requirements that
65 each package must satisfy to be included in the
70 This manual also describes Debian policy as it relates to
71 creating Debian packages. It is not a tutorial on how to build
72 packages, nor is it exhaustive where it comes to describing
73 the behavior of the packaging system. Instead, this manual
74 attempts to define the interface to the package management
75 system that the developers have to be conversant with.<footnote>
76 Informally, the criteria used for inclusion is that the
77 material meet one of the following requirements:
78 <taglist compact="compact">
79 <tag>Standard interfaces</tag>
81 The material presented represents an interface to
82 the packaging system that is mandated for use, and
83 is used by, a significant number of packages, and
84 therefore should not be changed without peer
85 review. Package maintainers can then rely on this
86 interfaces not changing, and the package
87 management software authors need to ensure
88 compatibility with these interface
89 definitions. (Control file and changelog file
90 formats are examples.)
92 <tag>Chosen Convention</tag>
94 If there are a number of technically viable choices
95 that can be made, but one needs to select one of
96 these options for inter-operability. The version
97 number format is one example.
100 Please note that these are not mutually exclusive;
101 selected conventions often become parts of standard
107 The footnotes present in this manual are
108 merely informative, and are not part of Debian policy itself.
112 The appendices to this manual are not necessarily normative,
113 either. Please see <ref id="pkg-scope"> for more information.
117 In the normative part of this manual,
118 the words <em>must</em>, <em>should</em> and
119 <em>may</em>, and the adjectives <em>required</em>,
120 <em>recommended</em> and <em>optional</em>, are used to
121 distinguish the significance of the various guidelines in
122 this policy document. Packages that do not conform to the
123 guidelines denoted by <em>must</em> (or <em>required</em>)
124 will generally not be considered acceptable for the Debian
125 distribution. Non-conformance with guidelines denoted by
126 <em>should</em> (or <em>recommended</em>) will generally be
127 considered a bug, but will not necessarily render a package
128 unsuitable for distribution. Guidelines denoted by
129 <em>may</em> (or <em>optional</em>) are truly optional and
130 adherence is left to the maintainer's discretion.
134 These classifications are roughly equivalent to the bug
135 severities <em>serious</em> (for <em>must</em> or
136 <em>required</em> directive violations), <em>minor</em>,
137 <em>normal</em> or <em>important</em>
138 (for <em>should</em> or <em>recommended</em> directive
139 violations) and <em>wishlist</em> (for <em>optional</em>
142 Compare RFC 2119. Note, however, that these words are
143 used in a different way in this document.
148 Much of the information presented in this manual will be
149 useful even when building a package which is to be
150 distributed in some other way or is intended for local use
156 <heading>New versions of this document</heading>
159 This manual is distributed via the Debian package
160 <package><url name="debian-policy"
161 id="http://packages.debian.org/debian-policy"></package>
162 (<httpsite>packages.debian.org</httpsite>
163 <httppath>/debian-policy</httppath>).
167 The current version of this document is also available from
168 the Debian web mirrors at
169 <tt><url name="/doc/debian-policy/"
170 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/"></tt>.
172 <httpsite>www.debian.org</httpsite>
173 <httppath>/doc/debian-policy/</httppath>)
174 Also available from the same directory are several other
175 formats: <file>policy.html.tar.gz</file>
176 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.html.tar.gz</httppath>),
177 <file>policy.pdf.gz</file>
178 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.pdf.gz</httppath>)
179 and <file>policy.ps.gz</file>
180 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.ps.gz</httppath>).
184 The <package>debian-policy</package> package also includes the file
185 <file>upgrading-checklist.txt.gz</file> which indicates policy
186 changes between versions of this document.
191 <heading>Authors and Maintainers</heading>
194 Originally called "Debian GNU/Linux Policy Manual", this
195 manual was initially written in 1996 by Ian Jackson.
196 It was revised on November 27th, 1996 by David A. Morris.
197 Christian Schwarz added new sections on March 15th, 1997,
198 and reworked/restructured it in April-July 1997.
199 Christoph Lameter contributed the "Web Standard".
200 Julian Gilbey largely restructured it in 2001.
204 Since September 1998, the responsibility for the contents of
205 this document lies on the <url name="debian-policy mailing list"
206 id="mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org">. Proposals
207 are discussed there and inserted into policy after a certain
208 consensus is established.
209 <!-- insert shameless policy-process plug here eventually -->
210 The actual editing is done by a group of maintainers that have
211 no editorial powers. These are the current maintainers:
214 <item>Julian Gilbey</item>
215 <item>Branden Robinson</item>
216 <item>Josip Rodin</item>
217 <item>Manoj Srivastava</item>
222 While the authors of this document have tried hard to avoid
223 typos and other errors, these do still occur. If you discover
224 an error in this manual or if you want to give any
225 comments, suggestions, or criticisms please send an email to
226 the Debian Policy List,
227 <email>debian-policy@lists.debian.org</email>, or submit a
228 bug report against the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
232 Please do not try to reach the individual authors or maintainers
233 of the Policy Manual regarding changes to the Policy.
238 <heading>Related documents</heading>
241 There are several other documents other than this Policy Manual
242 that are necessary to fully understand some Debian policies and
247 The external "sub-policy" documents are referred to in:
248 <list compact="compact">
249 <item><ref id="fhs"></item>
250 <item><ref id="virtual_pkg"></item>
251 <item><ref id="menus"></item>
252 <item><ref id="mime"></item>
253 <item><ref id="perl"></item>
254 <item><ref id="maintscriptprompt"></item>
255 <item><ref id="emacs"></item>
260 In addition to those, which carry the weight of policy, there
261 is the Debian Developer's Reference. This document describes
262 procedures and resources for Debian developers, but it is
263 <em>not</em> normative; rather, it includes things that don't
264 belong in the Policy, such as best practices for developers.
268 The Developer's Reference is available in the
269 <package>developers-reference</package> package.
270 It's also available from the Debian web mirrors at
271 <tt><url name="/doc/developers-reference/"
272 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/"></tt>.
280 <heading>The Debian Archive</heading>
283 The Debian GNU/Linux system is maintained and distributed as a
284 collection of <em>packages</em>. Since there are so many of
285 them (currently well over 15000), they are split into
286 <em>sections</em> and given <em>priorities</em> to simplify
287 the handling of them.
291 The effort of the Debian project is to build a free operating
292 system, but not every package we want to make accessible is
293 <em>free</em> in our sense (see the Debian Free Software
294 Guidelines, below), or may be imported/exported without
295 restrictions. Thus, the archive is split into the distribution
296 areas or categories based on their licenses and other restrictions.
300 The aims of this are:
302 <list compact="compact">
303 <item>to allow us to make as much software available as we can</item>
304 <item>to allow us to encourage everyone to write free software,
306 <item>to allow us to make it easy for people to produce
307 CD-ROMs of our system without violating any licenses,
308 import/export restrictions, or any other laws.</item>
313 The <em>main</em> category forms the
314 <em>Debian GNU/Linux distribution</em>.
318 Packages in the other distribution areas (<tt>contrib</tt>,
319 <tt>non-free</tt>) are not considered to be part of the Debian
320 distribution, although we support their use and provide
321 infrastructure for them (such as our bug-tracking system and
322 mailing lists). This Debian Policy Manual applies to these
327 <heading>The Debian Free Software Guidelines</heading>
329 The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) form our
330 definition of "free software". These are:
332 <tag>Free Redistribution
335 The license of a Debian component may not restrict any
336 party from selling or giving away the software as a
337 component of an aggregate software distribution
338 containing programs from several different
339 sources. The license may not require a royalty or
340 other fee for such sale.
345 The program must include source code, and must allow
346 distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
351 The license must allow modifications and derived
352 works, and must allow them to be distributed under the
353 same terms as the license of the original software.
355 <tag>Integrity of The Author's Source Code
358 The license may restrict source-code from being
359 distributed in modified form <em>only</em> if the
360 license allows the distribution of "patch files"
361 with the source code for the purpose of modifying the
362 program at build time. The license must explicitly
363 permit distribution of software built from modified
364 source code. The license may require derived works to
365 carry a different name or version number from the
366 original software. (This is a compromise. The Debian
367 Project encourages all authors to not restrict any
368 files, source or binary, from being modified.)
370 <tag>No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
373 The license must not discriminate against any person
376 <tag>No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
379 The license must not restrict anyone from making use
380 of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For
381 example, it may not restrict the program from being
382 used in a business, or from being used for genetic
385 <tag>Distribution of License
388 The rights attached to the program must apply to all
389 to whom the program is redistributed without the need
390 for execution of an additional license by those
393 <tag>License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
396 The rights attached to the program must not depend on
397 the program's being part of a Debian system. If the
398 program is extracted from Debian and used or
399 distributed without Debian but otherwise within the
400 terms of the program's license, all parties to whom
401 the program is redistributed must have the same
402 rights as those that are granted in conjunction with
405 <tag>License Must Not Contaminate Other Software
408 The license must not place restrictions on other
409 software that is distributed along with the licensed
410 software. For example, the license must not insist
411 that all other programs distributed on the same medium
412 must be free software.
414 <tag>Example Licenses
417 The "GPL," "BSD," and "Artistic" licenses are examples of
418 licenses that we consider <em>free</em>.
425 <heading>Categories</heading>
428 <heading>The main category</heading>
431 Every package in <em>main</em> must comply with the DFSG
432 (Debian Free Software Guidelines).
436 In addition, the packages in <em>main</em>
437 <list compact="compact">
439 must not require a package outside of <em>main</em>
440 for compilation or execution (thus, the package must
441 not declare a "Depends", "Recommends", or
442 "Build-Depends" relationship on a non-<em>main</em>
446 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
450 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
459 <heading>The contrib category</heading>
462 Every package in <em>contrib</em> must comply with the DFSG.
466 In addition, the packages in <em>contrib</em>
467 <list compact="compact">
469 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
473 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
481 Examples of packages which would be included in
482 <em>contrib</em> are:
483 <list compact="compact">
485 free packages which require <em>contrib</em>,
486 <em>non-free</em> packages or packages which are not
487 in our archive at all for compilation or execution,
491 wrapper packages or other sorts of free accessories for
498 <sect1 id="non-free">
499 <heading>The non-free category</heading>
502 Packages must be placed in <em>non-free</em> if they are
503 not compliant with the DFSG or are encumbered by patents
504 or other legal issues that make their distribution
509 In addition, the packages in <em>non-free</em>
510 <list compact="compact">
512 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
516 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
517 manual that it is possible for them to meet.
519 It is possible that there are policy
520 requirements which the package is unable to
521 meet, for example, if the source is
522 unavailable. These situations will need to be
523 handled on a case-by-case basis.
532 <sect id="pkgcopyright">
533 <heading>Copyright considerations</heading>
536 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of
537 its copyright and distribution license in the file
538 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
539 (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details).
543 We reserve the right to restrict files from being included
544 anywhere in our archives if
545 <list compact="compact">
547 their use or distribution would break a law,
550 there is an ethical conflict in their distribution or
554 we would have to sign a license for them, or
557 their distribution would conflict with other project
564 Programs whose authors encourage the user to make
565 donations are fine for the main distribution, provided
566 that the authors do not claim that not donating is
567 immoral, unethical, illegal or something similar; in such
568 a case they must go in <em>non-free</em>.
572 Packages whose copyright permission notices (or patent
573 problems) do not even allow redistribution of binaries
574 only, and where no special permission has been obtained,
575 must not be placed on the Debian FTP site and its mirrors
580 Note that under international copyright law (this applies
581 in the United States, too), <em>no</em> distribution or
582 modification of a work is allowed without an explicit
583 notice saying so. Therefore a program without a copyright
584 notice <em>is</em> copyrighted and you may not do anything
585 to it without risking being sued! Likewise if a program
586 has a copyright notice but no statement saying what is
587 permitted then nothing is permitted.
591 Many authors are unaware of the problems that restrictive
592 copyrights (or lack of copyright notices) can cause for
593 the users of their supposedly-free software. It is often
594 worthwhile contacting such authors diplomatically to ask
595 them to modify their license terms. However, this can be a
596 politically difficult thing to do and you should ask for
597 advice on the <tt>debian-legal</tt> mailing list first, as
602 When in doubt about a copyright, send mail to
603 <email>debian-legal@lists.debian.org</email>. Be prepared
604 to provide us with the copyright statement. Software
605 covered by the GPL, public domain software and BSD-like
606 copyrights are safe; be wary of the phrases "commercial
607 use prohibited" and "distribution restricted".
611 <sect id="subsections">
612 <heading>Sections</heading>
615 The packages in the categories <em>main</em>,
616 <em>contrib</em> and <em>non-free</em> are grouped further
617 into <em>sections</em> to simplify handling.
621 The category and section for each package should be
622 specified in the package's <tt>Section</tt> control record
623 (see <ref id="f-Section">). However, the maintainer of the
624 Debian archive may override this selection to ensure the
625 consistency of the Debian distribution. The
626 <tt>Section</tt> field should be of the form:
627 <list compact="compact">
629 <em>section</em> if the package is in the
630 <em>main</em> category,
633 <em>segment/section</em> if the package is in
634 the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em>
641 The Debian archive maintainers provide the authoritative
642 list of sections. At present, they are:
643 <em>admin</em>, <em>base</em>, <em>comm</em>,
644 <em>contrib</em>, <em>devel</em>, <em>doc</em>,
645 <em>editors</em>, <em>electronics</em>, <em>embedded</em>,
646 <em>games</em>, <em>gnome</em>, <em>graphics</em>,
647 <em>hamradio</em>, <em>interpreters</em>, <em>kde</em>,
648 <em>libs</em>, <em>libdevel</em>, <em>mail</em>,
649 <em>math</em>, <em>misc</em>, <em>net</em>, <em>news</em>,
650 <em>non-free</em>, <em>oldlibs</em>,
651 <em>otherosfs</em>, <em>perl</em>, <em>python</em>,
652 <em>science</em>, <em>shells</em>,
653 <em>sound</em>, <em>tex</em>, <em>text</em>,
654 <em>utils</em>, <em>web</em>, <em>x11</em>.
658 <sect id="priorities">
659 <heading>Priorities</heading>
662 Each package should have a <em>priority</em> value, which is
663 included in the package's <em>control record</em>
664 (see <ref id="f-Priority">).
665 This information is used by the Debian package management tools to
666 separate high-priority packages from less-important packages.
670 The following <em>priority levels</em> are recognized by the
671 Debian package management tools.
673 <tag><tt>required</tt></tag>
675 Packages which are necessary for the proper
676 functioning of the system (usually, this means that
677 dpkg functionality depends on these packages).
678 Removing a <tt>required</tt> package may cause your
679 system to become totally broken and you may not even
680 be able to use <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to put things back,
681 so only do so if you know what you are doing. Systems
682 with only the <tt>required</tt> packages are probably
683 unusable, but they do have enough functionality to
684 allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
686 <tag><tt>important</tt></tag>
688 Important programs, including those which one would
689 expect to find on any Unix-like system. If the
690 expectation is that an experienced Unix person who
691 found it missing would say "What on earth is going on,
692 where is <prgn>foo</prgn>?", it must be an
693 <tt>important</tt> package.<footnote>
694 This is an important criterion because we are
695 trying to produce, amongst other things, a free
698 Other packages without which the system will not run
699 well or be usable must also have priority
700 <tt>important</tt>. This does
701 <em>not</em> include Emacs, the X Window System, TeX
702 or any other large applications. The
703 <tt>important</tt> packages are just a bare minimum of
704 commonly-expected and necessary tools.
706 <tag><tt>standard</tt></tag>
708 These packages provide a reasonably small but not too
709 limited character-mode system. This is what will be
710 installed by default if the user doesn't select anything
711 else. It doesn't include many large applications.
713 <tag><tt>optional</tt></tag>
715 (In a sense everything that isn't required is
716 optional, but that's not what is meant here.) This is
717 all the software that you might reasonably want to
718 install if you didn't know what it was and don't have
719 specialized requirements. This is a much larger system
720 and includes the X Window System, a full TeX
721 distribution, and many applications. Note that
722 optional packages should not conflict with each other.
724 <tag><tt>extra</tt></tag>
726 This contains all packages that conflict with others
727 with required, important, standard or optional
728 priorities, or are only likely to be useful if you
729 already know what they are or have specialized
736 Packages must not depend on packages with lower priority
737 values (excluding build-time dependencies). In order to
738 ensure this, the priorities of one or more packages may need
747 <heading>Binary packages</heading>
750 The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is based on the Debian
751 package management system, called <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. Thus,
752 all packages in the Debian distribution must be provided
753 in the <tt>.deb</tt> file format.
757 <heading>The package name</heading>
760 Every package must have a name that's unique within the Debian
765 The package name is included in the control field
766 <tt>Package</tt>, the format of which is described
767 in <ref id="f-Package">.
768 The package name is also included as a part of the file name
769 of the <tt>.deb</tt> file.
774 <heading>The version of a package</heading>
777 Every package has a version number recorded in its
778 <tt>Version</tt> control file field, described in
779 <ref id="f-Version">.
783 The package management system imposes an ordering on version
784 numbers, so that it can tell whether packages are being up- or
785 downgraded and so that package system front end applications
786 can tell whether a package it finds available is newer than
787 the one installed on the system. The version number format
788 has the most significant parts (as far as comparison is
789 concerned) at the beginning.
793 If an upstream package has problematic version numbers they
794 should be converted to a sane form for use in the
795 <tt>Version</tt> field.
799 <heading>Version numbers based on dates</heading>
802 In general, Debian packages should use the same version
803 numbers as the upstream sources.
807 However, in some cases where the upstream version number is
808 based on a date (e.g., a development "snapshot" release) the
809 package management system cannot handle these version
810 numbers without epochs. For example, dpkg will consider
811 "96May01" to be greater than "96Dec24".
815 To prevent having to use epochs for every new upstream
816 version, the date based portion of the version number
817 should be changed to the following format in such cases:
818 "19960501", "19961224". It is up to the maintainer whether
819 they want to bother the upstream maintainer to change
820 the version numbers upstream, too.
824 Note that other version formats based on dates which are
825 parsed correctly by the package management system should
826 <em>not</em> be changed.
830 Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been
831 written especially for Debian) whose version numbers include
832 dates should always use the "YYYYMMDD" format.
839 <heading>The maintainer of a package</heading>
842 Every package must have a Debian maintainer (the
843 maintainer may be one person or a group of people
844 reachable from a common email address, such as a mailing
845 list). The maintainer is responsible for ensuring that
846 the package is placed in the appropriate distributions.
850 The maintainer must be specified in the
851 <tt>Maintainer</tt> control field with their correct name
852 and a working email address. If one person maintains
853 several packages, they should try to avoid having
854 different forms of their name and email address in
855 the <tt>Maintainer</tt> fields of those packages.
859 The format of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> control field is
860 described in <ref id="f-Maintainer">.
864 If the maintainer of a package quits from the Debian
865 project, "Debian QA Group"
866 <email>packages@qa.debian.org</email> takes over the
867 maintainer-ship of the package until someone else
868 volunteers for that task. These packages are called
869 <em>orphaned packages</em>.<footnote>
870 The detailed procedure for doing this gracefully can
871 be found in the Debian Developer's Reference,
872 see <ref id="related">.
877 <sect id="descriptions">
878 <heading>The description of a package</heading>
881 Every Debian package must have an extended description
882 stored in the appropriate field of the control record.
883 The technical information about the format of the
884 <tt>Description</tt> field is in <ref id="f-Description">.
888 The description should describe the package (the program) to a
889 user (system administrator) who has never met it before so that
890 they have enough information to decide whether they want to
891 install it. This description should not just be copied verbatim
892 from the program's documentation.
896 Put important information first, both in the synopsis and
897 extended description. Sometimes only the first part of the
898 synopsis or of the description will be displayed. You can
899 assume that there will usually be a way to see the whole
900 extended description.
904 The description should also give information about the
905 significant dependencies and conflicts between this package
906 and others, so that the user knows why these dependencies and
907 conflicts have been declared.
911 Instructions for configuring or using the package should
912 not be included (that is what installation scripts,
913 manual pages, info files, etc., are for). Copyright
914 statements and other administrivia should not be included
915 either (that is what the copyright file is for).
918 <sect1 id="synopsis"><heading>The single line synopsis</heading>
921 The single line synopsis should be kept brief - certainly
926 Do not include the package name in the synopsis line. The
927 display software knows how to display this already, and you
928 do not need to state it. Remember that in many situations
929 the user may only see the synopsis line - make it as
930 informative as you can.
935 <sect1 id="extendeddesc"><heading>The extended description</heading>
938 Do not try to continue the single line synopsis into the
939 extended description. This will not work correctly when
940 the full description is displayed, and makes no sense
941 where only the summary (the single line synopsis) is
946 The extended description should describe what the package
947 does and how it relates to the rest of the system (in terms
948 of, for example, which subsystem it is which part of).
952 The description field needs to make sense to anyone, even
953 people who have no idea about any of the things the
954 package deals with.<footnote>
955 The blurb that comes with a program in its
956 announcements and/or <prgn>README</prgn> files is
957 rarely suitable for use in a description. It is
958 usually aimed at people who are already in the
959 community where the package is used.
968 <heading>Dependencies</heading>
971 Every package must specify the dependency information
972 about other packages that are required for the first to
977 For example, a dependency entry must be provided for any
978 shared libraries required by a dynamically-linked executable
983 Packages are not required to declare any dependencies they
984 have on other packages which are marked <tt>Essential</tt>
985 (see below), and should not do so unless they depend on a
986 particular version of that package.<footnote>
988 Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality
989 that must be available and usable on the system even
990 when packages are in an unconfigured (but unpacked)
991 state. This is needed to avoid unresolvable dependency
992 loops on upgrade. If packages add unnecessary
993 dependencies on packages in this set, the chances that
994 there <strong>will</strong> be an unresolvable
995 dependency loop caused by forcing these Essential
996 packages to be configured first before they need to be
997 is greatly increased. It also increases the chances
998 that frontends will be unable to
999 <strong>calculate</strong> an upgrade path, even if one
1003 Also, it's pretty unlikely that functionality from
1004 Essential shall ever be removed (which is one reason why
1005 care must be taken before adding to the Essential
1006 packages set), but <em>packages</em> have been removed
1007 from the Essential set when the functionality moved to a
1008 different package. So depending on these packages
1009 <em>just in case</em> they stop being essential does way
1010 more harm than good.
1016 Sometimes, a package requires another package to be installed
1017 <em>and</em> configured before it can be installed. In this
1018 case, you must specify a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> entry for
1023 You should not specify a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> entry for a
1024 package before this has been discussed on the
1025 <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list and a consensus about
1026 doing that has been reached.
1030 The format of the package interrelationship control fields is
1031 described in <ref id="relationships">.
1035 <sect id="virtual_pkg">
1036 <heading>Virtual packages</heading>
1039 Sometimes, there are several packages which offer
1040 more-or-less the same functionality. In this case, it's
1041 useful to define a <em>virtual package</em> whose name
1042 describes that common functionality. (The virtual
1043 packages only exist logically, not physically; that's why
1044 they are called <em>virtual</em>.) The packages with this
1045 particular function will then <em>provide</em> the virtual
1046 package. Thus, any other package requiring that function
1047 can simply depend on the virtual package without having to
1048 specify all possible packages individually.
1052 All packages should use virtual package names where
1053 appropriate, and arrange to create new ones if necessary.
1054 They should not use virtual package names (except privately,
1055 amongst a cooperating group of packages) unless they have
1056 been agreed upon and appear in the list of virtual package
1057 names. (See also <ref id="virtual">)
1061 The latest version of the authoritative list of virtual
1062 package names can be found in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
1063 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
1064 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.txt"
1065 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.txt"></tt>.
1069 The procedure for updating the list is described in the preface
1076 <heading>Base system</heading>
1079 The <tt>base system</tt> is a minimum subset of the Debian
1080 GNU/Linux system that is installed before everything else
1081 on a new system. Thus, only very few packages are allowed
1082 to go into the <tt>base</tt> section to keep the required
1083 disk usage very small.
1087 Most of these packages will have the priority value
1088 <tt>required</tt> or at least <tt>important</tt>, and many
1089 of them will be tagged <tt>essential</tt> (see below).
1094 <heading>Essential packages</heading>
1097 Some packages are tagged <tt>essential</tt> for a system
1098 using the <tt>Essential</tt> control file field.
1099 The format of the <tt>Essential</tt> control field is
1100 described in <ref id="f-Essential">.
1104 Since these packages cannot be easily removed (one has to
1105 specify an extra <em>force option</em> to
1106 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to do so), this flag must not be used
1107 unless absolutely necessary. A shared library package
1108 must not be tagged <tt>essential</tt>; dependencies will
1109 prevent its premature removal, and we need to be able to
1110 remove it when it has been superseded.
1114 Since dpkg will not prevent upgrading of other packages
1115 while an <tt>essential</tt> package is in an unconfigured
1116 state, all <tt>essential</tt> packages must supply all of
1117 their core functionality even when unconfigured. If the
1118 package cannot satisfy this requirement it must not be
1119 tagged as essential, and any packages depending on this
1120 package must instead have explicit dependency fields as
1125 You must not tag any packages <tt>essential</tt> before
1126 this has been discussed on the <tt>debian-devel</tt>
1127 mailing list and a consensus about doing that has been
1132 <sect id="maintscripts">
1133 <heading>Maintainer Scripts</heading>
1136 The package installation scripts should avoid producing
1137 output which is unnecessary for the user to see and
1138 should rely on <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to stave off boredom on
1139 the part of a user installing many packages. This means,
1140 amongst other things, using the <tt>--quiet</tt> option on
1141 <prgn>install-info</prgn>.
1145 Errors which occur during the execution of an installation
1146 script must be checked and the installation must not
1147 continue after an error.
1151 Note that in general <ref id="scripts"> applies to package
1152 maintainer scripts, too.
1156 You should not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> on a file
1157 belonging to another package without consulting the
1158 maintainer of that package first.
1162 All packages which supply an instance of a common command
1163 name (or, in general, filename) should generally use
1164 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>, so that they may be
1165 installed together. If <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1166 is not used, then each package must use
1167 <tt>Conflicts</tt> to ensure that other packages are
1168 de-installed. (In this case, it may be appropriate to
1169 specify a conflict against earlier versions of something
1170 that previously did not use
1171 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>; this is an exception to
1172 the usual rule that versioned conflicts should be
1176 <sect1 id="maintscriptprompt">
1177 <heading>Prompting in maintainer scripts</heading>
1179 Package maintainer scripts may prompt the user if
1180 necessary. Prompting should be done by communicating
1181 through a program, such as <prgn>debconf</prgn>, which
1182 conforms to the Debian Configuration management
1183 specification, version 2 or higher. Prompting the user by
1184 other means, such as by hand<footnote>
1185 From the Jargon file: by hand 2. By extension,
1186 writing code which does something in an explicit or
1187 low-level way for which a presupplied library
1188 (<em>debconf, in this instance</em>) routine ought
1189 to have been available.
1190 </footnote>, is now deprecated.
1194 The Debian Configuration management specification is included
1195 in the <file>debconf_specification</file> files in the
1196 <package>debian-policy</package> package.
1197 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
1198 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/debconf_specification.html"
1199 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/debconf_specification.html"></tt>.
1203 Packages which use the Debian Configuration management
1204 specification may contain an additional
1205 <prgn>config</prgn> script and a <tt>templates</tt>
1206 file in their control archive<footnote>
1207 The control.tar.gz inside the .deb.
1208 See <manref name="deb" section="5">.
1210 The <prgn>config</prgn> script might be run before the
1211 <prgn>preinst</prgn> script, and before the package is unpacked
1212 or any of its dependencies or pre-dependencies are satisfied.
1213 Therefore it must work using only the tools present in
1214 <em>essential</em> packages.<footnote>
1215 <package>Debconf</package> or another tool that
1216 implements the Debian Configuration management
1217 specification will also be installed, and any
1218 versioned dependencies on it will be satisfied
1219 before preconfiguration begins.
1224 Packages which use the Debian Configuration management
1225 specification must allow for translation of their messages
1226 by using a gettext-based system such as the one provided by
1227 the <package>po-debconf</package> package.
1231 Packages should try to minimize the amount of prompting
1232 they need to do, and they should ensure that the user
1233 will only ever be asked each question once. This means
1234 that packages should try to use appropriate shared
1235 configuration files (such as <file>/etc/papersize</file> and
1236 <file>/etc/news/server</file>), and shared
1237 <package>debconf</package> variables rather than each
1238 prompting for their own list of required pieces of
1243 It also means that an upgrade should not ask the same
1244 questions again, unless the user has used
1245 <tt>dpkg --purge</tt> to remove the package's configuration.
1246 The answers to configuration questions should be stored in an
1247 appropriate place in <file>/etc</file> so that the user can
1248 modify them, and how this has been done should be
1253 If a package has a vitally important piece of
1254 information to pass to the user (such as "don't run me
1255 as I am, you must edit the following configuration files
1256 first or you risk your system emitting badly-formatted
1257 messages"), it should display this in the
1258 <prgn>config</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn> script and
1259 prompt the user to hit return to acknowledge the
1260 message. Copyright messages do not count as vitally
1261 important (they belong in
1262 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>);
1263 neither do instructions on how to use a program (these
1264 should be in on-line documentation, where all the users
1269 Any necessary prompting should almost always be confined
1270 to the <prgn>config</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn>
1271 script. If it is done in the <prgn>postinst</prgn>, it
1272 should be protected with a conditional so that
1273 unnecessary prompting doesn't happen if a package's
1274 installation fails and the <prgn>postinst</prgn> is
1275 called with <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>,
1276 <tt>abort-remove</tt> or <tt>abort-deconfigure</tt>.
1286 <heading>Source packages</heading>
1288 <sect id="standardsversion">
1289 <heading>Standards conformance</heading>
1292 Source packages should specify the most recent version number
1293 of this policy document with which your package complied
1294 when it was last updated.
1298 This information may be used to file bug reports
1299 automatically if your package becomes too much out of date.
1303 The version is specified in the <tt>Standards-Version</tt>
1305 The format of the <tt>Standards-Version</tt> field is
1306 described in <ref id="f-Standards-Version">.
1310 You should regularly, and especially if your package has
1311 become out of date, check for the newest Policy Manual
1312 available and update your package, if necessary. When your
1313 package complies with the new standards you should update the
1314 <tt>Standards-Version</tt> source package field and
1315 release it.<footnote>
1316 See the file <file>upgrading-checklist</file> for
1317 information about policy which has changed between
1318 different versions of this document.
1324 <sect id="pkg-relations">
1325 <heading>Package relationships</heading>
1328 Source packages should specify which binary packages they
1329 require to be installed or not to be installed in order to
1330 build correctly. For example, if building a package
1331 requires a certain compiler, then the compiler should be
1332 specified as a build-time dependency.
1336 It is not necessary to explicitly specify build-time
1337 relationships on a minimal set of packages that are always
1338 needed to compile, link and put in a Debian package a
1339 standard "Hello World!" program written in C or C++. The
1340 required packages are called <em>build-essential</em>, and
1341 an informational list can be found in
1342 <file>/usr/share/doc/build-essential/list</file> (which is
1343 contained in the <tt>build-essential</tt>
1346 <list compact="compact">
1348 This allows maintaining the list separately
1349 from the policy documents (the list does not
1350 need the kind of control that the policy
1354 Having a separate package allows one to install
1355 the build-essential packages on a machine, as
1356 well as allowing other packages such as tasks to
1357 require installation of the build-essential
1358 packages using the depends relation.
1361 The separate package allows bug reports against
1362 the list to be categorized separately from
1363 the policy management process in the BTS.
1370 When specifying the set of build-time dependencies, one
1371 should list only those packages explicitly required by the
1372 build. It is not necessary to list packages which are
1373 required merely because some other package in the list of
1374 build-time dependencies depends on them.<footnote>
1375 The reason for this is that dependencies change, and
1376 you should list all those packages, and <em>only</em>
1377 those packages that <em>you</em> need directly. What
1378 others need is their business. For example, if you
1379 only link against <file>libimlib</file>, you will need to
1380 build-depend on <package>libimlib2-dev</package> but
1381 not against any <tt>libjpeg*</tt> packages, even
1382 though <tt>libimlib2-dev</tt> currently depends on
1383 them: installation of <package>libimlib2-dev</package>
1384 will automatically ensure that all of its run-time
1385 dependencies are satisfied.
1390 If build-time dependencies are specified, it must be
1391 possible to build the package and produce working binaries
1392 on a system with only essential and build-essential
1393 packages installed and also those required to satisfy the
1394 build-time relationships (including any implied
1395 relationships). In particular, this means that version
1396 clauses should be used rigorously in build-time
1397 relationships so that one cannot produce bad or
1398 inconsistently configured packages when the relationships
1399 are properly satisfied.
1403 <ref id="relationships"> explains the technical details.
1408 <heading>Changes to the upstream sources</heading>
1411 If changes to the source code are made that are not
1412 specific to the needs of the Debian system, they should be
1413 sent to the upstream authors in whatever form they prefer
1414 so as to be included in the upstream version of the
1419 If you need to configure the package differently for
1420 Debian or for Linux, and the upstream source doesn't
1421 provide a way to do so, you should add such configuration
1422 facilities (for example, a new <prgn>autoconf</prgn> test
1423 or <tt>#define</tt>) and send the patch to the upstream
1424 authors, with the default set to the way they originally
1425 had it. You can then easily override the default in your
1426 <file>debian/rules</file> or wherever is appropriate.
1430 You should make sure that the <prgn>configure</prgn> utility
1431 detects the correct architecture specification string
1432 (refer to <ref id="arch-spec"> for details).
1436 If you need to edit a <prgn>Makefile</prgn> where GNU-style
1437 <prgn>configure</prgn> scripts are used, you should edit the
1438 <file>.in</file> files rather than editing the
1439 <prgn>Makefile</prgn> directly. This allows the user to
1440 reconfigure the package if necessary. You should
1441 <em>not</em> configure the package and edit the generated
1442 <prgn>Makefile</prgn>! This makes it impossible for someone
1443 else to later reconfigure the package without losing the
1449 <sect id="dpkgchangelog">
1450 <heading>Debian changelog: <file>debian/changelog</file></heading>
1453 Changes in the Debian version of the package should be
1454 briefly explained in the Debian changelog file
1455 <file>debian/changelog</file>.<footnote>
1457 Mistakes in changelogs are usually best rectified by
1458 making a new changelog entry rather than "rewriting
1459 history" by editing old changelog entries.
1462 This includes modifications
1463 made in the Debian package compared to the upstream one
1464 as well as other changes and updates to the package.
1466 Although there is nothing stopping an author who is also
1467 the Debian maintainer from using this changelog for all
1468 their changes, it will have to be renamed if the Debian
1469 and upstream maintainers become different people. In such
1470 a case, however, it might be better to maintain the package
1471 as a non-native package.
