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12 <title>Debian Policy Manual</title>
13 <author><qref id="authors">The Debian Policy Mailing List</qref></author>
14 <version>version &version;, &date;</version>
17 This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian
18 GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and
19 contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of
20 the operating system, as well as technical requirements that
21 each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution.
26 Copyright © 1996,1997,1998 Ian Jackson
27 and Christian Schwarz.
30 These are the copyright dates of the original Policy manual.
31 Since then, this manual has been updated by many others. No
32 comprehensive collection of copyright notices for subsequent
37 This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or
38 modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
39 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
40 2, or (at your option) any later version.
44 This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
45 <em>without any warranty</em>; without even the implied
46 warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular
47 purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more
52 A copy of the GNU General Public License is available as
53 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL</file> in the Debian GNU/Linux
54 distribution or on the World Wide Web at
55 <url id="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
56 name="the GNU General Public Licence">. You can also
57 obtain it by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
58 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
66 <heading>About this manual</heading>
68 <heading>Scope</heading>
70 This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian
71 GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and
72 contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of the
73 operating system, as well as technical requirements that
74 each package must satisfy to be included in the
79 This manual also describes Debian policy as it relates to
80 creating Debian packages. It is not a tutorial on how to build
81 packages, nor is it exhaustive where it comes to describing
82 the behavior of the packaging system. Instead, this manual
83 attempts to define the interface to the package management
84 system that the developers have to be conversant with.<footnote>
85 Informally, the criteria used for inclusion is that the
86 material meet one of the following requirements:
87 <taglist compact="compact">
88 <tag>Standard interfaces</tag>
90 The material presented represents an interface to
91 the packaging system that is mandated for use, and
92 is used by, a significant number of packages, and
93 therefore should not be changed without peer
94 review. Package maintainers can then rely on this
95 interface not changing, and the package management
96 software authors need to ensure compatibility with
97 this interface definition. (Control file and
98 changelog file formats are examples.)
100 <tag>Chosen Convention</tag>
102 If there are a number of technically viable choices
103 that can be made, but one needs to select one of
104 these options for inter-operability. The version
105 number format is one example.
108 Please note that these are not mutually exclusive;
109 selected conventions often become parts of standard
115 The footnotes present in this manual are
116 merely informative, and are not part of Debian policy itself.
120 The appendices to this manual are not necessarily normative,
121 either. Please see <ref id="pkg-scope"> for more information.
125 In the normative part of this manual,
126 the words <em>must</em>, <em>should</em> and
127 <em>may</em>, and the adjectives <em>required</em>,
128 <em>recommended</em> and <em>optional</em>, are used to
129 distinguish the significance of the various guidelines in
130 this policy document. Packages that do not conform to the
131 guidelines denoted by <em>must</em> (or <em>required</em>)
132 will generally not be considered acceptable for the Debian
133 distribution. Non-conformance with guidelines denoted by
134 <em>should</em> (or <em>recommended</em>) will generally be
135 considered a bug, but will not necessarily render a package
136 unsuitable for distribution. Guidelines denoted by
137 <em>may</em> (or <em>optional</em>) are truly optional and
138 adherence is left to the maintainer's discretion.
142 These classifications are roughly equivalent to the bug
143 severities <em>serious</em> (for <em>must</em> or
144 <em>required</em> directive violations), <em>minor</em>,
145 <em>normal</em> or <em>important</em>
146 (for <em>should</em> or <em>recommended</em> directive
147 violations) and <em>wishlist</em> (for <em>optional</em>
150 Compare RFC 2119. Note, however, that these words are
151 used in a different way in this document.
156 Much of the information presented in this manual will be
157 useful even when building a package which is to be
158 distributed in some other way or is intended for local use
164 <heading>New versions of this document</heading>
167 This manual is distributed via the Debian package
168 <package><url name="debian-policy"
169 id="http://packages.debian.org/debian-policy"></package>
170 (<httpsite>packages.debian.org</httpsite>
171 <httppath>/debian-policy</httppath>).
175 The current version of this document is also available from
176 the Debian web mirrors at
177 <tt><url name="/doc/debian-policy/"
178 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/"></tt>.
180 <httpsite>www.debian.org</httpsite>
181 <httppath>/doc/debian-policy/</httppath>)
182 Also available from the same directory are several other
183 formats: <file>policy.html.tar.gz</file>
184 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.html.tar.gz</httppath>),
185 <file>policy.pdf.gz</file>
186 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.pdf.gz</httppath>)
187 and <file>policy.ps.gz</file>
188 (<httppath>/doc/debian-policy/policy.ps.gz</httppath>).
192 The <package>debian-policy</package> package also includes the file
193 <file>upgrading-checklist.txt.gz</file> which indicates policy
194 changes between versions of this document.
199 <heading>Authors and Maintainers</heading>
202 Originally called "Debian GNU/Linux Policy Manual", this
203 manual was initially written in 1996 by Ian Jackson.
204 It was revised on November 27th, 1996 by David A. Morris.
205 Christian Schwarz added new sections on March 15th, 1997,
206 and reworked/restructured it in April-July 1997.
207 Christoph Lameter contributed the "Web Standard".
208 Julian Gilbey largely restructured it in 2001.
212 Since September 1998, the responsibility for the contents of
213 this document lies on the <url name="debian-policy mailing list"
214 id="mailto:debian-policy@lists.debian.org">. Proposals
215 are discussed there and inserted into policy after a certain
216 consensus is established.
217 <!-- insert shameless policy-process plug here eventually -->
218 The actual editing is done by a group of maintainers that have
219 no editorial powers. These are the current maintainers:
222 <item>Julian Gilbey</item>
223 <item>Branden Robinson</item>
224 <item>Josip Rodin</item>
225 <item>Manoj Srivastava</item>
230 While the authors of this document have tried hard to avoid
231 typos and other errors, these do still occur. If you discover
232 an error in this manual or if you want to give any
233 comments, suggestions, or criticisms please send an email to
234 the Debian Policy List,
235 <email>debian-policy@lists.debian.org</email>, or submit a
236 bug report against the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
240 Please do not try to reach the individual authors or maintainers
241 of the Policy Manual regarding changes to the Policy.
246 <heading>Related documents</heading>
249 There are several other documents other than this Policy Manual
250 that are necessary to fully understand some Debian policies and
255 The external "sub-policy" documents are referred to in:
256 <list compact="compact">
257 <item><ref id="fhs"></item>
258 <item><ref id="virtual_pkg"></item>
259 <item><ref id="menus"></item>
260 <item><ref id="mime"></item>
261 <item><ref id="perl"></item>
262 <item><ref id="maintscriptprompt"></item>
263 <item><ref id="emacs"></item>
268 In addition to those, which carry the weight of policy, there
269 is the Debian Developer's Reference. This document describes
270 procedures and resources for Debian developers, but it is
271 <em>not</em> normative; rather, it includes things that don't
272 belong in the Policy, such as best practices for developers.
276 The Developer's Reference is available in the
277 <package>developers-reference</package> package.
278 It's also available from the Debian web mirrors at
279 <tt><url name="/doc/developers-reference/"
280 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/"></tt>.
284 <sect id="definitions">
285 <heading>Definitions</heading>
288 The following terms are used in this Policy Manual:
292 The character encoding specified by ANSI X3.4-1986 and its
293 predecessor standards, referred to in MIME as US-ASCII, and
294 corresponding to an encoding in eight bits per character of
295 the first 128 <url id="http://www.unicode.org/"
296 name="Unicode"> characters, with the eighth bit always zero.
300 The transformation format (sometimes called encoding) of
301 <url id="http://www.unicode.org/" name="Unicode"> defined by
302 <url id="http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3629.txt"
303 name="RFC 3629">. UTF-8 has the useful property of having
304 ASCII as a subset, so any text encoded in ASCII is trivially
314 <heading>The Debian Archive</heading>
317 The Debian GNU/Linux system is maintained and distributed as a
318 collection of <em>packages</em>. Since there are so many of
319 them (currently well over 15000), they are split into
320 <em>sections</em> and given <em>priorities</em> to simplify
321 the handling of them.
325 The effort of the Debian project is to build a free operating
326 system, but not every package we want to make accessible is
327 <em>free</em> in our sense (see the Debian Free Software
328 Guidelines, below), or may be imported/exported without
329 restrictions. Thus, the archive is split into areas<footnote>
330 The Debian archive software uses the term "component" internally
331 and in the Release file format to refer to the division of an
332 archive. The Debian Social Contract simply refers to "areas."
333 This document uses terminology similar to the Social Contract.
334 </footnote> based on their licenses and other restrictions.
338 The aims of this are:
340 <list compact="compact">
341 <item>to allow us to make as much software available as we can</item>
342 <item>to allow us to encourage everyone to write free software,
344 <item>to allow us to make it easy for people to produce
345 CD-ROMs of our system without violating any licenses,
346 import/export restrictions, or any other laws.</item>
351 The <em>main</em> archive area forms the <em>Debian GNU/Linux
356 Packages in the other archive areas (<tt>contrib</tt>,
357 <tt>non-free</tt>) are not considered to be part of the Debian
358 distribution, although we support their use and provide
359 infrastructure for them (such as our bug-tracking system and
360 mailing lists). This Debian Policy Manual applies to these
365 <heading>The Debian Free Software Guidelines</heading>
367 The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) form our
368 definition of "free software". These are:
370 <tag>1. Free Redistribution
373 The license of a Debian component may not restrict any
374 party from selling or giving away the software as a
375 component of an aggregate software distribution
376 containing programs from several different
377 sources. The license may not require a royalty or
378 other fee for such sale.
383 The program must include source code, and must allow
384 distribution in source code as well as compiled form.
386 <tag>3. Derived Works
389 The license must allow modifications and derived
390 works, and must allow them to be distributed under the
391 same terms as the license of the original software.
393 <tag>4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
396 The license may restrict source-code from being
397 distributed in modified form <em>only</em> if the
398 license allows the distribution of "patch files"
399 with the source code for the purpose of modifying the
400 program at build time. The license must explicitly
401 permit distribution of software built from modified
402 source code. The license may require derived works to
403 carry a different name or version number from the
404 original software. (This is a compromise. The Debian
405 Project encourages all authors to not restrict any
406 files, source or binary, from being modified.)
408 <tag>5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
411 The license must not discriminate against any person
414 <tag>6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
417 The license must not restrict anyone from making use
418 of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For
419 example, it may not restrict the program from being
420 used in a business, or from being used for genetic
423 <tag>7. Distribution of License
426 The rights attached to the program must apply to all
427 to whom the program is redistributed without the need
428 for execution of an additional license by those
431 <tag>8. License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
434 The rights attached to the program must not depend on
435 the program's being part of a Debian system. If the
436 program is extracted from Debian and used or
437 distributed without Debian but otherwise within the
438 terms of the program's license, all parties to whom
439 the program is redistributed must have the same
440 rights as those that are granted in conjunction with
443 <tag>9. License Must Not Contaminate Other Software
446 The license must not place restrictions on other
447 software that is distributed along with the licensed
448 software. For example, the license must not insist
449 that all other programs distributed on the same medium
450 must be free software.
452 <tag>10. Example Licenses
455 The "GPL," "BSD," and "Artistic" licenses are examples of
456 licenses that we consider <em>free</em>.
463 <heading>Archive areas</heading>
466 <heading>The main archive area</heading>
469 Every package in <em>main</em> must comply with the DFSG
470 (Debian Free Software Guidelines).
474 In addition, the packages in <em>main</em>
475 <list compact="compact">
477 must not require a package outside of <em>main</em>
478 for compilation or execution (thus, the package must
479 not declare a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, <tt>Depends</tt>,
480 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends</tt>,
481 or <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt> relationship on a
482 non-<em>main</em> package unless a package
483 in <em>main</em> is listed as an alternative),
486 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
490 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
499 <heading>The contrib archive area</heading>
502 Every package in <em>contrib</em> must comply with the DFSG.
506 In addition, the packages in <em>contrib</em>
507 <list compact="compact">
509 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
513 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
521 Examples of packages which would be included in
522 <em>contrib</em> are:
523 <list compact="compact">
525 free packages which require <em>contrib</em>,
526 <em>non-free</em> packages or packages which are not
527 in our archive at all for compilation or execution,
531 wrapper packages or other sorts of free accessories for
538 <sect1 id="non-free">
539 <heading>The non-free archive area</heading>
542 Packages must be placed in <em>non-free</em> if they are
543 not compliant with the DFSG or are encumbered by patents
544 or other legal issues that make their distribution
549 In addition, the packages in <em>non-free</em>
550 <list compact="compact">
552 must not be so buggy that we refuse to support them,
556 must meet all policy requirements presented in this
557 manual that it is possible for them to meet.
559 It is possible that there are policy
560 requirements which the package is unable to
561 meet, for example, if the source is
562 unavailable. These situations will need to be
563 handled on a case-by-case basis.
572 <sect id="pkgcopyright">
573 <heading>Copyright considerations</heading>
576 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
577 copyright information and distribution license in the file
578 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
579 (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details).
583 We reserve the right to restrict files from being included
584 anywhere in our archives if
585 <list compact="compact">
587 their use or distribution would break a law,
590 there is an ethical conflict in their distribution or
594 we would have to sign a license for them, or
597 their distribution would conflict with other project
604 Programs whose authors encourage the user to make
605 donations are fine for the main distribution, provided
606 that the authors do not claim that not donating is
607 immoral, unethical, illegal or something similar; in such
608 a case they must go in <em>non-free</em>.
612 Packages whose copyright permission notices (or patent
613 problems) do not even allow redistribution of binaries
614 only, and where no special permission has been obtained,
615 must not be placed on the Debian FTP site and its mirrors
620 Note that under international copyright law (this applies
621 in the United States, too), <em>no</em> distribution or
622 modification of a work is allowed without an explicit
623 notice saying so. Therefore a program without a copyright
624 notice <em>is</em> copyrighted and you may not do anything
625 to it without risking being sued! Likewise if a program
626 has a copyright notice but no statement saying what is
627 permitted then nothing is permitted.
631 Many authors are unaware of the problems that restrictive
632 copyrights (or lack of copyright notices) can cause for
633 the users of their supposedly-free software. It is often
634 worthwhile contacting such authors diplomatically to ask
635 them to modify their license terms. However, this can be a
636 politically difficult thing to do and you should ask for
637 advice on the <tt>debian-legal</tt> mailing list first, as
642 When in doubt about a copyright, send mail to
643 <email>debian-legal@lists.debian.org</email>. Be prepared
644 to provide us with the copyright statement. Software
645 covered by the GPL, public domain software and BSD-like
646 copyrights are safe; be wary of the phrases "commercial
647 use prohibited" and "distribution restricted".
651 <sect id="subsections">
652 <heading>Sections</heading>
655 The packages in the archive areas <em>main</em>,
656 <em>contrib</em> and <em>non-free</em> are grouped further into
657 <em>sections</em> to simplify handling.
661 The archive area and section for each package should be
662 specified in the package's <tt>Section</tt> control record (see
663 <ref id="f-Section">). However, the maintainer of the Debian
664 archive may override this selection to ensure the consistency of
665 the Debian distribution. The <tt>Section</tt> field should be
667 <list compact="compact">
669 <em>section</em> if the package is in the
670 <em>main</em> archive area,
673 <em>area/section</em> if the package is in
674 the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em>
681 The Debian archive maintainers provide the authoritative
682 list of sections. At present, they are:
683 <em>admin</em>, <em>cli-mono</em>, <em>comm</em>, <em>database</em>,
684 <em>devel</em>, <em>debug</em>, <em>doc</em>, <em>editors</em>,
685 <em>electronics</em>, <em>embedded</em>, <em>fonts</em>,
686 <em>games</em>, <em>gnome</em>, <em>graphics</em>, <em>gnu-r</em>,
687 <em>gnustep</em>, <em>hamradio</em>, <em>haskell</em>,
688 <em>httpd</em>, <em>interpreters</em>, <em>java</em>, <em>kde</em>,
689 <em>kernel</em>, <em>libs</em>, <em>libdevel</em>, <em>lisp</em>,
690 <em>localization</em>, <em>mail</em>, <em>math</em>, <em>misc</em>,
691 <em>net</em>, <em>news</em>, <em>ocaml</em>, <em>oldlibs</em>,
692 <em>otherosfs</em>, <em>perl</em>, <em>php</em>, <em>python</em>,
693 <em>ruby</em>, <em>science</em>, <em>shells</em>, <em>sound</em>,
694 <em>tex</em>, <em>text</em>, <em>utils</em>, <em>vcs</em>,
695 <em>video</em>, <em>web</em>, <em>x11</em>, <em>xfce</em>,
696 <em>zope</em>. The additional section <em>debian-installer</em>
697 contains special packages used by the installer and is not used
698 for normal Debian packages.
702 For more information about the sections and their definitions,
703 see the <url id="http://packages.debian.org/unstable/"
704 name="list of sections in unstable">.
708 <sect id="priorities">
709 <heading>Priorities</heading>
712 Each package should have a <em>priority</em> value, which is
713 included in the package's <em>control record</em>
714 (see <ref id="f-Priority">).
715 This information is used by the Debian package management tools to
716 separate high-priority packages from less-important packages.
720 The following <em>priority levels</em> are recognized by the
721 Debian package management tools.
723 <tag><tt>required</tt></tag>
725 Packages which are necessary for the proper
726 functioning of the system (usually, this means that
727 dpkg functionality depends on these packages).
728 Removing a <tt>required</tt> package may cause your
729 system to become totally broken and you may not even
730 be able to use <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to put things back,
731 so only do so if you know what you are doing. Systems
732 with only the <tt>required</tt> packages are probably
733 unusable, but they do have enough functionality to
734 allow the sysadmin to boot and install more software.