1480 The format of the <file>debian/changelog</file> allows the
1481 package building tools to discover which version of the package
1482 is being built and find out other release-specific information.
1486 That format is a series of entries like this:
1488 <example compact="compact">
1489 <var>package</var> (<var>version</var>) <var>distribution(s)</var>; urgency=<var>urgency</var>
1491 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
1493 * <var>change details</var>
1494 <var>more change details</var>
1496 [blank line(s), included in output of dpkg-parsechangelog]
1498 * <var>even more change details</var>
1500 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
1502 -- <var>maintainer name</var> <<var>email address</var>><var>[two spaces]</var> <var>date</var>
1507 <var>package</var> and <var>version</var> are the source
1508 package name and version number.
1512 <var>distribution(s)</var> lists the distributions where
1513 this version should be installed when it is uploaded - it
1514 is copied to the <tt>Distribution</tt> field in the
1515 <file>.changes</file> file. See <ref id="f-Distribution">.
1519 <var>urgency</var> is the value for the <tt>Urgency</tt>
1520 field in the <file>.changes</file> file for the upload
1521 (see <ref id="f-Urgency">). It is not possible to specify
1522 an urgency containing commas; commas are used to separate
1523 <tt><var>keyword</var>=<var>value</var></tt> settings in the
1524 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> changelog format (though there is
1525 currently only one useful <var>keyword</var>,
1530 The change details may in fact be any series of lines
1531 starting with at least two spaces, but conventionally each
1532 change starts with an asterisk and a separating space and
1533 continuation lines are indented so as to bring them in
1534 line with the start of the text above. Blank lines may be
1535 used here to separate groups of changes, if desired.
1539 If this upload resolves bugs recorded in the Bug Tracking
1540 System (BTS), they may be automatically closed on the
1541 inclusion of this package into the Debian archive by
1542 including the string: <tt>closes: Bug#<var>nnnnn</var></tt>
1543 in the change details.<footnote>
1544 To be precise, the string should match the following
1545 Perl regular expression:
1547 /closes:\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+(?:,\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+)*/i
1549 Then all of the bug numbers listed will be closed by the
1550 archive maintenance script (<prgn>katie</prgn>), or in
1551 the case of an NMU, marked as fixed.
1553 This information is conveyed via the <tt>Closes</tt> field
1554 in the <tt>.changes</tt> file (see <ref id="f-Closes">).
1558 The maintainer name and email address used in the changelog
1559 should be the details of the person uploading <em>this</em>
1560 version. They are <em>not</em> necessarily those of the
1561 usual package maintainer. The information here will be
1562 copied to the <tt>Changed-By</tt> field in the
1563 <tt>.changes</tt> file (see <ref id="f-Changed-By">),
1564 and then later used to send an acknowledgement when the
1565 upload has been installed.
1569 The <var>date</var> should be in RFC822 format<footnote>
1570 This is generated by <tt>date -R</tt>.
1571 </footnote>; it should include the time zone specified
1572 numerically, with the time zone name or abbreviation
1573 optionally present as a comment in parentheses.
1577 The first "title" line with the package name should start
1578 at the left hand margin; the "trailer" line with the
1579 maintainer and date details should be preceded by exactly
1580 one space. The maintainer details and the date must be
1581 separated by exactly two spaces.
1585 For more information on placement of the changelog files
1586 within binary packages, please see <ref id="changelogs">.
1589 <sect1><heading>Alternative changelog formats</heading>
1592 In non-experimental packages you must use a format for
1593 <file>debian/changelog</file> which is supported by the most
1594 recent released version of <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
1598 It is possible to use a format different from the standard
1599 one by providing a changelog parser for the format you wish
1600 to use. The parser must have an API compatible with that
1601 expected by <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and
1602 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>, and it must not interact with
1605 If there is general interest in the new format, you should
1606 contact the <package>dpkg</package> maintainer to have the
1607 parser script for it included in the <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
1608 package. (You will need to agree that the parser and its
1609 man page may be distributed under the GNU GPL, just as the rest
1610 of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is.)
1615 <sect id="dpkgcopyright">
1616 <heading>Copyright: <file>debian/copyright</file></heading>
1618 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of
1619 its copyright and distribution license in the file
1620 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
1621 (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details). Also see
1622 <ref id="pkgcopyright"> for further considerations relayed
1623 to copyrights for packages.
1627 <heading>Error trapping in makefiles</heading>
1630 When <prgn>make</prgn> invokes a command in a makefile
1631 (including your package's upstream makefiles and
1632 <file>debian/rules</file>), it does so using <prgn>sh</prgn>. This
1633 means that <prgn>sh</prgn>'s usual bad error handling
1634 properties apply: if you include a miniature script as one
1635 of the commands in your makefile you'll find that if you
1636 don't do anything about it then errors are not detected
1637 and <prgn>make</prgn> will blithely continue after
1642 Every time you put more than one shell command (this
1643 includes using a loop) in a makefile command you
1644 must make sure that errors are trapped. For
1645 simple compound commands, such as changing directory and
1646 then running a program, using <tt>&&</tt> rather
1647 than semicolon as a command separator is sufficient. For
1648 more complex commands including most loops and
1649 conditionals you should include a separate <tt>set -e</tt>
1650 command at the start of every makefile command that's
1651 actually one of these miniature shell scripts.
1655 <sect id="timestamps">
1656 <heading>Time Stamps</heading>
1658 Maintainers should preserve the modification times of the
1659 upstream source files in a package, as far as is reasonably
1661 The rationale is that there is some information conveyed
1662 by knowing the age of the file, for example, you could
1663 recognize that some documentation is very old by looking
1664 at the modification time, so it would be nice if the
1665 modification time of the upstream source would be
1671 <sect id="restrictions">
1672 <heading>Restrictions on objects in source packages</heading>
1675 The source package may not contain any hard links<footnote>
1677 This is not currently detected when building source
1678 packages, but only when extracting
1682 Hard links may be permitted at some point in the
1683 future, but would require a fair amount of
1686 </footnote>, device special files, sockets or setuid or
1687 setgid files.<footnote>
1688 Setgid directories are allowed.
1693 <sect id="debianrules">
1694 <heading>Main building script: <file>debian/rules</file></heading>
1697 This file must be an executable makefile, and contains the
1698 package-specific recipes for compiling the package and
1699 building binary package(s) from the source.
1703 It must start with the line <tt>#!/usr/bin/make -f</tt>,
1704 so that it can be invoked by saying its name rather than
1705 invoking <prgn>make</prgn> explicitly.
1709 Since an interactive <file>debian/rules</file> script makes it
1710 impossible to auto-compile that package and also makes it
1711 hard for other people to reproduce the same binary
1712 package, all <em>required targets</em> MUST be
1713 non-interactive. At a minimum, required targets are the
1714 ones called by <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>, namely,
1715 <em>clean</em>, <em>binary</em>, <em>binary-arch</em>,
1716 <em>binary-indep</em>, and <em>build</em>. It also follows
1717 that any target that these targets depend on must also be
1722 The targets are as follows (required unless stated otherwise):
1724 <tag><tt>build</tt></tag>
1727 The <tt>build</tt> target should perform all the
1728 configuration and compilation of the package.
1729 If a package has an interactive pre-build
1730 configuration routine, the Debianized source package
1731 must either be built after this has taken place (so
1732 that the binary package can be built without rerunning
1733 the configuration) or the configuration routine
1734 modified to become non-interactive. (The latter is
1735 preferable if there are architecture-specific features
1736 detected by the configuration routine.)
1740 For some packages, notably ones where the same
1741 source tree is compiled in different ways to produce
1742 two binary packages, the <tt>build</tt> target
1743 does not make much sense. For these packages it is
1744 good enough to provide two (or more) targets
1745 (<tt>build-a</tt> and <tt>build-b</tt> or whatever)
1746 for each of the ways of building the package, and a
1747 <tt>build</tt> target that does nothing. The
1748 <tt>binary</tt> target will have to build the
1749 package in each of the possible ways and make the
1750 binary package out of each.
1754 The <tt>build</tt> target must not do anything
1755 that might require root privilege.
1759 The <tt>build</tt> target may need to run the
1760 <tt>clean</tt> target first - see below.
1764 When a package has a configuration and build routine
1765 which takes a long time, or when the makefiles are
1766 poorly designed, or when <tt>build</tt> needs to
1767 run <tt>clean</tt> first, it is a good idea to
1768 <tt>touch build</tt> when the build process is
1769 complete. This will ensure that if <tt>debian/rules
1770 build</tt> is run again it will not rebuild the whole
1772 Another common way to do this is for <tt>build</tt>
1773 to depend on <prgn>build-stamp</prgn> and to do
1774 nothing else, and for the <prgn>build-stamp</prgn>
1775 target to do the building and to <tt>touch
1776 build-stamp</tt> on completion. This is
1777 especially useful if the build routine creates a
1778 file or directory called <tt>build</tt>; in such a
1779 case, <tt>build</tt> will need to be listed as
1780 a phony target (i.e., as a dependency of the
1781 <tt>.PHONY</tt> target). See the documentation of
1782 <prgn>make</prgn> for more information on phony
1788 <tag><tt>build-arch</tt> (optional),
1789 <tt>build-indep</tt> (optional)
1793 A package may also provide both of the targets
1794 <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt>.
1795 The <tt>build-arch</tt> target, if provided, should
1796 perform all the configuration and compilation required
1797 for producing all architecture-dependant binary packages
1798 (those packages for which the body of the
1799 <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <tt>debian/control</tt>
1800 is not <tt>all</tt>).
1801 Similarly, the <tt>build-indep</tt> target, if
1802 provided, should perform all the configuration and
1803 compilation required for producing all
1804 architecture-independent binary packages
1805 (those packages for which the body of the
1806 <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <tt>debian/control</tt>
1808 The <tt>build</tt> target should depend on those of the
1809 targets <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> that
1810 are provided in the rules file.
1814 If one or both of the targets <tt>build-arch</tt> and
1815 <tt>build-indep</tt> are not provided, then invoking
1816 <file>debian/rules</file> with one of the not-provided
1817 targets as arguments should produce a exit status code
1818 of 2. Usually this is provided automatically by make
1819 if the target is missing.
1823 The <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> targets
1824 must not do anything that might require root privilege.
1828 <tag><tt>binary</tt>, <tt>binary-arch</tt>,
1829 <tt>binary-indep</tt>
1833 The <tt>binary</tt> target must be all that is
1834 necessary for the user to build the binary package(s)
1835 produced from this source package. It is
1836 split into two parts: <prgn>binary-arch</prgn> builds
1837 the binary packages which are specific to a particular
1838 architecture, and <tt>binary-indep</tt> builds
1839 those which are not.
1842 <tt>binary</tt> may be (and commonly is) a target with
1843 no commands which simply depends on
1844 <tt>binary-arch</tt> and <tt>binary-indep</tt>.
1847 Both <tt>binary-*</tt> targets should depend on the
1848 <tt>build</tt> target, or on the appropriate
1849 <tt>build-arch</tt> or <tt>build-indep</tt> target, if
1850 provided, so that the package is built if it has not
1851 been already. It should then create the relevant
1852 binary package(s), using <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
1853 make their control files and <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> to
1854 build them and place them in the parent of the top
1859 Both the <tt>binary-arch</tt> and
1860 <tt>binary-indep</tt> targets <em>must</em> exist.
1861 If one of them has nothing to do (which will always be
1862 the case if the source generates only a single binary
1863 package, whether architecture-dependent or not), it
1864 must still exist and must always succeed.
1868 The <tt>binary</tt> targets must be invoked as
1870 The <prgn>fakeroot</prgn> package often allows one
1871 to build a package correctly even without being
1877 <tag><tt>clean</tt></tag>
1880 This must undo any effects that the <tt>build</tt>
1881 and <tt>binary</tt> targets may have had, except
1882 that it should leave alone any output files created in
1883 the parent directory by a run of a <tt>binary</tt>
1888 If a <tt>build</tt> file is touched at the end of
1889 the <tt>build</tt> target, as suggested above, it
1890 should be removed as the first action that
1891 <tt>clean</tt> performs, so that running
1892 <tt>build</tt> again after an interrupted
1893 <tt>clean</tt> doesn't think that everything is
1898 The <tt>clean</tt> target may need to be
1899 invoked as root if <tt>binary</tt> has been
1900 invoked since the last <tt>clean</tt>, or if
1901 <tt>build</tt> has been invoked as root (since
1902 <tt>build</tt> may create directories, for
1907 <tag><tt>get-orig-source</tt> (optional)</tag>
1910 This target fetches the most recent version of the
1911 original source package from a canonical archive site
1912 (via FTP or WWW, for example), does any necessary
1913 rearrangement to turn it into the original source
1914 tar file format described below, and leaves it in the
1919 This target may be invoked in any directory, and
1920 should take care to clean up any temporary files it
1925 This target is optional, but providing it if
1926 possible is a good idea.
1932 The <tt>build</tt>, <tt>binary</tt> and
1933 <tt>clean</tt> targets must be invoked with the current
1934 directory being the package's top-level directory.
1939 Additional targets may exist in <file>debian/rules</file>,
1940 either as published or undocumented interfaces or for the
1941 package's internal use.
1945 The architectures we build on and build for are determined
1946 by <prgn>make</prgn> variables using the utility
1947 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-architecture"><prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn></qref>.
1948 You can determine the
1949 Debian architecture and the GNU style architecture
1950 specification string for the build machine (the machine type
1951 we are building on) as well as for the host machine (the
1952 machine type we are building for). Here is a list of
1953 supported <prgn>make</prgn> variables:
1954 <list compact="compact">
1956 <tt>DEB_*_ARCH</tt> (the Debian architecture)
1959 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt> (the GNU style architecture
1960 specification string)
1963 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_CPU</tt> (the CPU part of
1964 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt>)
1967 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_SYSTEM</tt> (the System part of
1968 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt>)
1970 where <tt>*</tt> is either <tt>BUILD</tt> for specification of
1971 the build machine or <tt>HOST</tt> for specification of the
1976 Backward compatibility can be provided in the rules file
1977 by setting the needed variables to suitable default
1978 values; please refer to the documentation of
1979 <prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn> for details.
1983 It is important to understand that the <tt>DEB_*_ARCH</tt>
1984 string only determines which Debian architecture we are
1985 building on or for. It should not be used to get the CPU
1986 or system information; the GNU style variables should be
1991 <!-- FIXME: section pkg-srcsubstvars is the same as substvars -->
1992 <sect id="substvars">
1993 <heading>Variable substitutions: <file>debian/substvars</file></heading>
1996 When <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>,
1997 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
1998 generate control files they perform variable substitutions
1999 on their output just before writing it. Variable
2000 substitutions have the form <tt>${<var>variable</var>}</tt>.
2001 The optional file <file>debian/substvars</file> contains
2002 variable substitutions to be used; variables can also be set
2003 directly from <file>debian/rules</file> using the <tt>-V</tt>
2004 option to the source packaging commands, and certain
2005 predefined variables are also available.
2009 The <file>debian/substvars</file> file is usually generated and
2010 modified dynamically by <file>debian/rules</file> targets, in
2011 which case it must be removed by the <tt>clean</tt> target.
2015 See <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1"> for full
2016 details about source variable substitutions, including the
2017 format of <file>debian/substvars</file>.</p>
2020 <sect id="debianwatch">
2021 <heading>Optional upstream source location: <file>debian/watch</file></heading>
2024 This is an optional, recommended control file for the
2025 <tt>uscan</tt> utility which defines how to automatically
2026 scan ftp or http sites for newly available updates of the
2027 package. This is used by <url id="
2028 http://dehs.alioth.debian.org/"> and other Debian QA tools
2029 to help with quality control and maintenance of the
2030 distribution as a whole.
2035 <sect id="debianfiles">
2036 <heading>Generated files list: <file>debian/files</file></heading>
2039 This file is not a permanent part of the source tree; it
2040 is used while building packages to record which files are
2041 being generated. <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> uses it
2042 when it generates a <file>.changes</file> file.
2046 It should not exist in a shipped source package, and so it
2047 (and any backup files or temporary files such as
2048 <file>files.new</file><footnote>
2049 <file>files.new</file> is used as a temporary file by
2050 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> and
2051 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> - they write a new
2052 version of <tt>files</tt> here before renaming it,
2053 to avoid leaving a corrupted copy if an error
2055 </footnote>) should be removed by the
2056 <tt>clean</tt> target. It may also be wise to
2057 ensure a fresh start by emptying or removing it at the
2058 start of the <tt>binary</tt> target.
2062 When <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> is run for a binary
2063 package, it adds an entry to <file>debian/files</file> for the
2064 <file>.deb</file> file that will be created when <tt>dpkg-deb
2065 --build</tt> is run for that binary package. So for most
2066 packages all that needs to be done with this file is to
2067 delete it in the <tt>clean</tt> target.
2071 If a package upload includes files besides the source
2072 package and any binary packages whose control files were
2073 made with <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> then they should be
2074 placed in the parent of the package's top-level directory
2075 and <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> should be called to add
2076 the file to the list in <file>debian/files</file>.</p>
2079 <sect id="embeddedfiles">
2080 <heading>Convenience copies of code</heading>
2083 Some software packages include in their distribution convenience
2084 copies of code from other software packages, generally so that
2085 users compiling from source don't have to download multiple
2086 packages. Debian packages should not make use of these
2087 convenience copies unless the included package is explicitly
2088 intended to be used in this way.<footnote>
2089 For example, parts of the GNU build system work like this.
2091 If the included code is already in the Debian archive in the
2092 form of a library, the Debian packaging should ensure that
2093 binary packages reference the libraries already in Debian and
2094 the convenience copy is not used. If the included code is not
2095 already in Debian, it should be packaged separately as a
2096 prerequisite if possible.
2098 Having multiple copies of the same code in Debian is
2099 inefficient, often creates either static linking or shared
2100 library conflicts, and, most importantly, increases the
2101 difficulty of handling security vulnerabilities in the
2110 <chapt id="controlfields">
2111 <heading>Control files and their fields</heading>
2114 The package management system manipulates data represented in
2115 a common format, known as <em>control data</em>, stored in
2116 <em>control files</em>.
2117 Control files are used for source packages, binary packages and
2118 the <file>.changes</file> files which control the installation
2119 of uploaded files<footnote>
2120 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s internal databases are in a similar
2125 <sect id="controlsyntax">
2126 <heading>Syntax of control files</heading>
2129 A control file consists of one or more paragraphs of
2131 The paragraphs are also sometimes referred to as stanzas.
2133 The paragraphs are separated by blank lines. Some control
2134 files allow only one paragraph; others allow several, in
2135 which case each paragraph usually refers to a different
2136 package. (For example, in source packages, the first
2137 paragraph refers to the source package, and later paragraphs
2138 refer to binary packages generated from the source.)
2142 Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields; each
2143 field consists of the field name, followed by a colon and
2144 then the data/value associated with that field. It ends at
2145 the end of the (logical) line. Horizontal whitespace
2146 (spaces and tabs) may occur immediately before or after the
2147 value and is ignored there; it is conventional to put a
2148 single space after the colon. For example, a field might
2150 <example compact="compact">
2153 the field name is <tt>Package</tt> and the field value
2158 Many fields' values may span several lines; in this case
2159 each continuation line must start with a space or a tab.
2160 Any trailing spaces or tabs at the end of individual
2161 lines of a field value are ignored.
2165 In fields where it is specified that lines may not wrap,
2166 only a single line of data is allowed and whitespace is not
2167 significant in a field body. Whitespace must not appear
2168 inside names (of packages, architectures, files or anything
2169 else) or version numbers, or between the characters of
2170 multi-character version relationships.
2174 Field names are not case-sensitive, but it is usual to
2175 capitalize the field names using mixed case as shown below.
2179 Blank lines, or lines consisting only of spaces and tabs,
2180 are not allowed within field values or between fields - that
2181 would mean a new paragraph.
2186 <sect id="sourcecontrolfiles">
2187 <heading>Source package control files -- <file>debian/control</file></heading>
2190 The <file>debian/control</file> file contains the most vital
2191 (and version-independent) information about the source package
2192 and about the binary packages it creates.
2196 The first paragraph of the control file contains information about
2197 the source package in general. The subsequent sets each describe a
2198 binary package that the source tree builds.
2202 The fields in the general paragraph (the first one, for the source
2205 <list compact="compact">
2206 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2207 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2208 <item><qref id="f-Uploaders"><tt>Uploaders</tt></qref></item>
2209 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2210 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2211 <item><qref id="sourcebinarydeps"><tt>Build-Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2212 <item><qref id="f-Standards-Version"><tt>Standards-Version</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2217 The fields in the binary package paragraphs are:
2219 <list compact="compact">
2220 <item><qref id="f-Package"><tt>Package</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2221 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2222 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2223 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2224 <item><qref id="f-Essential"><tt>Essential</tt></qref></item>
2225 <item><qref id="binarydeps"><tt>Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2226 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2231 The syntax and semantics of the fields are described below.
2237 These fields are used by <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
2238 generate control files for binary packages (see below), by
2239 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> to generate the
2240 <tt>.changes</tt> file to accompany the upload, and by
2241 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when it creates the
2242 <file>.dsc</file> source control file as part of a source
2243 archive. Many fields are permitted to span multiple lines in
2244 <file>debian/control</file> but not in any other control
2245 file. These tools are responsible for removing the line
2246 breaks from such fields when using fields from
2247 <file>debian/control</file> to generate other control files.
2251 The fields here may contain variable references - their
2252 values will be substituted by <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>,
2253 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> or <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
2254 when they generate output control files.
2255 See <ref id="substvars"> for details.
2260 <sect id="binarycontrolfiles">
2261 <heading>Binary package control files -- <file>DEBIAN/control</file></heading>
2264 The <file>DEBIAN/control</file> file contains the most vital
2265 (and version-dependent) information about a binary package.
2269 The fields in this file are:
2271 <list compact="compact">
2272 <item><qref id="f-Package"><tt>Package</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2273 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref></item>
2274 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2275 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2276 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2277 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2278 <item><qref id="f-Essential"><tt>Essential</tt></qref></item>
2279 <item><qref id="binarydeps"><tt>Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2280 <item><qref id="f-Installed-Size"><tt>Installed-Size</tt></qref></item>
2281 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2282 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2287 <sect id="debiansourcecontrolfiles">
2288 <heading>Debian source control files -- <tt>.dsc</tt></heading>
2291 This file contains a series of fields, identified and
2292 separated just like the fields in the control file of
2293 a binary package. The fields are listed below; their
2294 syntax is described above, in <ref id="pkg-controlfields">.
2296 <list compact="compact">
2297 <item><qref id="f-Format"><tt>Format</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2298 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2299 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2300 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2301 <item><qref id="f-Uploaders"><tt>Uploaders</tt></qref></item>
2302 <item><qref id="f-Binary"><tt>Binary</tt></qref></item>
2303 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref></item>
2304 <item><qref id="sourcebinarydeps"><tt>Build-Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2305 <item><qref id="f-Standards-Version"><tt>Standards-Version</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2306 <item><qref id="f-Files"><tt>Files</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2311 The source package control file is generated by
2312 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when it builds the source
2313 archive, from other files in the source package,
2314 described above. When unpacking, it is checked against
2315 the files and directories in the other parts of the
2321 <sect id="debianchangesfiles">
2322 <heading>Debian changes files -- <file>.changes</file></heading>
2325 The .changes files are used by the Debian archive maintenance
2326 software to process updates to packages. They contain one
2327 paragraph which contains information from the
2328 <tt>debian/control</tt> file and other data about the
2329 source package gathered via <tt>debian/changelog</tt>
2330 and <tt>debian/rules</tt>.
2334 The fields in this file are:
2336 <list compact="compact">
2337 <item><qref id="f-Format"><tt>Format</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2338 <item><qref id="f-Date"><tt>Date</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2339 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2340 <item><qref id="f-Binary"><tt>Binary</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2341 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2342 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2343 <item><qref id="f-Distribution"><tt>Distribution</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2344 <item><qref id="f-Urgency"><tt>Urgency</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2345 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2346 <item><qref id="f-Changed-By"><tt>Changed-By</tt></qref></item>
2347 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2348 <item><qref id="f-Closes"><tt>Closes</tt></qref></item>
2349 <item><qref id="f-Changes"><tt>Changes</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2350 <item><qref id="f-Files"><tt>Files</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2355 <sect id="controlfieldslist">
2356 <heading>List of fields</heading>
2358 <sect1 id="f-Source">
2359 <heading><tt>Source</tt></heading>
2362 This field identifies the source package name.
2366 In <file>debian/control</file> or a <file>.dsc</file> file,
2367 this field must contain only the name of the source package.
2371 In a binary package control file or a <file>.changes</file>
2372 file, the source package name may be followed by a version
2373 number in parentheses<footnote>
2374 It is customary to leave a space after the package name
2375 if a version number is specified.
2377 This version number may be omitted (and is, by
2378 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>) if it has the same value as
2379 the <tt>Version</tt> field of the binary package in
2380 question. The field itself may be omitted from a binary
2381 package control file when the source package has the same
2382 name and version as the binary package.
2386 <sect1 id="f-Maintainer">
2387 <heading><tt>Maintainer</tt></heading>
2390 The package maintainer's name and email address. The name
2391 should come first, then the email address inside angle
2392 brackets <tt><></tt> (in RFC822 format).
2396 If the maintainer's name contains a full stop then the
2397 whole field will not work directly as an email address due
2398 to a misfeature in the syntax specified in RFC822; a
2399 program using this field as an address must check for this
2400 and correct the problem if necessary (for example by
2401 putting the name in round brackets and moving it to the
2402 end, and bringing the email address forward).
2406 <sect1 id="f-Uploaders">
2407 <heading><tt>Uploaders</tt></heading>
2410 List of the names and email addresses of co-maintainers of
2411 the package, if any. If the package has other maintainers
2412 beside the one named in the
2413 <qref id="f-Maintainer">Maintainer field</qref>, their
2414 names and email addresses should be listed here. The
2415 format is the same as that of the Maintainer tag, and
2416 multiple entries should be comma separated. Currently,
2417 this field is restricted to a single line of data. This
2418 is an optional field.
2421 Any parser that interprets the Uploaders field in
2422 <file>debian/control</file> must permit it to span multiple
2423 lines. Line breaks in an Uploaders field that spans multiple
2424 lines are not significant and the semantics of the field are
2425 the same as if the line breaks had not been present.
2429 <sect1 id="f-Changed-By">
2430 <heading><tt>Changed-By</tt></heading>
2433 The name and email address of the person who changed the
2434 said package. Usually the name of the maintainer.
2435 All the rules for the Maintainer field apply here, too.
2439 <sect1 id="f-Section">
2440 <heading><tt>Section</tt></heading>
2443 This field specifies an application area into which the package
2444 has been classified. See <ref id="subsections">.
2448 When it appears in the <file>debian/control</file> file,
2449 it gives the value for the subfield of the same name in
2450 the <tt>Files</tt> field of the <file>.changes</file> file.
2451 It also gives the default for the same field in the binary
2456 <sect1 id="f-Priority">
2457 <heading><tt>Priority</tt></heading>
2460 This field represents how important that it is that the user
2461 have the package installed. See <ref id="priorities">.
2465 When it appears in the <file>debian/control</file> file,
2466 it gives the value for the subfield of the same name in
2467 the <tt>Files</tt> field of the <file>.changes</file> file.
2468 It also gives the default for the same field in the binary
2473 <sect1 id="f-Package">
2474 <heading><tt>Package</tt></heading>
2477 The name of the binary package.
2481 Package names must consist only of lower case letters
2482 (<tt>a-z</tt>), digits (<tt>0-9</tt>), plus (<tt>+</tt>)
2483 and minus (<tt>-</tt>) signs, and periods (<tt>.</tt>).
2484 They must be at least two characters long and must start
2485 with an alphanumeric character.
2489 <sect1 id="f-Architecture">
2490 <heading><tt>Architecture</tt></heading>
2493 Depending on context and the control file used, the
2494 <tt>Architecture</tt> field can include the following sets of
2497 <item>A unique single word identifying a Debian machine
2498 architecture, see <ref id="arch-spec">.
2499 <item><tt>all</tt>, which indicates an
2500 architecture-independent package.
2501 <item><tt>any</tt>, which indicates a package available
2502 for building on any architecture.
2503 <item><tt>source</tt>, which indicates a source package.
2508 In the main <file>debian/control</file> file in the source
2509 package, or in the source package control file
2510 <file>.dsc</file>, one may specify a list of architectures
2511 separated by spaces, or the special values <tt>any</tt> or
2516 Specifying <tt>any</tt> indicates that the source package
2517 isn't dependent on any particular architecture and should
2518 compile fine on any one. The produced binary package(s)
2519 will be specific to whatever the current build architecture
2521 This is the most often used setting, and is recommended
2522 for new packages that aren't <tt>Architecture: all</tt>.
2527 Specifying a list of architectures indicates that the source
2528 will build an architecture-dependent package, and will only
2529 work correctly on the listed architectures.<footnote>
2530 This is a setting used for a minority of cases where the
2531 program is not portable. Generally, it should not be used
2537 In a <file>.changes</file> file, the <tt>Architecture</tt>
2538 field lists the architecture(s) of the package(s)
2539 currently being uploaded. This will be a list; if the
2540 source for the package is also being uploaded, the special
2541 entry <tt>source</tt> is also present.
2545 See <ref id="debianrules"> for information how to get the
2546 architecture for the build process.
2550 <sect1 id="f-Essential">
2551 <heading><tt>Essential</tt></heading>
2554 This is a boolean field which may occur only in the
2555 control file of a binary package or in a per-package fields
2556 paragraph of a main source control data file.
2560 If set to <tt>yes</tt> then the package management system
2561 will refuse to remove the package (upgrading and replacing
2562 it is still possible). The other possible value is <tt>no</tt>,
2563 which is the same as not having the field at all.
2568 <heading>Package interrelationship fields:
2569 <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
2570 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>,
2571 <tt>Breaks</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt>,
2572 <tt>Provides</tt>, <tt>Replaces</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>
2576 These fields describe the package's relationships with
2577 other packages. Their syntax and semantics are described
2578 in <ref id="relationships">.</p>
2581 <sect1 id="f-Standards-Version">
2582 <heading><tt>Standards-Version</tt></heading>
2585 The most recent version of the standards (the policy
2586 manual and associated texts) with which the package
2591 The version number has four components: major and minor
2592 version number and major and minor patch level. When the
2593 standards change in a way that requires every package to
2594 change the major number will be changed. Significant
2595 changes that will require work in many packages will be
2596 signaled by a change to the minor number. The major patch
2597 level will be changed for any change to the meaning of the
2598 standards, however small; the minor patch level will be
2599 changed when only cosmetic, typographical or other edits
2600 are made which neither change the meaning of the document
2601 nor affect the contents of packages.
2605 Thus only the first three components of the policy version
2606 are significant in the <em>Standards-Version</em> control
2607 field, and so either these three components or the all
2608 four components may be specified.<footnote>
2609 In the past, people specified the full version number
2610 in the Standards-Version field, for example "2.3.0.0".
2611 Since minor patch-level changes don't introduce new
2612 policy, it was thought it would be better to relax
2613 policy and only require the first 3 components to be
2614 specified, in this example "2.3.0". All four
2615 components may still be used if someone wishes to do so.
2621 <sect1 id="f-Version">
2622 <heading><tt>Version</tt></heading>
2625 The version number of a package. The format is:
2626 [<var>epoch</var><tt>:</tt>]<var>upstream_version</var>[<tt>-</tt><var>debian_revision</var>]
2630 The three components here are:
2632 <tag><var>epoch</var></tag>
2635 This is a single (generally small) unsigned integer. It
2636 may be omitted, in which case zero is assumed. If it is
2637 omitted then the <var>upstream_version</var> may not
2642 It is provided to allow mistakes in the version numbers
2643 of older versions of a package, and also a package's
2644 previous version numbering schemes, to be left behind.
2648 <tag><var>upstream_version</var></tag>
2651 This is the main part of the version number. It is
2652 usually the version number of the original ("upstream")
2653 package from which the <file>.deb</file> file has been made,
2654 if this is applicable. Usually this will be in the same
2655 format as that specified by the upstream author(s);
2656 however, it may need to be reformatted to fit into the
2657 package management system's format and comparison
2662 The comparison behavior of the package management system
2663 with respect to the <var>upstream_version</var> is
2664 described below. The <var>upstream_version</var>
2665 portion of the version number is mandatory.
2669 The <var>upstream_version</var> may contain only
2670 alphanumerics<footnote>
2671 Alphanumerics are <tt>A-Za-z0-9</tt> only.
2673 and the characters <tt>.</tt> <tt>+</tt> <tt>-</tt>
2674 <tt>:</tt> <tt>~</tt> (full stop, plus, hyphen, colon,
2675 tilde) and should start with a digit. If there is no
2676 <var>debian_revision</var> then hyphens are not allowed;
2677 if there is no <var>epoch</var> then colons are not
2682 <tag><var>debian_revision</var></tag>
2685 This part of the version number specifies the version of
2686 the Debian package based on the upstream version. It
2687 may contain only alphanumerics and the characters
2688 <tt>+</tt> <tt>.</tt> <tt>~</tt> (plus, full stop,
2689 tilde) and is compared in the same way as the
2690 <var>upstream_version</var> is.
2694 It is optional; if it isn't present then the
2695 <var>upstream_version</var> may not contain a hyphen.
2696 This format represents the case where a piece of
2697 software was written specifically to be turned into a
2698 Debian package, and so there is only one "debianisation"
2699 of it and therefore no revision indication is required.
2703 It is conventional to restart the
2704 <var>debian_revision</var> at <tt>1</tt> each time the
2705 <var>upstream_version</var> is increased.
2709 The package management system will break the version
2710 number apart at the last hyphen in the string (if there
2711 is one) to determine the <var>upstream_version</var> and
2712 <var>debian_revision</var>. The absence of a
2713 <var>debian_revision</var> compares earlier than the
2714 presence of one (but note that the
2715 <var>debian_revision</var> is the least significant part
2716 of the version number).
2723 The <var>upstream_version</var> and <var>debian_revision</var>
2724 parts are compared by the package management system using the
2729 The strings are compared from left to right.
2733 First the initial part of each string consisting entirely of
2734 non-digit characters is determined. These two parts (one of
2735 which may be empty) are compared lexically. If a difference
2736 is found it is returned. The lexical comparison is a
2737 comparison of ASCII values modified so that all the letters
2738 sort earlier than all the non-letters and so that a tilde
2739 sorts before anything, even the end of a part. For example,
2740 the following parts are in sorted order from earliest to
2741 latest: <tt>~~</tt>, <tt>~~a</tt>, <tt>~</tt>, the empty part,
2742 <tt>a</tt>.<footnote>
2743 One common use of <tt>~</tt> is for upstream pre-releases.
2744 For example, <tt>1.0~beta1~svn1245</tt> sorts earlier than
2745 <tt>1.0~beta1</tt>, which sorts earlier than <tt>1.0</tt>.
2750 Then the initial part of the remainder of each string which
2751 consists entirely of digit characters is determined. The
2752 numerical values of these two parts are compared, and any
2753 difference found is returned as the result of the comparison.
2754 For these purposes an empty string (which can only occur at
2755 the end of one or both version strings being compared) counts
2760 These two steps (comparing and removing initial non-digit
2761 strings and initial digit strings) are repeated until a
2762 difference is found or both strings are exhausted.
2766 Note that the purpose of epochs is to allow us to leave behind
2767 mistakes in version numbering, and to cope with situations
2768 where the version numbering scheme changes. It is
2769 <em>not</em> intended to cope with version numbers containing
2770 strings of letters which the package management system cannot
2771 interpret (such as <tt>ALPHA</tt> or <tt>pre-</tt>), or with
2772 silly orderings (the author of this manual has heard of a
2773 package whose versions went <tt>1.1</tt>, <tt>1.2</tt>,
2774 <tt>1.3</tt>, <tt>1</tt>, <tt>2.1</tt>, <tt>2.2</tt>,
2775 <tt>2</tt> and so forth).
2779 <sect1 id="f-Description">
2780 <heading><tt>Description</tt></heading>
2783 In a source or binary control file, the <tt>Description</tt>
2784 field contains a description of the binary package, consisting
2785 of two parts, the synopsis or the short description, and the
2786 long description. The field's format is as follows:
2791 Description: <single line synopsis>
2792 <extended description over several lines>
2797 The lines in the extended description can have these formats:
2803 Those starting with a single space are part of a paragraph.
2804 Successive lines of this form will be word-wrapped when
2805 displayed. The leading space will usually be stripped off.
2809 Those starting with two or more spaces. These will be
2810 displayed verbatim. If the display cannot be panned
2811 horizontally, the displaying program will line wrap them "hard"
2812 (i.e., without taking account of word breaks). If it can they
2813 will be allowed to trail off to the right. None, one or two
2814 initial spaces may be deleted, but the number of spaces
2815 deleted from each line will be the same (so that you can have
2816 indenting work correctly, for example).
2820 Those containing a single space followed by a single full stop
2821 character. These are rendered as blank lines. This is the
2822 <em>only</em> way to get a blank line<footnote>
2823 Completely empty lines will not be rendered as blank lines.
2824 Instead, they will cause the parser to think you're starting
2825 a whole new record in the control file, and will therefore
2826 likely abort with an error.
2831 Those containing a space, a full stop and some more characters.
2832 These are for future expansion. Do not use them.
2838 Do not use tab characters. Their effect is not predictable.
2842 See <ref id="descriptions"> for further information on this.
2846 In a <file>.changes</file> file, the <tt>Description</tt> field
2847 contains a summary of the descriptions for the packages being
2852 The part of the field before the first newline is empty;
2853 thereafter each line has the name of a binary package and
2854 the summary description line from that binary package.
2855 Each line is indented by one space.
2860 <sect1 id="f-Distribution">
2861 <heading><tt>Distribution</tt></heading>
2864 In a <file>.changes</file> file or parsed changelog output
2865 this contains the (space-separated) name(s) of the
2866 distribution(s) where this version of the package should
2867 be installed. Valid distributions are determined by the
2868 archive maintainers.<footnote>
2869 Current distribution names are:
2870 <taglist compact="compact">
2871 <tag><em>stable</em></tag>
2873 This is the current "released" version of Debian
2874 GNU/Linux. Once the distribution is
2875 <em>stable</em> only security fixes and other
2876 major bug fixes are allowed. When changes are
2877 made to this distribution, the release number is
2878 increased (for example: 2.2r1 becomes 2.2r2 then
2882 <tag><em>unstable</em></tag>
2884 This distribution value refers to the
2885 <em>developmental</em> part of the Debian
2886 distribution tree. New packages, new upstream
2887 versions of packages and bug fixes go into the
2888 <em>unstable</em> directory tree. Download from
2889 this distribution at your own risk.
2892 <tag><em>testing</em></tag>
2894 This distribution value refers to the
2895 <em>testing</em> part of the Debian distribution
2896 tree. It receives its packages from the
2897 unstable distribution after a short time lag to
2898 ensure that there are no major issues with the
2899 unstable packages. It is less prone to breakage
2900 than unstable, but still risky. It is not
2901 possible to upload packages directly to
2905 <tag><em>frozen</em></tag>
2907 From time to time, the <em>testing</em>
2908 distribution enters a state of "code-freeze" in
2909 anticipation of release as a <em>stable</em>
2910 version. During this period of testing only
2911 fixes for existing or newly-discovered bugs will
2912 be allowed. The exact details of this stage are
2913 determined by the Release Manager.
2916 <tag><em>experimental</em></tag>
2918 The packages with this distribution value are
2919 deemed by their maintainers to be high
2920 risk. Oftentimes they represent early beta or
2921 developmental packages from various sources that
2922 the maintainers want people to try, but are not
2923 ready to be a part of the other parts of the
2924 Debian distribution tree. Download at your own
2930 You should list <em>all</em> distributions that the
2931 package should be installed into.
2935 More information is available in the Debian Developer's
2936 Reference, section "The Debian archive".
2943 <heading><tt>Date</tt></heading>
2946 This field includes the date the package was built or last edited.
2950 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
2951 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
2952 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">).
2956 <sect1 id="f-Format">
2957 <heading><tt>Format</tt></heading>
2960 This field specifies a format revision for the file.
2961 The most current format described in the Policy Manual
2962 is version <strong>1.5</strong>. The syntax of the
2963 format value is the same as that of a package version
2964 number except that no epoch or Debian revision is allowed
2965 - see <ref id="f-Version">.
2969 <sect1 id="f-Urgency">
2970 <heading><tt>Urgency</tt></heading>
2973 This is a description of how important it is to upgrade to
2974 this version from previous ones. It consists of a single
2975 keyword taking one of the values <tt>low</tt>,
2976 <tt>medium</tt>, <tt>high</tt>, <tt>emergency</tt>, or
2977 <tt>critical</tt><footnote>
2978 Other urgency values are supported with configuration
2979 changes in the archive software but are not used in Debian.
2980 The urgency affects how quickly a package will be considered
2981 for inclusion into the <tt>testing</tt> distribution and
2982 gives an indication of the importance of any fixes included
2983 in the upload. <tt>Emergency</tt> and <tt>critical</tt> are
2984 treated as synonymous.
2985 </footnote> (not case-sensitive) followed by an optional
2986 commentary (separated by a space) which is usually in
2987 parentheses. For example:
2990 Urgency: low (HIGH for users of diversions)
2996 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
2997 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
2998 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
3002 <sect1 id="f-Changes">
3003 <heading><tt>Changes</tt></heading>
3006 This field contains the human-readable changes data, describing
3007 the differences between the last version and the current one.
3011 There should be nothing in this field before the first
3012 newline; all the subsequent lines must be indented by at
3013 least one space; blank lines must be represented by a line
3014 consisting only of a space and a full stop.
3018 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
3019 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
3020 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">).
3024 Each version's change information should be preceded by a
3025 "title" line giving at least the version, distribution(s)
3026 and urgency, in a human-readable way.
3030 If data from several versions is being returned the entry
3031 for the most recent version should be returned first, and
3032 entries should be separated by the representation of a
3033 blank line (the "title" line may also be followed by the
3034 representation of blank line).
3038 <sect1 id="f-Binary">
3039 <heading><tt>Binary</tt></heading>
3042 This field is a list of binary packages.
3046 When it appears in the <file>.dsc</file> file it is the list
3047 of binary packages which a source package can produce. It
3048 does not necessarily produce all of these binary packages
3049 for every architecture. The source control file doesn't
3050 contain details of which architectures are appropriate for
3051 which of the binary packages.
3055 When it appears in a <file>.changes</file> file it lists the
3056 names of the binary packages actually being uploaded.
3060 The syntax is a list of binary packages separated by
3062 A space after each comma is conventional.
3063 </footnote>. Currently the packages must be separated using
3064 only spaces in the <file>.changes</file> file.
3068 <sect1 id="f-Installed-Size">
3069 <heading><tt>Installed-Size</tt></heading>
3072 This field appears in the control files of binary
3073 packages, and in the <file>Packages</file> files. It gives
3074 the total amount of disk space required to install the
3079 The disk space is represented in kilobytes as a simple
3084 <sect1 id="f-Files">
3085 <heading><tt>Files</tt></heading>
3088 This field contains a list of files with information about
3089 each one. The exact information and syntax varies with
3090 the context. In all cases the part of the field
3091 contents on the same line as the field name is empty. The
3092 remainder of the field is one line per file, each line
3093 being indented by one space and containing a number of
3094 sub-fields separated by spaces.
3098 In the <file>.dsc</file> file, each line contains the MD5
3099 checksum, size and filename of the tar file and (if applicable)
3100 diff file which make up the remainder of the source
3102 That is, the parts which are not the <tt>.dsc</tt>.
3104 The exact forms of the filenames are described
3105 in <ref id="pkg-sourcearchives">.
3109 In the <file>.changes</file> file this contains one line per
3110 file being uploaded. Each line contains the MD5 checksum,
3111 size, section and priority and the filename.
3112 The <qref id="f-Section">section</qref>
3113 and <qref id="f-Priority">priority</qref>
3114 are the values of the corresponding fields in
3115 the main source control file. If no section or priority is
3116 specified then <tt>-</tt> should be used, though section
3117 and priority values must be specified for new packages to
3118 be installed properly.
3122 The special value <tt>byhand</tt> for the section in a
3123 <tt>.changes</tt> file indicates that the file in question
3124 is not an ordinary package file and must by installed by
3125 hand by the distribution maintainers. If the section is
3126 <tt>byhand</tt> the priority should be <tt>-</tt>.
3130 If a new Debian revision of a package is being shipped and
3131 no new original source archive is being distributed the
3132 <tt>.dsc</tt> must still contain the <tt>Files</tt> field
3133 entry for the original source archive
3134 <file><var>package</var>-<var>upstream-version</var>.orig.tar.gz</file>,
3135 but the <file>.changes</file> file should leave it out. In
3136 this case the original source archive on the distribution
3137 site must match exactly, byte-for-byte, the original
3138 source archive which was used to generate the
3139 <file>.dsc</file> file and diff which are being uploaded.</p>
3142 <sect1 id="f-Closes">
3143 <heading><tt>Closes</tt></heading>
3146 A space-separated list of bug report numbers that the upload
3147 governed by the .changes file closes.
3154 <heading>User-defined fields</heading>
3157 Additional user-defined fields may be added to the
3158 source package control file. Such fields will be
3159 ignored, and not copied to (for example) binary or
3160 source package control files or upload control files.
3164 If you wish to add additional unsupported fields to
3165 these output files you should use the mechanism
3170 Fields in the main source control information file with
3171 names starting <tt>X</tt>, followed by one or more of
3172 the letters <tt>BCS</tt> and a hyphen <tt>-</tt>, will
3173 be copied to the output files. Only the part of the
3174 field name after the hyphen will be used in the output
3175 file. Where the letter <tt>B</tt> is used the field
3176 will appear in binary package control files, where the
3177 letter <tt>S</tt> is used in source package control
3178 files and where <tt>C</tt> is used in upload control
3179 (<tt>.changes</tt>) files.
3183 For example, if the main source information control file
3186 XBS-Comment: I stand between the candle and the star.
3188 then the binary and source package control files will contain the
3191 Comment: I stand between the candle and the star.
3200 <chapt id="maintainerscripts">
3201 <heading>Package maintainer scripts and installation procedure</heading>
3204 <heading>Introduction to package maintainer scripts</heading>
3207 It is possible to supply scripts as part of a package which
3208 the package management system will run for you when your
3209 package is installed, upgraded or removed.
3213 These scripts are the files <prgn>preinst</prgn>,
3214 <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn> and
3215 <prgn>postrm</prgn> in the control area of the package.
3216 They must be proper executable files; if they are scripts
3217 (which is recommended), they must start with the usual
3218 <tt>#!</tt> convention. They should be readable and
3219 executable by anyone, and must not be world-writable.
3223 The package management system looks at the exit status from
3224 these scripts. It is important that they exit with a
3225 non-zero status if there is an error, so that the package
3226 management system can stop its processing. For shell
3227 scripts this means that you <em>almost always</em> need to
3228 use <tt>set -e</tt> (this is usually true when writing shell
3229 scripts, in fact). It is also important, of course, that
3230 they don't exit with a non-zero status if everything went
3235 Additionally, packages interacting with users using
3236 <tt>debconf</tt> in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script should
3237 install a <prgn>config</prgn> script in the control area,
3238 see <ref id="maintscriptprompt"> for details.
3242 When a package is upgraded a combination of the scripts from
3243 the old and new packages is called during the upgrade
3244 procedure. If your scripts are going to be at all
3245 complicated you need to be aware of this, and may need to
3246 check the arguments to your scripts.
3250 Broadly speaking the <prgn>preinst</prgn> is called before
3251 (a particular version of) a package is installed, and the
3252 <prgn>postinst</prgn> afterwards; the <prgn>prerm</prgn>
3253 before (a version of) a package is removed and the
3254 <prgn>postrm</prgn> afterwards.
3258 Programs called from maintainer scripts should not normally
3259 have a path prepended to them. Before installation is
3260 started, the package management system checks to see if the
3261 programs <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>,
3262 <prgn>start-stop-daemon</prgn>, <prgn>install-info</prgn>,
3263 and <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> can be found via the
3264 <tt>PATH</tt> environment variable. Those programs, and any
3265 other program that one would expect to be in the
3266 <tt>PATH</tt>, should thus be invoked without an absolute
3267 pathname. Maintainer scripts should also not reset the
3268 <tt>PATH</tt>, though they might choose to modify it by
3269 prepending or appending package-specific directories. These
3270 considerations really apply to all shell scripts.</p>
3273 <sect id="idempotency">
3274 <heading>Maintainer scripts idempotency</heading>
3277 It is necessary for the error recovery procedures that the
3278 scripts be idempotent. This means that if it is run
3279 successfully, and then it is called again, it doesn't bomb
3280 out or cause any harm, but just ensures that everything is
3281 the way it ought to be. If the first call failed, or
3282 aborted half way through for some reason, the second call
3283 should merely do the things that were left undone the first
3284 time, if any, and exit with a success status if everything
3286 This is so that if an error occurs, the user interrupts
3287 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> or some other unforeseen circumstance
3288 happens you don't leave the user with a badly-broken
3289 package when <prgn>dpkg</prgn> attempts to repeat the
3295 <sect id="controllingterminal">
3296 <heading>Controlling terminal for maintainer scripts</heading>
3299 The maintainer scripts are guaranteed to run with a
3300 controlling terminal and can interact with the user.
3301 Because these scripts may be executed with standard output
3302 redirected into a pipe for logging purposes, Perl scripts
3303 should set unbuffered output by setting <tt>$|=1</tt> so
3304 that the output is printed immediately rather than being
3308 <sect id="exitstatus">
3309 <heading>Exit status</heading>
3312 Each script must return a zero exit status for
3313 success, or a nonzero one for failure, since the package
3314 management system looks for the exit status of these scripts
3315 and determines what action to take next based on that datum.
3319 <sect id="mscriptsinstact"><heading>Summary of ways maintainer
3324 <list compact="compact">
3326 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>install</tt>
3329 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>install</tt> <var>old-version</var>
3332 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>upgrade</tt> <var>old-version</var>
3335 <var>old-preinst</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3336 <var>new-version</var>
3341 <list compact="compact">
3343 <var>postinst</var> <tt>configure</tt>
3344 <var>most-recently-configured-version</var>
3347 <var>old-postinst</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3348 <var>new-version</var>
3351 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> <tt>abort-remove</tt>
3352 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package</var>
3353 <var>new-version</var>
3356 <var>postinst</var> <tt>abort-remove</tt>
3359 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var>
3360 <tt>abort-deconfigure</tt> <tt>in-favour</tt>
3361 <var>failed-install-package</var> <var>version</var>
3362 [<tt>removing</tt> <var>conflicting-package</var>
3368 <list compact="compact">
3370 <var>prerm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3373 <var>old-prerm</var> <tt>upgrade</tt>
3374 <var>new-version</var>
3377 <var>new-prerm</var> <tt>failed-upgrade</tt>
3378 <var>old-version</var>
3381 <var>conflictor's-prerm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3382 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package</var>
3383 <var>new-version</var>
3386 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> <tt>deconfigure</tt>
3387 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package-being-installed</var>
3388 <var>version</var> [<tt>removing</tt>
3389 <var>conflicting-package</var>
3395 <list compact="compact">
3397 <var>postrm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3400 <var>postrm</var> <tt>purge</tt>
3403 <var>old-postrm</var> <tt>upgrade</tt>
3404 <var>new-version</var>
3407 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>failed-upgrade</tt>
3408 <var>old-version</var>
3411 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-install</tt>
3414 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-install</tt>
3415 <var>old-version</var>
3418 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3419 <var>old-version</var>
3422 <var>disappearer's-postrm</var> <tt>disappear</tt>
3423 <var>overwriter</var>
3424 <var>overwriter-version</var>
3430 <sect id="unpackphase">
3431 <heading>Details of unpack phase of installation or upgrade</heading>
3434 The procedure on installation/upgrade/overwrite/disappear
3435 (i.e., when running <tt>dpkg --unpack</tt>, or the unpack
3436 stage of <tt>dpkg --install</tt>) is as follows. In each
3437 case, if a major error occurs (unless listed below) the
3438 actions are, in general, run backwards - this means that the
3439 maintainer scripts are run with different arguments in
3440 reverse order. These are the "error unwind" calls listed
3447 If a version of the package is already installed, call
3448 <example compact="compact">
3449 <var>old-prerm</var> upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3453 If the script runs but exits with a non-zero
3454 exit status, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will attempt:
3455 <example compact="compact">
3456 <var>new-prerm</var> failed-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3458 If this works, the upgrade continues. If this
3459 does not work, the error unwind:
3460 <example compact="compact">
3461 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3463 If this works, then the old-version is
3464 "Installed", if not, the old version is in a
3465 "Failed-Config" state.
3471 If a "conflicting" package is being removed at the same time,
3472 or if any package will be broken (due to <tt>Breaks</tt>):
3475 If <tt>--auto-deconfigure</tt> is
3476 specified, call, for each package to be deconfigured
3477 due to <tt>Breaks</tt>:
3478 <example compact="compact">
3479 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> deconfigure \
3480 in-favour <var>package-being-installed</var> <var>version</var>
3483 <example compact="compact">
3484 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var> abort-deconfigure \
3485 in-favour <var>package-being-installed-but-failed</var> <var>version</var>
3487 The deconfigured packages are marked as
3488 requiring configuration, so that if
3489 <tt>--install</tt> is used they will be
3490 configured again if possible.
3493 If any packages depended on a conflicting
3494 package being removed and <tt>--auto-deconfigure</tt> is
3495 specified, call, for each such package:
3496 <example compact="compact">
3497 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> deconfigure \
3498 in-favour <var>package-being-installed</var> <var>version</var> \
3499 removing <var>conflicting-package</var> <var>version</var>
3502 <example compact="compact">
3503 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var> abort-deconfigure \
3504 in-favour <var>package-being-installed-but-failed</var> <var>version</var> \
3505 removing <var>conflicting-package</var> <var>version</var>
3507 The deconfigured packages are marked as
3508 requiring configuration, so that if
3509 <tt>--install</tt> is used they will be
3510 configured again if possible.
3513 To prepare for removal of each conflicting package, call:
3514 <example compact="compact">
3515 <var>conflictor's-prerm</var> remove \
3516 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
3519 <example compact="compact">
3520 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> abort-remove \
3521 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
3530 If the package is being upgraded, call:
3531 <example compact="compact">
3532 <var>new-preinst</var> upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3534 If this fails, we call:
3536 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3543 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3545 is called. If this works, then the old version
3546 is in an "Installed" state, or else it is left
3547 in an "Unpacked" state.
3552 If it fails, then the old version is left
3553 in an "Half-Installed" state.
3560 Otherwise, if the package had some configuration
3561 files from a previous version installed (i.e., it
3562 is in the "configuration files only" state):
3563 <example compact="compact">
3564 <var>new-preinst</var> install <var>old-version</var>
3568 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-install <var>old-version</var>
3570 If this fails, the package is left in a
3571 "Half-Installed" state, which requires a
3572 reinstall. If it works, the packages is left in
3573 a "Config Files" state.
3576 Otherwise (i.e., the package was completely purged):
3577 <example compact="compact">
3578 <var>new-preinst</var> install
3581 <example compact="compact">
3582 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-install
3584 If the error-unwind fails, the package is in a
3585 "Half Installed" phase, and requires a
3586 reinstall. If the error unwind works, the
3587 package is in a not installed state.
3594 The new package's files are unpacked, overwriting any
3595 that may be on the system already, for example any
3596 from the old version of the same package or from
3597 another package. Backups of the old files are kept
3598 temporarily, and if anything goes wrong the package
3599 management system will attempt to put them back as
3600 part of the error unwind.
3604 It is an error for a package to contain files which
3605 are on the system in another package, unless
3606 <tt>Replaces</tt> is used (see <ref id="replaces">).
3608 The following paragraph is not currently the case:
3609 Currently the <tt>- - force-overwrite</tt> flag is
3610 enabled, downgrading it to a warning, but this may not
3616 It is a more serious error for a package to contain a
3617 plain file or other kind of non-directory where another
3618 package has a directory (again, unless
3619 <tt>Replaces</tt> is used). This error can be
3620 overridden if desired using
3621 <tt>--force-overwrite-dir</tt>, but this is not
3626 Packages which overwrite each other's files produce
3627 behavior which, though deterministic, is hard for the
3628 system administrator to understand. It can easily
3629 lead to "missing" programs if, for example, a package
3630 is installed which overwrites a file from another
3631 package, and is then removed again.<footnote>
3632 Part of the problem is due to what is arguably a
3633 bug in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
3638 A directory will never be replaced by a symbolic link
3639 to a directory or vice versa; instead, the existing
3640 state (symlink or not) will be left alone and
3641 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will follow the symlink if there is
3650 If the package is being upgraded, call
3651 <example compact="compact">
3652 <var>old-postrm</var> upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3656 If this fails, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will attempt:
3657 <example compact="compact">
3658 <var>new-postrm</var> failed-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3660 If this works, installation continues. If not,
3662 <example compact="compact">
3663 <var>old-preinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3665 If this fails, the old version is left in an
3666 "Half Installed" state. If it works, dpkg now
3668 <example compact="compact">
3669 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3671 If this fails, the old version is left in an
3672 "Half Installed" state. If it works, dpkg now
3674 <example compact="compact">
3675 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3677 If this fails, the old version is in an
3684 This is the point of no return - if
3685 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> gets this far, it won't back off
3686 past this point if an error occurs. This will
3687 leave the package in a fairly bad state, which
3688 will require a successful re-installation to clear
3689 up, but it's when <prgn>dpkg</prgn> starts doing
3690 things that are irreversible.
3695 Any files which were in the old version of the package
3696 but not in the new are removed.
3700 The new file list replaces the old.
3704 The new maintainer scripts replace the old.
3708 Any packages all of whose files have been overwritten
3709 during the installation, and which aren't required for
3710 dependencies, are considered to have been removed.
3711 For each such package
3714 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> calls:
3715 <example compact="compact">
3716 <var>disappearer's-postrm</var> disappear \
3717 <var>overwriter</var> <var>overwriter-version</var>
3721 The package's maintainer scripts are removed.
3724 It is noted in the status database as being in a
3725 sane state, namely not installed (any conffiles
3726 it may have are ignored, rather than being
3727 removed by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>). Note that
3728 disappearing packages do not have their prerm
3729 called, because <prgn>dpkg</prgn> doesn't know
3730 in advance that the package is going to
3737 Any files in the package we're unpacking that are also
3738 listed in the file lists of other packages are removed
3739 from those lists. (This will lobotomize the file list
3740 of the "conflicting" package if there is one.)
3744 The backup files made during installation, above, are
3750 The new package's status is now sane, and recorded as
3755 Here is another point of no return - if the
3756 conflicting package's removal fails we do not unwind
3757 the rest of the installation; the conflicting package
3758 is left in a half-removed limbo.
3763 If there was a conflicting package we go and do the
3764 removal actions (described below), starting with the
3765 removal of the conflicting package's files (any that
3766 are also in the package being installed have already
3767 been removed from the conflicting package's file list,
3768 and so do not get removed now).
3774 <sect id="configdetails"><heading>Details of configuration</heading>
3777 When we configure a package (this happens with <tt>dpkg
3778 --install</tt> and <tt>dpkg --configure</tt>), we first
3779 update any <tt>conffile</tt>s and then call:
3780 <example compact="compact">
3781 <var>postinst</var> configure <var>most-recently-configured-version</var>
3786 No attempt is made to unwind after errors during
3787 configuration. If the configuration fails, the package is in
3788 a "Failed Config" state, and an error message is generated.
3792 If there is no most recently configured version
3793 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will pass a null argument.
3796 Historical note: Truly ancient (pre-1997) versions of
3797 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> passed <tt><unknown></tt>
3798 (including the angle brackets) in this case. Even older
3799 ones did not pass a second argument at all, under any
3800 circumstance. Note that upgrades using such an old dpkg
3801 version are unlikely to work for other reasons, even if
3802 this old argument behavior is handled by your postinst script.
3808 <sect id="removedetails"><heading>Details of removal and/or
3809 configuration purging</heading>
3815 <example compact="compact">
3816 <var>prerm</var> remove
3820 If prerm fails during replacement due to conflict
3822 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> abort-remove \
3823 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
3827 <var>postinst</var> abort-remove
3831 If this fails, the package is in a "Failed-Config"
3832 state, or else it remains "Installed".
3836 The package's files are removed (except <tt>conffile</tt>s).
3839 <example compact="compact">
3840 <var>postrm</var> remove
3844 If it fails, there's no error unwind, and the package is in
3845 an "Half-Installed" state.
3850 All the maintainer scripts except the <prgn>postrm</prgn>
3855 If we aren't purging the package we stop here. Note
3856 that packages which have no <prgn>postrm</prgn> and no
3857 <tt>conffile</tt>s are automatically purged when
3858 removed, as there is no difference except for the
3859 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> status.
3863 The <tt>conffile</tt>s and any backup files
3864 (<tt>~</tt>-files, <tt>#*#</tt> files,
3865 <tt>%</tt>-files, <tt>.dpkg-{old,new,tmp}</tt>, etc.)
3870 <example compact="compact">
3871 <var>postrm</var> purge
3875 If this fails, the package remains in a "Config-Files"
3880 The package's file list is removed.
3889 <chapt id="relationships">
3890 <heading>Declaring relationships between packages</heading>
3892 <sect id="depsyntax">
3893 <heading>Syntax of relationship fields</heading>
3896 These fields all have a uniform syntax. They are a list of
3897 package names separated by commas.
3901 In the <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Recommends</tt>,
3902 <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
3903 <tt>Build-Depends</tt> and <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>
3904 control file fields of the package, which declare
3905 dependencies on other packages, the package names listed may
3906 also include lists of alternative package names, separated
3907 by vertical bar (pipe) symbols <tt>|</tt>. In such a case,
3908 if any one of the alternative packages is installed, that
3909 part of the dependency is considered to be satisfied.
3913 All of the fields except for <tt>Provides</tt> may restrict
3914 their applicability to particular versions of each named
3915 package. This is done in parentheses after each individual
3916 package name; the parentheses should contain a relation from
3917 the list below followed by a version number, in the format
3918 described in <ref id="f-Version">.
3922 The relations allowed are <tt><<</tt>, <tt><=</tt>,
3923 <tt>=</tt>, <tt>>=</tt> and <tt>>></tt> for
3924 strictly earlier, earlier or equal, exactly equal, later or
3925 equal and strictly later, respectively. The deprecated
3926 forms <tt><</tt> and <tt>></tt> were used to mean
3927 earlier/later or equal, rather than strictly earlier/later,
3928 so they should not appear in new packages (though
3929 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> still supports them).
3933 Whitespace may appear at any point in the version
3934 specification subject to the rules in <ref
3935 id="controlsyntax">, and must appear where it's necessary to
3936 disambiguate; it is not otherwise significant. All of the
3937 relationship fields may span multiple lines. For
3938 consistency and in case of future changes to
3939 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> it is recommended that a single space be
3940 used after a version relationship and before a version
3941 number; it is also conventional to put a single space after
3942 each comma, on either side of each vertical bar, and before
3943 each open parenthesis. When wrapping a relationship field, it
3944 is conventional to do so after a comma and before the space
3945 following that comma.
3949 For example, a list of dependencies might appear as:
3950 <example compact="compact">
3953 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.1), exim | mail-transport-agent
3958 All fields that specify build-time relationships
3959 (<tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
3960 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>)
3961 may be restricted to a certain set of architectures. This
3962 is indicated in brackets after each individual package name and
3963 the optional version specification. The brackets enclose a
3964 list of Debian architecture names separated by whitespace.
3965 Exclamation marks may be prepended to each of the names.
3966 (It is not permitted for some names to be prepended with
3967 exclamation marks while others aren't.) If the current Debian
3968 host architecture is not in this list and there are no
3969 exclamation marks in the list, or it is in the list with a
3970 prepended exclamation mark, the package name and the
3971 associated version specification are ignored completely for
3972 the purposes of defining the relationships.
3977 <example compact="compact">
3979 Build-Depends-Indep: texinfo
3980 Build-Depends: kernel-headers-2.2.10 [!hurd-i386],
3981 hurd-dev [hurd-i386], gnumach-dev [hurd-i386]
3986 Note that the binary package relationship fields such as
3987 <tt>Depends</tt> appear in one of the binary package
3988 sections of the control file, whereas the build-time
3989 relationships such as <tt>Build-Depends</tt> appear in the
3990 source package section of the control file (which is the
3995 <sect id="binarydeps">
3996 <heading>Binary Dependencies - <tt>Depends</tt>,
3997 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
3998 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>
4002 Packages can declare in their control file that they have
4003 certain relationships to other packages - for example, that
4004 they may not be installed at the same time as certain other
4005 packages, and/or that they depend on the presence of others.
4009 This is done using the <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
4010 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
4011 <tt>Breaks</tt> and <tt>Conflicts</tt> control file fields.
4015 These seven fields are used to declare a dependency
4016 relationship by one package on another. Except for
4017 <tt>Enhances</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt>, they appear in the
4018 depending (binary) package's control file.
4019 (<tt>Enhances</tt> appears in the recommending package's
4020 control file, and <tt>Breaks</tt> appears in the version of
4021 depended-on package which causes the named package to
4026 A <tt>Depends</tt> field takes effect <em>only</em> when a
4027 package is to be configured. It does not prevent a package
4028 being on the system in an unconfigured state while its
4029 dependencies are unsatisfied, and it is possible to replace
4030 a package whose dependencies are satisfied and which is
4031 properly installed with a different version whose
4032 dependencies are not and cannot be satisfied; when this is
4033 done the depending package will be left unconfigured (since
4034 attempts to configure it will give errors) and will not
4035 function properly. If it is necessary, a
4036 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> field can be used, which has a partial
4037 effect even when a package is being unpacked, as explained
4038 in detail below. (The other three dependency fields,
4039 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt> and
4040 <tt>Enhances</tt>, are only used by the various front-ends
4041 to <prgn>dpkg</prgn> such as <prgn>apt-get</prgn>,
4042 <prgn>aptitude</prgn>, and <prgn>dselect</prgn>.)
4046 For this reason packages in an installation run are usually
4047 all unpacked first and all configured later; this gives
4048 later versions of packages with dependencies on later
4049 versions of other packages the opportunity to have their
4050 dependencies satisfied.
4054 In case of circular dependencies, since installation or
4055 removal order honoring the dependency order can't be
4056 established, dependency loops are broken at some point
4057 (based on rules below), and some packages may not be able to
4058 rely on their dependencies being present when being
4059 installed or removed, depending on which side of the break
4060 of the circular dependency loop they happen to be on. If one
4061 of the packages in the loop has no postinst script, then the
4062 cycle will be broken at that package, so as to ensure that
4063 all postinst scripts run with the dependencies properly
4064 configured if this is possible. Otherwise the breaking point
4069 The <tt>Depends</tt> field thus allows package maintainers
4070 to impose an order in which packages should be configured.
4074 The meaning of the five dependency fields is as follows:
4076 <tag><tt>Depends</tt></tag>
4079 This declares an absolute dependency. A package will
4080 not be configured unless all of the packages listed in
4081 its <tt>Depends</tt> field have been correctly
4086 The <tt>Depends</tt> field should be used if the
4087 depended-on package is required for the depending
4088 package to provide a significant amount of
4093 The <tt>Depends</tt> field should also be used if the
4094 <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn> or
4095 <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts require the package to be
4096 present in order to run. Note, however, that the
4097 <prgn>postrm</prgn> cannot rely on any non-essential
4098 packages to be present during the <tt>purge</tt>
4102 <tag><tt>Recommends</tt></tag>
4105 This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency.
4109 The <tt>Recommends</tt> field should list packages
4110 that would be found together with this one in all but
4111 unusual installations.
4115 <tag><tt>Suggests</tt></tag>
4117 This is used to declare that one package may be more
4118 useful with one or more others. Using this field
4119 tells the packaging system and the user that the
4120 listed packages are related to this one and can
4121 perhaps enhance its usefulness, but that installing
4122 this one without them is perfectly reasonable.
4125 <tag><tt>Enhances</tt></tag>
4127 This field is similar to Suggests but works in the
4128 opposite direction. It is used to declare that a
4129 package can enhance the functionality of another
4133 <tag><tt>Pre-Depends</tt></tag>
4136 This field is like <tt>Depends</tt>, except that it
4137 also forces <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to complete installation
4138 of the packages named before even starting the
4139 installation of the package which declares the
4140 pre-dependency, as follows:
4144 When a package declaring a pre-dependency is about to
4145 be <em>unpacked</em> the pre-dependency can be
4146 satisfied if the depended-on package is either fully
4147 configured, <em>or even if</em> the depended-on
4148 package(s) are only unpacked or half-configured,
4149 provided that they have been configured correctly at
4150 some point in the past (and not removed or partially
4151 removed since). In this case, both the
4152 previously-configured and currently unpacked or
4153 half-configured versions must satisfy any version
4154 clause in the <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> field.
4158 When the package declaring a pre-dependency is about
4159 to be <em>configured</em>, the pre-dependency will be
4160 treated as a normal <tt>Depends</tt>, that is, it will
4161 be considered satisfied only if the depended-on
4162 package has been correctly configured.
4166 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> should be used sparingly,
4167 preferably only by packages whose premature upgrade or
4168 installation would hamper the ability of the system to
4169 continue with any upgrade that might be in progress.