736 <tag><tt>important</tt></tag>
738 Important programs, including those which one would
739 expect to find on any Unix-like system. If the
740 expectation is that an experienced Unix person who
741 found it missing would say "What on earth is going on,
742 where is <prgn>foo</prgn>?", it must be an
743 <tt>important</tt> package.<footnote>
744 This is an important criterion because we are
745 trying to produce, amongst other things, a free
748 Other packages without which the system will not run
749 well or be usable must also have priority
750 <tt>important</tt>. This does
751 <em>not</em> include Emacs, the X Window System, TeX
752 or any other large applications. The
753 <tt>important</tt> packages are just a bare minimum of
754 commonly-expected and necessary tools.
756 <tag><tt>standard</tt></tag>
758 These packages provide a reasonably small but not too
759 limited character-mode system. This is what will be
760 installed by default if the user doesn't select anything
761 else. It doesn't include many large applications.
763 <tag><tt>optional</tt></tag>
765 (In a sense everything that isn't required is
766 optional, but that's not what is meant here.) This is
767 all the software that you might reasonably want to
768 install if you didn't know what it was and don't have
769 specialized requirements. This is a much larger system
770 and includes the X Window System, a full TeX
771 distribution, and many applications. Note that
772 optional packages should not conflict with each other.
774 <tag><tt>extra</tt></tag>
776 This contains all packages that conflict with others
777 with required, important, standard or optional
778 priorities, or are only likely to be useful if you
779 already know what they are or have specialized
780 requirements (such as packages containing only detached
787 Packages must not depend on packages with lower priority
788 values (excluding build-time dependencies). In order to
789 ensure this, the priorities of one or more packages may need
798 <heading>Binary packages</heading>
801 The Debian GNU/Linux distribution is based on the Debian
802 package management system, called <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. Thus,
803 all packages in the Debian distribution must be provided
804 in the <tt>.deb</tt> file format.
808 A <tt>.deb</tt> package contains two sets of files: a set of files
809 to install on the system when the package is installed, and a set
810 of files that provide additional metadata about the package or
811 which are executed when the package is installed or removed. This
812 second set of files is called <em>control information files</em>.
813 Among those files are the package maintainer scripts
814 and <file>control</file>, the <qref id="binarycontrolfiles">binary
815 package control file</qref> that contains the control fields for
816 the package. Other control information files
817 include <qref id="sharedlibs-shlibdeps">the <file>shlibs</file>
818 file</qref> used to store shared library dependency information
819 and the <file>conffiles</file> file that lists the package's
820 configuration files (described in <ref id="config-files">).
824 There is unfortunately a collision of terminology here between
825 control information files and files in the Debian control file
826 format. Throughout this document, a <em>control file</em> refers
827 to a file in the Debian control file format. These files are
828 documented in <ref id="controlfields">. Only files referred to
829 specifically as <em>control information files</em> are the files
830 included in the control information file member of
831 the <file>.deb</file> file format used by binary packages. Most
832 control information files are not in the Debian control file
837 <heading>The package name</heading>
840 Every package must have a name that's unique within the Debian
845 The package name is included in the control field
846 <tt>Package</tt>, the format of which is described
847 in <ref id="f-Package">.
848 The package name is also included as a part of the file name
849 of the <tt>.deb</tt> file.
854 <heading>The version of a package</heading>
857 Every package has a version number recorded in its
858 <tt>Version</tt> control file field, described in
859 <ref id="f-Version">.
863 The package management system imposes an ordering on version
864 numbers, so that it can tell whether packages are being up- or
865 downgraded and so that package system front end applications
866 can tell whether a package it finds available is newer than
867 the one installed on the system. The version number format
868 has the most significant parts (as far as comparison is
869 concerned) at the beginning.
873 If an upstream package has problematic version numbers they
874 should be converted to a sane form for use in the
875 <tt>Version</tt> field.
879 <heading>Version numbers based on dates</heading>
882 In general, Debian packages should use the same version
883 numbers as the upstream sources.
887 However, in some cases where the upstream version number is
888 based on a date (e.g., a development "snapshot" release) the
889 package management system cannot handle these version
890 numbers without epochs. For example, dpkg will consider
891 "96May01" to be greater than "96Dec24".
895 To prevent having to use epochs for every new upstream
896 version, the date based portion of the version number
897 should be changed to the following format in such cases:
898 "19960501", "19961224". It is up to the maintainer whether
899 they want to bother the upstream maintainer to change
900 the version numbers upstream, too.
904 Note that other version formats based on dates which are
905 parsed correctly by the package management system should
906 <em>not</em> be changed.
910 Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been
911 written especially for Debian) whose version numbers include
912 dates should always use the "YYYYMMDD" format.
919 <heading>The maintainer of a package</heading>
922 Every package must have a Debian maintainer (the
923 maintainer may be one person or a group of people
924 reachable from a common email address, such as a mailing
925 list). The maintainer is responsible for ensuring that
926 the package is placed in the appropriate distributions.
930 The maintainer must be specified in the
931 <tt>Maintainer</tt> control field with their correct name
932 and a working email address. If one person maintains
933 several packages, they should try to avoid having
934 different forms of their name and email address in
935 the <tt>Maintainer</tt> fields of those packages.
939 The format of the <tt>Maintainer</tt> control field is
940 described in <ref id="f-Maintainer">.
944 If the maintainer of a package quits from the Debian
945 project, "Debian QA Group"
946 <email>packages@qa.debian.org</email> takes over the
947 maintainer-ship of the package until someone else
948 volunteers for that task. These packages are called
949 <em>orphaned packages</em>.<footnote>
950 The detailed procedure for doing this gracefully can
951 be found in the Debian Developer's Reference,
952 see <ref id="related">.
957 <sect id="descriptions">
958 <heading>The description of a package</heading>
961 Every Debian package must have a <tt>Description</tt> control
962 field which contains a synopsis and extended description of the
963 package. Technical information about the format of the
964 <tt>Description</tt> field is in <ref id="f-Description">.
968 The description should describe the package (the program) to a
969 user (system administrator) who has never met it before so that
970 they have enough information to decide whether they want to
971 install it. This description should not just be copied verbatim
972 from the program's documentation.
976 Put important information first, both in the synopsis and
977 extended description. Sometimes only the first part of the
978 synopsis or of the description will be displayed. You can
979 assume that there will usually be a way to see the whole
980 extended description.
984 The description should also give information about the
985 significant dependencies and conflicts between this package
986 and others, so that the user knows why these dependencies and
987 conflicts have been declared.
991 Instructions for configuring or using the package should
992 not be included (that is what installation scripts,
993 manual pages, info files, etc., are for). Copyright
994 statements and other administrivia should not be included
995 either (that is what the copyright file is for).
998 <sect1 id="synopsis"><heading>The single line synopsis</heading>
1001 The single line synopsis should be kept brief - certainly
1002 under 80 characters.
1006 Do not include the package name in the synopsis line. The
1007 display software knows how to display this already, and you
1008 do not need to state it. Remember that in many situations
1009 the user may only see the synopsis line - make it as
1010 informative as you can.
1015 <sect1 id="extendeddesc"><heading>The extended description</heading>
1018 Do not try to continue the single line synopsis into the
1019 extended description. This will not work correctly when
1020 the full description is displayed, and makes no sense
1021 where only the summary (the single line synopsis) is
1026 The extended description should describe what the package
1027 does and how it relates to the rest of the system (in terms
1028 of, for example, which subsystem it is which part of).
1032 The description field needs to make sense to anyone, even
1033 people who have no idea about any of the things the
1034 package deals with.<footnote>
1035 The blurb that comes with a program in its
1036 announcements and/or <prgn>README</prgn> files is
1037 rarely suitable for use in a description. It is
1038 usually aimed at people who are already in the
1039 community where the package is used.
1048 <heading>Dependencies</heading>
1051 Every package must specify the dependency information
1052 about other packages that are required for the first to
1057 For example, a dependency entry must be provided for any
1058 shared libraries required by a dynamically-linked executable
1059 binary in a package.
1063 Packages are not required to declare any dependencies they
1064 have on other packages which are marked <tt>Essential</tt>
1065 (see below), and should not do so unless they depend on a
1066 particular version of that package.<footnote>
1068 Essential is needed in part to avoid unresolvable dependency
1069 loops on upgrade. If packages add unnecessary dependencies
1070 on packages in this set, the chances that there
1071 <strong>will</strong> be an unresolvable dependency loop
1072 caused by forcing these Essential packages to be configured
1073 first before they need to be is greatly increased. It also
1074 increases the chances that frontends will be unable to
1075 <strong>calculate</strong> an upgrade path, even if one
1079 Also, functionality is rarely ever removed from the
1080 Essential set, but <em>packages</em> have been removed from
1081 the Essential set when the functionality moved to a
1082 different package. So depending on these packages <em>just
1083 in case</em> they stop being essential does way more harm
1090 Sometimes, a package requires another package to be installed
1091 <em>and</em> configured before it can be installed. In this
1092 case, you must specify a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> entry for
1097 You should not specify a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> entry for a
1098 package before this has been discussed on the
1099 <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list and a consensus about
1100 doing that has been reached.
1104 The format of the package interrelationship control fields is
1105 described in <ref id="relationships">.
1109 <sect id="virtual_pkg">
1110 <heading>Virtual packages</heading>
1113 Sometimes, there are several packages which offer
1114 more-or-less the same functionality. In this case, it's
1115 useful to define a <em>virtual package</em> whose name
1116 describes that common functionality. (The virtual
1117 packages only exist logically, not physically; that's why
1118 they are called <em>virtual</em>.) The packages with this
1119 particular function will then <em>provide</em> the virtual
1120 package. Thus, any other package requiring that function
1121 can simply depend on the virtual package without having to
1122 specify all possible packages individually.
1126 All packages should use virtual package names where
1127 appropriate, and arrange to create new ones if necessary.
1128 They should not use virtual package names (except privately,
1129 amongst a cooperating group of packages) unless they have
1130 been agreed upon and appear in the list of virtual package
1131 names. (See also <ref id="virtual">)
1135 The latest version of the authoritative list of virtual
1136 package names can be found in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
1137 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
1138 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.txt"
1139 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/virtual-package-names-list.txt"></tt>.
1143 The procedure for updating the list is described in the preface
1150 <heading>Base system</heading>
1153 The <tt>base system</tt> is a minimum subset of the Debian
1154 GNU/Linux system that is installed before everything else
1155 on a new system. Only very few packages are allowed to form
1156 part of the base system, in order to keep the required disk
1161 The base system consists of all those packages with priority
1162 <tt>required</tt> or <tt>important</tt>. Many of them will
1163 be tagged <tt>essential</tt> (see below).
1168 <heading>Essential packages</heading>
1171 Essential is defined as the minimal set of functionality that
1172 must be available and usable on the system at all times, even
1173 when packages are in an unconfigured (but unpacked) state.
1174 Packages are tagged <tt>essential</tt> for a system using the
1175 <tt>Essential</tt> control field. The format of the
1176 <tt>Essential</tt> control field is described in <ref
1181 Since these packages cannot be easily removed (one has to
1182 specify an extra <em>force option</em> to
1183 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to do so), this flag must not be used
1184 unless absolutely necessary. A shared library package
1185 must not be tagged <tt>essential</tt>; dependencies will
1186 prevent its premature removal, and we need to be able to
1187 remove it when it has been superseded.
1191 Since dpkg will not prevent upgrading of other packages
1192 while an <tt>essential</tt> package is in an unconfigured
1193 state, all <tt>essential</tt> packages must supply all of
1194 their core functionality even when unconfigured. If the
1195 package cannot satisfy this requirement it must not be
1196 tagged as essential, and any packages depending on this
1197 package must instead have explicit dependency fields as
1202 Maintainers should take great care in adding any programs,
1203 interfaces, or functionality to <tt>essential</tt> packages.
1204 Packages may assume that functionality provided by
1205 <tt>essential</tt> packages is always available without
1206 declaring explicit dependencies, which means that removing
1207 functionality from the Essential set is very difficult and is
1208 almost never done. Any capability added to an
1209 <tt>essential</tt> package therefore creates an obligation to
1210 support that capability as part of the Essential set in
1215 You must not tag any packages <tt>essential</tt> before
1216 this has been discussed on the <tt>debian-devel</tt>
1217 mailing list and a consensus about doing that has been
1222 <sect id="maintscripts">
1223 <heading>Maintainer Scripts</heading>
1226 The package installation scripts should avoid producing
1227 output which is unnecessary for the user to see and
1228 should rely on <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to stave off boredom on
1229 the part of a user installing many packages. This means,
1230 amongst other things, using the <tt>--quiet</tt> option on
1231 <prgn>install-info</prgn>.
1235 Errors which occur during the execution of an installation
1236 script must be checked and the installation must not
1237 continue after an error.
1241 Note that in general <ref id="scripts"> applies to package
1242 maintainer scripts, too.
1246 You should not use <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> on a file belonging
1247 to another package without consulting the maintainer of that
1248 package first. When adding or removing diversions, package
1249 maintainer scripts must provide the <tt>--package</tt> flag
1250 to <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> and must not use <tt>--local</tt>.
1254 All packages which supply an instance of a common command
1255 name (or, in general, filename) should generally use
1256 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>, so that they may be
1257 installed together. If <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>
1258 is not used, then each package must use
1259 <tt>Conflicts</tt> to ensure that other packages are
1260 de-installed. (In this case, it may be appropriate to
1261 specify a conflict against earlier versions of something
1262 that previously did not use
1263 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>; this is an exception to
1264 the usual rule that versioned conflicts should be
1268 <sect1 id="maintscriptprompt">
1269 <heading>Prompting in maintainer scripts</heading>
1271 Package maintainer scripts may prompt the user if
1272 necessary. Prompting must be done by communicating
1273 through a program, such as <prgn>debconf</prgn>, which
1274 conforms to the Debian Configuration Management
1275 Specification, version 2 or higher.
1279 Packages which are essential, or which are dependencies of
1280 essential packages, may fall back on another prompting method
1281 if no such interface is available when they are executed.
1285 The Debian Configuration Management Specification is included
1286 in the <file>debconf_specification</file> files in the
1287 <package>debian-policy</package> package.
1288 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
1289 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/debconf_specification.html"
1290 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/debconf_specification.html"></tt>.
1294 Packages which use the Debian Configuration Management
1295 Specification may contain the additional control information
1296 files <file>config</file>
1297 and <file>templates</file>. <file>config</file> is an
1298 additional maintainer script used for package configuration,
1299 and <file>templates</file> contains templates used for user
1300 prompting. The <prgn>config</prgn> script might be run before
1301 the <prgn>preinst</prgn> script and before the package is
1302 unpacked or any of its dependencies or pre-dependencies are
1303 satisfied. Therefore it must work using only the tools
1304 present in <em>essential</em> packages.<footnote>
1305 <package>Debconf</package> or another tool that
1306 implements the Debian Configuration Management
1307 Specification will also be installed, and any
1308 versioned dependencies on it will be satisfied
1309 before preconfiguration begins.
1314 Packages which use the Debian Configuration Management
1315 Specification must allow for translation of their user-visible
1316 messages by using a gettext-based system such as the one
1317 provided by the <package>po-debconf</package> package.
1321 Packages should try to minimize the amount of prompting
1322 they need to do, and they should ensure that the user
1323 will only ever be asked each question once. This means
1324 that packages should try to use appropriate shared
1325 configuration files (such as <file>/etc/papersize</file> and
1326 <file>/etc/news/server</file>), and shared
1327 <package>debconf</package> variables rather than each
1328 prompting for their own list of required pieces of
1333 It also means that an upgrade should not ask the same
1334 questions again, unless the user has used
1335 <tt>dpkg --purge</tt> to remove the package's configuration.
1336 The answers to configuration questions should be stored in an
1337 appropriate place in <file>/etc</file> so that the user can
1338 modify them, and how this has been done should be
1343 If a package has a vitally important piece of
1344 information to pass to the user (such as "don't run me
1345 as I am, you must edit the following configuration files
1346 first or you risk your system emitting badly-formatted
1347 messages"), it should display this in the
1348 <prgn>config</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn> script and
1349 prompt the user to hit return to acknowledge the
1350 message. Copyright messages do not count as vitally
1351 important (they belong in
1352 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>);
1353 neither do instructions on how to use a program (these
1354 should be in on-line documentation, where all the users
1359 Any necessary prompting should almost always be confined
1360 to the <prgn>config</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn>
1361 script. If it is done in the <prgn>postinst</prgn>, it
1362 should be protected with a conditional so that
1363 unnecessary prompting doesn't happen if a package's
1364 installation fails and the <prgn>postinst</prgn> is
1365 called with <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>,
1366 <tt>abort-remove</tt> or <tt>abort-deconfigure</tt>.
1376 <heading>Source packages</heading>
1378 <sect id="standardsversion">
1379 <heading>Standards conformance</heading>
1382 Source packages should specify the most recent version number
1383 of this policy document with which your package complied
1384 when it was last updated.
1388 This information may be used to file bug reports
1389 automatically if your package becomes too much out of date.
1393 The version is specified in the <tt>Standards-Version</tt>
1395 The format of the <tt>Standards-Version</tt> field is
1396 described in <ref id="f-Standards-Version">.
1400 You should regularly, and especially if your package has
1401 become out of date, check for the newest Policy Manual
1402 available and update your package, if necessary. When your
1403 package complies with the new standards you should update the
1404 <tt>Standards-Version</tt> source package field and
1405 release it.<footnote>
1406 See the file <file>upgrading-checklist</file> for
1407 information about policy which has changed between
1408 different versions of this document.
1414 <sect id="pkg-relations">
1415 <heading>Package relationships</heading>
1418 Source packages should specify which binary packages they
1419 require to be installed or not to be installed in order to
1420 build correctly. For example, if building a package
1421 requires a certain compiler, then the compiler should be
1422 specified as a build-time dependency.
1426 It is not necessary to explicitly specify build-time
1427 relationships on a minimal set of packages that are always
1428 needed to compile, link and put in a Debian package a
1429 standard "Hello World!" program written in C or C++. The
1430 required packages are called <em>build-essential</em>, and
1431 an informational list can be found in
1432 <file>/usr/share/doc/build-essential/list</file> (which is
1433 contained in the <tt>build-essential</tt>
1436 <list compact="compact">
1438 This allows maintaining the list separately
1439 from the policy documents (the list does not
1440 need the kind of control that the policy
1444 Having a separate package allows one to install
1445 the build-essential packages on a machine, as
1446 well as allowing other packages such as tasks to
1447 require installation of the build-essential
1448 packages using the depends relation.