4173 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> are also required if the
4174 <prgn>preinst</prgn> script depends on the named
4175 package. It is best to avoid this situation if
4183 When selecting which level of dependency to use you should
4184 consider how important the depended-on package is to the
4185 functionality of the one declaring the dependency. Some
4186 packages are composed of components of varying degrees of
4187 importance. Such a package should list using
4188 <tt>Depends</tt> the package(s) which are required by the
4189 more important components. The other components'
4190 requirements may be mentioned as Suggestions or
4191 Recommendations, as appropriate to the components' relative
4197 <heading>Packages which break other packages - <tt>Breaks</tt></heading>
4200 Using <tt>Breaks</tt> may cause problems for upgrades from older
4201 versions of Debian and should not be used until the stable
4202 release of Debian supports <tt>Breaks</tt>.
4206 When one binary package declares that it breaks another,
4207 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will refuse to allow the package which
4208 declares <tt>Breaks</tt> be installed unless the broken
4209 package is deconfigured first, and it will refuse to
4210 allow the broken package to be reconfigured.
4214 A package will not be regarded as causing breakage merely
4215 because its configuration files are still installed; it must
4216 be at least half-installed.
4220 A special exception is made for packages which declare that
4221 they break their own package name or a virtual package which
4222 they provide (see below): this does not count as a real
4227 Normally a <tt>Breaks</tt> entry will have an "earlier than"
4228 version clause; such a <tt>Breaks</tt> is introduced in the
4229 version of an (implicit or explicit) dependency which
4230 violates an assumption or reveals a bug in earlier versions
4231 of the broken package. This use of <tt>Breaks</tt> will
4232 inform higher-level package management tools that broken
4233 package must be upgraded before the new one.
4237 If the breaking package also overwrites some files from the
4238 older package, it should use <tt>Replaces</tt> (not
4239 <tt>Conflicts</tt>) to ensure this goes smoothly.
4243 <sect id="conflicts">
4244 <heading>Conflicting binary packages - <tt>Conflicts</tt></heading>
4247 When one binary package declares a conflict with another
4248 using a <tt>Conflicts</tt> field, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will
4249 refuse to allow them to be installed on the system at the
4254 If one package is to be installed, the other must be removed
4255 first - if the package being installed is marked as
4256 replacing (see <ref id="replaces">) the one on the system,
4257 or the one on the system is marked as deselected, or both
4258 packages are marked <tt>Essential</tt>, then
4259 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will automatically remove the package
4260 which is causing the conflict, otherwise it will halt the
4261 installation of the new package with an error. This
4262 mechanism is specifically designed to produce an error when
4263 the installed package is <tt>Essential</tt>, but the new
4268 A package will not cause a conflict merely because its
4269 configuration files are still installed; it must be at least
4274 A special exception is made for packages which declare a
4275 conflict with their own package name, or with a virtual
4276 package which they provide (see below): this does not
4277 prevent their installation, and allows a package to conflict
4278 with others providing a replacement for it. You use this
4279 feature when you want the package in question to be the only
4280 package providing some feature.
4284 A <tt>Conflicts</tt> entry should almost never have an
4285 "earlier than" version clause. This would prevent
4286 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> from upgrading or installing the package
4287 which declared such a conflict until the upgrade or removal
4288 of the conflicted-with package had been completed. Instead,
4289 <tt>Breaks</tt> may be used (once <tt>Breaks</tt> is supported
4290 by the stable release of Debian).
4294 <sect id="virtual"><heading>Virtual packages - <tt>Provides</tt>
4298 As well as the names of actual ("concrete") packages, the
4299 package relationship fields <tt>Depends</tt>,
4300 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
4301 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, <tt>Breaks</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt>,
4302 <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
4303 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>
4304 may mention "virtual packages".
4308 A <em>virtual package</em> is one which appears in the
4309 <tt>Provides</tt> control file field of another package.
4310 The effect is as if the package(s) which provide a
4311 particular virtual package name had been listed by name
4312 everywhere the virtual package name appears. (See also <ref
4317 If there are both concrete and virtual packages of the same
4318 name, then the dependency may be satisfied (or the conflict
4319 caused) by either the concrete package with the name in
4320 question or any other concrete package which provides the
4321 virtual package with the name in question. This is so that,
4322 for example, supposing we have
4323 <example compact="compact">
4326 </example> and someone else releases an enhanced version of
4327 the <tt>bar</tt> package they can say:
4328 <example compact="compact">
4332 and the <tt>bar-plus</tt> package will now also satisfy the
4333 dependency for the <tt>foo</tt> package.
4337 If a relationship field has a version number attached
4338 then only real packages will be considered to see whether
4339 the relationship is satisfied (or the prohibition violated,
4340 for a conflict or breakage) - it is assumed that a real
4341 package which provides the virtual package is not of the
4342 "right" version. So, a <tt>Provides</tt> field may not
4343 contain version numbers, and the version number of the
4344 concrete package which provides a particular virtual package
4345 will not be looked at when considering a dependency on or
4346 conflict with the virtual package name.
4350 It is likely that the ability will be added in a future
4351 release of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to specify a version number for
4352 each virtual package it provides. This feature is not yet
4353 present, however, and is expected to be used only
4358 If you want to specify which of a set of real packages
4359 should be the default to satisfy a particular dependency on
4360 a virtual package, you should list the real package as an
4361 alternative before the virtual one.
4366 <sect id="replaces"><heading>Overwriting files and replacing
4367 packages - <tt>Replaces</tt></heading>
4370 Packages can declare in their control file that they should
4371 overwrite files in certain other packages, or completely
4372 replace other packages. The <tt>Replaces</tt> control file
4373 field has these two distinct purposes.
4376 <sect1><heading>Overwriting files in other packages</heading>
4379 Firstly, as mentioned before, it is usually an error for a
4380 package to contain files which are on the system in
4385 However, if the overwriting package declares that it
4386 <tt>Replaces</tt> the one containing the file being
4387 overwritten, then <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will replace the file
4388 from the old package with that from the new. The file
4389 will no longer be listed as "owned" by the old package.
4393 If a package is completely replaced in this way, so that
4394 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> does not know of any files it still
4395 contains, it is considered to have "disappeared". It will
4396 be marked as not wanted on the system (selected for
4397 removal) and not installed. Any <tt>conffile</tt>s
4398 details noted for the package will be ignored, as they
4399 will have been taken over by the overwriting package. The
4400 package's <prgn>postrm</prgn> script will be run with a
4401 special argument to allow the package to do any final
4402 cleanup required. See <ref id="mscriptsinstact">.
4405 Replaces is a one way relationship -- you have to
4406 install the replacing package after the replaced
4413 For this usage of <tt>Replaces</tt>, virtual packages (see
4414 <ref id="virtual">) are not considered when looking at a
4415 <tt>Replaces</tt> field - the packages declared as being
4416 replaced must be mentioned by their real names.
4420 Furthermore, this usage of <tt>Replaces</tt> only takes
4421 effect when both packages are at least partially on the
4422 system at once, so that it can only happen if they do not
4423 conflict or if the conflict has been overridden.
4428 <sect1><heading>Replacing whole packages, forcing their
4432 Secondly, <tt>Replaces</tt> allows the packaging system to
4433 resolve which package should be removed when there is a
4434 conflict - see <ref id="conflicts">. This usage only
4435 takes effect when the two packages <em>do</em> conflict,
4436 so that the two usages of this field do not interfere with
4441 In this situation, the package declared as being replaced
4442 can be a virtual package, so for example, all mail
4443 transport agents (MTAs) would have the following fields in
4444 their control files:
4445 <example compact="compact">
4446 Provides: mail-transport-agent
4447 Conflicts: mail-transport-agent
4448 Replaces: mail-transport-agent
4450 ensuring that only one MTA can be installed at any one
4455 <sect id="sourcebinarydeps">
4456 <heading>Relationships between source and binary packages -
4457 <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
4458 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>
4462 Source packages that require certain binary packages to be
4463 installed or absent at the time of building the package
4464 can declare relationships to those binary packages.
4468 This is done using the <tt>Build-Depends</tt>,
4469 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and
4470 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> control file fields.
4474 Build-dependencies on "build-essential" binary packages can be
4475 omitted. Please see <ref id="pkg-relations"> for more information.
4479 The dependencies and conflicts they define must be satisfied
4480 (as defined earlier for binary packages) in order to invoke
4481 the targets in <tt>debian/rules</tt>, as follows:<footnote>
4483 If you make "build-arch" or "binary-arch", you need
4484 Build-Depends. If you make "build-indep" or
4485 "binary-indep", you need Build-Depends and
4486 Build-Depends-Indep. If you make "build" or "binary",
4490 There is no Build-Depends-Arch; this role is essentially
4491 met with Build-Depends. Anyone building the
4492 <tt>build-indep</tt> and binary-indep<tt></tt> targets
4493 is basically assumed to be building the whole package
4494 anyway and so installs all build dependencies. The
4495 autobuilders use <tt>dpkg-buildpackage -B</tt>, which
4496 calls <tt>build</tt> (not <tt>build-arch</tt>, since it
4497 does not yet know how to check for its existence) and
4498 <tt>binary-arch</tt>.
4501 The purpose of the original split, I recall, was so that
4502 the autobuilders wouldn't need to install extra packages
4503 needed only for the binary-indep targets. But without a
4504 build-arch/build-indep split, this didn't work, since
4505 most of the work is done in the build target, not in the
4511 <tag><tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt></tag>
4513 The <tt>Build-Depends</tt> and
4514 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> fields must be satisfied when
4515 any of the following targets is invoked:
4516 <tt>build</tt>, <tt>clean</tt>, <tt>binary</tt>,
4517 <tt>binary-arch</tt>, <tt>build-arch</tt>,
4518 <tt>build-indep</tt> and <tt>binary-indep</tt>.
4520 <tag><tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
4521 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt></tag>
4523 The <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt> and
4524 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> fields must be
4525 satisfied when any of the following targets is
4526 invoked: <tt>build</tt>, <tt>build-indep</tt>,
4527 <tt>binary</tt> and <tt>binary-indep</tt>.
4537 <chapt id="sharedlibs"><heading>Shared libraries</heading>
4540 Packages containing shared libraries must be constructed with
4541 a little care to make sure that the shared library is always
4542 available. This is especially important for packages whose
4543 shared libraries are vitally important, such as the C library
4544 (currently <tt>libc6</tt>).
4548 Packages involving shared libraries should be split up into
4549 several binary packages. This section mostly deals with how
4550 this separation is to be accomplished; rules for files within
4551 the shared library packages are in <ref id="libraries"> instead.
4554 <sect id="sharedlibs-runtime">
4555 <heading>Run-time shared libraries</heading>
4558 The run-time shared library needs to be placed in a package
4559 whose name changes whenever the shared object version
4562 Since it is common place to install several versions of a
4563 package that just provides shared libraries, it is a
4564 good idea that the library package should not
4565 contain any extraneous non-versioned files, unless they
4566 happen to be in versioned directories.</p>
4568 The most common mechanism is to place it in a package
4570 <package><var>libraryname</var><var>soversion</var></package>,
4571 where <file><var>soversion</var></file> is the version number
4572 in the soname of the shared library<footnote>
4573 The soname is the shared object name: it's the thing
4574 that has to match exactly between building an executable
4575 and running it for the dynamic linker to be able run the
4576 program. For example, if the soname of the library is
4577 <file>libfoo.so.6</file>, the library package would be
4578 called <file>libfoo6</file>.
4580 Alternatively, if it would be confusing to directly append
4581 <var>soversion</var> to <var>libraryname</var> (e.g. because
4582 <var>libraryname</var> itself ends in a number), you may use
4583 <package><var>libraryname</var>-<var>soversion</var></package> and
4584 <package><var>libraryname</var>-<var>soversion</var>-dev</package>
4589 If your package includes run-time support programs that
4590 do not need to be invoked manually by users, but are
4591 nevertheless required for the package to function, then it
4592 is recommended that these programs are placed
4593 (if they are binary) in a subdirectory of
4594 <file>/usr/lib</file>, preferably under
4595 <file>/usr/lib/</file><var>package-name</var>.
4596 If the program is architecture independent, the
4597 recommendation is for it to be placed in a subdirectory of
4598 <file>/usr/share</file> instead, preferably under
4599 <file>/usr/share/</file><var>package-name</var>.
4604 If you have several shared libraries built from the same
4605 source tree you may lump them all together into a single
4606 shared library package, provided that you change all of
4607 their sonames at once (so that you don't get filename
4608 clashes if you try to install different versions of the
4609 combined shared libraries package).
4613 The package should install the shared libraries under
4614 their normal names. For example, the <package>libgdbm3</package>
4615 package should install <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file> as
4616 <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. The files should not be
4617 renamed or re-linked by any <prgn>prerm</prgn> or
4618 <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts; <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will take care
4619 of renaming things safely without affecting running programs,
4620 and attempts to interfere with this are likely to lead to
4625 Shared libraries should not be installed executable, since
4626 the dynamic linker does not require this and trying to
4627 execute a shared library usually results in a core dump.
4631 The run-time library package should include the symbolic link that
4632 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> would create for the shared libraries.
4633 For example, the <package>libgdbm3</package> package should include
4634 a symbolic link from <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so.3</file> to
4635 <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. This is needed so that the dynamic
4636 linker (for example <prgn>ld.so</prgn> or
4637 <prgn>ld-linux.so.*</prgn>) can find the library between the
4638 time that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> installs it and the time that
4639 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> is run in the <prgn>postinst</prgn>
4641 The package management system requires the library to be
4642 placed before the symbolic link pointing to it in the
4643 <file>.deb</file> file. This is so that when
4644 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> comes to install the symlink
4645 (overwriting the previous symlink pointing at an older
4646 version of the library), the new shared library is already
4647 in place. In the past, this was achieved by creating the
4648 library in the temporary packaging directory before
4649 creating the symlink. Unfortunately, this was not always
4650 effective, since the building of the tar file in the
4651 <file>.deb</file> depended on the behavior of the underlying
4652 file system. Some file systems (such as reiserfs) reorder
4653 the files so that the order of creation is forgotten.
4654 Since version 1.7.0, <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
4655 reorders the files itself as necessary when building a
4656 package. Thus it is no longer important to concern
4657 oneself with the order of file creation.
4661 <sect1 id="ldconfig">
4662 <heading><tt>ldconfig</tt></heading>
4665 Any package installing shared libraries in one of the default
4666 library directories of the dynamic linker (which are currently
4667 <file>/usr/lib</file> and <file>/lib</file>) or a directory that is
4668 listed in <file>/etc/ld.so.conf</file><footnote>
4670 <list compact="compact">
4671 <item>/usr/local/lib</item>
4672 <item>/usr/lib/libc5-compat</item>
4673 <item>/lib/libc5-compat</item>
4676 must use <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> to update the shared library
4681 The package maintainer scripts must only call
4682 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> under these circumstances:
4683 <list compact="compact">
4684 <item>When the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script is run with a
4685 first argument of <tt>configure</tt>, the script must call
4686 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>, and may optionally invoke
4687 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> at other times.
4689 <item>When the <prgn>postrm</prgn> script is run with a
4690 first argument of <tt>remove</tt>, the script should call
4691 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>.
4696 During install or upgrade, the preinst is called before
4697 the new files are installed, so calling "ldconfig" is
4698 pointless. The preinst of an existing package can also be
4699 called if an upgrade fails. However, this happens during
4700 the critical time when a shared libs may exist on-disk
4701 under a temporary name. Thus, it is dangerous and
4702 forbidden by current policy to call "ldconfig" at this
4707 When a package is installed or upgraded, "postinst
4708 configure" runs after the new files are safely on-disk.
4709 Since it is perfectly safe to invoke ldconfig
4710 unconditionally in a postinst, it is OK for a package to
4711 simply put ldconfig in its postinst without checking the
4712 argument. The postinst can also be called to recover from
4713 a failed upgrade. This happens before any new files are
4714 unpacked, so there is no reason to call "ldconfig" at this
4719 For a package that is being removed, prerm is
4720 called with all the files intact, so calling ldconfig is
4721 useless. The other calls to "prerm" happen in the case of
4722 upgrade at a time when all the files of the old package
4723 are on-disk, so again calling "ldconfig" is pointless.
4727 postrm, on the other hand, is called with the "remove"
4728 argument just after the files are removed, so this is
4729 the proper time to call "ldconfig" to notify the system
4730 of the fact that the shared libraries from the package
4731 are removed. The postrm can be called at several other
4732 times. At the time of "postrm purge", "postrm
4733 abort-install", or "postrm abort-upgrade", calling
4734 "ldconfig" is useless because the shared lib files are
4735 not on-disk. However, when "postrm" is invoked with
4736 arguments "upgrade", "failed-upgrade", or "disappear", a
4737 shared lib may exist on-disk under a temporary filename.
4745 <sect id="sharedlibs-runtime-progs">
4746 <heading>Run-time support programs</heading>
4749 If your package has some run-time support programs which use
4750 the shared library you must not put them in the shared
4751 library package. If you do that then you won't be able to
4752 install several versions of the shared library without
4753 getting filename clashes.
4757 Instead, either create another package for the runtime binaries
4758 (this package might typically be named
4759 <package><var>libraryname</var>-runtime</package>; note the absence
4760 of the <var>soversion</var> in the package name), or if the
4761 development package is small, include them in there.
4765 <sect id="sharedlibs-static">
4766 <heading>Static libraries</heading>
4769 The static library (<file><var>libraryname.a</var></file>)
4770 is usually provided in addition to the shared version.
4771 It is placed into the development package (see below).
4775 In some cases, it is acceptable for a library to be
4776 available in static form only; these cases include:
4778 <item>libraries for languages whose shared library support
4779 is immature or unstable</item>
4780 <item>libraries whose interfaces are in flux or under
4781 development (commonly the case when the library's
4782 major version number is zero, or where the ABI breaks
4783 across patchlevels)</item>
4784 <item>libraries which are explicitly intended to be
4785 available only in static form by their upstream
4790 <sect id="sharedlibs-dev">
4791 <heading>Development files</heading>
4794 The development files associated to a shared library need to be
4795 placed in a package called
4796 <package><var>libraryname</var><var>soversion</var>-dev</package>,
4797 or if you prefer only to support one development version at a
4798 time, <package><var>libraryname</var>-dev</package>.
4802 In case several development versions of a library exist, you may
4803 need to use <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s Conflicts mechanism (see
4804 <ref id="conflicts">) to ensure that the user only installs one
4805 development version at a time (as different development versions are
4806 likely to have the same header files in them, which would cause a
4807 filename clash if both were installed).
4811 The development package should contain a symlink for the associated
4812 shared library without a version number. For example, the
4813 <package>libgdbm-dev</package> package should include a symlink
4814 from <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so</file> to
4815 <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. This symlink is needed by the linker
4816 (<prgn>ld</prgn>) when compiling packages, as it will only look for
4817 <file>libgdbm.so</file> when compiling dynamically.
4821 <sect id="sharedlibs-intradeps">
4822 <heading>Dependencies between the packages of the same library</heading>
4825 Typically the development version should have an exact
4826 version dependency on the runtime library, to make sure that
4827 compilation and linking happens correctly. The
4828 <tt>${binary:Version}</tt> substitution variable can be
4829 useful for this purpose.
4831 Previously, <tt>${Source-Version}</tt> was used, but its name
4832 was confusing and it has been deprecated since dpkg 1.13.19.
4837 <sect id="sharedlibs-shlibdeps">
4838 <heading>Dependencies between the library and other packages -
4839 the <tt>shlibs</tt> system</heading>
4842 If a package contains a binary or library which links to a
4843 shared library, we must ensure that when the package is
4844 installed on the system, all of the libraries needed are
4845 also installed. This requirement led to the creation of the
4846 <tt>shlibs</tt> system, which is very simple in its design:
4847 any package which <em>provides</em> a shared library also
4848 provides information on the package dependencies required to
4849 ensure the presence of this library, and any package which
4850 <em>uses</em> a shared library uses this information to
4851 determine the dependencies it requires. The files which
4852 contain the mapping from shared libraries to the necessary
4853 dependency information are called <file>shlibs</file> files.
4857 Thus, when a package is built which contains any shared
4858 libraries, it must provide a <file>shlibs</file> file for other
4859 packages to use, and when a package is built which contains
4860 any shared libraries or compiled binaries, it must run
4861 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>
4862 on these to determine the libraries used and hence the
4863 dependencies needed by this package.<footnote>
4865 In the past, the shared libraries linked to were
4866 determined by calling <prgn>ldd</prgn>, but now
4867 <prgn>objdump</prgn> is used to do this. The only
4868 change this makes to package building is that
4869 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> must also be run on shared
4870 libraries, whereas in the past this was unnecessary.
4871 The rest of this footnote explains the advantage that
4876 We say that a binary <tt>foo</tt> <em>directly</em> uses
4877 a library <tt>libbar</tt> if it is explicitly linked
4878 with that library (that is, it uses the flag
4879 <tt>-lbar</tt> during the linking stage). Other
4880 libraries that are needed by <tt>libbar</tt> are linked
4881 <em>indirectly</em> to <tt>foo</tt>, and the dynamic
4882 linker will load them automatically when it loads
4883 <tt>libbar</tt>. A package should depend on
4884 the libraries it directly uses, and the dependencies for
4885 those libraries should automatically pull in the other
4890 Unfortunately, the <prgn>ldd</prgn> program shows both
4891 the directly and indirectly used libraries, meaning that
4892 the dependencies determined included both direct and
4893 indirect dependencies. The use of <prgn>objdump</prgn>
4894 avoids this problem by determining only the directly
4899 A good example of where this helps is the following. We
4900 could update <tt>libimlib</tt> with a new version that
4901 supports a new graphics format called dgf (but retaining
4902 the same major version number). If we used the old
4903 <prgn>ldd</prgn> method, every package that uses
4904 <tt>libimlib</tt> would need to be recompiled so it
4905 would also depend on <tt>libdgf</tt> or it wouldn't run
4906 due to missing symbols. However with the new system,
4907 packages using <tt>libimlib</tt> can rely on
4908 <tt>libimlib</tt> itself having the dependency on
4909 <tt>libdgf</tt> and so they would not need rebuilding.
4915 In the following sections, we will first describe where the
4916 various <tt>shlibs</tt> files are to be found, then how to
4917 use <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>, and finally the <tt>shlibs</tt>
4918 file format and how to create them if your package contains a
4923 <heading>The <tt>shlibs</tt> files present on the system</heading>
4926 There are several places where <tt>shlibs</tt> files are
4927 found. The following list gives them in the order in which
4929 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>.
4930 (The first one which gives the required information is used.)
4936 <p><file>debian/shlibs.local</file></p>
4939 This lists overrides for this package. Its use is
4940 described below (see <ref id="shlibslocal">).
4945 <p><file>/etc/dpkg/shlibs.override</file></p>
4948 This lists global overrides. This list is normally
4949 empty. It is maintained by the local system
4955 <p><file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files in the "build directory"</p>
4958 When packages are being built, any
4959 <file>debian/shlibs</file> files are copied into the
4960 control file area of the temporary build directory and
4961 given the name <file>shlibs</file>. These files give
4962 details of any shared libraries included in the
4964 An example may help here. Let us say that the
4965 source package <tt>foo</tt> generates two binary
4966 packages, <tt>libfoo2</tt> and
4967 <tt>foo-runtime</tt>. When building the binary
4968 packages, the two packages are created in the
4969 directories <file>debian/libfoo2</file> and
4970 <file>debian/foo-runtime</file> respectively.
4971 (<file>debian/tmp</file> could be used instead of one
4972 of these.) Since <tt>libfoo2</tt> provides the
4973 <tt>libfoo</tt> shared library, it will require a
4974 <tt>shlibs</tt> file, which will be installed in
4975 <file>debian/libfoo2/DEBIAN/shlibs</file>, eventually
4977 <file>/var/lib/dpkg/info/libfoo2.shlibs</file>. Then
4978 when <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> is run on the
4980 <file>debian/foo-runtime/usr/bin/foo-prog</file>, it
4982 <file>debian/libfoo2/DEBIAN/shlibs</file> file to
4983 determine whether <tt>foo-prog</tt>'s library
4984 dependencies are satisfied by any of the libraries
4985 provided by <tt>libfoo2</tt>. For this reason,
4986 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> must only be run once
4987 all of the individual binary packages'
4988 <tt>shlibs</tt> files have been installed into the
4995 <p><file>/var/lib/dpkg/info/*.shlibs</file></p>
4998 These are the <file>shlibs</file> files corresponding to
4999 all of the packages installed on the system, and are
5000 maintained by the relevant package maintainers.
5005 <p><file>/etc/dpkg/shlibs.default</file></p>
5008 This file lists any shared libraries whose packages
5009 have failed to provide correct <file>shlibs</file> files.
5010 It was used when the <file>shlibs</file> setup was first
5011 introduced, but it is now normally empty. It is
5012 maintained by the <tt>dpkg</tt> maintainer.
5020 <heading>How to use <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> and the
5021 <file>shlibs</file> files</heading>
5025 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>
5026 into your <file>debian/rules</file> file. If your package
5027 contains only compiled binaries and libraries (but no scripts),
5028 you can use a command such as:
5029 <example compact="compact">
5030 dpkg-shlibdeps debian/tmp/usr/bin/* debian/tmp/usr/sbin/* \
5031 debian/tmp/usr/lib/*
5033 Otherwise, you will need to explicitly list the compiled
5034 binaries and libraries.<footnote>
5035 If you are using <tt>debhelper</tt>, the
5036 <prgn>dh_shlibdeps</prgn> program will do this work for
5037 you. It will also correctly handle multi-binary
5043 This command puts the dependency information into the
5044 <file>debian/substvars</file> file, which is then used by
5045 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>. You will need to place a
5046 <tt>${shlibs:Depends}</tt> variable in the <tt>Depends</tt>
5047 field in the control file for this to work.
5051 If <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> doesn't complain, you're
5052 done. If it does complain you might need to create your own
5053 <file>debian/shlibs.local</file> file, as explained below (see
5054 <ref id="shlibslocal">).
5058 If you have multiple binary packages, you will need to call
5059 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> on each one which contains
5060 compiled libraries or binaries. In such a case, you will
5061 need to use the <tt>-T</tt> option to the <tt>dpkg</tt>
5062 utilities to specify a different <file>substvars</file> file.
5066 If you are creating a udeb for use in the Debian Installer, you
5067 will need to specify that <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> should use
5068 the dependency line of type <tt>udeb</tt> by adding
5069 <tt>-tudeb</tt> as option<footnote>
5070 <prgn>dh_shlibdeps</prgn> from the <tt>debhelper</tt> suite
5071 will automatically add this option if it knows it is
5073 </footnote>. If there is no dependency line of type <tt>udeb</tt>
5074 in the <file>shlibs</file> file, <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> will
5075 fall back to the regular dependency line.
5079 For more details on dpkg-shlibdeps, please see
5080 <ref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"> and
5081 <manref name="dpkg-shlibdeps" section="1">.
5086 <heading>The <file>shlibs</file> File Format</heading>
5089 Each <file>shlibs</file> file has the same format. Lines
5090 beginning with <tt>#</tt> are considered to be comments and
5091 are ignored. Each line is of the form:
5092 <example compact="compact">
5093 [<var>type</var>: ]<var>library-name</var> <var>soname-version</var> <var>dependencies ...</var>
5098 We will explain this by reference to the example of the
5099 <tt>zlib1g</tt> package, which (at the time of writing)
5100 installs the shared library <file>/usr/lib/libz.so.1.1.3</file>.
5104 <var>type</var> is an optional element that indicates the type
5105 of package for which the line is valid. The only type currently
5106 in use is <tt>udeb</tt>. The colon and space after the type are
5111 <var>library-name</var> is the name of the shared library,
5112 in this case <tt>libz</tt>. (This must match the name part
5113 of the soname, see below.)
5117 <var>soname-version</var> is the version part of the soname of
5118 the library. The soname is the thing that must exactly match
5119 for the library to be recognized by the dynamic linker, and is
5121 <tt><var>name</var>.so.<var>major-version</var></tt>, in our
5122 example, <tt>libz.so.1</tt>.<footnote>
5123 This can be determined using the command
5124 <example compact="compact">
5125 objdump -p /usr/lib/libz.so.1.1.3 | grep SONAME
5128 The version part is the part which comes after
5129 <tt>.so.</tt>, so in our case, it is <tt>1</tt>.
5133 <var>dependencies</var> has the same syntax as a dependency
5134 field in a binary package control file. It should give
5135 details of which packages are required to satisfy a binary
5136 built against the version of the library contained in the
5137 package. See <ref id="depsyntax"> for details.
5141 In our example, if the first version of the <tt>zlib1g</tt>
5142 package which contained a minor number of at least
5143 <tt>1.3</tt> was <var>1:1.1.3-1</var>, then the
5144 <tt>shlibs</tt> entry for this library could say:
5145 <example compact="compact">
5146 libz 1 zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.3)
5148 The version-specific dependency is to avoid warnings from
5149 the dynamic linker about using older shared libraries with
5154 As zlib1g also provides a udeb containing the shared library,
5155 there would also be a second line:
5156 <example compact="compact">
5157 udeb: libz 1 zlib1g-udeb (>= 1:1.1.3)
5163 <heading>Providing a <file>shlibs</file> file</heading>
5166 If your package provides a shared library, you need to create
5167 a <file>shlibs</file> file following the format described above.
5168 It is usual to call this file <file>debian/shlibs</file> (but if
5169 you have multiple binary packages, you might want to call it
5170 <file>debian/shlibs.<var>package</var></file> instead). Then
5171 let <file>debian/rules</file> install it in the control area:
5172 <example compact="compact">
5173 install -m644 debian/shlibs debian/tmp/DEBIAN
5175 or, in the case of a multi-binary package:
5176 <example compact="compact">
5177 install -m644 debian/shlibs.<var>package</var> debian/<var>package</var>/DEBIAN/shlibs
5179 An alternative way of doing this is to create the
5180 <file>shlibs</file> file in the control area directly from
5181 <file>debian/rules</file> without using a <file>debian/shlibs</file>
5182 file at all,<footnote>
5183 This is what <prgn>dh_makeshlibs</prgn> in the
5184 <tt>debhelper</tt> suite does. If your package also has a udeb
5185 that provides a shared library, <prgn>dh_makeshlibs</prgn> can
5186 automatically generate the <tt>udeb:</tt> lines if you specify
5187 the name of the udeb with the <tt>--add-udeb</tt> option.
5189 since the <file>debian/shlibs</file> file itself is ignored by
5190 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>.
5194 As <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> reads the
5195 <file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files in all of the binary packages
5196 being built from this source package, all of the
5197 <file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files should be installed before
5198 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> is called on any of the binary
5203 <sect1 id="shlibslocal">
5204 <heading>Writing the <file>debian/shlibs.local</file> file</heading>
5207 This file is intended only as a <em>temporary</em> fix if
5208 your binaries or libraries depend on a library whose package
5209 does not yet provide a correct <file>shlibs</file> file.
5213 We will assume that you are trying to package a binary
5214 <tt>foo</tt>. When you try running
5215 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> you get the following error
5216 message (<tt>-O</tt> displays the dependency information on
5217 <tt>stdout</tt> instead of writing it to
5218 <tt>debian/substvars</tt>, and the lines have been wrapped
5219 for ease of reading):
5220 <example compact="compact">
5221 $ dpkg-shlibdeps -O debian/tmp/usr/bin/foo
5222 dpkg-shlibdeps: warning: unable to find dependency
5223 information for shared library libbar (soname 1,
5224 path /usr/lib/libbar.so.1, dependency field Depends)
5225 shlibs:Depends=libc6 (>= 2.2.2-2)
5227 You can then run <prgn>ldd</prgn> on the binary to find the
5228 full location of the library concerned:
5229 <example compact="compact">
5231 libbar.so.1 => /usr/lib/libbar.so.1 (0x4001e000)
5232 libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40032000)
5233 /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
5235 So the <prgn>foo</prgn> binary depends on the
5236 <prgn>libbar</prgn> shared library, but no package seems to
5237 provide a <file>*.shlibs</file> file handling
5238 <file>libbar.so.1</file> in <file>/var/lib/dpkg/info/</file>. Let's
5239 determine the package responsible:
5240 <example compact="compact">
5241 $ dpkg -S /usr/lib/libbar.so.1
5242 bar1: /usr/lib/libbar.so.1
5243 $ dpkg -s bar1 | grep Version
5246 This tells us that the <tt>bar1</tt> package, version 1.0-1,
5247 is the one we are using. Now we can file a bug against the
5248 <tt>bar1</tt> package and create our own
5249 <file>debian/shlibs.local</file> to locally fix the problem.
5250 Including the following line into your
5251 <file>debian/shlibs.local</file> file:
5252 <example compact="compact">
5253 libbar 1 bar1 (>= 1.0-1)
5255 should allow the package build to work.
5259 As soon as the maintainer of <tt>bar1</tt> provides a
5260 correct <file>shlibs</file> file, you should remove this line
5261 from your <file>debian/shlibs.local</file> file. (You should
5262 probably also then have a versioned <tt>Build-Depends</tt>
5263 on <tt>bar1</tt> to help ensure that others do not have the
5264 same problem building your package.)
5273 <chapt id="opersys"><heading>The Operating System</heading>
5276 <heading>File system hierarchy</heading>
5280 <heading>File system Structure</heading>
5283 The location of all installed files and directories must
5284 comply with the File system Hierarchy Standard (FHS),
5285 version 2.3, with the exceptions noted below, and except
5286 where doing so would violate other terms of Debian
5287 Policy. The following exceptions to the FHS apply:
5292 Legacy XFree86 servers are permitted to retain the
5293 configuration file location
5294 <file>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</file>.
5299 The optional rules related to user specific
5300 configuration files for applications are stored in
5301 the user's home directory are relaxed. It is
5302 recommended that such files start with the
5303 '<tt>.</tt>' character (a "dot file"), and if an
5304 application needs to create more than one dot file
5305 then the preferred placement is in a subdirectory
5306 with a name starting with a '.' character, (a "dot
5307 directory"). In this case it is recommended the
5308 configuration files not start with the '.'
5314 The requirement for amd64 to use <file>/lib64</file>
5315 for 64 bit binaries is removed.
5320 The requirement that
5321 <file>/usr/local/share/man</file> be "synonymous"
5322 with <file>/usr/local/man</file> is relaxed to a
5327 The requirement that windowmanagers with a single
5328 configuration file call it <file>system.*wmrc</file>
5329 is removed, as is the restriction that the window
5330 manager subdirectory be named identically to the
5331 window manager name itself.
5336 The requirement that boot manager configuration
5337 files live in <file>/etc</file>, or at least are
5338 symlinked there, is relaxed to a recommendation.
5345 The version of this document referred here can be
5346 found in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package or on <url
5347 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/"
5348 name="FHS (Debian copy)"> alongside this manual (or, if
5349 you have the <package>debian-policy</package> installed,
5351 id="file:///usr/share/doc/debian-policy/fhs/" name="FHS
5352 (local copy)">). The
5353 latest version, which may be a more recent version, may
5355 <url id="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/" name="FHS (upstream)">.