1451 The separate package allows bug reports against
1452 the list to be categorized separately from
1453 the policy management process in the BTS.
1460 When specifying the set of build-time dependencies, one
1461 should list only those packages explicitly required by the
1462 build. It is not necessary to list packages which are
1463 required merely because some other package in the list of
1464 build-time dependencies depends on them.<footnote>
1465 The reason for this is that dependencies change, and
1466 you should list all those packages, and <em>only</em>
1467 those packages that <em>you</em> need directly. What
1468 others need is their business. For example, if you
1469 only link against <file>libimlib</file>, you will need to
1470 build-depend on <package>libimlib2-dev</package> but
1471 not against any <tt>libjpeg*</tt> packages, even
1472 though <tt>libimlib2-dev</tt> currently depends on
1473 them: installation of <package>libimlib2-dev</package>
1474 will automatically ensure that all of its run-time
1475 dependencies are satisfied.
1480 If build-time dependencies are specified, it must be
1481 possible to build the package and produce working binaries
1482 on a system with only essential and build-essential
1483 packages installed and also those required to satisfy the
1484 build-time relationships (including any implied
1485 relationships). In particular, this means that version
1486 clauses should be used rigorously in build-time
1487 relationships so that one cannot produce bad or
1488 inconsistently configured packages when the relationships
1489 are properly satisfied.
1493 <ref id="relationships"> explains the technical details.
1498 <heading>Changes to the upstream sources</heading>
1501 If changes to the source code are made that are not
1502 specific to the needs of the Debian system, they should be
1503 sent to the upstream authors in whatever form they prefer
1504 so as to be included in the upstream version of the
1509 If you need to configure the package differently for
1510 Debian or for Linux, and the upstream source doesn't
1511 provide a way to do so, you should add such configuration
1512 facilities (for example, a new <prgn>autoconf</prgn> test
1513 or <tt>#define</tt>) and send the patch to the upstream
1514 authors, with the default set to the way they originally
1515 had it. You can then easily override the default in your
1516 <file>debian/rules</file> or wherever is appropriate.
1520 You should make sure that the <prgn>configure</prgn> utility
1521 detects the correct architecture specification string
1522 (refer to <ref id="arch-spec"> for details).
1526 If you need to edit a <prgn>Makefile</prgn> where GNU-style
1527 <prgn>configure</prgn> scripts are used, you should edit the
1528 <file>.in</file> files rather than editing the
1529 <prgn>Makefile</prgn> directly. This allows the user to
1530 reconfigure the package if necessary. You should
1531 <em>not</em> configure the package and edit the generated
1532 <prgn>Makefile</prgn>! This makes it impossible for someone
1533 else to later reconfigure the package without losing the
1539 <sect id="dpkgchangelog">
1540 <heading>Debian changelog: <file>debian/changelog</file></heading>
1543 Changes in the Debian version of the package should be
1544 briefly explained in the Debian changelog file
1545 <file>debian/changelog</file>.<footnote>
1547 Mistakes in changelogs are usually best rectified by
1548 making a new changelog entry rather than "rewriting
1549 history" by editing old changelog entries.
1552 This includes modifications
1553 made in the Debian package compared to the upstream one
1554 as well as other changes and updates to the package.
1556 Although there is nothing stopping an author who is also
1557 the Debian maintainer from using this changelog for all
1558 their changes, it will have to be renamed if the Debian
1559 and upstream maintainers become different people. In such
1560 a case, however, it might be better to maintain the package
1561 as a non-native package.
1566 The format of the <file>debian/changelog</file> allows the
1567 package building tools to discover which version of the package
1568 is being built and find out other release-specific information.
1572 That format is a series of entries like this:
1574 <example compact="compact">
1575 <var>package</var> (<var>version</var>) <var>distribution(s)</var>; urgency=<var>urgency</var>
1577 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
1579 * <var>change details</var>
1580 <var>more change details</var>
1582 [blank line(s), included in output of dpkg-parsechangelog]
1584 * <var>even more change details</var>
1586 [optional blank line(s), stripped]
1588 -- <var>maintainer name</var> <<var>email address</var>><var>[two spaces]</var> <var>date</var>
1593 <var>package</var> and <var>version</var> are the source
1594 package name and version number.
1598 <var>distribution(s)</var> lists the distributions where
1599 this version should be installed when it is uploaded - it
1600 is copied to the <tt>Distribution</tt> field in the
1601 <file>.changes</file> file. See <ref id="f-Distribution">.
1605 <var>urgency</var> is the value for the <tt>Urgency</tt>
1606 field in the <file>.changes</file> file for the upload
1607 (see <ref id="f-Urgency">). It is not possible to specify
1608 an urgency containing commas; commas are used to separate
1609 <tt><var>keyword</var>=<var>value</var></tt> settings in the
1610 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> changelog format (though there is
1611 currently only one useful <var>keyword</var>,
1616 The change details may in fact be any series of lines
1617 starting with at least two spaces, but conventionally each
1618 change starts with an asterisk and a separating space and
1619 continuation lines are indented so as to bring them in
1620 line with the start of the text above. Blank lines may be
1621 used here to separate groups of changes, if desired.
1625 If this upload resolves bugs recorded in the Bug Tracking
1626 System (BTS), they may be automatically closed on the
1627 inclusion of this package into the Debian archive by
1628 including the string: <tt>closes: Bug#<var>nnnnn</var></tt>
1629 in the change details.<footnote>
1630 To be precise, the string should match the following
1631 Perl regular expression:
1633 /closes:\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+(?:,\s*(?:bug)?\#?\s?\d+)*/i
1635 Then all of the bug numbers listed will be closed by the
1636 archive maintenance script (<prgn>katie</prgn>) using the
1637 <var>version</var> of the changelog entry.
1639 This information is conveyed via the <tt>Closes</tt> field
1640 in the <tt>.changes</tt> file (see <ref id="f-Closes">).
1644 The maintainer name and email address used in the changelog
1645 should be the details of the person uploading <em>this</em>
1646 version. They are <em>not</em> necessarily those of the
1647 usual package maintainer. The information here will be
1648 copied to the <tt>Changed-By</tt> field in the
1649 <tt>.changes</tt> file (see <ref id="f-Changed-By">),
1650 and then later used to send an acknowledgement when the
1651 upload has been installed.
1655 The <var>date</var> has the following format<footnote>
1656 This is the same as the format generated by <tt>date
1658 </footnote> (compatible and with the same semantics of
1659 RFC 2822 and RFC 5322):
1660 <example>day-of-week, dd month yyyy hh:mm:ss +zzzz</example>
1662 <list compact="compact">
1664 day-of week is one of: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
1667 dd is a one- or two-digit day of the month (01-31)
1670 month is one of: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug,
1673 <item>yyyy is the four-digit year (e.g. 2010)</item>
1674 <item>hh is the two-digit hour (00-23)</item>
1675 <item>mm is the two-digit minutes (00-59)</item>
1676 <item>ss is the two-digit seconds (00-60)</item>
1678 +zzzz or -zzzz is the the time zone offset from Coordinated
1679 Universal Time (UTC). "+" indicates that the time is ahead
1680 of (i.e., east of) UTC and "-" indicates that the time is
1681 behind (i.e., west of) UTC. The first two digits indicate
1682 the hour difference from UTC and the last two digits
1683 indicate the number of additional minutes difference from
1684 UTC. The last two digits must be in the range 00-59.
1690 The first "title" line with the package name must start
1691 at the left hand margin. The "trailer" line with the
1692 maintainer and date details must be preceded by exactly
1693 one space. The maintainer details and the date must be
1694 separated by exactly two spaces.
1698 The entire changelog must be encoded in UTF-8.
1702 For more information on placement of the changelog files
1703 within binary packages, please see <ref id="changelogs">.
1707 <sect id="dpkgcopyright">
1708 <heading>Copyright: <file>debian/copyright</file></heading>
1710 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
1711 copyright information and distribution license in the file
1712 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>
1713 (see <ref id="copyrightfile"> for further details). Also see
1714 <ref id="pkgcopyright"> for further considerations related
1715 to copyrights for packages.
1719 <heading>Error trapping in makefiles</heading>
1722 When <prgn>make</prgn> invokes a command in a makefile
1723 (including your package's upstream makefiles and
1724 <file>debian/rules</file>), it does so using <prgn>sh</prgn>. This
1725 means that <prgn>sh</prgn>'s usual bad error handling
1726 properties apply: if you include a miniature script as one
1727 of the commands in your makefile you'll find that if you
1728 don't do anything about it then errors are not detected
1729 and <prgn>make</prgn> will blithely continue after
1734 Every time you put more than one shell command (this
1735 includes using a loop) in a makefile command you
1736 must make sure that errors are trapped. For
1737 simple compound commands, such as changing directory and
1738 then running a program, using <tt>&&</tt> rather
1739 than semicolon as a command separator is sufficient. For
1740 more complex commands including most loops and
1741 conditionals you should include a separate <tt>set -e</tt>
1742 command at the start of every makefile command that's
1743 actually one of these miniature shell scripts.
1747 <sect id="timestamps">
1748 <heading>Time Stamps</heading>
1750 Maintainers should preserve the modification times of the
1751 upstream source files in a package, as far as is reasonably
1753 The rationale is that there is some information conveyed
1754 by knowing the age of the file, for example, you could
1755 recognize that some documentation is very old by looking
1756 at the modification time, so it would be nice if the
1757 modification time of the upstream source would be
1763 <sect id="restrictions">
1764 <heading>Restrictions on objects in source packages</heading>
1767 The source package may not contain any hard links<footnote>
1769 This is not currently detected when building source
1770 packages, but only when extracting
1774 Hard links may be permitted at some point in the
1775 future, but would require a fair amount of
1778 </footnote>, device special files, sockets or setuid or
1779 setgid files.<footnote>
1780 Setgid directories are allowed.
1785 <sect id="debianrules">
1786 <heading>Main building script: <file>debian/rules</file></heading>
1789 This file must be an executable makefile, and contains the
1790 package-specific recipes for compiling the package and
1791 building binary package(s) from the source.
1795 It must start with the line <tt>#!/usr/bin/make -f</tt>,
1796 so that it can be invoked by saying its name rather than
1797 invoking <prgn>make</prgn> explicitly. That is, invoking
1798 either of <tt>make -f debian/rules <em>args...</em></tt>
1799 or <tt>./debian/rules <em>args...</em></tt> must result in
1804 Since an interactive <file>debian/rules</file> script makes it
1805 impossible to auto-compile that package and also makes it
1806 hard for other people to reproduce the same binary
1807 package, all <em>required targets</em> must be
1808 non-interactive. At a minimum, required targets are the
1809 ones called by <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>, namely,
1810 <em>clean</em>, <em>binary</em>, <em>binary-arch</em>,
1811 <em>binary-indep</em>, and <em>build</em>. It also follows
1812 that any target that these targets depend on must also be
1817 The targets are as follows (required unless stated otherwise):
1819 <tag><tt>build</tt></tag>
1822 The <tt>build</tt> target should perform all the
1823 configuration and compilation of the package.
1824 If a package has an interactive pre-build
1825 configuration routine, the Debian source package
1826 must either be built after this has taken place (so
1827 that the binary package can be built without rerunning
1828 the configuration) or the configuration routine
1829 modified to become non-interactive. (The latter is
1830 preferable if there are architecture-specific features
1831 detected by the configuration routine.)
1835 For some packages, notably ones where the same
1836 source tree is compiled in different ways to produce
1837 two binary packages, the <tt>build</tt> target
1838 does not make much sense. For these packages it is
1839 good enough to provide two (or more) targets
1840 (<tt>build-a</tt> and <tt>build-b</tt> or whatever)
1841 for each of the ways of building the package, and a
1842 <tt>build</tt> target that does nothing. The
1843 <tt>binary</tt> target will have to build the
1844 package in each of the possible ways and make the
1845 binary package out of each.
1849 The <tt>build</tt> target must not do anything
1850 that might require root privilege.
1854 The <tt>build</tt> target may need to run the
1855 <tt>clean</tt> target first - see below.
1859 When a package has a configuration and build routine
1860 which takes a long time, or when the makefiles are
1861 poorly designed, or when <tt>build</tt> needs to
1862 run <tt>clean</tt> first, it is a good idea to
1863 <tt>touch build</tt> when the build process is
1864 complete. This will ensure that if <tt>debian/rules
1865 build</tt> is run again it will not rebuild the whole
1867 Another common way to do this is for <tt>build</tt>
1868 to depend on <prgn>build-stamp</prgn> and to do
1869 nothing else, and for the <prgn>build-stamp</prgn>
1870 target to do the building and to <tt>touch
1871 build-stamp</tt> on completion. This is
1872 especially useful if the build routine creates a
1873 file or directory called <tt>build</tt>; in such a
1874 case, <tt>build</tt> will need to be listed as
1875 a phony target (i.e., as a dependency of the
1876 <tt>.PHONY</tt> target). See the documentation of
1877 <prgn>make</prgn> for more information on phony
1883 <tag><tt>build-arch</tt> (optional),
1884 <tt>build-indep</tt> (optional)
1888 A package may also provide both of the targets
1889 <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt>.
1890 The <tt>build-arch</tt> target, if provided, should
1891 perform all the configuration and compilation required for
1892 producing all architecture-dependant binary packages
1893 (those packages for which the body of the
1894 <tt>Architecture</tt> field in <tt>debian/control</tt> is
1895 not <tt>all</tt>). Similarly, the <tt>build-indep</tt>
1896 target, if provided, should perform all the configuration
1897 and compilation required for producing all
1898 architecture-independent binary packages (those packages
1899 for which the body of the <tt>Architecture</tt> field
1900 in <tt>debian/control</tt> is <tt>all</tt>).
1901 The <tt>build</tt> target should depend on those of the
1902 targets <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> that
1903 are provided in the rules file.<footnote>
1904 The intent of this split is so that binary-only builds
1905 need not install the dependencies required for
1906 the <tt>build-indep</tt> target. However, this is not
1907 yet used in practice since <tt>dpkg-buildpackage
1908 -B</tt>, and therefore the autobuilders,
1909 invoke <tt>build</tt> rather than <tt>build-arch</tt>
1910 due to the difficulties in determining whether the
1911 optional <tt>build-arch</tt> target exists.
1916 If one or both of the targets <tt>build-arch</tt> and
1917 <tt>build-indep</tt> are not provided, then invoking
1918 <file>debian/rules</file> with one of the not-provided
1919 targets as arguments should produce a exit status code
1920 of 2. Usually this is provided automatically by make
1921 if the target is missing.
1925 The <tt>build-arch</tt> and <tt>build-indep</tt> targets
1926 must not do anything that might require root privilege.
1930 <tag><tt>binary</tt>, <tt>binary-arch</tt>,
1931 <tt>binary-indep</tt>
1935 The <tt>binary</tt> target must be all that is
1936 necessary for the user to build the binary package(s)
1937 produced from this source package. It is
1938 split into two parts: <prgn>binary-arch</prgn> builds
1939 the binary packages which are specific to a particular
1940 architecture, and <tt>binary-indep</tt> builds
1941 those which are not.
1944 <tt>binary</tt> may be (and commonly is) a target with
1945 no commands which simply depends on
1946 <tt>binary-arch</tt> and <tt>binary-indep</tt>.
1949 Both <tt>binary-*</tt> targets should depend on the
1950 <tt>build</tt> target, or on the appropriate
1951 <tt>build-arch</tt> or <tt>build-indep</tt> target, if
1952 provided, so that the package is built if it has not
1953 been already. It should then create the relevant
1954 binary package(s), using <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
1955 make their control files and <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> to
1956 build them and place them in the parent of the top
1961 Both the <tt>binary-arch</tt> and
1962 <tt>binary-indep</tt> targets <em>must</em> exist.
1963 If one of them has nothing to do (which will always be
1964 the case if the source generates only a single binary
1965 package, whether architecture-dependent or not), it
1966 must still exist and must always succeed.
1970 The <tt>binary</tt> targets must be invoked as
1972 The <prgn>fakeroot</prgn> package often allows one
1973 to build a package correctly even without being
1979 <tag><tt>clean</tt></tag>
1982 This must undo any effects that the <tt>build</tt>
1983 and <tt>binary</tt> targets may have had, except
1984 that it should leave alone any output files created in
1985 the parent directory by a run of a <tt>binary</tt>
1990 If a <tt>build</tt> file is touched at the end of
1991 the <tt>build</tt> target, as suggested above, it
1992 should be removed as the first action that
1993 <tt>clean</tt> performs, so that running
1994 <tt>build</tt> again after an interrupted
1995 <tt>clean</tt> doesn't think that everything is
2000 The <tt>clean</tt> target may need to be
2001 invoked as root if <tt>binary</tt> has been
2002 invoked since the last <tt>clean</tt>, or if
2003 <tt>build</tt> has been invoked as root (since
2004 <tt>build</tt> may create directories, for
2009 <tag><tt>get-orig-source</tt> (optional)</tag>
2012 This target fetches the most recent version of the
2013 original source package from a canonical archive site
2014 (via FTP or WWW, for example), does any necessary
2015 rearrangement to turn it into the original source
2016 tar file format described below, and leaves it in the
2021 This target may be invoked in any directory, and
2022 should take care to clean up any temporary files it
2027 This target is optional, but providing it if
2028 possible is a good idea.
2032 <tag><tt>patch</tt> (optional)</tag>
2035 This target performs whatever additional actions are
2036 required to make the source ready for editing (unpacking
2037 additional upstream archives, applying patches, etc.).
2038 It is recommended to be implemented for any package where
2039 <tt>dpkg-source -x</tt> does not result in source ready
2040 for additional modification. See
2041 <ref id="readmesource">.
2047 The <tt>build</tt>, <tt>binary</tt> and
2048 <tt>clean</tt> targets must be invoked with the current
2049 directory being the package's top-level directory.