5356 Specific questions about following the standard may be
5357 asked on the <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list, or
5358 referred to the FHS mailing list (see the
5359 <url id="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/" name="FHS web site"> for
5365 <heading>Site-specific programs</heading>
5368 As mandated by the FHS, packages must not place any
5369 files in <file>/usr/local</file>, either by putting them in
5370 the file system archive to be unpacked by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
5371 or by manipulating them in their maintainer scripts.
5375 However, the package may create empty directories below
5376 <file>/usr/local</file> so that the system administrator knows
5377 where to place site-specific files. These are not
5378 directories <em>in</em> <file>/usr/local</file>, but are
5379 children of directories in <file>/usr/local</file>. These
5380 directories (<file>/usr/local/*/dir/</file>)
5381 should be removed on package removal if they are
5386 Note, that this applies only to directories <em>below</em>
5387 <file>/usr/local</file>, not <em>in</em> <file>/usr/local</file>.
5388 Packages must not create sub-directories in the directory
5389 <file>/usr/local</file> itself, except those listed in FHS,
5390 section 4.5. However, you may create directories below
5391 them as you wish. You must not remove any of the
5392 directories listed in 4.5, even if you created them.
5396 Since <file>/usr/local</file> can be mounted read-only from a
5397 remote server, these directories must be created and
5398 removed by the <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
5399 maintainer scripts and not be included in the
5400 <file>.deb</file> archive. These scripts must not fail if
5401 either of these operations fail.
5405 For example, the <tt>emacsen-common</tt> package could
5406 contain something like
5407 <example compact="compact">
5408 if [ ! -e /usr/local/share/emacs ]
5410 if mkdir /usr/local/share/emacs 2>/dev/null
5412 chown root:staff /usr/local/share/emacs
5413 chmod 2775 /usr/local/share/emacs
5417 in its <prgn>postinst</prgn> script, and
5418 <example compact="compact">
5419 rmdir /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp 2>/dev/null || true
5420 rmdir /usr/local/share/emacs 2>/dev/null || true
5422 in the <prgn>prerm</prgn> script. (Note that this form is
5423 used to ensure that if the script is interrupted, the
5424 directory <file>/usr/local/share/emacs</file> will still be
5429 If you do create a directory in <file>/usr/local</file> for
5430 local additions to a package, you should ensure that
5431 settings in <file>/usr/local</file> take precedence over the
5432 equivalents in <file>/usr</file>.
5436 However, because <file>/usr/local</file> and its contents are
5437 for exclusive use of the local administrator, a package
5438 must not rely on the presence or absence of files or
5439 directories in <file>/usr/local</file> for normal operation.
5443 The <file>/usr/local</file> directory itself and all the
5444 subdirectories created by the package should (by default) have
5445 permissions 2775 (group-writable and set-group-id) and be
5446 owned by <tt>root.staff</tt>.
5451 <heading>The system-wide mail directory</heading>
5453 The system-wide mail directory is <file>/var/mail</file>. This
5454 directory is part of the base system and should not owned
5455 by any particular mail agents. The use of the old
5456 location <file>/var/spool/mail</file> is deprecated, even
5457 though the spool may still be physically located there.
5458 To maintain partial upgrade compatibility for systems
5459 which have <file>/var/spool/mail</file> as their physical mail
5460 spool, packages using <file>/var/mail</file> must depend on
5461 either <package>libc6</package> (>= 2.1.3-13), or on
5462 <package>base-files</package> (>= 2.2.0), or on later
5463 versions of either one of these packages.
5469 <heading>Users and groups</heading>
5472 <heading>Introduction</heading>
5474 The Debian system can be configured to use either plain or
5479 Some user ids (UIDs) and group ids (GIDs) are reserved
5480 globally for use by certain packages. Because some
5481 packages need to include files which are owned by these
5482 users or groups, or need the ids compiled into binaries,
5483 these ids must be used on any Debian system only for the
5484 purpose for which they are allocated. This is a serious
5485 restriction, and we should avoid getting in the way of
5486 local administration policies. In particular, many sites
5487 allocate users and/or local system groups starting at 100.
5491 Apart from this we should have dynamically allocated ids,
5492 which should by default be arranged in some sensible
5493 order, but the behavior should be configurable.
5497 Packages other than <tt>base-passwd</tt> must not modify
5498 <file>/etc/passwd</file>, <file>/etc/shadow</file>,
5499 <file>/etc/group</file> or <file>/etc/gshadow</file>.
5504 <heading>UID and GID classes</heading>
5506 The UID and GID numbers are divided into classes as
5512 Globally allocated by the Debian project, the same
5513 on every Debian system. These ids will appear in
5514 the <file>passwd</file> and <file>group</file> files of all
5515 Debian systems, new ids in this range being added
5516 automatically as the <tt>base-passwd</tt> package is
5521 Packages which need a single statically allocated
5522 uid or gid should use one of these; their
5523 maintainers should ask the <tt>base-passwd</tt>
5531 Dynamically allocated system users and groups.
5532 Packages which need a user or group, but can have
5533 this user or group allocated dynamically and
5534 differently on each system, should use <tt>adduser
5535 --system</tt> to create the group and/or user.
5536 <prgn>adduser</prgn> will check for the existence of
5537 the user or group, and if necessary choose an unused
5538 id based on the ranges specified in
5539 <file>adduser.conf</file>.
5543 <tag>1000-29999:</tag>
5546 Dynamically allocated user accounts. By default
5547 <prgn>adduser</prgn> will choose UIDs and GIDs for
5548 user accounts in this range, though
5549 <file>adduser.conf</file> may be used to modify this
5554 <tag>30000-59999:</tag>
5559 <tag>60000-64999:</tag>
5562 Globally allocated by the Debian project, but only
5563 created on demand. The ids are allocated centrally
5564 and statically, but the actual accounts are only
5565 created on users' systems on demand.
5569 These ids are for packages which are obscure or
5570 which require many statically-allocated ids. These
5571 packages should check for and create the accounts in
5572 <file>/etc/passwd</file> or <file>/etc/group</file> (using
5573 <prgn>adduser</prgn> if it has this facility) if
5574 necessary. Packages which are likely to require
5575 further allocations should have a "hole" left after
5576 them in the allocation, to give them room to
5581 <tag>65000-65533:</tag>
5589 User <tt>nobody</tt>. The corresponding gid refers
5590 to the group <tt>nogroup</tt>.
5597 <tt>(uid_t)(-1) == (gid_t)(-1)</tt> <em>must
5598 not</em> be used, because it is the error return
5607 <sect id="sysvinit">
5608 <heading>System run levels and <file>init.d</file> scripts</heading>
5610 <sect1 id="/etc/init.d">
5611 <heading>Introduction</heading>
5614 The <file>/etc/init.d</file> directory contains the scripts
5615 executed by <prgn>init</prgn> at boot time and when the
5616 init state (or "runlevel") is changed (see <manref
5617 name="init" section="8">).
5621 There are at least two different, yet functionally
5622 equivalent, ways of handling these scripts. For the sake
5623 of simplicity, this document describes only the symbolic
5624 link method. However, it must not be assumed by maintainer
5625 scripts that this method is being used, and any automated
5626 manipulation of the various runlevel behaviors by
5627 maintainer scripts must be performed using
5628 <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> as described below and not by
5629 manually installing or removing symlinks. For information
5630 on the implementation details of the other method,
5631 implemented in the <tt>file-rc</tt> package, please refer
5632 to the documentation of that package.
5636 These scripts are referenced by symbolic links in the
5637 <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directories. When changing
5638 runlevels, <prgn>init</prgn> looks in the directory
5639 <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> for the scripts it should
5640 execute, where <tt><var>n</var></tt> is the runlevel that
5641 is being changed to, or <tt>S</tt> for the boot-up
5646 The names of the links all have the form
5647 <file>S<var>mm</var><var>script</var></file> or
5648 <file>K<var>mm</var><var>script</var></file> where
5649 <var>mm</var> is a two-digit number and <var>script</var>
5650 is the name of the script (this should be the same as the
5651 name of the actual script in <file>/etc/init.d</file>).
5655 When <prgn>init</prgn> changes runlevel first the targets
5656 of the links whose names start with a <tt>K</tt> are
5657 executed, each with the single argument <tt>stop</tt>,
5658 followed by the scripts prefixed with an <tt>S</tt>, each
5659 with the single argument <tt>start</tt>. (The links are
5660 those in the <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directory
5661 corresponding to the new runlevel.) The <tt>K</tt> links
5662 are responsible for killing services and the <tt>S</tt>
5663 link for starting services upon entering the runlevel.
5667 For example, if we are changing from runlevel 2 to
5668 runlevel 3, init will first execute all of the <tt>K</tt>
5669 prefixed scripts it finds in <file>/etc/rc3.d</file>, and then
5670 all of the <tt>S</tt> prefixed scripts in that directory.
5671 The links starting with <tt>K</tt> will cause the
5672 referred-to file to be executed with an argument of
5673 <tt>stop</tt>, and the <tt>S</tt> links with an argument
5678 The two-digit number <var>mm</var> is used to determine
5679 the order in which to run the scripts: low-numbered links
5680 have their scripts run first. For example, the
5681 <tt>K20</tt> scripts will be executed before the
5682 <tt>K30</tt> scripts. This is used when a certain service
5683 must be started before another. For example, the name
5684 server <prgn>bind</prgn> might need to be started before
5685 the news server <prgn>inn</prgn> so that <prgn>inn</prgn>
5686 can set up its access lists. In this case, the script
5687 that starts <prgn>bind</prgn> would have a lower number
5688 than the script that starts <prgn>inn</prgn> so that it
5690 <example compact="compact">
5697 The two runlevels 0 (halt) and 6 (reboot) are slightly
5698 different. In these runlevels, the links with an
5699 <tt>S</tt> prefix are still called after those with a
5700 <tt>K</tt> prefix, but they too are called with the single
5701 argument <tt>stop</tt>.
5705 Also, if the script name ends in <tt>.sh</tt>, the script
5706 will be sourced in runlevel <tt>S</tt> rather than being
5707 run in a forked subprocess, but will be explicitly run by
5708 <prgn>sh</prgn> in all other runlevels.
5713 <heading>Writing the scripts</heading>
5716 Packages that include daemons for system services should
5717 place scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file> to start or stop
5718 services at boot time or during a change of runlevel.
5719 These scripts should be named
5720 <file>/etc/init.d/<var>package</var></file>, and they should
5721 accept one argument, saying what to do:
5724 <tag><tt>start</tt></tag>
5725 <item>start the service,</item>
5727 <tag><tt>stop</tt></tag>
5728 <item>stop the service,</item>
5730 <tag><tt>restart</tt></tag>
5731 <item>stop and restart the service if it's already running,
5732 otherwise start the service</item>
5734 <tag><tt>reload</tt></tag>
5735 <item><p>cause the configuration of the service to be
5736 reloaded without actually stopping and restarting
5739 <tag><tt>force-reload</tt></tag>
5740 <item>cause the configuration to be reloaded if the
5741 service supports this, otherwise restart the
5745 The <tt>start</tt>, <tt>stop</tt>, <tt>restart</tt>, and
5746 <tt>force-reload</tt> options should be supported by all
5747 scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>, the <tt>reload</tt>
5752 The <file>init.d</file> scripts must ensure that they will
5753 behave sensibly if invoked with <tt>start</tt> when the
5754 service is already running, or with <tt>stop</tt> when it
5755 isn't, and that they don't kill unfortunately-named user
5756 processes. The best way to achieve this is usually to use
5757 <prgn>start-stop-daemon</prgn>.
5761 If a service reloads its configuration automatically (as
5762 in the case of <prgn>cron</prgn>, for example), the
5763 <tt>reload</tt> option of the <file>init.d</file> script
5764 should behave as if the configuration has been reloaded
5769 The <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts must be treated as
5770 configuration files, either (if they are present in the
5771 package, that is, in the .deb file) by marking them as
5772 <tt>conffile</tt>s, or, (if they do not exist in the .deb)
5773 by managing them correctly in the maintainer scripts (see
5774 <ref id="config-files">). This is important since we want
5775 to give the local system administrator the chance to adapt
5776 the scripts to the local system, e.g., to disable a
5777 service without de-installing the package, or to specify
5778 some special command line options when starting a service,
5779 while making sure their changes aren't lost during the next
5784 These scripts should not fail obscurely when the
5785 configuration files remain but the package has been
5786 removed, as configuration files remain on the system after
5787 the package has been removed. Only when <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
5788 is executed with the <tt>--purge</tt> option will
5789 configuration files be removed. In particular, as the
5790 <file>/etc/init.d/<var>package</var></file> script itself is
5791 usually a <tt>conffile</tt>, it will remain on the system
5792 if the package is removed but not purged. Therefore, you
5793 should include a <tt>test</tt> statement at the top of the
5795 <example compact="compact">
5796 test -f <var>program-executed-later-in-script</var> || exit 0
5801 Often there are some variables in the <file>init.d</file>
5802 scripts whose values control the behavior of the scripts,
5803 and which a system administrator is likely to want to
5804 change. As the scripts themselves are frequently
5805 <tt>conffile</tt>s, modifying them requires that the
5806 administrator merge in their changes each time the package
5807 is upgraded and the <tt>conffile</tt> changes. To ease
5808 the burden on the system administrator, such configurable
5809 values should not be placed directly in the script.
5810 Instead, they should be placed in a file in
5811 <file>/etc/default</file>, which typically will have the same
5812 base name as the <file>init.d</file> script. This extra file
5813 should be sourced by the script when the script runs. It
5814 must contain only variable settings and comments in SUSv3
5815 <prgn>sh</prgn> format. It may either be a
5816 <tt>conffile</tt> or a configuration file maintained by
5817 the package maintainer scripts. See <ref id="config-files">
5822 To ensure that vital configurable values are always
5823 available, the <file>init.d</file> script should set default
5824 values for each of the shell variables it uses, either
5825 before sourcing the <file>/etc/default/</file> file or
5826 afterwards using something like the <tt>:
5827 ${VAR:=default}</tt> syntax. Also, the <file>init.d</file>
5828 script must behave sensibly and not fail if the
5829 <file>/etc/default</file> file is deleted.
5834 <heading>Interfacing with the initscript system</heading>
5837 Maintainers should use the abstraction layer provided by
5838 the <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> and <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>
5839 programs to deal with initscripts in their packages'
5840 scripts such as <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn>
5841 and <prgn>postrm</prgn>.
5845 Directly managing the /etc/rc?.d links and directly
5846 invoking the <file>/etc/init.d/</file> initscripts should
5847 be done only by packages providing the initscript
5848 subsystem (such as <prgn>sysv-rc</prgn> and
5849 <prgn>file-rc</prgn>).
5853 <heading>Managing the links</heading>
5856 The program <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> is provided for
5857 package maintainers to arrange for the proper creation and
5858 removal of <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> symbolic links,
5859 or their functional equivalent if another method is being
5860 used. This may be used by maintainers in their packages'
5861 <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts.
5865 You must not include any <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file>
5866 symbolic links in the actual archive or manually create or
5867 remove the symbolic links in maintainer scripts; you must
5868 use the <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> program instead. (The
5869 former will fail if an alternative method of maintaining
5870 runlevel information is being used.) You must not include
5871 the <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directories themselves
5872 in the archive either. (Only the <tt>sysvinit</tt>
5877 By default <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> will start services in
5878 each of the multi-user state runlevels (2, 3, 4, and 5)
5879 and stop them in the halt runlevel (0), the single-user
5880 runlevel (1) and the reboot runlevel (6). The system
5881 administrator will have the opportunity to customize
5882 runlevels by simply adding, moving, or removing the
5883 symbolic links in <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> if
5884 symbolic links are being used, or by modifying
5885 <file>/etc/runlevel.conf</file> if the <tt>file-rc</tt> method
5890 To get the default behavior for your package, put in your
5891 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script
5892 <example compact="compact">
5893 update-rc.d <var>package</var> defaults
5895 and in your <prgn>postrm</prgn>
5896 <example compact="compact">
5897 if [ "$1" = purge ]; then
5898 update-rc.d <var>package</var> remove
5900 </example>. Note that if your package changes runlevels
5901 or priority, you may have to remove and recreate the links,
5902 since otherwise the old links may persist. Refer to the
5903 documentation of <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn>.
5907 This will use a default sequence number of 20. If it does
5908 not matter when or in which order the <file>init.d</file>
5909 script is run, use this default. If it does, then you
5910 should talk to the maintainer of the <prgn>sysvinit</prgn>
5911 package or post to <tt>debian-devel</tt>, and they will
5912 help you choose a number.
5916 For more information about using <tt>update-rc.d</tt>,
5917 please consult its man page <manref name="update-rc.d"
5923 <heading>Running initscripts</heading>
5925 The program <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> is provided to make
5926 it easier for package maintainers to properly invoke an
5927 initscript, obeying runlevel and other locally-defined
5928 constraints that might limit a package's right to start,
5929 stop and otherwise manage services. This program may be
5930 used by maintainers in their packages' scripts.
5934 The package maintainer scripts must use
5935 <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> to invoke the
5936 <file>/etc/init.d/*</file> initscripts, instead of
5937 calling them directly.
5941 By default, <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> will pass any
5942 action requests (start, stop, reload, restart...) to the
5943 <file>/etc/init.d</file> script, filtering out requests
5944 to start or restart a service out of its intended
5949 Most packages will simply need to change:
5950 <example compact="compact">/etc/init.d/<package>
5951 <action></example> in their <prgn>postinst</prgn>
5952 and <prgn>prerm</prgn> scripts to:
5953 <example compact="compact">
5954 if which invoke-rc.d >/dev/null 2>&1; then
5955 invoke-rc.d <var>package</var> <action>
5957 /etc/init.d/<var>package</var> <action>
5963 A package should register its initscript services using
5964 <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> before it tries to invoke them
5965 using <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>. Invocation of
5966 unregistered services may fail.
5970 For more information about using
5971 <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>, please consult its man page
5972 <manref name="invoke-rc.d" section="8">.
5978 <heading>Boot-time initialization</heading>
5981 There used to be another directory, <file>/etc/rc.boot</file>,
5982 which contained scripts which were run once per machine
5983 boot. This has been deprecated in favour of links from
5984 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file> to files in <file>/etc/init.d</file> as
5985 described in <ref id="/etc/init.d">. Packages must not
5986 place files in <file>/etc/rc.boot</file>.
5991 <heading>Example</heading>
5994 An example on which you can base your
5995 <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts is found in
5996 <file>/etc/init.d/skeleton</file>.
6003 <heading>Console messages from <file>init.d</file> scripts</heading>
6006 This section describes the formats to be used for messages
6007 written to standard output by the <file>/etc/init.d</file>
6008 scripts. The intent is to improve the consistency of
6009 Debian's startup and shutdown look and feel. For this
6010 reason, please look very carefully at the details. We want
6011 the messages to have the same format in terms of wording,
6012 spaces, punctuation and case of letters.
6016 Here is a list of overall rules that should be used for
6017 messages generated by <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts.
6023 The message should fit in one line (fewer than 80
6024 characters), start with a capital letter and end with
6025 a period (<tt>.</tt>) and line feed (<tt>"\n"</tt>).
6029 If the script is performing some time consuming task in
6030 the background (not merely starting or stopping a
6031 program, for instance), an ellipsis (three dots:
6032 <tt>...</tt>) should be output to the screen, with no
6033 leading or tailing whitespace or line feeds.
6037 The messages should appear as if the computer is telling
6038 the user what it is doing (politely :-), but should not
6039 mention "it" directly. For example, instead of:
6040 <example compact="compact">
6041 I'm starting network daemons: nfsd mountd.
6043 the message should say
6044 <example compact="compact">
6045 Starting network daemons: nfsd mountd.
6052 <tt>init.d</tt> script should use the following standard
6053 message formats for the situations enumerated below.
6059 <p>When daemons are started</p>
6062 If the script starts one or more daemons, the output
6063 should look like this (a single line, no leading
6065 <example compact="compact">
6066 Starting <var>description</var>: <var>daemon-1</var> ... <var>daemon-n</var>.
6068 The <var>description</var> should describe the
6069 subsystem the daemon or set of daemons are part of,
6070 while <var>daemon-1</var> up to <var>daemon-n</var>
6071 denote each daemon's name (typically the file name of
6076 For example, the output of <file>/etc/init.d/lpd</file>
6078 <example compact="compact">
6079 Starting printer spooler: lpd.
6084 This can be achieved by saying
6085 <example compact="compact">
6086 echo -n "Starting printer spooler: lpd"
6087 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec /usr/sbin/lpd
6090 in the script. If there are more than one daemon to
6091 start, the output should look like this:
6092 <example compact="compact">
6093 echo -n "Starting remote file system services:"
6094 echo -n " nfsd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet nfsd
6095 echo -n " mountd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet mountd
6096 echo -n " ugidd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet ugidd
6099 This makes it possible for the user to see what is
6100 happening and when the final daemon has been started.
6101 Care should be taken in the placement of white spaces:
6102 in the example above the system administrators can
6103 easily comment out a line if they don't want to start
6104 a specific daemon, while the displayed message still
6110 <p>When a system parameter is being set</p>
6113 If you have to set up different system parameters
6114 during the system boot, you should use this format:
6115 <example compact="compact">
6116 Setting <var>parameter</var> to "<var>value</var>".
6121 You can use a statement such as the following to get
6123 <example compact="compact">
6124 echo "Setting DNS domainname to \"$domainname\"."
6129 Note that the same symbol (<tt>"</tt>) is used for the left
6130 and right quotation marks. A grave accent (<tt>`</tt>) is
6131 not a quote character; neither is an apostrophe
6137 <p>When a daemon is stopped or restarted</p>
6140 When you stop or restart a daemon, you should issue a
6141 message identical to the startup message, except that
6142 <tt>Starting</tt> is replaced with <tt>Stopping</tt>
6143 or <tt>Restarting</tt> respectively.
6147 For example, stopping the printer daemon will look like
6149 <example compact="compact">
6150 Stopping printer spooler: lpd.
6156 <p>When something is executed</p>
6159 There are several examples where you have to run a
6160 program at system startup or shutdown to perform a
6161 specific task, for example, setting the system's clock
6162 using <prgn>netdate</prgn> or killing all processes
6163 when the system shuts down. Your message should look
6165 <example compact="compact">
6166 Doing something very useful...done.
6168 You should print the <tt>done.</tt> immediately after
6169 the job has been completed, so that the user is
6170 informed why they have to wait. You can get this
6172 <example compact="compact">
6173 echo -n "Doing something very useful..."
6182 <p>When the configuration is reloaded</p>
6185 When a daemon is forced to reload its configuration
6186 files you should use the following format:
6187 <example compact="compact">
6188 Reloading <var>description</var> configuration...done.
6190 where <var>description</var> is the same as in the
6191 daemon starting message.
6199 <heading>Cron jobs</heading>
6202 Packages must not modify the configuration file
6203 <file>/etc/crontab</file>, and they must not modify the files in
6204 <file>/var/spool/cron/crontabs</file>.</p>
6207 If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed
6208 via cron, it should place a file with the name of the
6209 package in one or more of the following directories:
6210 <example compact="compact">
6215 As these directory names imply, the files within them are
6216 executed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis,
6217 respectively. The exact times are listed in
6218 <file>/etc/crontab</file>.</p>
6221 All files installed in any of these directories must be
6222 scripts (e.g., shell scripts or Perl scripts) so that they
6223 can easily be modified by the local system administrator.
6224 In addition, they should be treated as configuration
6229 If a certain job has to be executed more frequently than
6230 daily, the package should install a file
6231 <file>/etc/cron.d/<var>package</var></file>. This file uses the
6232 same syntax as <file>/etc/crontab</file> and is processed by
6233 <prgn>cron</prgn> automatically. The file must also be
6234 treated as a configuration file. (Note that entries in the
6235 <file>/etc/cron.d</file> directory are not handled by
6236 <prgn>anacron</prgn>. Thus, you should only use this
6237 directory for jobs which may be skipped if the system is not
6241 The scripts or crontab entries in these directories should
6242 check if all necessary programs are installed before they
6243 try to execute them. Otherwise, problems will arise when a
6244 package was removed but not purged since configuration files
6245 are kept on the system in this situation.</p>
6249 <heading>Menus</heading>
6252 The Debian <tt>menu</tt> package provides a standard
6253 interface between packages providing applications and
6254 <em>menu programs</em> (either X window managers or
6255 text-based menu programs such as <prgn>pdmenu</prgn>).
6259 All packages that provide applications that need not be
6260 passed any special command line arguments for normal
6261 operation should register a menu entry for those
6262 applications, so that users of the <tt>menu</tt> package
6263 will automatically get menu entries in their window
6264 managers, as well in shells like <tt>pdmenu</tt>.
6268 Menu entries should follow the current menu policy.
6272 The menu policy can be found in the <tt>menu-policy</tt>
6273 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
6274 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
6275 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/menu-policy/"
6276 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu-policy/"></tt>.
6280 Please also refer to the <em>Debian Menu System</em>
6281 documentation that comes with the <package>menu</package>
6282 package for information about how to register your
6288 <heading>Multimedia handlers</heading>
6291 MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, RFCs 2045-2049)
6292 is a mechanism for encoding files and data streams and
6293 providing meta-information about them, in particular their
6294 type (e.g. audio or video) and format (e.g. PNG, HTML,
6299 Registration of MIME type handlers allows programs like mail
6300 user agents and web browsers to invoke these handlers to
6301 view, edit or display MIME types they don't support directly.
6305 Packages which provide the ability to view/show/play,
6306 compose, edit or print MIME types should register themselves
6307 as such following the current MIME support policy.
6311 The MIME support policy can be found in the <tt>mime-policy</tt>
6312 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
6313 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
6314 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/mime-policy/"
6315 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/mime-policy/"></tt>.
6321 <heading>Keyboard configuration</heading>
6324 To achieve a consistent keyboard configuration so that all
6325 applications interpret a keyboard event the same way, all
6326 programs in the Debian distribution must be configured to
6327 comply with the following guidelines.
6331 The following keys must have the specified interpretations:
6334 <tag><tt><--</tt></tag>
6335 <item>delete the character to the left of the cursor</item>
6337 <tag><tt>Delete</tt></tag>
6338 <item>delete the character to the right of the cursor</item>
6340 <tag><tt>Control+H</tt></tag>
6341 <item>emacs: the help prefix</item>
6344 The interpretation of any keyboard events should be
6345 independent of the terminal that is used, be it a virtual
6346 console, an X terminal emulator, an rlogin/telnet session,
6351 The following list explains how the different programs
6352 should be set up to achieve this:
6358 <tt><--</tt> generates <tt>KB_BackSpace</tt> in X.
6362 <tt>Delete</tt> generates <tt>KB_Delete</tt> in X.
6366 X translations are set up to make
6367 <tt>KB_Backspace</tt> generate ASCII DEL, and to make
6368 <tt>KB_Delete</tt> generate <tt>ESC [ 3 ~</tt> (this
6369 is the vt220 escape code for the "delete character"
6370 key). This must be done by loading the X resources
6371 using <prgn>xrdb</prgn> on all local X displays, not
6372 using the application defaults, so that the
6373 translation resources used correspond to the
6374 <prgn>xmodmap</prgn> settings.
6378 The Linux console is configured to make
6379 <tt><--</tt> generate DEL, and <tt>Delete</tt>
6380 generate <tt>ESC [ 3 ~</tt>.
6384 X applications are configured so that <tt><</tt>
6385 deletes left, and <tt>Delete</tt> deletes right. Motif
6386 applications already work like this.
6390 Terminals should have <tt>stty erase ^?</tt> .
6394 The <tt>xterm</tt> terminfo entry should have <tt>ESC
6395 [ 3 ~</tt> for <tt>kdch1</tt>, just as for
6396 <tt>TERM=linux</tt> and <tt>TERM=vt220</tt>.
6400 Emacs is programmed to map <tt>KB_Backspace</tt> or
6401 the <tt>stty erase</tt> character to
6402 <tt>delete-backward-char</tt>, and <tt>KB_Delete</tt>
6403 or <tt>kdch1</tt> to <tt>delete-forward-char</tt>, and
6404 <tt>^H</tt> to <tt>help</tt> as always.
6408 Other applications use the <tt>stty erase</tt>
6409 character and <tt>kdch1</tt> for the two delete keys,
6410 with ASCII DEL being "delete previous character" and
6411 <tt>kdch1</tt> being "delete character under
6419 This will solve the problem except for the following
6426 Some terminals have a <tt><--</tt> key that cannot
6427 be made to produce anything except <tt>^H</tt>. On
6428 these terminals Emacs help will be unavailable on
6429 <tt>^H</tt> (assuming that the <tt>stty erase</tt>
6430 character takes precedence in Emacs, and has been set
6431 correctly). <tt>M-x help</tt> or <tt>F1</tt> (if
6432 available) can be used instead.
6436 Some operating systems use <tt>^H</tt> for <tt>stty
6437 erase</tt>. However, modern telnet versions and all
6438 rlogin versions propagate <tt>stty</tt> settings, and
6439 almost all UNIX versions honour <tt>stty erase</tt>.
6440 Where the <tt>stty</tt> settings are not propagated
6441 correctly, things can be made to work by using
6442 <tt>stty</tt> manually.
6446 Some systems (including previous Debian versions) use
6447 <prgn>xmodmap</prgn> to arrange for both
6448 <tt><--</tt> and <tt>Delete</tt> to generate
6449 <tt>KB_Delete</tt>. We can change the behavior of
6450 their X clients using the same X resources that we use
6451 to do it for our own clients, or configure our clients
6452 using their resources when things are the other way
6453 around. On displays configured like this
6454 <tt>Delete</tt> will not work, but <tt><--</tt>
6459 Some operating systems have different <tt>kdch1</tt>
6460 settings in their <tt>terminfo</tt> database for
6461 <tt>xterm</tt> and others. On these systems the
6462 <tt>Delete</tt> key will not work correctly when you
6463 log in from a system conforming to our policy, but
6464 <tt><--</tt> will.
6471 <heading>Environment variables</heading>
6474 A program must not depend on environment variables to get
6475 reasonable defaults. (That's because these environment
6476 variables would have to be set in a system-wide
6477 configuration file like <file>/etc/profile</file>, which is not
6478 supported by all shells.)
6482 If a program usually depends on environment variables for its
6483 configuration, the program should be changed to fall back to
6484 a reasonable default configuration if these environment
6485 variables are not present. If this cannot be done easily
6486 (e.g., if the source code of a non-free program is not
6487 available), the program must be replaced by a small
6488 "wrapper" shell script which sets the environment variables
6489 if they are not already defined, and calls the original program.
6493 Here is an example of a wrapper script for this purpose:
6495 <example compact="compact">
6497 BAR=${BAR:-/var/lib/fubar}
6499 exec /usr/lib/foo/foo "$@"
6504 Furthermore, as <file>/etc/profile</file> is a configuration
6505 file of the <prgn>base-files</prgn> package, other packages must
6506 not put any environment variables or other commands into that
6511 <sect id="doc-base">
6512 <heading>Registering Documents using doc-base</heading>
6515 The <package>doc-base</package> package implements a
6516 flexible mechanism for handling and presenting
6517 documentation. The recommended practice is for every Debian
6518 package that provides online documentation (other than just
6519 manual pages) to register these documents with
6520 <package>doc-base</package> by installing a
6521 <package>doc-base</package> control file via the
6522 <prgn/install-docs/ script at installation time and
6523 de-register the manuals again when the package is removed.
6526 Please refer to the documentation that comes with the
6527 <package>doc-base</package> package for information and
6536 <heading>Files</heading>
6539 <heading>Binaries</heading>
6542 Two different packages must not install programs with
6543 different functionality but with the same filenames. (The
6544 case of two programs having the same functionality but
6545 different implementations is handled via "alternatives" or
6546 the "Conflicts" mechanism. See <ref id="maintscripts"> and
6547 <ref id="conflicts"> respectively.) If this case happens,
6548 one of the programs must be renamed. The maintainers should
6549 report this to the <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list and
6550 try to find a consensus about which program will have to be
6551 renamed. If a consensus cannot be reached, <em>both</em>
6552 programs must be renamed.
6556 By default, when a package is being built, any binaries
6557 created should include debugging information, as well as
6558 being compiled with optimization. You should also turn on
6559 as many reasonable compilation warnings as possible; this
6560 makes life easier for porters, who can then look at build
6561 logs for possible problems. For the C programming language,
6562 this means the following compilation parameters should be
6564 <example compact="compact">
6566 CFLAGS = -O2 -g -Wall # sane warning options vary between programs
6568 INSTALL = install -s # (or use strip on the files in debian/tmp)
6573 Note that by default all installed binaries should be stripped,
6574 either by using the <tt>-s</tt> flag to
6575 <prgn>install</prgn>, or by calling <prgn>strip</prgn> on
6576 the binaries after they have been copied into
6577 <file>debian/tmp</file> but before the tree is made into a
6582 Although binaries in the build tree should be compiled with
6583 debugging information by default, it can often be difficult
6584 to debug programs if they are also subjected to compiler
6585 optimization. For this reason, it is recommended to support
6586 the standardized environment
6587 variable <tt>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS</tt>. This variable can
6588 contain several flags to change how a package is compiled
6596 The presence of this string means that the package
6597 should be compiled with a minimum of optimization.
6598 For C programs, it is best to add <tt>-O0</tt>
6599 to <tt>CFLAGS</tt> (although this is usually the
6600 default). Some programs might fail to build or run at
6601 this level of optimization; it may be necessary to
6602 use <tt>-O1</tt>, for example.
6606 This string means that the debugging symbols should
6607 not be stripped from the binary during installation,
6608 so that debugging information may be included in the package.
6614 The following makefile snippet is an example of how one may
6615 implement the build options; you will probably have to
6616 massage this example in order to make it work for your
6618 <example compact="compact">
6621 INSTALL_FILE = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 644
6622 INSTALL_PROGRAM = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 755
6623 INSTALL_SCRIPT = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 755
6624 INSTALL_DIR = $(INSTALL) -p -d -o root -g root -m 755
6626 ifneq (,$(findstring noopt,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
6631 ifeq (,$(findstring nostrip,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
6632 INSTALL_PROGRAM += -s
6638 It is up to the package maintainer to decide what
6639 compilation options are best for the package. Certain
6640 binaries (such as computationally-intensive programs) will
6641 function better with certain flags (<tt>-O3</tt>, for
6642 example); feel free to use them. Please use good judgment
6643 here. Don't use flags for the sake of it; only use them
6644 if there is good reason to do so. Feel free to override
6645 the upstream author's ideas about which compilation
6646 options are best: they are often inappropriate for our
6652 <sect id="libraries">
6653 <heading>Libraries</heading>
6656 If the package is <strong>architecture: any</strong>, then
6657 the shared library compilation and linking flags must have
6658 <tt>-fPIC</tt>, or the package shall not build on some of
6659 the supported architectures<footnote>
6661 If you are using GCC, <tt>-fPIC</tt> produces code with
6662 relocatable position independent code, which is required for
6663 most architectures to create a shared library, with i386 and
6664 perhaps some others where non position independent code is
6665 permitted in a shared library.