2054 Additional targets may exist in <file>debian/rules</file>,
2055 either as published or undocumented interfaces or for the
2056 package's internal use.
2060 The architectures we build on and build for are determined
2061 by <prgn>make</prgn> variables using the utility
2062 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-architecture"><prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn></qref>.
2063 You can determine the
2064 Debian architecture and the GNU style architecture
2065 specification string for the build machine (the machine type
2066 we are building on) as well as for the host machine (the
2067 machine type we are building for). Here is a list of
2068 supported <prgn>make</prgn> variables:
2069 <list compact="compact">
2071 <tt>DEB_*_ARCH</tt> (the Debian architecture)
2074 <tt>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU</tt> (the Debian CPU name)
2077 <tt>DEB_*_ARCH_OS</tt> (the Debian System name)
2080 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt> (the GNU style architecture
2081 specification string)
2084 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_CPU</tt> (the CPU part of
2085 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt>)
2088 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_SYSTEM</tt> (the System part of
2089 <tt>DEB_*_GNU_TYPE</tt>)
2091 where <tt>*</tt> is either <tt>BUILD</tt> for specification of
2092 the build machine or <tt>HOST</tt> for specification of the
2097 Backward compatibility can be provided in the rules file
2098 by setting the needed variables to suitable default
2099 values; please refer to the documentation of
2100 <prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn> for details.
2104 It is important to understand that the <tt>DEB_*_ARCH</tt>
2105 string only determines which Debian architecture we are
2106 building on or for. It should not be used to get the CPU
2107 or system information; the <tt>DEB_*_ARCH_CPU</tt> and
2108 <tt>DEB_*_ARCH_OS</tt> variables should be used for that.
2109 GNU style variables should generally only be used with upstream
2113 <sect1 id="debianrules-options">
2114 <heading><file>debian/rules</file> and
2115 <tt>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS</tt></heading>
2118 Supporting the standardized environment variable
2119 <tt>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS</tt> is recommended. This variable can
2120 contain several flags to change how a package is compiled and
2121 built. Each flag must be in the form <var>flag</var> or
2122 <var>flag</var>=<var>options</var>. If multiple flags are
2123 given, they must be separated by whitespace.<footnote>
2124 Some packages support any delimiter, but whitespace is the
2125 easiest to parse inside a makefile and avoids ambiguity with
2126 flag values that contain commas.
2128 <var>flag</var> must start with a lowercase letter
2129 (<tt>a-z</tt>) and consist only of lowercase letters,
2130 numbers (<tt>0-9</tt>), and the characters
2131 <tt>-</tt> and <tt>_</tt> (hyphen and underscore).
2132 <var>options</var> must not contain whitespace. The same
2133 tag should not be given multiple times with conflicting
2134 values. Package maintainers may assume that
2135 <tt>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS</tt> will not contain conflicting tags.
2139 The meaning of the following tags has been standardized:
2143 This tag says to not run any build-time test suite
2144 provided by the package.
2148 The presence of this tag means that the package should
2149 be compiled with a minimum of optimization. For C
2150 programs, it is best to add <tt>-O0</tt> to
2151 <tt>CFLAGS</tt> (although this is usually the default).
2152 Some programs might fail to build or run at this level
2153 of optimization; it may be necessary to use
2154 <tt>-O1</tt>, for example.
2158 This tag means that the debugging symbols should not be
2159 stripped from the binary during installation, so that
2160 debugging information may be included in the package.
2162 <tag>parallel=n</tag>
2164 This tag means that the package should be built using up
2165 to <tt>n</tt> parallel processes if the package build
2166 system supports this.<footnote>
2167 Packages built with <tt>make</tt> can often implement
2168 this by passing the <tt>-j</tt><var>n</var> option to
2171 If the package build system does not support parallel
2172 builds, this string must be ignored. If the package
2173 build system only supports a lower level of concurrency
2174 than <var>n</var>, the package should be built using as
2175 many parallel processes as the package build system
2176 supports. It is up to the package maintainer to decide
2177 whether the package build times are long enough and the
2178 package build system is robust enough to make supporting
2179 parallel builds worthwhile.
2185 Unknown flags must be ignored by <file>debian/rules</file>.
2189 The following makefile snippet is an example of how one may
2190 implement the build options; you will probably have to
2191 massage this example in order to make it work for your
2193 <example compact="compact">
2196 INSTALL_FILE = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 644
2197 INSTALL_PROGRAM = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 755
2198 INSTALL_SCRIPT = $(INSTALL) -p -o root -g root -m 755
2199 INSTALL_DIR = $(INSTALL) -p -d -o root -g root -m 755
2201 ifneq (,$(filter noopt,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
2206 ifeq (,$(filter nostrip,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
2207 INSTALL_PROGRAM += -s
2209 ifneq (,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
2210 NUMJOBS = $(patsubst parallel=%,%,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
2211 MAKEFLAGS += -j$(NUMJOBS)
2216 ifeq (,$(filter nocheck,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
2217 # Code to run the package test suite.
2224 <!-- FIXME: section pkg-srcsubstvars is the same as substvars -->
2225 <sect id="substvars">
2226 <heading>Variable substitutions: <file>debian/substvars</file></heading>
2229 When <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>,
2230 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
2231 generate control files, they perform variable substitutions
2232 on their output just before writing it. Variable
2233 substitutions have the form <tt>${<var>variable</var>}</tt>.
2234 The optional file <file>debian/substvars</file> contains
2235 variable substitutions to be used; variables can also be set
2236 directly from <file>debian/rules</file> using the <tt>-V</tt>
2237 option to the source packaging commands, and certain
2238 predefined variables are also available.
2242 The <file>debian/substvars</file> file is usually generated and
2243 modified dynamically by <file>debian/rules</file> targets, in
2244 which case it must be removed by the <tt>clean</tt> target.
2248 See <manref name="deb-substvars" section="5"> for full
2249 details about source variable substitutions, including the
2250 format of <file>debian/substvars</file>.</p>
2253 <sect id="debianwatch">
2254 <heading>Optional upstream source location: <file>debian/watch</file></heading>
2257 This is an optional, recommended configuration file for the
2258 <tt>uscan</tt> utility which defines how to automatically scan
2259 ftp or http sites for newly available updates of the
2260 package. This is used
2261 by <url id="http://dehs.alioth.debian.org/"> and other Debian QA
2262 tools to help with quality control and maintenance of the
2263 distribution as a whole.
2268 <sect id="debianfiles">
2269 <heading>Generated files list: <file>debian/files</file></heading>
2272 This file is not a permanent part of the source tree; it
2273 is used while building packages to record which files are
2274 being generated. <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> uses it
2275 when it generates a <file>.changes</file> file.
2279 It should not exist in a shipped source package, and so it
2280 (and any backup files or temporary files such as
2281 <file>files.new</file><footnote>
2282 <file>files.new</file> is used as a temporary file by
2283 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> and
2284 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> - they write a new
2285 version of <tt>files</tt> here before renaming it,
2286 to avoid leaving a corrupted copy if an error
2288 </footnote>) should be removed by the
2289 <tt>clean</tt> target. It may also be wise to
2290 ensure a fresh start by emptying or removing it at the
2291 start of the <tt>binary</tt> target.
2295 When <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> is run for a binary
2296 package, it adds an entry to <file>debian/files</file> for the
2297 <file>.deb</file> file that will be created when <tt>dpkg-deb
2298 --build</tt> is run for that binary package. So for most
2299 packages all that needs to be done with this file is to
2300 delete it in the <tt>clean</tt> target.
2304 If a package upload includes files besides the source
2305 package and any binary packages whose control files were
2306 made with <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> then they should be
2307 placed in the parent of the package's top-level directory
2308 and <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> should be called to add
2309 the file to the list in <file>debian/files</file>.</p>
2312 <sect id="embeddedfiles">
2313 <heading>Convenience copies of code</heading>
2316 Some software packages include in their distribution convenience
2317 copies of code from other software packages, generally so that
2318 users compiling from source don't have to download multiple
2319 packages. Debian packages should not make use of these
2320 convenience copies unless the included package is explicitly
2321 intended to be used in this way.<footnote>
2322 For example, parts of the GNU build system work like this.
2324 If the included code is already in the Debian archive in the
2325 form of a library, the Debian packaging should ensure that
2326 binary packages reference the libraries already in Debian and
2327 the convenience copy is not used. If the included code is not
2328 already in Debian, it should be packaged separately as a
2329 prerequisite if possible.