6668 Position independent code may have a performance penalty,
6669 especially on <tt>i386</tt>. However, in most cases the
6670 speed penalty must be measured against the memory wasted on
6671 the few architectures where non position independent code is
6674 </footnote>. Any exception to this rule must be discussed on
6675 the mailing list <em>debian-devel@lists.debian.org</em>, and
6676 a rough consensus obtained. The reasons for not compiling
6677 with <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag must be recorded in the file
6678 <tt>README.Debian</tt>, and care must be taken to either
6679 restrict the architecture or arrange for <tt>-fPIC</tt> to
6680 be used on architectures where it is required.<footnote>
6682 Some of the reasons why this might be required is if the
6683 library contains hand crafted assembly code that is not
6684 relocatable, the speed penalty is excessive for compute
6685 intensive libs, and similar reasons.
6690 As to the static libraries, the common case is not to have
6691 relocatable code, since there is no benefit, unless in specific
6692 cases; therefore the static version must not be compiled
6693 with the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag. Any exception to this rule
6694 should be discussed on the mailing list
6695 <em>debian-devel@lists.debian.org</em>, and the reasons for
6696 compiling with the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag must be recorded in
6697 the file <tt>README.Debian</tt>. <footnote>
6699 Some of the reasons for linking static libraries with
6700 the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag are if, for example, one needs a
6701 Perl API for a library that is under rapid development,
6702 and has an unstable API, so shared libraries are
6703 pointless at this phase of the library's development. In
6704 that case, since Perl needs a library with relocatable
6705 code, it may make sense to create a static library with
6706 relocatable code. Another reason cited is if you are
6707 distilling various libraries into a common shared
6708 library, like <tt>mklibs</tt> does in the Debian
6714 In other words, if both a shared and a static library is
6715 being built, each source unit (<tt>*.c</tt>, for example,
6716 for C files) will need to be compiled twice, for the normal
6720 You must specify the gcc option <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>
6721 when building a library (either static or shared) to make
6722 the library compatible with LinuxThreads.
6726 Although not enforced by the build tools, shared libraries
6727 must be linked against all libraries that they use symbols from
6728 in the same way that binaries are. This ensures the correct
6729 functioning of the <qref id="sharedlibs-shlibdeps">shlibs</qref>
6730 system and guarantees that all libraries can be safely opened
6731 with <tt>dlopen()</tt>. Packagers may wish to use the gcc
6732 option <tt>-Wl,-z,defs</tt> when building a shared library.
6733 Since this option enforces symbol resolution at build time,
6734 a missing library reference will be caught early as a fatal
6739 All installed shared libraries should be stripped with
6740 <example compact="compact">
6741 strip --strip-unneeded <var>your-lib</var>
6743 (The option <tt>--strip-unneeded</tt> makes
6744 <prgn>strip</prgn> remove only the symbols which aren't
6745 needed for relocation processing.) Shared libraries can
6746 function perfectly well when stripped, since the symbols for
6747 dynamic linking are in a separate part of the ELF object
6749 You might also want to use the options
6750 <tt>--remove-section=.comment</tt> and
6751 <tt>--remove-section=.note</tt> on both shared libraries
6752 and executables, and <tt>--strip-debug</tt> on static
6758 Note that under some circumstances it may be useful to
6759 install a shared library unstripped, for example when
6760 building a separate package to support debugging.
6764 Shared object files (often <file>.so</file> files) that are not
6765 public libraries, that is, they are not meant to be linked
6766 to by third party executables (binaries of other packages),
6767 should be installed in subdirectories of the
6768 <file>/usr/lib</file> directory. Such files are exempt from the
6769 rules that govern ordinary shared libraries, except that
6770 they must not be installed executable and should be
6772 A common example are the so-called "plug-ins",
6773 internal shared objects that are dynamically loaded by
6774 programs using <manref name="dlopen" section="3">.
6779 Packages containing shared libraries that may be linked to
6780 by other packages' binaries, but which for some
6781 <em>compelling</em> reason can not be installed in
6782 <file>/usr/lib</file> directory, may install the shared library
6783 files in subdirectories of the <file>/usr/lib</file> directory,
6784 in which case they should arrange to add that directory in
6785 <file>/etc/ld.so.conf</file> in the package's post-installation
6786 script, and remove it in the package's post-removal script.
6790 An ever increasing number of packages are using
6791 <prgn>libtool</prgn> to do their linking. The latest GNU
6792 libtools (>= 1.3a) can take advantage of the metadata in the
6793 installed <prgn>libtool</prgn> archive files (<file>*.la</file>
6794 files). The main advantage of <prgn>libtool</prgn>'s
6795 <file>.la</file> files is that it allows <prgn>libtool</prgn> to
6796 store and subsequently access metadata with respect to the
6797 libraries it builds. <prgn>libtool</prgn> will search for
6798 those files, which contain a lot of useful information about
6799 a library (such as library dependency information for static
6800 linking). Also, they're <em>essential</em> for programs
6801 using <tt>libltdl</tt>.<footnote>
6802 Although <prgn>libtool</prgn> is fully capable of
6803 linking against shared libraries which don't have
6804 <tt>.la</tt> files, as it is a mere shell script it can
6805 add considerably to the build time of a
6806 <prgn>libtool</prgn>-using package if that shell script
6807 has to derive all this information from first principles
6808 for each library every time it is linked. With the
6809 advent of <prgn>libtool</prgn> version 1.4 (and to a
6810 lesser extent <prgn>libtool</prgn> version 1.3), the
6811 <file>.la</file> files also store information about
6812 inter-library dependencies which cannot necessarily be
6813 derived after the <file>.la</file> file is deleted.
6818 Packages that use <prgn>libtool</prgn> to create shared
6819 libraries should include the <file>.la</file> files in the
6820 <tt>-dev</tt> package, unless the package relies on
6821 <tt>libtool</tt>'s <tt>libltdl</tt> library, in which case
6822 the <tt>.la</tt> files must go in the run-time library
6827 You must make sure that you use only released versions of
6828 shared libraries to build your packages; otherwise other
6829 users will not be able to run your binaries
6830 properly. Producing source packages that depend on
6831 unreleased compilers is also usually a bad
6838 <heading>Shared libraries</heading>
6840 This section has moved to <ref id="sharedlibs">.
6846 <heading>Scripts</heading>
6849 All command scripts, including the package maintainer
6850 scripts inside the package and used by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>,
6851 should have a <tt>#!</tt> line naming the shell to be used
6856 In the case of Perl scripts this should be
6857 <tt>#!/usr/bin/perl</tt>.
6861 When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
6862 PATH, the script name should not include an extension such
6863 as <tt>.sh</tt> or <tt>.pl</tt> that denotes the scripting
6864 language currently used to implement it.
6867 Shell scripts (<prgn>sh</prgn> and <prgn>bash</prgn>)
6868 should almost certainly start with <tt>set -e</tt> so that
6869 errors are detected. Every script should use
6870 <tt>set -e</tt> or check the exit status of <em>every</em>
6875 Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> implements the
6876 SUSv3 Shell Command Language<footnote>
6877 Single UNIX Specification, version 3, which is also IEEE
6878 1003.1-2004 (POSIX), and is available on the World Wide Web
6879 from <url id="http://www.unix.org/version3/online.html"
6880 name="The Open Group"> after free
6881 registration.</footnote>
6882 plus the following additional features not mandated by
6884 These features are in widespread use in the Linux community
6885 and are implemented in all of bash, dash, and ksh, the most
6886 common shells users may wish to use as <file>/bin/sh</file>.
6889 <item><tt>echo -n</tt>, if implemented as a shell built-in,
6890 must not generate a newline.</item>
6891 <item><tt>test</tt>, if implemented as a shell built-in, must
6892 support <tt>-a</tt> and <tt>-o</tt> as binary logical
6894 <item><tt>local</tt> to create a scoped variable must be
6895 supported; however, <tt>local</tt> may or may not preserve
6896 the variable value from an outer scope and may or may not
6897 support arguments more complex than simple variables. Only
6909 If a shell script requires non-SUSv3 features from the shell
6910 interpreter other than those listed above, the appropriate shell
6911 must be specified in the first line of the script (e.g.,
6912 <tt>#!/bin/bash</tt>) and the package must depend on the package
6913 providing the shell (unless the shell package is marked
6914 "Essential", as in the case of <prgn>bash</prgn>).
6918 You may wish to restrict your script to SUSv3 features plus the
6919 above set when possible so that it may use <file>/bin/sh</file>
6920 as its interpreter. If your script works with <prgn>dash</prgn>
6921 (originally called <prgn>ash</prgn>), it probably complies with
6922 the above requirements, but if you are in doubt, use
6923 <file>/bin/bash</file>.
6927 Perl scripts should check for errors when making any
6928 system calls, including <tt>open</tt>, <tt>print</tt>,
6929 <tt>close</tt>, <tt>rename</tt> and <tt>system</tt>.
6933 <prgn>csh</prgn> and <prgn>tcsh</prgn> should be avoided as
6934 scripting languages. See <em>Csh Programming Considered
6935 Harmful</em>, one of the <tt>comp.unix.*</tt> FAQs, which
6936 can be found at <url id="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/">.
6937 If an upstream package comes with <prgn>csh</prgn> scripts
6938 then you must make sure that they start with
6939 <tt>#!/bin/csh</tt> and make your package depend on the
6940 <prgn>c-shell</prgn> virtual package.
6944 Any scripts which create files in world-writeable
6945 directories (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) must use a
6946 mechanism which will fail atomically if a file with the same
6947 name already exists.
6951 The Debian base system provides the <prgn>tempfile</prgn>
6952 and <prgn>mktemp</prgn> utilities for use by scripts for
6959 <heading>Symbolic links</heading>
6962 In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory
6963 should be relative, and symbolic links pointing from one
6964 top-level directory into another should be absolute. (A
6965 top-level directory is a sub-directory of the root
6966 directory <file>/</file>.)
6970 In addition, symbolic links should be specified as short as
6971 possible, i.e., link targets like <file>foo/../bar</file> are
6976 Note that when creating a relative link using
6977 <prgn>ln</prgn> it is not necessary for the target of the
6978 link to exist relative to the working directory you're
6979 running <prgn>ln</prgn> from, nor is it necessary to change
6980 directory to the directory where the link is to be made.
6981 Simply include the string that should appear as the target
6982 of the link (this will be a pathname relative to the
6983 directory in which the link resides) as the first argument
6988 For example, in your <prgn>Makefile</prgn> or
6989 <file>debian/rules</file>, you can do things like:
6990 <example compact="compact">
6991 ln -fs gcc $(prefix)/bin/cc
6992 ln -fs gcc debian/tmp/usr/bin/cc
6993 ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail $(prefix)/bin/runq
6994 ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
6999 A symbolic link pointing to a compressed file should always
7000 have the same file extension as the referenced file. (For
7001 example, if a file <file>foo.gz</file> is referenced by a
7002 symbolic link, the filename of the link has to end with
7003 "<file>.gz</file>" too, as in <file>bar.gz</file>.)
7008 <heading>Device files</heading>
7011 Packages must not include device files in the package file
7016 If a package needs any special device files that are not
7017 included in the base system, it must call
7018 <prgn>MAKEDEV</prgn> in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script,
7019 after notifying the user<footnote>
7020 This notification could be done via a (low-priority)
7021 debconf message, or an echo (printf) statement.
7026 Packages must not remove any device files in the
7027 <prgn>postrm</prgn> or any other script. This is left to the
7028 system administrator.
7032 Debian uses the serial devices
7033 <file>/dev/ttyS*</file>. Programs using the old
7034 <file>/dev/cu*</file> devices should be changed to use
7035 <file>/dev/ttyS*</file>.
7039 <sect id="config-files">
7040 <heading>Configuration files</heading>
7043 <heading>Definitions</heading>
7047 <tag>configuration file</tag>
7049 A file that affects the operation of a program, or
7050 provides site- or host-specific information, or
7051 otherwise customizes the behavior of a program.
7052 Typically, configuration files are intended to be
7053 modified by the system administrator (if needed or
7054 desired) to conform to local policy or to provide
7055 more useful site-specific behavior.
7058 <tag><tt>conffile</tt></tag>
7060 A file listed in a package's <tt>conffiles</tt>
7061 file, and is treated specially by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
7062 (see <ref id="configdetails">).
7068 The distinction between these two is important; they are
7069 not interchangeable concepts. Almost all
7070 <tt>conffile</tt>s are configuration files, but many
7071 configuration files are not <tt>conffiles</tt>.
7075 Note that a script that embeds configuration information
7076 (such as most of the files in <file>/etc/default</file> and
7077 <file>/etc/cron.{daily,weekly,monthly}</file>) is de-facto a
7078 configuration file and should be treated as such.
7083 <heading>Location</heading>
7086 Any configuration files created or used by your package
7087 must reside in <file>/etc</file>. If there are several,
7088 consider creating a subdirectory of <file>/etc</file>
7089 named after your package.
7093 If your package creates or uses configuration files
7094 outside of <file>/etc</file>, and it is not feasible to modify
7095 the package to use <file>/etc</file> directly, put the files
7096 in <file>/etc</file> and create symbolic links to those files
7097 from the location that the package requires.
7102 <heading>Behavior</heading>
7105 Configuration file handling must conform to the following
7107 <list compact="compact">
7109 local changes must be preserved during a package
7113 configuration files must be preserved when the
7114 package is removed, and only deleted when the
7121 The easy way to achieve this behavior is to make the
7122 configuration file a <tt>conffile</tt>. This is
7123 appropriate only if it is possible to distribute a default
7124 version that will work for most installations, although
7125 some system administrators may choose to modify it. This
7126 implies that the default version will be part of the
7127 package distribution, and must not be modified by the
7128 maintainer scripts during installation (or at any other
7133 In order to ensure that local changes are preserved
7134 correctly, no package may contain or make hard links to
7135 conffiles.<footnote>
7136 Rationale: There are two problems with hard links.
7137 The first is that some editors break the link while
7138 editing one of the files, so that the two files may
7139 unwittingly become unlinked and different. The second
7140 is that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> might break the hard link
7141 while upgrading <tt>conffile</tt>s.
7146 The other way to do it is via the maintainer scripts. In
7147 this case, the configuration file must not be listed as a
7148 <tt>conffile</tt> and must not be part of the package
7149 distribution. If the existence of a file is required for
7150 the package to be sensibly configured it is the
7151 responsibility of the package maintainer to provide
7152 maintainer scripts which correctly create, update and
7153 maintain the file and remove it on purge. (See <ref
7154 id="maintainerscripts"> for more information.) These
7155 scripts must be idempotent (i.e., must work correctly if
7156 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> needs to re-run them due to errors
7157 during installation or removal), must cope with all the
7158 variety of ways <prgn>dpkg</prgn> can call maintainer
7159 scripts, must not overwrite or otherwise mangle the user's
7160 configuration without asking, must not ask unnecessary
7161 questions (particularly during upgrades), and must
7162 otherwise be good citizens.
7166 The scripts are not required to configure every possible
7167 option for the package, but only those necessary to get
7168 the package running on a given system. Ideally the
7169 sysadmin should not have to do any configuration other
7170 than that done (semi-)automatically by the
7171 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script.
7175 A common practice is to create a script called
7176 <file><var>package</var>-configure</file> and have the
7177 package's <prgn>postinst</prgn> call it if and only if the
7178 configuration file does not already exist. In certain
7179 cases it is useful for there to be an example or template
7180 file which the maintainer scripts use. Such files should
7181 be in <file>/usr/share/<var>package</var></file> or
7182 <file>/usr/lib/<var>package</var></file> (depending on whether
7183 they are architecture-independent or not). There should
7184 be symbolic links to them from
7185 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file> if
7186 they are examples, and should be perfectly ordinary
7187 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>-handled files (<em>not</em>
7188 configuration files).
7192 These two styles of configuration file handling must
7193 not be mixed, for that way lies madness:
7194 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will ask about overwriting the file
7195 every time the package is upgraded.
7200 <heading>Sharing configuration files</heading>
7203 Packages which specify the same file as a
7204 <tt>conffile</tt> must be tagged as <em>conflicting</em>
7205 with each other. (This is an instance of the general rule
7206 about not sharing files. Note that neither alternatives
7207 nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case;
7208 in particular, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> does not handle diverted
7209 <tt>conffile</tt>s well.)
7213 The maintainer scripts must not alter a <tt>conffile</tt>
7214 of <em>any</em> package, including the one the scripts
7219 If two or more packages use the same configuration file
7220 and it is reasonable for both to be installed at the same
7221 time, one of these packages must be defined as
7222 <em>owner</em> of the configuration file, i.e., it will be
7223 the package which handles that file as a configuration
7224 file. Other packages that use the configuration file must
7225 depend on the owning package if they require the
7226 configuration file to operate. If the other package will
7227 use the configuration file if present, but is capable of
7228 operating without it, no dependency need be declared.
7232 If it is desirable for two or more related packages to
7233 share a configuration file <em>and</em> for all of the
7234 related packages to be able to modify that configuration
7235 file, then the following should be done:
7236 <enumlist compact="compact">
7238 One of the related packages (the "owning" package)
7239 will manage the configuration file with maintainer
7240 scripts as described in the previous section.
7243 The owning package should also provide a program
7244 that the other packages may use to modify the
7248 The related packages must use the provided program
7249 to make any desired modifications to the
7250 configuration file. They should either depend on
7251 the core package to guarantee that the configuration
7252 modifier program is available or accept gracefully
7253 that they cannot modify the configuration file if it
7254 is not. (This is in addition to the fact that the
7255 configuration file may not even be present in the
7262 Sometimes it's appropriate to create a new package which
7263 provides the basic infrastructure for the other packages
7264 and which manages the shared configuration files. (The
7265 <tt>sgml-base</tt> package is a good example.)
7270 <heading>User configuration files ("dotfiles")</heading>
7273 The files in <file>/etc/skel</file> will automatically be
7274 copied into new user accounts by <prgn>adduser</prgn>.
7275 No other program should reference the files in
7276 <file>/etc/skel</file>.
7280 Therefore, if a program needs a dotfile to exist in
7281 advance in <file>$HOME</file> to work sensibly, that dotfile
7282 should be installed in <file>/etc/skel</file> and treated as a
7287 However, programs that require dotfiles in order to
7288 operate sensibly are a bad thing, unless they do create
7289 the dotfiles themselves automatically.
7293 Furthermore, programs should be configured by the Debian
7294 default installation to behave as closely to the upstream
7295 default behavior as possible.
7299 Therefore, if a program in a Debian package needs to be
7300 configured in some way in order to operate sensibly, that
7301 should be done using a site-wide configuration file placed
7302 in <file>/etc</file>. Only if the program doesn't support a
7303 site-wide default configuration and the package maintainer
7304 doesn't have time to add it may a default per-user file be
7305 placed in <file>/etc/skel</file>.
7309 <file>/etc/skel</file> should be as empty as we can make it.
7310 This is particularly true because there is no easy (or
7311 necessarily desirable) mechanism for ensuring that the
7312 appropriate dotfiles are copied into the accounts of
7313 existing users when a package is installed.
7319 <heading>Log files</heading>
7321 Log files should usually be named
7322 <file>/var/log/<var>package</var>.log</file>. If you have many
7323 log files, or need a separate directory for permission
7324 reasons (<file>/var/log</file> is writable only by
7325 <file>root</file>), you should usually create a directory named
7326 <file>/var/log/<var>package</var></file> and place your log
7331 Log files must be rotated occasionally so that they don't
7332 grow indefinitely; the best way to do this is to drop a log
7333 rotation configuration file into the directory
7334 <file>/etc/logrotate.d</file> and use the facilities provided by
7335 logrotate.<footnote>
7337 The traditional approach to log files has been to set up
7338 <em>ad hoc</em> log rotation schemes using simple shell
7339 scripts and cron. While this approach is highly
7340 customizable, it requires quite a lot of sysadmin work.
7341 Even though the original Debian system helped a little
7342 by automatically installing a system which can be used
7343 as a template, this was deemed not enough.
7347 The use of <prgn>logrotate</prgn>, a program developed
7348 by Red Hat, is better, as it centralizes log management.
7349 It has both a configuration file
7350 (<file>/etc/logrotate.conf</file>) and a directory where
7351 packages can drop their individual log rotation
7352 configurations (<file>/etc/logrotate.d</file>).
7355 Here is a good example for a logrotate config
7356 file (for more information see <manref name="logrotate"
7358 <example compact="compact">
7359 /var/log/foo/*.log {
7364 /etc/init.d/foo force-reload
7368 This rotates all files under <file>/var/log/foo</file>, saves 12
7369 compressed generations, and forces the daemon to reload its
7370 configuration information after the log rotation.
7374 Log files should be removed when the package is
7375 purged (but not when it is only removed). This should be
7376 done by the <prgn>postrm</prgn> script when it is called
7377 with the argument <tt>purge</tt> (see <ref
7378 id="removedetails">).
7383 <heading>Permissions and owners</heading>
7386 The rules in this section are guidelines for general use.
7387 If necessary you may deviate from the details below.
7388 However, if you do so you must make sure that what is done
7389 is secure and you should try to be as consistent as possible
7390 with the rest of the system. You should probably also
7391 discuss it on <prgn>debian-devel</prgn> first.
7395 Files should be owned by <tt>root.root</tt>, and made
7396 writable only by the owner and universally readable (and
7397 executable, if appropriate), that is mode 644 or 755.
7401 Directories should be mode 755 or (for group-writability)
7402 mode 2775. The ownership of the directory should be
7403 consistent with its mode: if a directory is mode 2775, it
7404 should be owned by the group that needs write access to
7407 When a package is upgraded, and the owner or permissions
7408 of a file included in the package has changed, dpkg
7409 arranges for the ownership and permissions to be
7410 correctly set upon installation. However, this does not
7411 extend to directories; the permissions and ownership of
7412 directories already on the system does not change on
7413 install or upgrade of packages. This makes sense, since
7414 otherwise common directories like <tt>/usr</tt> would
7415 always be in flux. To correctly change permissions of a
7416 directory the package owns, explicit action is required,
7417 usually in the <tt>postinst</tt> script. Care must be
7418 taken to handle downgrades as well, in that case.
7425 Setuid and setgid executables should be mode 4755 or 2755
7426 respectively, and owned by the appropriate user or group.
7427 They should not be made unreadable (modes like 4711 or
7428 2711 or even 4111); doing so achieves no extra security,
7429 because anyone can find the binary in the freely available
7430 Debian package; it is merely inconvenient. For the same
7431 reason you should not restrict read or execute permissions
7432 on non-set-id executables.
7436 Some setuid programs need to be restricted to particular
7437 sets of users, using file permissions. In this case they
7438 should be owned by the uid to which they are set-id, and by
7439 the group which should be allowed to execute them. They
7440 should have mode 4754; again there is no point in making
7441 them unreadable to those users who must not be allowed to
7446 It is possible to arrange that the system administrator can
7447 reconfigure the package to correspond to their local
7448 security policy by changing the permissions on a binary:
7449 they can do this by using <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>, as
7450 described below.<footnote>
7451 Ordinary files installed by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> (as
7452 opposed to <tt>conffile</tt>s and other similar objects)
7453 normally have their permissions reset to the distributed
7454 permissions when the package is reinstalled. However,
7455 the use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> overrides this
7456 default behavior. If you use this method, you should
7457 remember to describe <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> in
7458 the package documentation; being a relatively new
7459 addition to Debian, it is probably not yet well-known.
7461 Another method you should consider is to create a group for
7462 people allowed to use the program(s) and make any setuid
7463 executables executable only by that group.
7467 If you need to create a new user or group for your package
7468 there are two possibilities. Firstly, you may need to
7469 make some files in the binary package be owned by this
7470 user or group, or you may need to compile the user or
7471 group id (rather than just the name) into the binary
7472 (though this latter should be avoided if possible, as in
7473 this case you need a statically allocated id).</p>
7476 If you need a statically allocated id, you must ask for a
7477 user or group id from the <tt>base-passwd</tt> maintainer,
7478 and must not release the package until you have been
7479 allocated one. Once you have been allocated one you must
7480 either make the package depend on a version of the
7481 <tt>base-passwd</tt> package with the id present in
7482 <file>/etc/passwd</file> or <file>/etc/group</file>, or arrange for
7483 your package to create the user or group itself with the
7484 correct id (using <tt>adduser</tt>) in its
7485 <prgn>preinst</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn>. (Doing it in
7486 the <prgn>postinst</prgn> is to be preferred if it is
7487 possible, otherwise a pre-dependency will be needed on the
7488 <tt>adduser</tt> package.)
7492 On the other hand, the program might be able to determine
7493 the uid or gid from the user or group name at runtime, so
7494 that a dynamically allocated id can be used. In this case
7495 you should choose an appropriate user or group name,
7496 discussing this on <prgn>debian-devel</prgn> and checking
7497 with the <package/base-passwd/ maintainer that it is unique and that
7498 they do not wish you to use a statically allocated id
7499 instead. When this has been checked you must arrange for
7500 your package to create the user or group if necessary using
7501 <prgn>adduser</prgn> in the <prgn>preinst</prgn> or
7502 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script (again, the latter is to be
7503 preferred if it is possible).
7507 Note that changing the numeric value of an id associated
7508 with a name is very difficult, and involves searching the
7509 file system for all appropriate files. You need to think
7510 carefully whether a static or dynamic id is required, since
7511 changing your mind later will cause problems.
7514 <sect1><heading>The use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn></heading>
7516 This section is not intended as policy, but as a
7517 description of the use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>.
7521 If a system administrator wishes to have a file (or
7522 directory or other such thing) installed with owner and
7523 permissions different from those in the distributed Debian
7524 package, they can use the <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>
7525 program to instruct <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to use the different
7526 settings every time the file is installed. Thus the
7527 package maintainer should distribute the files with their
7528 normal permissions, and leave it for the system
7529 administrator to make any desired changes. For example, a
7530 daemon which is normally required to be setuid root, but
7531 in certain situations could be used without being setuid,
7532 should be installed setuid in the <tt>.deb</tt>. Then the
7533 local system administrator can change this if they wish.
7534 If there are two standard ways of doing it, the package
7535 maintainer can use <tt>debconf</tt> to find out the
7536 preference, and call <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> in the
7537 maintainer script if necessary to accommodate the system
7538 administrator's choice. Care must be taken during
7539 upgrades to not override an existing setting.
7543 Given the above, <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> is
7544 essentially a tool for system administrators and would not
7545 normally be needed in the maintainer scripts. There is
7546 one type of situation, though, where calls to
7547 <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> would be needed in the
7548 maintainer scripts, and that involves packages which use
7549 dynamically allocated user or group ids. In such a
7550 situation, something like the following idiom can be very
7551 helpful in the package's <prgn>postinst</prgn>, where
7552 <tt>sysuser</tt> is a dynamically allocated id:
7554 for i in /usr/bin/foo /usr/sbin/bar
7556 # only do something when no setting exists
7557 if ! dpkg-statoverride --list $i >/dev/null 2>&1
7559 #include: debconf processing, question about foo and bar
7560 if [ "$RET" = "true" ] ; then
7561 dpkg-statoverride --update --add sysuser root 4755 $i
7566 The corresponding <tt>dpkg-statoverride --remove</tt>
7567 calls can then be made unconditionally when the package is
7575 <chapt id="customized-programs">
7576 <heading>Customized programs</heading>
7578 <sect id="arch-spec">
7579 <heading>Architecture specification strings</heading>
7582 If a program needs to specify an <em>architecture specification
7583 string</em> in some place, it should select one of the
7584 strings provided by <tt>dpkg-architecture -L</tt>. The
7585 strings are in the format
7586 <tt><var>os</var>-<var>arch</var></tt>, though the OS part
7587 is sometimes elided, as when the OS is Linux.<footnote>
7588 <p>Currently, the strings are:
7589 i386 ia64 alpha amd64 armeb arm hppa m32r m68k mips
7590 mipsel powerpc ppc64 s390 s390x sh3 sh3eb sh4 sh4eb
7591 sparc darwin-i386 darwin-ia64 darwin-alpha darwin-amd64
7592 darwin-armeb darwin-arm darwin-hppa darwin-m32r
7593 darwin-m68k darwin-mips darwin-mipsel darwin-powerpc
7594 darwin-ppc64 darwin-s390 darwin-s390x darwin-sh3
7595 darwin-sh3eb darwin-sh4 darwin-sh4eb darwin-sparc
7596 freebsd-i386 freebsd-ia64 freebsd-alpha freebsd-amd64
7597 freebsd-armeb freebsd-arm freebsd-hppa freebsd-m32r
7598 freebsd-m68k freebsd-mips freebsd-mipsel freebsd-powerpc
7599 freebsd-ppc64 freebsd-s390 freebsd-s390x freebsd-sh3
7600 freebsd-sh3eb freebsd-sh4 freebsd-sh4eb freebsd-sparc
7601 kfreebsd-i386 kfreebsd-ia64 kfreebsd-alpha
7602 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-armeb kfreebsd-arm kfreebsd-hppa
7603 kfreebsd-m32r kfreebsd-m68k kfreebsd-mips
7604 kfreebsd-mipsel kfreebsd-powerpc kfreebsd-ppc64
7605 kfreebsd-s390 kfreebsd-s390x kfreebsd-sh3 kfreebsd-sh3eb
7606 kfreebsd-sh4 kfreebsd-sh4eb kfreebsd-sparc knetbsd-i386
7607 knetbsd-ia64 knetbsd-alpha knetbsd-amd64 knetbsd-armeb
7608 knetbsd-arm knetbsd-hppa knetbsd-m32r knetbsd-m68k
7609 knetbsd-mips knetbsd-mipsel knetbsd-powerpc
7610 knetbsd-ppc64 knetbsd-s390 knetbsd-s390x knetbsd-sh3
7611 knetbsd-sh3eb knetbsd-sh4 knetbsd-sh4eb knetbsd-sparc
7612 netbsd-i386 netbsd-ia64 netbsd-alpha netbsd-amd64
7613 netbsd-armeb netbsd-arm netbsd-hppa netbsd-m32r
7614 netbsd-m68k netbsd-mips netbsd-mipsel netbsd-powerpc
7615 netbsd-ppc64 netbsd-s390 netbsd-s390x netbsd-sh3
7616 netbsd-sh3eb netbsd-sh4 netbsd-sh4eb netbsd-sparc
7617 openbsd-i386 openbsd-ia64 openbsd-alpha openbsd-amd64
7618 openbsd-armeb openbsd-arm openbsd-hppa openbsd-m32r
7619 openbsd-m68k openbsd-mips openbsd-mipsel openbsd-powerpc
7620 openbsd-ppc64 openbsd-s390 openbsd-s390x openbsd-sh3
7621 openbsd-sh3eb openbsd-sh4 openbsd-sh4eb openbsd-sparc
7622 hurd-i386 hurd-ia64 hurd-alpha hurd-amd64 hurd-armeb
7623 hurd-arm hurd-hppa hurd-m32r hurd-m68k hurd-mips
7624 hurd-mipsel hurd-powerpc hurd-ppc64 hurd-s390 hurd-s390x
7625 hurd-sh3 hurd-sh3eb hurd-sh4 hurd-sh4eb hurd-sparc
7631 Note that we don't want to use
7632 <tt><var>arch</var>-debian-linux</tt> to apply to the rule
7633 <tt><var>architecture</var>-<var>vendor</var>-<var>os</var></tt>
7634 since this would make our programs incompatible with other
7635 Linux distributions. We also don't use something like
7636 <tt><var>arch</var>-unknown-linux</tt>, since the
7637 <tt>unknown</tt> does not look very good.
7642 <heading>Daemons</heading>
7645 The configuration files <file>/etc/services</file>,
7646 <file>/etc/protocols</file>, and <file>/etc/rpc</file> are managed
7647 by the <prgn>netbase</prgn> package and must not be modified
7652 If a package requires a new entry in one of these files, the
7653 maintainer should get in contact with the
7654 <prgn>netbase</prgn> maintainer, who will add the entries
7655 and release a new version of the <prgn>netbase</prgn>
7660 The configuration file <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file> must not be
7661 modified by the package's scripts except via the
7662 <prgn>update-inetd</prgn> script or the
7663 <file>DebianNet.pm</file> Perl module. See their documentation
7664 for details on how to add entries.
7668 If a package wants to install an example entry into
7669 <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>, the entry must be preceded with
7670 exactly one hash character (<tt>#</tt>). Such lines are
7671 treated as "commented out by user" by the
7672 <prgn>update-inetd</prgn> script and are not changed or
7673 activated during package updates.
7678 <heading>Using pseudo-ttys and modifying wtmp, utmp and
7682 Some programs need to create pseudo-ttys. This should be done
7683 using Unix98 ptys if the C library supports it. The resulting
7684 program must not be installed setuid root, unless that
7685 is required for other functionality.
7689 The files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>, <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and
7690 <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be installed writable by
7691 group <tt>utmp</tt>. Programs which need to modify those
7692 files must be installed setgid <tt>utmp</tt>.
7697 <heading>Editors and pagers</heading>
7700 Some programs have the ability to launch an editor or pager
7701 program to edit or display a text document. Since there are
7702 lots of different editors and pagers available in the Debian
7703 distribution, the system administrator and each user should
7704 have the possibility to choose their preferred editor and
7709 In addition, every program should choose a good default
7710 editor/pager if none is selected by the user or system
7715 Thus, every program that launches an editor or pager must
7716 use the EDITOR or PAGER environment variable to determine
7717 the editor or pager the user wishes to use. If these
7718 variables are not set, the programs <file>/usr/bin/editor</file>
7719 and <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> should be used, respectively.
7723 These two files are managed through the <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
7724 "alternatives" mechanism. Thus every package providing an
7725 editor or pager must call the
7726 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> script to register these
7731 If it is very hard to adapt a program to make use of the
7732 EDITOR or PAGER variables, that program may be configured to
7733 use <file>/usr/bin/sensible-editor</file> and
7734 <file>/usr/bin/sensible-pager</file> as the editor or pager
7735 program respectively. These are two scripts provided in the
7736 Debian base system that check the EDITOR and PAGER variables
7737 and launch the appropriate program, and fall back to
7738 <file>/usr/bin/editor</file> and <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> if the
7739 variable is not set.
7743 A program may also use the VISUAL environment variable to
7744 determine the user's choice of editor. If it exists, it
7745 should take precedence over EDITOR. This is in fact what
7746 <file>/usr/bin/sensible-editor</file> does.
7750 It is not required for a package to depend on
7751 <tt>editor</tt> and <tt>pager</tt>, nor is it required for a
7752 package to provide such virtual packages.<footnote>
7753 The Debian base system already provides an editor and a
7759 <sect id="web-appl">
7760 <heading>Web servers and applications</heading>
7763 This section describes the locations and URLs that should
7764 be used by all web servers and web applications in the
7771 Cgi-bin executable files are installed in the
7773 <example compact="compact">
7774 /usr/lib/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
7776 and should be referred to as
7777 <example compact="compact">
7778 http://localhost/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
7784 <p>Access to HTML documents</p>
7787 HTML documents for a package are stored in
7788 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>
7789 and can be referred to as
7790 <example compact="compact">
7791 http://localhost/doc/<var>package</var>/<var>filename</var>
7796 The web server should restrict access to the document
7797 tree so that only clients on the same host can read
7798 the documents. If the web server does not support such
7799 access controls, then it should not provide access at
7800 all, or ask about providing access during installation.
7805 <p>Access to images</p>
7807 It is recommended that images for a package be stored
7808 in <tt>/usr/share/images/<var>package</var></tt> and
7809 may be referred to through an alias <tt>/images/</tt>
7812 http://localhost/images/<package>/<filename>
7819 <p>Web Document Root</p>
7822 Web Applications should try to avoid storing files in
7823 the Web Document Root. Instead they should use the
7824 /usr/share/doc/<var>package</var> directory for
7825 documents and register the Web Application via the
7826 <package>doc-base</package> package. If access to the
7827 web document root is unavoidable then use
7828 <example compact="compact">
7831 as the Document Root. This might be just a symbolic
7832 link to the location where the system administrator
7833 has put the real document root.
7836 <item><p>Providing httpd and/or httpd-cgi</p>
7838 All web servers should provide the virtual package
7839 <tt>httpd</tt>. If a web server has CGI support it should
7840 provide <tt>httpd-cgi</tt> additionally.
7843 All web applications which do not contain CGI scripts should
7844 depend on <tt>httpd</tt>, all those web applications which
7845 <tt>do</tt> contain CGI scripts, should depend on
7853 <sect id="mail-transport-agents">
7854 <heading>Mail transport, delivery and user agents</heading>
7857 Debian packages which process electronic mail, whether mail
7858 user agents (MUAs) or mail transport agents (MTAs), must
7859 ensure that they are compatible with the configuration
7860 decisions below. Failure to do this may result in lost
7861 mail, broken <tt>From:</tt> lines, and other serious brain
7866 The mail spool is <file>/var/mail</file> and the interface to
7867 send a mail message is <file>/usr/sbin/sendmail</file> (as per
7868 the FHS). On older systems, the mail spool may be
7869 physically located in <file>/var/spool/mail</file>, but all
7870 access to the mail spool should be via the
7871 <file>/var/mail</file> symlink. The mail spool is part of the
7872 base system and not part of the MTA package.
7876 All Debian MUAs, MTAs, MDAs and other mailbox accessing
7877 programs (such as IMAP daemons) must lock the mailbox in an
7878 NFS-safe way. This means that <tt>fcntl()</tt> locking must
7879 be combined with dot locking. To avoid deadlocks, a program
7880 should use <tt>fcntl()</tt> first and dot locking after
7881 this, or alternatively implement the two locking methods in
7882 a non blocking way<footnote>
7883 If it is not possible to establish both locks, the
7884 system shouldn't wait for the second lock to be
7885 established, but remove the first lock, wait a (random)
7886 time, and start over locking again.
7887 </footnote>. Using the functions <tt>maillock</tt> and
7888 <tt>mailunlock</tt> provided by the
7889 <tt>liblockfile*</tt><footnote>
7890 You will need to depend on <tt>liblockfile1 (>>1.01)</tt>
7891 to use these functions.
7892 </footnote> packages is the recommended way to realize this.
7896 Mailboxes are generally mode 660
7897 <tt><var>user</var>.mail</tt> unless the system
7898 administrator has chosen otherwise. A MUA may remove a
7899 mailbox (unless it has nonstandard permissions) in which
7900 case the MTA or another MUA must recreate it if needed.
7901 Mailboxes must be writable by group mail.
7905 The mail spool is 2775 <tt>root.mail</tt>, and MUAs should
7906 be setgid mail to do the locking mentioned above (and
7907 must obviously avoid accessing other users' mailboxes
7908 using this privilege).</p>
7911 <file>/etc/aliases</file> is the source file for the system mail
7912 aliases (e.g., postmaster, usenet, etc.), it is the one
7913 which the sysadmin and <prgn>postinst</prgn> scripts may
7914 edit. After <file>/etc/aliases</file> is edited the program or
7915 human editing it must call <prgn>newaliases</prgn>. All MTA
7916 packages must come with a <prgn>newaliases</prgn> program,
7917 even if it does nothing, but older MTA packages did not do
7918 this so programs should not fail if <prgn>newaliases</prgn>
7919 cannot be found. Note that because of this, all MTA
7920 packages must have <tt>Provides</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt> and
7921 <tt>Replaces: mail-transport-agent</tt> control file
7926 The convention of writing <tt>forward to
7927 <var>address</var></tt> in the mailbox itself is not
7928 supported. Use a <tt>.forward</tt> file instead.</p>
7931 The <prgn>rmail</prgn> program used by UUCP
7932 for incoming mail should be <file>/usr/sbin/rmail</file>.
7933 Likewise, <prgn>rsmtp</prgn>, for receiving
7934 batch-SMTP-over-UUCP, should be <file>/usr/sbin/rsmtp</file> if it
7938 If your package needs to know what hostname to use on (for
7939 example) outgoing news and mail messages which are generated
7940 locally, you should use the file <file>/etc/mailname</file>. It
7941 will contain the portion after the username and <tt>@</tt>
7942 (at) sign for email addresses of users on the machine
7943 (followed by a newline).
7947 Such a package should check for the existence of this file
7948 when it is being configured. If it exists, it should be
7949 used without comment, although an MTA's configuration script
7950 may wish to prompt the user even if it finds that this file
7951 exists. If the file does not exist, the package should
7952 prompt the user for the value (preferably using
7953 <prgn>debconf</prgn>) and store it in <file>/etc/mailname</file>
7954 as well as using it in the package's configuration. The
7955 prompt should make it clear that the name will not just be
7956 used by that package. For example, in this situation the
7957 <tt>inn</tt> package could say something like:
7958 <example compact="compact">
7959 Please enter the "mail name" of your system. This is the
7960 hostname portion of the address to be shown on outgoing
7961 news and mail messages. The default is
7962 <var>syshostname</var>, your system's host name. Mail
7963 name ["<var>syshostname</var>"]:
7965 where <var>syshostname</var> is the output of <tt>hostname
7971 <heading>News system configuration</heading>
7974 All the configuration files related to the NNTP (news)
7975 servers and clients should be located under
7976 <file>/etc/news</file>.</p>
7979 There are some configuration issues that apply to a number
7980 of news clients and server packages on the machine. These
7984 <tag><file>/etc/news/organization</file></tag>
7986 A string which should appear as the
7987 organization header for all messages posted
7988 by NNTP clients on the machine
7991 <tag><file>/etc/news/server</file></tag>
7993 Contains the FQDN of the upstream NNTP
7994 server, or localhost if the local machine is
7999 Other global files may be added as required for cross-package news
8006 <heading>Programs for the X Window System</heading>
8009 <heading>Providing X support and package priorities</heading>
8012 Programs that can be configured with support for the X
8013 Window System must be configured to do so and must declare
8014 any package dependencies necessary to satisfy their
8015 runtime requirements when using the X Window System. If
8016 such a package is of higher priority than the X packages
8017 on which it depends, it is required that either the
8018 X-specific components be split into a separate package, or
8019 that an alternative version of the package, which includes
8020 X support, be provided, or that the package's priority be
8026 <heading>Packages providing an X server</heading>
8029 Packages that provide an X server that, directly or
8030 indirectly, communicates with real input and display
8031 hardware should declare in their control data that they
8032 provide the virtual package <tt>xserver</tt>.<footnote>
8033 This implements current practice, and provides an
8034 actual policy for usage of the <tt>xserver</tt>
8035 virtual package which appears in the virtual packages
8036 list. In a nutshell, X servers that interface
8037 directly with the display and input hardware or via
8038 another subsystem (e.g., GGI) should provide
8039 <tt>xserver</tt>. Things like <tt>Xvfb</tt>,
8040 <tt>Xnest</tt>, and <tt>Xprt</tt> should not.
8046 <heading>Packages providing a terminal emulator</heading>
8049 Packages that provide a terminal emulator for the X Window
8050 System which meet the criteria listed below should declare
8051 in their control data that they provide the virtual
8052 package <tt>x-terminal-emulator</tt>. They should also
8053 register themselves as an alternative for
8054 <file>/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator</file>, with a priority of
8059 To be an <tt>x-terminal-emulator</tt>, a program must:
8060 <list compact="compact">
8062 Be able to emulate a DEC VT100 terminal, or a
8063 compatible terminal.
8067 Support the command-line option <tt>-e
8068 <var>command</var></tt>, which creates a new
8069 terminal window<footnote>
8070 "New terminal window" does not necessarily mean
8071 a new top-level X window directly parented by
8072 the window manager; it could, if the terminal
8073 emulator application were so coded, be a new
8074 "view" in a multiple-document interface (MDI).
8076 and runs the specified <var>command</var>,
8077 interpreting the entirety of the rest of the command
8078 line as a command to pass straight to exec, in the
8079 manner that <tt>xterm</tt> does.
8083 Support the command-line option <tt>-T
8084 <var>title</var></tt>, which creates a new terminal
8085 window with the window title <var>title</var>.
8092 <heading>Packages providing a window manager</heading>
8095 Packages that provide a window manager should declare in
8096 their control data that they provide the virtual package
8097 <tt>x-window-manager</tt>. They should also register
8098 themselves as an alternative for
8099 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>, with a priority
8100 calculated as follows:
8101 <list compact="compact">
8103 Start with a priority of 20.
8107 If the window manager supports the Debian menu
8108 system, add 20 points if this support is available
8109 in the package's default configuration (i.e., no
8110 configuration files belonging to the system or user
8111 have to be edited to activate the feature); if
8112 configuration files must be modified, add only 10
8118 If the window manager complies with <url
8119 id="http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/wm-spec"
8120 name="The Window Manager Specification Project">,
8121 written by the <url id="http://www.freedesktop.org/"
8122 name="Free Desktop Group">, add 40 points.
8126 If the window manager permits the X session to be
8127 restarted using a <em>different</em> window manager
8128 (without killing the X server) in its default
8129 configuration, add 10 points; otherwise add none.
8136 <heading>Packages providing fonts</heading>
8139 Packages that provide fonts for the X Window
8141 For the purposes of Debian Policy, a "font for the X
8142 Window System" is one which is accessed via X protocol
8143 requests. Fonts for the Linux console, for PostScript
8144 renderer, or any other purpose, do not fit this
8145 definition. Any tool which makes such fonts available
8146 to the X Window System, however, must abide by this
8149 must do a number of things to ensure that they are both
8150 available without modification of the X or font server
8151 configuration, and that they do not corrupt files used by
8152 other font packages to register information about
8156 Fonts of any type supported by the X Window System
8157 must be in a separate binary package from any
8158 executables, libraries, or documentation (except
8159 that specific to the fonts shipped, such as their
8160 license information). If one or more of the fonts
8161 so packaged are necessary for proper operation of
8162 the package with which they are associated the font
8163 package may be Recommended; if the fonts merely
8164 provide an enhancement, a Suggests relationship may
8165 be used. Packages must not Depend on font
8167 This is because the X server may retrieve fonts
8168 from the local file system or over the network
8169 from an X font server; the Debian package system
8170 is empowered to deal only with the local
8176 BDF fonts must be converted to PCF fonts with the
8177 <prgn>bdftopcf</prgn> utility (available in the
8178 <tt>xfonts-utils</tt> package, <prgn>gzip</prgn>ped, and
8179 placed in a directory that corresponds to their
8181 <list compact="compact">
8183 100 dpi fonts must be placed in
8184 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/</file>.
8188 75 dpi fonts must be placed in
8189 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/</file>.
8193 Character-cell fonts, cursor fonts, and other
8194 low-resolution fonts must be placed in
8195 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/</file>.
8201 Speedo fonts must be placed in
8202 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/Speedo/</file>.
8206 Type 1 fonts must be placed in
8207 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/</file>. If font
8208 metric files are available, they must be placed here
8213 Subdirectories of <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file>
8214 other than those listed above must be neither
8215 created nor used. (The <file>PEX</file>, <file>CID</file>,
8216 and <file>cyrillic</file> directories are excepted for
8217 historical reasons, but installation of files into
8218 these directories remains discouraged.)
8222 Font packages may, instead of placing files directly
8223 in the X font directories listed above, provide
8224 symbolic links in that font directory pointing to
8225 the files' actual location in the filesystem. Such
8226 a location must comply with the FHS.
8230 Font packages should not contain both 75dpi and
8231 100dpi versions of a font. If both are available,
8232 they should be provided in separate binary packages
8233 with <tt>-75dpi</tt> or <tt>-100dpi</tt> appended to
8234 the names of the packages containing the
8235 corresponding fonts.
8239 Fonts destined for the <file>misc</file> subdirectory
8240 should not be included in the same package as 75dpi
8241 or 100dpi fonts; instead, they should be provided in
8242 a separate package with <tt>-misc</tt> appended to
8247 Font packages must not provide the files
8248 <file>fonts.dir</file>, <file>fonts.alias</file>, or
8249 <file>fonts.scale</file> in a font directory:
8252 <file>fonts.dir</file> files must not be provided at all.
8256 <file>fonts.alias</file> and <file>fonts.scale</file>
8257 files, if needed, should be provided in the
8259 <file>/etc/X11/fonts/<var>fontdir</var>/<var>package</var>.<var>extension</var></file>,
8260 where <var>fontdir</var> is the name of the
8262 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> where the
8263 package's corresponding fonts are stored
8264 (e.g., <tt>75dpi</tt> or <tt>misc</tt>),
8265 <var>package</var> is the name of the package
8266 that provides these fonts, and
8267 <var>extension</var> is either <tt>scale</tt>
8268 or <tt>alias</tt>, whichever corresponds to
8275 Font packages must declare a dependency on
8276 <tt>xfonts-utils</tt> in their control
8281 Font packages that provide one or more
8282 <file>fonts.scale</file> files as described above must
8283 invoke <prgn>update-fonts-scale</prgn> on each
8284 directory into which they installed fonts
8285 <em>before</em> invoking
8286 <prgn>update-fonts-dir</prgn> on that directory.
8287 This invocation must occur in both the
8288 <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all arguments) and
8289 <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all arguments except
8290 <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8294 Font packages that provide one or more
8295 <file>fonts.alias</file> files as described above must
8296 invoke <prgn>update-fonts-alias</prgn> on each
8297 directory into which they installed fonts. This
8298 invocation must occur in both the
8299 <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all arguments) and
8300 <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all arguments except
8301 <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8305 Font packages must invoke
8306 <prgn>update-fonts-dir</prgn> on each directory into
8307 which they installed fonts. This invocation must
8308 occur in both the <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all
8309 arguments) and <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all
8310 arguments except <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8314 Font packages must not provide alias names for the
8315 fonts they include which collide with alias names
8316 already in use by fonts already packaged.
8320 Font packages must not provide fonts with the same
8321 XLFD registry name as another font already packaged.
8328 <heading>Application defaults files</heading>
8331 Application defaults files must be installed in the
8332 directory <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults/</file> (use of a
8333 localized subdirectory of <file>/etc/X11/</file> as described
8334 in the <em>X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language
8335 Interface</em> manual is also permitted). They must be
8336 registered as <tt>conffile</tt>s or handled as
8337 configuration files. Packages must not provide the
8338 directory <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults/</file>.
8342 Customization of programs' X resources may also be
8343 supported with the provision of a file with the same name
8344 as that of the package placed in the
8345 <file>/etc/X11/Xresources/</file> directory, which must
8346 registered as a <tt>conffile</tt> or handled as a
8347 configuration file.<footnote>
8348 Note that this mechanism is not the same as using
8349 app-defaults; app-defaults are tied to the client
8350 binary on the local file system, whereas X resources
8351 are stored in the X server and affect all connecting
8354 <em>Important:</em> packages that install files into the
8355 <file>/etc/X11/Xresources/</file> directory must conflict with
8356 <tt>xbase (<< 3.3.2.3a-2)</tt>; if this is not done
8357 it is possible for the installing package to destroy a
8358 previously-existing <file>/etc/X11/Xresources</file> file
8359 which had been customized by the system administrator.
8364 <heading>Installation directory issues</heading>
8367 Packages using the X Window System should not be
8368 configured to install files under the
8369 <file>/usr/X11R6/</file> directory. The
8370 <file>/usr/X11R6/</file> directory hierarchy should be
8371 regarded as obsolete.
8375 Programs that use GNU <prgn>autoconf</prgn> and
8376 <prgn>automake</prgn> are usually easily configured at
8377 compile time to use <file>/usr/</file> instead of
8378 <file>/usr/X11R6/</file>, and this should be done whenever
8379 possible. Configuration files for window managers and
8380 display managers should be placed in a subdirectory of
8381 <file>/etc/X11/</file> corresponding to the package name due
8382 to these programs' tight integration with the mechanisms
8383 of the X Window System. Application-level programs should
8384 use the <file>/etc/</file> directory unless otherwise mandated
8389 The installation of files into subdirectories
8390 of <file>/usr/X11R6/include/X11/</file> and
8391 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/</file> is now prohibited;
8392 package maintainers should determine if subdirectories of
8393 <file>/usr/lib/</file> and <file>/usr/share/</file> can be used
8398 Packages should install any relevant files into the
8399 directories <file>/usr/include/X11/</file> and
8400 <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file>, but if they do so, they must
8401 pre-depend on <tt>x11-common (>=
8402 1:7.0.0)</tt><footnote>
8404 These libraries used to be all symbolic
8405 links. However, with <tt>X11R7</tt>,
8406 <tt>/usr/include/X11</tt> and <tt>/usr/lib/X11</tt>
8407 are now real directories, and packages
8408 <strong>should</strong> ship their files here instead
8409 of in <tt>/usr/X11R6/{include,lib}/X11</tt>.
8410 <tt>x11-common (>= 1:7.0.0) </tt> is the package
8411 responsible for converting these symlinks into
8419 <heading>The OSF/Motif and OpenMotif libraries</heading>
8422 <em>Programs that require the non-DFSG-compliant OSF/Motif or
8423 OpenMotif libraries</em><footnote>
8424 OSF/Motif and OpenMotif are collectively referred to as
8425 "Motif" in this policy document.
8427 should be compiled against and tested with LessTif (a free
8428 re-implementation of Motif) instead. If the maintainer
8429 judges that the program or programs do not work
8430 sufficiently well with LessTif to be distributed and
8431 supported, but do so when compiled against Motif, then two
8432 versions of the package should be created; one linked
8433 statically against Motif and with <tt>-smotif</tt>
8434 appended to the package name, and one linked dynamically
8435 against Motif and with <tt>-dmotif</tt> appended to the
8440 Both Motif-linked versions are dependent
8441 upon non-DFSG-compliant software and thus cannot be
8442 uploaded to the <em>main</em> distribution; if the
8443 software is itself DFSG-compliant it may be uploaded to
8444 the <em>contrib</em> distribution. While known existing
8445 versions of Motif permit unlimited redistribution of
8446 binaries linked against the library (whether statically or
8447 dynamically), it is the package maintainer's
8448 responsibility to determine whether this is permitted by
8449 the license of the copy of Motif in their possession.
8455 <heading>Perl programs and modules</heading>
8458 Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy.
8462 The Perl policy can be found in the <tt>perl-policy</tt>
8463 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
8464 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
8465 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"
8466 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"></tt>.
8471 <heading>Emacs lisp programs</heading>
8474 Please refer to the "Debian Emacs Policy" for details of how to
8475 package emacs lisp programs.
8479 The Emacs policy is available in
8480 <file>debian-emacs-policy.gz</file> of the
8481 <package>emacsen-common</package> package.
8482 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
8483 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/debian-emacs-policy"
8484 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/debian-emacs-policy"></tt>.
8489 <heading>Games</heading>
8492 The permissions on <file>/var/games</file> are mode 755, owner
8493 <tt>root</tt> and group <tt>root</tt>.
8497 Each game decides on its own security policy.</p>
8500 Games which require protected, privileged access to
8501 high-score files, saved games, etc., may be made
8502 set-<em>group</em>-id (mode 2755) and owned by
8503 <tt>root.games</tt>, and use files and directories with
8504 appropriate permissions (770 <tt>root.games</tt>, for
8505 example). They must not be made
8506 set-<em>user</em>-id, as this causes security problems. (If
8507 an attacker can subvert any set-user-id game they can
8508 overwrite the executable of any other, causing other players
8509 of these games to run a Trojan horse program. With a
8510 set-group-id game the attacker only gets access to less
8511 important game data, and if they can get at the other
8512 players' accounts at all it will take considerably more
8516 Some packages, for example some fortune cookie programs, are
8517 configured by the upstream authors to install with their
8518 data files or other static information made unreadable so
8519 that they can only be accessed through set-id programs
8520 provided. You should not do this in a Debian package: anyone can
8521 download the <file>.deb</file> file and read the data from it,
8522 so there is no point making the files unreadable. Not
8523 making the files unreadable also means that you don't have
8524 to make so many programs set-id, which reduces the risk of a
8528 As described in the FHS, binaries of games should be
8529 installed in the directory <file>/usr/games</file>. This also
8530 applies to games that use the X Window System. Manual pages
8531 for games (X and non-X games) should be installed in
8532 <file>/usr/share/man/man6</file>.</p>
8538 <heading>Documentation</heading>
8541 <heading>Manual pages</heading>
8544 You should install manual pages in <prgn>nroff</prgn> source
8545 form, in appropriate places under <file>/usr/share/man</file>.
8546 You should only use sections 1 to 9 (see the FHS for more
8547 details). You must not install a pre-formatted "cat page".
8551 Each program, utility, and function should have an
8552 associated manual page included in the same package. It is
8553 suggested that all configuration files also have a manual
8554 page included as well. Manual pages for protocols and other
8555 auxiliary things are optional.
8559 If no manual page is available, this is considered as a bug
8560 and should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System (the
8561 maintainer of the package is allowed to write this bug report
8562 themselves, if they so desire). Do not close the bug report
8563 until a proper man page is available.<footnote>
8564 It is not very hard to write a man page. See the
8565 <url id="http://www.schweikhardt.net/man_page_howto.html"
8566 name="Man-Page-HOWTO">,
8567 <manref name="man" section="7">, the examples
8568 created by <prgn>debmake</prgn> or <prgn>dh_make</prgn>,
8569 the helper programs <prgn>help2man</prgn>, or the
8570 directory <file>/usr/share/doc/man-db/examples</file>.
8575 You may forward a complaint about a missing man page to the
8576 upstream authors, and mark the bug as forwarded in the
8577 Debian bug tracking system. Even though the GNU Project do
8578 not in general consider the lack of a man page to be a bug,
8579 we do; if they tell you that they don't consider it a bug
8580 you should leave the bug in our bug tracking system open
8585 Manual pages should be installed compressed using <tt>gzip -9</tt>.
8589 If one man page needs to be accessible via several names it
8590 is better to use a symbolic link than the <file>.so</file>
8591 feature, but there is no need to fiddle with the relevant
8592 parts of the upstream source to change from <file>.so</file> to
8593 symlinks: don't do it unless it's easy. You should not
8594 create hard links in the manual page directories, nor put
8595 absolute filenames in <file>.so</file> directives. The filename
8596 in a <file>.so</file> in a man page should be relative to the
8597 base of the man page tree (usually
8598 <file>/usr/share/man</file>). If you do not create any links
8599 (whether symlinks, hard links, or <tt>.so</tt> directives)
8600 in the file system to the alternate names of the man page,
8601 then you should not rely on <prgn>man</prgn> finding your
8602 man page under those names based solely on the information in
8603 the man page's header.<footnote>
8604 Supporting this in <prgn>man</prgn> often requires
8605 unreasonable processing time to find a manual page or to
8606 report that none exists, and moves knowledge into man's
8607 database that would be better left in the file system.
8608 This support is therefore deprecated and will cease to
8609 be present in the future.
8614 Manual pages in locale-specific subdirectories of
8615 <file>/usr/share/man</file> should use either UTF-8 or the usual
8616 legacy encoding for that language (normally the one corresponding
8617 to the shortest relevant locale name in
8618 <file>/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED</file>). For example, pages under
8619 <file>/usr/share/man/fr</file> should use either UTF-8 or
8620 ISO-8859-1.<footnote>
8621 <prgn>man</prgn> will automatically detect whether UTF-8 is in
8622 use. In future, all manual pages will be required to use
8628 A country name (the <tt>DE</tt> in <tt>de_DE</tt>) should not be
8629 included in the subdirectory name unless it indicates a
8630 significant difference in the language, as this excludes
8631 speakers of the language in other countries.<footnote>
8632 At the time of writing, Chinese and Portuguese are the main
8633 languages with such differences, so <file>pt_BR</file>,
8634 <file>zh_CN</file>, and <file>zh_TW</file> are all allowed.
8639 Due to limitations in current implementations, all characters
8640 in the manual page source should be representable in the usual
8641 legacy encoding for that language, even if the file is
8642 actually encoded in UTF-8. Safe alternative ways to write many
8643 characters outside that range may be found in
8644 <manref name="groff_char" section="7">.
8649 <heading>Info documents</heading>
8652 Info documents should be installed in <file>/usr/share/info</file>.
8653 They should be compressed with <tt>gzip -9</tt>.
8657 Your package should call <prgn>install-info</prgn> to update
8658 the Info <file>dir</file> file in its <prgn>postinst</prgn>
8659 script when called with a <tt>configure</tt> argument, for
8661 <example compact="compact">
8662 install-info --quiet --section Development Development \
8663 /usr/share/info/foobar.info
8667 It is a good idea to specify a section for the location of
8668 your program; this is done with the <tt>--section</tt>
8669 switch. To determine which section to use, you should look
8670 at <file>/usr/share/info/dir</file> on your system and choose the most
8671 relevant (or create a new section if none of the current
8672 sections are relevant). Note that the <tt>--section</tt>
8673 flag takes two arguments; the first is a regular expression
8674 to match (case-insensitively) against an existing section,
8675 the second is used when creating a new one.</p>
8678 You should remove the entries in the <prgn>prerm</prgn>
8679 script when called with a <tt>remove</tt> argument:
8680 <example compact="compact">
8681 install-info --quiet --remove /usr/share/info/foobar.info
8685 If <prgn>install-info</prgn> cannot find a description entry
8686 in the Info file you must supply one. See <manref
8687 name="install-info" section="8"> for details.</p>
8691 <heading>Additional documentation</heading>
8694 Any additional documentation that comes with the package may
8695 be installed at the discretion of the package maintainer.
8696 Plain text documentation should be installed in the directory
8697 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>, where
8698 <var>package</var> is the name of the package, and
8699 compressed with <tt>gzip -9</tt> unless it is small.
8703 If a package comes with large amounts of documentation which
8704 many users of the package will not require you should create
8705 a separate binary package to contain it, so that it does not
8706 take up disk space on the machines of users who do not need
8707 or want it installed.</p>
8710 It is often a good idea to put text information files
8711 (<file>README</file>s, changelogs, and so forth) that come with
8712 the source package in <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>
8713 in the binary package. However, you don't need to install
8714 the instructions for building and installing the package, of
8718 Packages must not require the existence of any files in
8719 <file>/usr/share/doc/</file> in order to function
8721 The system administrator should be able to
8722 delete files in <file>/usr/share/doc/</file> without causing
8723 any programs to break.
8725 Any files that are referenced by programs but are also
8726 useful as stand alone documentation should be installed under
8727 <file>/usr/share/<var>package</var>/</file> with symbolic links from
8728 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
8732 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> may be a symbolic
8733 link to another directory in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> only if
8734 the two packages both come from the same source and the
8735 first package Depends on the second.<footnote>
8737 Please note that this does not override the section on
8738 changelog files below, so the file
8739 <file>/usr/share/<var>package</var>/changelog.Debian.gz</file>
8740 must refer to the changelog for the current version of
8741 <var>package</var> in question. In practice, this means
8742 that the sources of the target and the destination of the
8743 symlink must be the same (same source package and
8750 Former Debian releases placed all additional documentation
8751 in <file>/usr/doc/<var>package</var></file>. This has been
8752 changed to <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>,
8753 and packages must not put documentation in the directory
8754 <file>/usr/doc/<var>package</var></file>. <footnote>
8755 At this phase of the transition, we no longer require a
8756 symbolic link in <file>/usr/doc/</file>. At a later point,
8757 policy shall change to make the symbolic links a bug.
8763 <heading>Preferred documentation formats</heading>
8766 The unification of Debian documentation is being carried out
8770 If your package comes with extensive documentation in a
8771 markup format that can be converted to various other formats
8772 you should if possible ship HTML versions in a binary
8773 package, in the directory
8774 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>appropriate-package</var></file> or
8775 its subdirectories.<footnote>
8776 The rationale: The important thing here is that HTML
8777 docs should be available in <em>some</em> package, not
8778 necessarily in the main binary package.
8783 Other formats such as PostScript may be provided at the
8784 package maintainer's discretion.
8788 <sect id="copyrightfile">
8789 <heading>Copyright information</heading>
8792 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
8793 copyright and distribution license in the file
8794 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>. This
8795 file must neither be compressed nor be a symbolic link.
8799 In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream
8800 sources (if any) were obtained. It should name the original
8801 authors of the package and the Debian maintainer(s) who were
8802 involved with its creation.</p>
8805 A copy of the file which will be installed in
8806 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file> should
8807 be in <file>debian/copyright</file> in the source package.
8811 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> may be a symbolic
8812 link to another directory in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> only if
8813 the two packages both come from the same source and the
8814 first package Depends on the second. These rules are
8815 important because copyrights must be extractable by
8820 Packages distributed under the UCB BSD license, the Artistic
8821 license, the GNU GPL (version 2 or 3), the GNU LGPL (versions
8822 2, 2.1, or 3), and the GNU FDL (version 1.2) should refer to
8823 the corresponding files under
8824 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>,<footnote>
8827 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>,
8828 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic</file>,
8829 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2</file>,
8830 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3</file>,
8831 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2</file>,
8832 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2.1</file>,
8833 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-3</file>, and
8834 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GFDL-1.2</file>,
8837 </footnote> rather than quoting them in the copyright
8842 You should not use the copyright file as a general <file>README</file>
8843 file. If your package has such a file it should be
8844 installed in <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/README</file> or
8845 <file>README.Debian</file> or some other appropriate place.</p>
8849 <heading>Examples</heading>
8852 Any examples (configurations, source files, whatever),
8853 should be installed in a directory
8854 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file>. These
8855 files should not be referenced by any program: they're there
8856 for the benefit of the system administrator and users as
8857 documentation only. Architecture-specific example files
8858 should be installed in a directory
8859 <file>/usr/lib/<var>package</var>/examples</file> with symbolic
8861 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file>, or the
8862 latter directory itself may be a symbolic link to the
8867 If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
8868 example files may be installed into
8869 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
8873 <sect id="changelogs">
8874 <heading>Changelog files</heading>
8877 Packages that are not Debian-native must contain a
8878 compressed copy of the <file>debian/changelog</file> file from
8879 the Debian source tree in
8880 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> with the name
8881 <file>changelog.Debian.gz</file>.
8885 If an upstream changelog is available, it should be accessible as
8886 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.gz</file> in
8887 plain text. If the upstream changelog is distributed in
8888 HTML, it should be made available in that form as
8889 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.html.gz</file>
8890 and a plain text <file>changelog.gz</file> should be generated
8891 from it using, for example, <tt>lynx -dump -nolist</tt>. If
8892 the upstream changelog files do not already conform to this
8893 naming convention, then this may be achieved either by
8894 renaming the files, or by adding a symbolic link, at the
8895 maintainer's discretion.<footnote>
8896 Rationale: People should not have to look in places for
8897 upstream changelogs merely because they are given
8898 different names or are distributed in HTML format.
8903 All of these files should be installed compressed using
8904 <tt>gzip -9</tt>, as they will become large with time even
8905 if they start out small.
8909 If the package has only one changelog which is used both as
8910 the Debian changelog and the upstream one because there is
8911 no separate upstream maintainer then that changelog should
8912 usually be installed as
8913 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.gz</file>; if
8914 there is a separate upstream maintainer, but no upstream
8915 changelog, then the Debian changelog should still be called
8916 <file>changelog.Debian.gz</file>.
8920 For details about the format and contents of the Debian
8921 changelog file, please see <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
8926 <appendix id="pkg-scope">
8927 <heading>Introduction and scope of these appendices</heading>
8930 These appendices are taken essentially verbatim from the
8931 now-deprecated Packaging Manual, version 3.2.1.0. They are
8932 the chapters which are likely to be of use to package
8933 maintainers and which have not already been included in the
8934 policy document itself. Most of these sections are very likely
8935 not relevant to policy; they should be treated as
8936 documentation for the packaging system. Please note that these
8937 appendices are included for convenience, and for historical
8938 reasons: they used to be part of policy package, and they have
8939 not yet been incorporated into dpkg documentation. However,
8940 they still have value, and hence they are presented here.
8944 They have not yet been checked to ensure that they are
8945 compatible with the contents of policy, and if there are any
8946 contradictions, the version in the main policy document takes
8947 precedence. The remaining chapters of the old Packaging
8948 Manual have also not been read in detail to ensure that there
8949 are not parts which have been left out. Both of these will be
8954 Certain parts of the Packaging manual were integrated into the
8955 Policy Manual proper, and removed from the appendices. Links
8956 have been placed from the old locations to the new ones.
8960 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is a suite of programs for creating binary
8961 package files and installing and removing them on Unix
8963 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is targeted primarily at Debian
8964 GNU/Linux, but may work on or be ported to other
8970 The binary packages are designed for the management of
8971 installed executable programs (usually compiled binaries) and
8972 their associated data, though source code examples and
8973 documentation are provided as part of some packages.</p>
8976 This manual describes the technical aspects of creating Debian
8977 binary packages (<file>.deb</file> files). It documents the
8978 behavior of the package management programs
8979 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>, <prgn>dselect</prgn> et al. and the way
8980 they interact with packages.</p>
8983 It also documents the interaction between
8984 <prgn>dselect</prgn>'s core and the access method scripts it
8985 uses to actually install the selected packages, and describes
8986 how to create a new access method.</p>
8989 This manual does not go into detail about the options and
8990 usage of the package building and installation tools. It
8991 should therefore be read in conjunction with those programs'
8996 The utility programs which are provided with <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
8997 for managing various system configuration and similar issues,
8998 such as <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> and
8999 <prgn>install-info</prgn>, are not described in detail here -
9000 please see their man pages.
9004 It is assumed that the reader is reasonably familiar with the
9005 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> System Administrators' manual.
9006 Unfortunately this manual does not yet exist.
9010 The Debian version of the FSF's GNU hello program is provided
9011 as an example for people wishing to create Debian
9012 packages. The Debian <prgn>debmake</prgn> package is
9013 recommended as a very helpful tool in creating and maintaining
9014 Debian packages. However, while the tools and examples are
9015 helpful, they do not replace the need to read and follow the
9016 Policy and Programmer's Manual.</p>
9019 <appendix id="pkg-binarypkg">
9020 <heading>Binary packages (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
9023 The binary package has two main sections. The first part
9024 consists of various control information files and scripts used
9025 by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when installing and removing. See <ref
9026 id="pkg-controlarea">.
9030 The second part is an archive containing the files and
9031 directories to be installed.
9035 In the future binary packages may also contain other
9036 components, such as checksums and digital signatures. The
9037 format for the archive is described in full in the
9038 <file>deb(5)</file> man page.
9042 <sect id="pkg-bincreating"><heading>Creating package files -
9043 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn>
9047 All manipulation of binary package files is done by
9048 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn>; it's the only program that has
9049 knowledge of the format. (<prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> may be
9050 invoked by calling <prgn>dpkg</prgn>, as <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
9051 will spot that the options requested are appropriate to
9052 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> and invoke that instead with the same
9057 In order to create a binary package you must make a
9058 directory tree which contains all the files and directories
9059 you want to have in the file system data part of the package.
9060 In Debian-format source packages this directory is usually
9061 <file>debian/tmp</file>, relative to the top of the package's
9066 They should have the locations (relative to the root of the
9067 directory tree you're constructing) ownerships and
9068 permissions which you want them to have on the system when
9073 With current versions of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> the uid/username
9074 and gid/groupname mappings for the users and groups being
9075 used should be the same on the system where the package is
9076 built and the one where it is installed.
9080 You need to add one special directory to the root of the
9081 miniature file system tree you're creating:
9082 <prgn>DEBIAN</prgn>. It should contain the control
9083 information files, notably the binary package control file
9084 (see <ref id="pkg-controlfile">).
9088 The <prgn>DEBIAN</prgn> directory will not appear in the
9089 file system archive of the package, and so won't be installed
9090 by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when the package is installed.
9094 When you've prepared the package, you should invoke:
9096 dpkg --build <var>directory</var>
9101 This will build the package in
9102 <file><var>directory</var>.deb</file>. (<prgn>dpkg</prgn> knows
9103 that <tt>--build</tt> is a <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> option, so
9104 it invokes <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> with the same arguments to
9109 See the man page <manref name="dpkg-deb" section="8"> for details of how
9110 to examine the contents of this newly-created file. You may find the
9111 output of following commands enlightening:
9113 dpkg-deb --info <var>filename</var>.deb
9114 dpkg-deb --contents <var>filename</var>.deb
9115 dpkg --contents <var>filename</var>.deb
9117 To view the copyright file for a package you could use this command:
9119 dpkg --fsys-tarfile <var>filename</var>.deb | tar xOf - \*/copyright | pager
9124 <sect id="pkg-controlarea">
9125 <heading>Package control information files</heading>
9128 The control information portion of a binary package is a
9129 collection of files with names known to <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
9130 It will treat the contents of these files specially - some
9131 of them contain information used by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when
9132 installing or removing the package; others are scripts which
9133 the package maintainer wants <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to run.
9137 It is possible to put other files in the package control
9138 area, but this is not generally a good idea (though they
9139 will largely be ignored).
9143 Here is a brief list of the control info files supported by
9144 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> and a summary of what they're used for.
9149 <tag><tt>control</tt>
9152 This is the key description file used by
9153 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. It specifies the package's name
9154 and version, gives its description for the user,
9155 states its relationships with other packages, and so
9156 forth. See <ref id="sourcecontrolfiles"> and
9157 <ref id="binarycontrolfiles">.
9161 It is usually generated automatically from information
9162 in the source package by the
9163 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> program, and with
9164 assistance from <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>.
9165 See <ref id="pkg-sourcetools">.
9169 <tag><tt>postinst</tt>, <tt>preinst</tt>, <tt>postrm</tt>,
9174 These are executable files (usually scripts) which
9175 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> runs during installation, upgrade
9176 and removal of packages. They allow the package to
9177 deal with matters which are particular to that package
9178 or require more complicated processing than that
9179 provided by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. Details of when and
9180 how they are called are in <ref id="maintainerscripts">.
9184 It is very important to make these scripts idempotent.
9185 See <ref id="idempotency">.
9189 The maintainer scripts are guaranteed to run with a
9190 controlling terminal and can interact with the user.
9191 See <ref id="controllingterminal">.
9195 <tag><tt>conffiles</tt>
9198 This file contains a list of configuration files which
9199 are to be handled automatically by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
9200 (see <ref id="pkg-conffiles">). Note that not necessarily
9201 every configuration file should be listed here.
9204 <tag><tt>shlibs</tt>
9207 This file contains a list of the shared libraries
9208 supplied by the package, with dependency details for
9209 each. This is used by <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>
9210 when it determines what dependencies are required in a
9211 package control file. The <tt>shlibs</tt> file format
9212 is described on <ref id="shlibs">.
9217 <sect id="pkg-controlfile">
9218 <heading>The main control information file: <tt>control</tt></heading>
9221 The most important control information file used by
9222 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when it installs a package is
9223 <tt>control</tt>. It contains all the package's "vital
9228 The binary package control files of packages built from
9229 Debian sources are made by a special tool,
9230 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>, which reads
9231 <file>debian/control</file> and <file>debian/changelog</file> to
9232 find the information it needs. See <ref id="pkg-sourcepkg"> for
9237 The fields in binary package control files are listed in
9238 <ref id="binarycontrolfiles">.
9242 A description of the syntax of control files and the purpose
9243 of the fields is available in <ref id="controlfields">.
9248 <heading>Time Stamps</heading>
9251 See <ref id="timestamps">.
9256 <appendix id="pkg-sourcepkg">
9257 <heading>Source packages (from old Packaging Manual) </heading>
9260 The Debian binary packages in the distribution are generated
9261 from Debian sources, which are in a special format to assist
9262 the easy and automatic building of binaries.
9265 <sect id="pkg-sourcetools">
9266 <heading>Tools for processing source packages</heading>
9269 Various tools are provided for manipulating source packages;
9270 they pack and unpack sources and help build of binary
9271 packages and help manage the distribution of new versions.
9275 They are introduced and typical uses described here; see
9276 <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1"> for full
9277 documentation about their arguments and operation.
9281 For examples of how to construct a Debian source package,
9282 and how to use those utilities that are used by Debian
9283 source packages, please see the <prgn>hello</prgn> example
9287 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-source">
9289 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> - packs and unpacks Debian source
9294 This program is frequently used by hand, and is also
9295 called from package-independent automated building scripts
9296 such as <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>.
9300 To unpack a package it is typically invoked with
9302 dpkg-source -x <var>.../path/to/filename</var>.dsc
9307 with the <file><var>filename</var>.tar.gz</file> and
9308 <file><var>filename</var>.diff.gz</file> (if applicable) in
9309 the same directory. It unpacks into
9310 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>, and if
9312 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var>.orig</file>, in
9313 the current directory.
9317 To create a packed source archive it is typically invoked:
9319 dpkg-source -b <var>package</var>-<var>version</var>
9324 This will create the <file>.dsc</file>, <file>.tar.gz</file> and
9325 <file>.diff.gz</file> (if appropriate) in the current
9326 directory. <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> does not clean the
9327 source tree first - this must be done separately if it is
9332 See also <ref id="pkg-sourcearchives">.</p>
9336 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-buildpackage">
9338 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> - overall package-building
9343 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> is a script which invokes
9344 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>, the <file>debian/rules</file>
9345 targets <tt>clean</tt>, <tt>build</tt> and
9346 <tt>binary</tt>, <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and
9347 <prgn>gpg</prgn> (or <prgn>pgp</prgn>) to build a signed
9348 source and binary package upload.
9352 It is usually invoked by hand from the top level of the
9353 built or unbuilt source directory. It may be invoked with
9354 no arguments; useful arguments include:
9355 <taglist compact="compact">
9356 <tag><tt>-uc</tt>, <tt>-us</tt></tag>
9359 Do not sign the <tt>.changes</tt> file or the
9360 source package <tt>.dsc</tt> file, respectively.</p>
9362 <tag><tt>-p<var>sign-command</var></tt></tag>
9365 Invoke <var>sign-command</var> instead of finding
9366 <tt>gpg</tt> or <tt>pgp</tt> on the <prgn>PATH</prgn>.
9367 <var>sign-command</var> must behave just like
9368 <prgn>gpg</prgn> or <tt>pgp</tt>.</p>
9370 <tag><tt>-r<var>root-command</var></tt></tag>
9373 When root privilege is required, invoke the command
9374 <var>root-command</var>. <var>root-command</var>
9375 should invoke its first argument as a command, from
9376 the <prgn>PATH</prgn> if necessary, and pass its
9377 second and subsequent arguments to the command it
9378 calls. If no <var>root-command</var> is supplied
9379 then <var>dpkg-buildpackage</var> will take no
9380 special action to gain root privilege, so that for
9381 most packages it will have to be invoked as root to
9384 <tag><tt>-b</tt>, <tt>-B</tt></tag>
9387 Two types of binary-only build and upload - see
9388 <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1">.
9395 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-gencontrol">
9397 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> - generates binary package
9402 This program is usually called from <file>debian/rules</file>
9403 (see <ref id="pkg-sourcetree">) in the top level of the source
9408 This is usually done just before the files and directories in the
9409 temporary directory tree where the package is being built have their
9410 permissions and ownerships set and the package is constructed using
9411 <prgn>dpkg-deb/</prgn>
9413 This is so that the control file which is produced has
9414 the right permissions
9419 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> must be called after all the
9420 files which are to go into the package have been placed in
9421 the temporary build directory, so that its calculation of
9422 the installed size of a package is correct.
9426 It is also necessary for <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
9427 be run after <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> so that the
9428 variable substitutions created by
9429 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> in <file>debian/substvars</file>
9434 For a package which generates only one binary package, and
9435 which builds it in <file>debian/tmp</file> relative to the top
9436 of the source package, it is usually sufficient to call
9437 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>.
9441 Sources which build several binaries will typically need
9444 dpkg-gencontrol -Pdebian/tmp-<var>pkg</var> -p<var>package</var>
9445 </example> The <tt>-P</tt> tells
9446 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> that the package is being
9447 built in a non-default directory, and the <tt>-p</tt>
9448 tells it which package's control file should be generated.
9452 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> also adds information to the
9453 list of files in <file>debian/files</file>, for the benefit of
9454 (for example) a future invocation of
9455 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn>.</p>
9458 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps">
9460 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> - calculates shared library
9465 This program is usually called from <file>debian/rules</file>
9466 just before <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> (see <ref
9467 id="pkg-sourcetree">), in the top level of the source tree.
9471 Its arguments are executables.
9474 In a forthcoming dpkg version,
9475 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> would be required to be
9476 called on shared libraries as well.
9479 They may be specified either in the locations in the
9480 source tree where they are created or in the locations
9481 in the temporary build tree where they are installed
9482 prior to binary package creation.
9484 </footnote> for which shared library dependencies should
9485 be included in the binary package's control file.
9489 If some of the found shared libraries should only
9490 warrant a <tt>Recommends</tt> or <tt>Suggests</tt>, or if
9491 some warrant a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, this can be achieved
9492 by using the <tt>-d<var>dependency-field</var></tt> option
9493 before those executable(s). (Each <tt>-d</tt> option
9494 takes effect until the next <tt>-d</tt>.)
9498 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> does not directly cause the
9499 output control file to be modified. Instead by default it
9500 adds to the <file>debian/substvars</file> file variable
9501 settings like <tt>shlibs:Depends</tt>. These variable
9502 settings must be referenced in dependency fields in the
9503 appropriate per-binary-package sections of the source
9508 For example, a package that generates an essential part
9509 which requires dependencies, and optional parts that
9510 which only require a recommendation, would separate those
9511 two sets of dependencies into two different fields.<footnote>
9512 At the time of writing, an example for this was the
9513 <package/xmms/ package, with Depends used for the xmms
9514 executable, Recommends for the plug-ins and Suggests for
9515 even more optional features provided by unzip.
9517 It can say in its <file>debian/rules</file>:
9519 dpkg-shlibdeps -dDepends <var>program anotherprogram ...</var> \
9520 -dRecommends <var>optionalpart anotheroptionalpart</var>
9522 and then in its main control file <file>debian/control</file>:
9525 Depends: ${shlibs:Pre-Depends}
9526 Recommends: ${shlibs:Recommends}
9532 Sources which produce several binary packages with
9533 different shared library dependency requirements can use
9534 the <tt>-p<var>varnameprefix</var></tt> option to override
9535 the default <tt>shlibs:</tt> prefix (one invocation of
9536 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> per setting of this option).
9537 They can thus produce several sets of dependency
9538 variables, each of the form
9539 <tt><var>varnameprefix</var>:<var>dependencyfield</var></tt>,
9540 which can be referred to in the appropriate parts of the
9541 binary package control files.
9546 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-distaddfile">
9548 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> - adds a file to
9549 <file>debian/files</file>
9553 Some packages' uploads need to include files other than
9554 the source and binary package files.
9558 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> adds a file to the
9559 <file>debian/files</file> file so that it will be included in
9560 the <file>.changes</file> file when
9561 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> is run.
9565 It is usually invoked from the <tt>binary</tt> target of
9566 <file>debian/rules</file>:
9568 dpkg-distaddfile <var>filename</var> <var>section</var> <var>priority</var>
9570 The <var>filename</var> is relative to the directory where
9571 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> will expect to find it - this
9572 is usually the directory above the top level of the source
9573 tree. The <file>debian/rules</file> target should put the
9574 file there just before or just after calling
9575 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn>.
9579 The <var>section</var> and <var>priority</var> are passed
9580 unchanged into the resulting <file>.changes</file> file.
9585 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-genchanges">
9587 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> - generates a <file>.changes</file>
9592 This program is usually called by package-independent
9593 automatic building scripts such as
9594 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>, but it may also be called
9599 It is usually called in the top level of a built source
9600 tree, and when invoked with no arguments will print out a
9601 straightforward <file>.changes</file> file based on the
9602 information in the source package's changelog and control
9603 file and the binary and source packages which should have
9609 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-parsechangelog">
9611 <prgn>dpkg-parsechangelog</prgn> - produces parsed
9612 representation of a changelog
9616 This program is used internally by
9617 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> et al. It may also occasionally
9618 be useful in <file>debian/rules</file> and elsewhere. It
9619 parses a changelog, <file>debian/changelog</file> by default,
9620 and prints a control-file format representation of the
9621 information in it to standard output.
9625 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-architecture">
9627 <prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn> - information about the build and
9632 This program can be used manually, but is also invoked by
9633 <tt>dpkg-buildpackage</tt> or <file>debian/rules</file> to set
9634 to set environment or make variables which specify the build and
9635 host architecture for the package building process.
9640 <sect id="pkg-sourcetree">
9641 <heading>The Debianised source tree</heading>
9644 The source archive scheme described later is intended to
9645 allow a Debianised source tree with some associated control
9646 information to be reproduced and transported easily. The
9647 Debianised source tree is a version of the original program
9648 with certain files added for the benefit of the
9649 Debianisation process, and with any other changes required
9650 made to the rest of the source code and installation
9655 The extra files created for Debian are in the subdirectory
9656 <file>debian</file> of the top level of the Debianised source
9657 tree. They are described below.
9660 <sect1 id="pkg-debianrules">
9661 <heading><file>debian/rules</file> - the main building script</heading>
9664 See <ref id="debianrules">.
9669 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkgchangelog">
9670 <heading><file>debian/changelog</file></heading>
9673 See <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
9677 It is recommended that the entire changelog be encoded in the
9678 <url id="http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/rfc/rfc2279.html" name="UTF-8">
9680 <url id="http://www.unicode.org/"
9681 name="Unicode">.<footnote>
9683 I think it is fairly obvious that we need to
9684 eventually transition to UTF-8 for our package
9685 infrastructure; it is really the only sane char-set in
9686 an international environment. Now, we can't switch to
9687 using UTF-8 for package control fields and the like
9688 until dpkg has better support, but one thing we can
9689 start doing today is requesting that Debian changelogs
9690 are UTF-8 encoded. At some point in time, we can start
9691 requiring them to do so.
9694 Checking for non-UTF8 characters in a changelog is
9695 trivial. Dump the file through
9696 <example>iconv -f utf-8 -t ucs-4</example>
9697 discard the output, and check the return
9698 value. If there are any characters in the stream
9699 which are invalid UTF-8 sequences, iconv will exit
9700 with an error code; and this will be the case for the
9701 vast majority of other character sets.
9706 <sect2><heading>Defining alternative changelog formats
9710 It is possible to use a different format to the standard
9711 one, by providing a parser for the format you wish to
9716 In order to have <tt>dpkg-parsechangelog</tt> run your
9717 parser, you must include a line within the last 40 lines
9718 of your file matching the Perl regular expression:
9719 <tt>\schangelog-format:\s+([0-9a-z]+)\W</tt> The part in
9720 parentheses should be the name of the format. For
9721 example, you might say:
9723 @@@ changelog-format: joebloggs @@@
9725 Changelog format names are non-empty strings of alphanumerics.
9729 If such a line exists then <tt>dpkg-parsechangelog</tt>
9730 will look for the parser as
9731 <file>/usr/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog/<var>format-name</var></file>
9733 <file>/usr/local/lib/dpkg/parsechangelog/<var>format-name</var></file>;
9734 it is an error for it not to find it, or for it not to
9735 be an executable program. The default changelog format
9736 is <tt>dpkg</tt>, and a parser for it is provided with
9737 the <tt>dpkg</tt> package.
9741 The parser will be invoked with the changelog open on
9742 standard input at the start of the file. It should read
9743 the file (it may seek if it wishes) to determine the
9744 information required and return the parsed information
9745 to standard output in the form of a series of control
9746 fields in the standard format. By default it should
9747 return information about only the most recent version in
9748 the changelog; it should accept a
9749 <tt>-v<var>version</var></tt> option to return changes
9750 information from all versions present <em>strictly
9751 after</em> <var>version</var>, and it should then be an
9752 error for <var>version</var> not to be present in the
9758 <list compact="compact">
9759 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref></item>
9760 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
9761 <item><qref id="f-Distribution"><tt>Distribution</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
9762 <item><qref id="f-Urgency"><tt>Urgency</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
9763 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
9764 <item><qref id="f-Date"><tt>Date</tt></qref></item>
9765 <item><qref id="f-Changes"><tt>Changes</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
9770 If several versions are being returned (due to the use
9771 of <tt>-v</tt>), the urgency value should be of the
9772 highest urgency code listed at the start of any of the
9773 versions requested followed by the concatenated
9774 (space-separated) comments from all the versions
9775 requested; the maintainer, version, distribution and
9776 date should always be from the most recent version.
9780 For the format of the <tt>Changes</tt> field see
9781 <ref id="f-Changes">.
9785 If the changelog format which is being parsed always or
9786 almost always leaves a blank line between individual
9787 change notes these blank lines should be stripped out,
9788 so as to make the resulting output compact.
9792 If the changelog format does not contain date or package
9793 name information this information should be omitted from
9794 the output. The parser should not attempt to synthesize
9795 it or find it from other sources.
9799 If the changelog does not have the expected format the
9800 parser should exit with a nonzero exit status, rather
9801 than trying to muddle through and possibly generating
9806 A changelog parser may not interact with the user at
9812 <sect1 id="pkg-srcsubstvars">
9813 <heading><file>debian/substvars</file> and variable substitutions</heading>
9816 See <ref id="substvars">.
9822 <heading><file>debian/files</file></heading>
9825 See <ref id="debianfiles">.
9829 <sect1><heading><file>debian/tmp</file>
9833 This is the canonical temporary location for the
9834 construction of binary packages by the <tt>binary</tt>
9835 target. The directory <file>tmp</file> serves as the root of
9836 the file system tree as it is being constructed (for
9837 example, by using the package's upstream makefiles install
9838 targets and redirecting the output there), and it also
9839 contains the <tt>DEBIAN</tt> subdirectory. See <ref
9840 id="pkg-bincreating">.
9844 If several binary packages are generated from the same
9845 source tree it is usual to use several
9846 <file>debian/tmp<var>something</var></file> directories, for
9847 example <file>tmp-a</file> or <file>tmp-doc</file>.
9851 Whatever <file>tmp</file> directories are created and used by
9852 <tt>binary</tt> must of course be removed by the
9853 <tt>clean</tt> target.</p></sect1>
9857 <sect id="pkg-sourcearchives"><heading>Source packages as archives
9861 As it exists on the FTP site, a Debian source package
9862 consists of three related files. You must have the right
9863 versions of all three to be able to use them.
9868 <tag>Debian source control file - <tt>.dsc</tt></tag>
9870 This file is a control file used by <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
9871 to extract a source package.
9872 See <ref id="debiansourcecontrolfiles">.
9876 Original source archive -
9878 <var>package</var>_<var>upstream-version</var>.orig.tar.gz
9884 This is a compressed (with <tt>gzip -9</tt>)
9885 <prgn>tar</prgn> file containing the source code from
9886 the upstream authors of the program.
9891 Debianisation diff -
9893 <var>package</var>_<var>upstream_version-revision</var>.diff.gz
9899 This is a unified context diff (<tt>diff -u</tt>)
9900 giving the changes which are required to turn the
9901 original source into the Debian source. These changes
9902 may only include editing and creating plain files.
9903 The permissions of files, the targets of symbolic
9904 links and the characteristics of special files or
9905 pipes may not be changed and no files may be removed
9910 All the directories in the diff must exist, except the
9911 <file>debian</file> subdirectory of the top of the source
9912 tree, which will be created by
9913 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> if necessary when unpacking.
9917 The <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> program will
9918 automatically make the <file>debian/rules</file> file
9919 executable (see below).</p></item>
9924 If there is no original source code - for example, if the
9925 package is specially prepared for Debian or the Debian
9926 maintainer is the same as the upstream maintainer - the
9927 format is slightly different: then there is no diff, and the
9929 <file><var>package</var>_<var>version</var>.tar.gz</file>,
9930 and preferably contains a directory named
9931 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>.
9936 <heading>Unpacking a Debian source package without <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn></heading>
9939 <tt>dpkg-source -x</tt> is the recommended way to unpack a
9940 Debian source package. However, if it is not available it
9941 is possible to unpack a Debian source archive as follows:
9942 <enumlist compact="compact">
9945 Untar the tarfile, which will create a <file>.orig</file>
9949 <p>Rename the <file>.orig</file> directory to
9950 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>.</p>
9954 Create the subdirectory <file>debian</file> at the top of
9955 the source tree.</p>
9957 <item><p>Apply the diff using <tt>patch -p0</tt>.</p>
9959 <item><p>Untar the tarfile again if you want a copy of the original
9960 source code alongside the Debianised version.</p>
9965 It is not possible to generate a valid Debian source archive
9966 without using <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>. In particular,
9967 attempting to use <prgn>diff</prgn> directly to generate the
9968 <file>.diff.gz</file> file will not work.
9972 <heading>Restrictions on objects in source packages</heading>
9975 The source package may not contain any hard links
9977 This is not currently detected when building source
9978 packages, but only when extracting
9982 Hard links may be permitted at some point in the
9983 future, but would require a fair amount of
9985 </footnote>, device special files, sockets or setuid or
9988 Setgid directories are allowed.
9993 The source packaging tools manage the changes between the
9994 original and Debianised source using <prgn>diff</prgn> and
9995 <prgn>patch</prgn>. Turning the original source tree as
9996 included in the <file>.orig.tar.gz</file> into the debianised
9997 source must not involve any changes which cannot be
9998 handled by these tools. Problematic changes which cause
9999 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> to halt with an error when
10000 building the source package are:
10001 <list compact="compact">
10002 <item><p>Adding or removing symbolic links, sockets or pipes.</p>
10004 <item><p>Changing the targets of symbolic links.</p>
10006 <item><p>Creating directories, other than <file>debian</file>.</p>
10008 <item><p>Changes to the contents of binary files.</p></item>
10009 </list> Changes which cause <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> to
10010 print a warning but continue anyway are:
10011 <list compact="compact">
10014 Removing files, directories or symlinks.
10016 Renaming a file is not treated specially - it is
10017 seen as the removal of the old file (which
10018 generates a warning, but is otherwise ignored),
10019 and the creation of the new one.
10025 Changed text files which are missing the usual final
10026 newline (either in the original or the modified
10031 Changes which are not represented, but which are not detected by
10032 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>, are:
10033 <list compact="compact">
10034 <item><p>Changing the permissions of files (other than
10035 <file>debian/rules</file>) and directories.</p></item>
10040 The <file>debian</file> directory and <file>debian/rules</file>
10041 are handled specially by <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> - before
10042 applying the changes it will create the <file>debian</file>
10043 directory, and afterwards it will make
10044 <file>debian/rules</file> world-executable.
10050 <appendix id="pkg-controlfields">
10051 <heading>Control files and their fields (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
10054 Many of the tools in the <prgn>dpkg</prgn> suite manipulate
10055 data in a common format, known as control files. Binary and
10056 source packages have control data as do the <file>.changes</file>
10057 files which control the installation of uploaded files, and
10058 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s internal databases are in a similar
10063 <heading>Syntax of control files</heading>
10066 See <ref id="controlsyntax">.
10070 It is important to note that there are several fields which
10071 are optional as far as <prgn>dpkg</prgn> and the related
10072 tools are concerned, but which must appear in every Debian
10073 package, or whose omission may cause problems.
10078 <heading>List of fields</heading>
10081 See <ref id="controlfieldslist">.
10085 This section now contains only the fields that didn't belong
10086 to the Policy manual.
10089 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Filename">
10090 <heading><tt>Filename</tt> and <tt>MSDOS-Filename</tt></heading>
10093 These fields in <tt>Packages</tt> files give the
10094 filename(s) of (the parts of) a package in the
10095 distribution directories, relative to the root of the
10096 Debian hierarchy. If the package has been split into
10097 several parts the parts are all listed in order, separated
10102 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Size">
10103 <heading><tt>Size</tt> and <tt>MD5sum</tt></heading>
10106 These fields in <file>Packages</file> files give the size (in
10107 bytes, expressed in decimal) and MD5 checksum of the
10108 file(s) which make(s) up a binary package in the
10109 distribution. If the package is split into several parts
10110 the values for the parts are listed in order, separated by
10115 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Status">
10116 <heading><tt>Status</tt></heading>
10119 This field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file records
10120 whether the user wants a package installed, removed or
10121 left alone, whether it is broken (requiring
10122 re-installation) or not and what its current state on the
10123 system is. Each of these pieces of information is a
10128 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Config-Version">
10129 <heading><tt>Config-Version</tt></heading>
10132 If a package is not installed or not configured, this
10133 field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file records the last
10134 version of the package which was successfully
10139 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Conffiles">
10140 <heading><tt>Conffiles</tt></heading>
10143 This field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file contains
10144 information about the automatically-managed configuration
10145 files held by a package. This field should <em>not</em>
10146 appear anywhere in a package!
10151 <heading>Obsolete fields</heading>
10154 These are still recognized by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> but should
10155 not appear anywhere any more.
10157 <taglist compact="compact">
10159 <tag><tt>Revision</tt></tag>
10160 <tag><tt>Package-Revision</tt></tag>
10161 <tag><tt>Package_Revision</tt></tag>
10163 The Debian revision part of the package version was
10164 at one point in a separate control file field. This
10165 field went through several names.
10168 <tag><tt>Recommended</tt></tag>
10169 <item>Old name for <tt>Recommends</tt>.</item>
10171 <tag><tt>Optional</tt></tag>
10172 <item>Old name for <tt>Suggests</tt>.</item>
10174 <tag><tt>Class</tt></tag>
10175 <item>Old name for <tt>Priority</tt>.</item>
10184 <appendix id="pkg-conffiles">
10185 <heading>Configuration file handling (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
10188 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> can do a certain amount of automatic
10189 handling of package configuration files.
10193 Whether this mechanism is appropriate depends on a number of
10194 factors, but basically there are two approaches to any
10195 particular configuration file.
10199 The easy method is to ship a best-effort configuration in the
10200 package, and use <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s conffile mechanism to
10201 handle updates. If the user is unlikely to want to edit the
10202 file, but you need them to be able to without losing their
10203 changes, and a new package with a changed version of the file
10204 is only released infrequently, this is a good approach.
10208 The hard method is to build the configuration file from
10209 scratch in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script, and to take the
10210 responsibility for fixing any mistakes made in earlier
10211 versions of the package automatically. This will be
10212 appropriate if the file is likely to need to be different on
10216 <sect><heading>Automatic handling of configuration files by
10221 A package may contain a control area file called
10222 <tt>conffiles</tt>. This file should be a list of filenames
10223 of configuration files needing automatic handling, separated
10224 by newlines. The filenames should be absolute pathnames,
10225 and the files referred to should actually exist in the
10230 When a package is upgraded <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will process
10231 the configuration files during the configuration stage,
10232 shortly before it runs the package's <prgn>postinst</prgn>
10237 For each file it checks to see whether the version of the
10238 file included in the package is the same as the one that was
10239 included in the last version of the package (the one that is
10240 being upgraded from); it also compares the version currently
10241 installed on the system with the one shipped with the last
10246 If neither the user nor the package maintainer has changed
10247 the file, it is left alone. If one or the other has changed
10248 their version, then the changed version is preferred - i.e.,
10249 if the user edits their file, but the package maintainer
10250 doesn't ship a different version, the user's changes will
10251 stay, silently, but if the maintainer ships a new version
10252 and the user hasn't edited it the new version will be
10253 installed (with an informative message). If both have
10254 changed their version the user is prompted about the problem
10255 and must resolve the differences themselves.
10259 The comparisons are done by calculating the MD5 message
10260 digests of the files, and storing the MD5 of the file as it
10261 was included in the most recent version of the package.
10265 When a package is installed for the first time
10266 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will install the file that comes with it,
10267 unless that would mean overwriting a file already on the
10272 However, note that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will <em>not</em>
10273 replace a conffile that was removed by the user (or by a
10274 script). This is necessary because with some programs a
10275 missing file produces an effect hard or impossible to
10276 achieve in another way, so that a missing file needs to be
10277 kept that way if the user did it.
10281 Note that a package should <em>not</em> modify a
10282 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>-handled conffile in its maintainer
10283 scripts. Doing this will lead to <prgn>dpkg</prgn> giving
10284 the user confusing and possibly dangerous options for
10285 conffile update when the package is upgraded.</p>
10288 <sect><heading>Fully-featured maintainer script configuration
10293 For files which contain site-specific information such as
10294 the hostname and networking details and so forth, it is
10295 better to create the file in the package's
10296 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script.
10300 This will typically involve examining the state of the rest
10301 of the system to determine values and other information, and
10302 may involve prompting the user for some information which
10303 can't be obtained some other way.
10307 When using this method there are a couple of important
10308 issues which should be considered:
10312 If you discover a bug in the program which generates the
10313 configuration file, or if the format of the file changes
10314 from one version to the next, you will have to arrange for
10315 the postinst script to do something sensible - usually this
10316 will mean editing the installed configuration file to remove
10317 the problem or change the syntax. You will have to do this
10318 very carefully, since the user may have changed the file,
10319 perhaps to fix the very problem that your script is trying
10320 to deal with - you will have to detect these situations and
10321 deal with them correctly.
10325 If you do go down this route it's probably a good idea to
10326 make the program that generates the configuration file(s) a
10327 separate program in <file>/usr/sbin</file>, by convention called
10328 <file><var>package</var>config</file> and then run that if
10329 appropriate from the post-installation script. The
10330 <tt><var>package</var>config</tt> program should not
10331 unquestioningly overwrite an existing configuration - if its
10332 mode of operation is geared towards setting up a package for
10333 the first time (rather than any arbitrary reconfiguration
10334 later) you should have it check whether the configuration
10335 already exists, and require a <tt>--force</tt> flag to
10336 overwrite it.</p></sect>
10339 <appendix id="pkg-alternatives"><heading>Alternative versions of
10340 an interface - <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> (from old
10345 When several packages all provide different versions of the
10346 same program or file it is useful to have the system select a
10347 default, but to allow the system administrator to change it
10348 and have their decisions respected.
10352 For example, there are several versions of the <prgn>vi</prgn>
10353 editor, and there is no reason to prevent all of them from
10354 being installed at once, each under their own name
10355 (<prgn>nvi</prgn>, <prgn>vim</prgn> or whatever).
10356 Nevertheless it is desirable to have the name <tt>vi</tt>
10357 refer to something, at least by default.
10361 If all the packages involved cooperate, this can be done with
10362 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>.
10366 Each package provides its own version under its own name, and
10367 calls <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> in its postinst to
10368 register its version (and again in its prerm to deregister
10373 See the man page <manref name="update-alternatives"
10374 section="8"> for details.
10378 If <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> does not seem appropriate
10379 you may wish to consider using diversions instead.</p>
10382 <appendix id="pkg-diversions"><heading>Diversions - overriding a
10383 package's version of a file (from old Packaging Manual)
10387 It is possible to have <prgn>dpkg</prgn> not overwrite a file
10388 when it reinstalls the package it belongs to, and to have it
10389 put the file from the package somewhere else instead.
10393 This can be used locally to override a package's version of a
10394 file, or by one package to override another's version (or
10395 provide a wrapper for it).
10399 Before deciding to use a diversion, read <ref
10400 id="pkg-alternatives"> to see if you really want a diversion
10401 rather than several alternative versions of a program.
10405 There is a diversion list, which is read by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>,
10406 and updated by a special program <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn>.
10407 Please see <manref name="dpkg-divert" section="8"> for full
10408 details of its operation.
10412 When a package wishes to divert a file from another, it should
10413 call <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> in its preinst to add the
10414 diversion and rename the existing file. For example,
10415 supposing that a <prgn>smailwrapper</prgn> package wishes to
10416 install a wrapper around <file>/usr/sbin/smail</file>:
10418 if [ install = "$1" ]; then
10419 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --add --rename \
10420 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10422 </example> Testing <tt>$1</tt> is necessary so that the script
10423 doesn't try to add the diversion again when
10424 <prgn>smailwrapper</prgn> is upgraded. The <tt>--package
10425 smailwrapper</tt> ensures that <prgn>smailwrapper</prgn>'s
10426 copy of <file>/usr/sbin/smail</file> can bypass the diversion and
10427 get installed as the true version.
10431 The postrm has to do the reverse:
10433 if [ remove = "$1" ]; then
10434 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --remove --rename \
10435 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10441 Do not attempt to divert a file which is vitally important for
10442 the system's operation - when using <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn>
10443 there is a time, after it has been diverted but before
10444 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> has installed the new version, when the file
10445 does not exist.</p>
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