2331 Having multiple copies of the same code in Debian is
2332 inefficient, often creates either static linking or shared
2333 library conflicts, and, most importantly, increases the
2334 difficulty of handling security vulnerabilities in the
2340 <sect id="readmesource">
2341 <heading>Source package handling:
2342 <file>debian/README.source</file></heading>
2345 If running <prgn>dpkg-source -x</prgn> on a source package
2346 doesn't produce the source of the package, ready for editing,
2347 and allow one to make changes and run
2348 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> to produce a modified package
2349 without taking any additional steps, creating a
2350 <file>debian/README.source</file> documentation file is
2351 recommended. This file should explain how to do all of the
2354 <item>Generate the fully patched source, in a form ready for
2355 editing, that would be built to create Debian
2356 packages. Doing this with a <tt>patch</tt> target in
2357 <file>debian/rules</file> is recommended; see
2358 <ref id="debianrules">.</item>
2359 <item>Modify the source and save those modifications so that
2360 they will be applied when building the package.</item>
2361 <item>Remove source modifications that are currently being
2362 applied when building the package.</item>
2363 <item>Optionally, document what steps are necessary to
2364 upgrade the Debian source package to a new upstream version,
2365 if applicable.</item>
2367 This explanation should include specific commands and mention
2368 any additional required Debian packages. It should not assume
2369 familiarity with any specific Debian packaging system or patch
2374 This explanation may refer to a documentation file installed by
2375 one of the package's build dependencies provided that the
2376 referenced documentation clearly explains these tasks and is not
2377 a general reference manual.
2381 <file>debian/README.source</file> may also include any other
2382 information that would be helpful to someone modifying the
2383 source package. Even if the package doesn't fit the above
2384 description, maintainers are encouraged to document in a
2385 <file>debian/README.source</file> file any source package with a
2386 particularly complex or unintuitive source layout or build
2387 system (for example, a package that builds the same source
2388 multiple times to generate different binary packages).
2394 <chapt id="controlfields">
2395 <heading>Control files and their fields</heading>
2398 The package management system manipulates data represented in
2399 a common format, known as <em>control data</em>, stored in
2400 <em>control files</em>.
2401 Control files are used for source packages, binary packages and
2402 the <file>.changes</file> files which control the installation
2403 of uploaded files<footnote>
2404 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s internal databases are in a similar
2409 <sect id="controlsyntax">
2410 <heading>Syntax of control files</heading>
2413 A control file consists of one or more paragraphs of
2415 The paragraphs are also sometimes referred to as stanzas.
2417 The paragraphs are separated by blank lines. Some control
2418 files allow only one paragraph; others allow several, in
2419 which case each paragraph usually refers to a different
2420 package. (For example, in source packages, the first
2421 paragraph refers to the source package, and later paragraphs
2422 refer to binary packages generated from the source.)
2426 Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields; each
2427 field consists of the field name, followed by a colon and
2428 then the data/value associated with that field. It ends at
2429 the end of the (logical) line. Horizontal whitespace
2430 (spaces and tabs) may occur immediately before or after the
2431 value and is ignored there; it is conventional to put a
2432 single space after the colon. For example, a field might
2434 <example compact="compact">
2437 the field name is <tt>Package</tt> and the field value
2442 A paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a
2443 particular field name.
2447 Many fields' values may span several lines; in this case
2448 each continuation line must start with a space or a tab.
2449 Any trailing spaces or tabs at the end of individual
2450 lines of a field value are ignored.
2454 In fields where it is specified that lines may not wrap,
2455 only a single line of data is allowed and whitespace is not
2456 significant in a field body. Whitespace must not appear
2457 inside names (of packages, architectures, files or anything
2458 else) or version numbers, or between the characters of
2459 multi-character version relationships.
2463 Field names are not case-sensitive, but it is usual to
2464 capitalize the field names using mixed case as shown below.
2465 Field values are case-sensitive unless the description of the
2466 field says otherwise.
2470 Blank lines, or lines consisting only of spaces and tabs,
2471 are not allowed within field values or between fields - that
2472 would mean a new paragraph.
2476 All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
2480 <sect id="sourcecontrolfiles">
2481 <heading>Source package control files -- <file>debian/control</file></heading>
2484 The <file>debian/control</file> file contains the most vital
2485 (and version-independent) information about the source package
2486 and about the binary packages it creates.
2490 The first paragraph of the control file contains information about
2491 the source package in general. The subsequent sets each describe a
2492 binary package that the source tree builds.
2496 The fields in the general paragraph (the first one, for the source
2499 <list compact="compact">
2500 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2501 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2502 <item><qref id="f-Uploaders"><tt>Uploaders</tt></qref></item>
2503 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2504 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2505 <item><qref id="sourcebinarydeps"><tt>Build-Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2506 <item><qref id="f-Standards-Version"><tt>Standards-Version</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2507 <item><qref id="f-Homepage"><tt>Homepage</tt></qref></item>
2512 The fields in the binary package paragraphs are:
2514 <list compact="compact">
2515 <item><qref id="f-Package"><tt>Package</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2516 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2517 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2518 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2519 <item><qref id="f-Essential"><tt>Essential</tt></qref></item>
2520 <item><qref id="binarydeps"><tt>Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2521 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2522 <item><qref id="f-Homepage"><tt>Homepage</tt></qref></item>
2527 The syntax and semantics of the fields are described below.
2531 These fields are used by <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
2532 generate control files for binary packages (see below), by
2533 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> to generate the
2534 <file>.changes</file> file to accompany the upload, and by
2535 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when it creates the
2536 <file>.dsc</file> source control file as part of a source
2537 archive. Many fields are permitted to span multiple lines in
2538 <file>debian/control</file> but not in any other control
2539 file. These tools are responsible for removing the line
2540 breaks from such fields when using fields from
2541 <file>debian/control</file> to generate other control files.
2545 The fields here may contain variable references - their
2546 values will be substituted by <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>,
2547 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> or <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
2548 when they generate output control files.
2549 See <ref id="substvars"> for details.
2553 In addition to the control file syntax described <qref
2554 id="controlsyntax">above</qref>, this file may also contain
2555 comment lines starting with <tt>#</tt> without any preceding
2556 whitespace. All such lines are ignored, even in the middle of
2557 continuation lines for a multiline field, and do not end a
2563 <sect id="binarycontrolfiles">
2564 <heading>Binary package control files -- <file>DEBIAN/control</file></heading>
2567 The <file>DEBIAN/control</file> file contains the most vital
2568 (and version-dependent) information about a binary package. It
2569 consists of a single paragraph.
2573 The fields in this file are:
2575 <list compact="compact">
2576 <item><qref id="f-Package"><tt>Package</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2577 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref></item>
2578 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2579 <item><qref id="f-Section"><tt>Section</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2580 <item><qref id="f-Priority"><tt>Priority</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2581 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2582 <item><qref id="f-Essential"><tt>Essential</tt></qref></item>
2583 <item><qref id="binarydeps"><tt>Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2584 <item><qref id="f-Installed-Size"><tt>Installed-Size</tt></qref></item>
2585 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2586 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2587 <item><qref id="f-Homepage"><tt>Homepage</tt></qref></item>
2592 <sect id="debiansourcecontrolfiles">
2593 <heading>Debian source control files -- <tt>.dsc</tt></heading>
2596 This file consists of a single paragraph, possibly surrounded by
2597 a PGP signature. The fields of that paragraph are listed below.
2598 Their syntax is described above, in <ref id="pkg-controlfields">.
2600 <list compact="compact">
2601 <item><qref id="f-Format"><tt>Format</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2602 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2603 <item><qref id="f-Binary"><tt>Binary</tt></qref></item>
2604 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref></item>
2605 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2606 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2607 <item><qref id="f-Uploaders"><tt>Uploaders</tt></qref></item>
2608 <item><qref id="f-Homepage"><tt>Homepage</tt></qref></item>
2609 <item><qref id="f-Standards-Version"><tt>Standards-Version</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2610 <item><qref id="sourcebinarydeps"><tt>Build-Depends</tt> et al</qref></item>
2611 <item><qref id="f-Checksums"><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
2612 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2613 <item><qref id="f-Files"><tt>Files</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2618 The source package control file is generated by
2619 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> when it builds the source
2620 archive, from other files in the source package,
2621 described above. When unpacking, it is checked against
2622 the files and directories in the other parts of the
2628 <sect id="debianchangesfiles">
2629 <heading>Debian changes files -- <file>.changes</file></heading>
2632 The <file>.changes</file> files are used by the Debian archive
2633 maintenance software to process updates to packages. They
2634 consist of a single paragraph, possibly surrounded by a PGP
2635 signature. That paragraph contains information from the
2636 <file>debian/control</file> file and other data about the
2637 source package gathered via <file>debian/changelog</file>
2638 and <file>debian/rules</file>.
2642 <file>.changes</file> files have a format version that is
2643 incremented whenever the documented fields or their meaning
2644 change. This document describes format &changesversion;.
2648 The fields in this file are:
2650 <list compact="compact">
2651 <item><qref id="f-Format"><tt>Format</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2652 <item><qref id="f-Date"><tt>Date</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2653 <item><qref id="f-Source"><tt>Source</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2654 <item><qref id="f-Binary"><tt>Binary</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2655 <item><qref id="f-Architecture"><tt>Architecture</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2656 <item><qref id="f-Version"><tt>Version</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2657 <item><qref id="f-Distribution"><tt>Distribution</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2658 <item><qref id="f-Urgency"><tt>Urgency</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2659 <item><qref id="f-Maintainer"><tt>Maintainer</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2660 <item><qref id="f-Changed-By"><tt>Changed-By</tt></qref></item>
2661 <item><qref id="f-Description"><tt>Description</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2662 <item><qref id="f-Closes"><tt>Closes</tt></qref></item>
2663 <item><qref id="f-Changes"><tt>Changes</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2664 <item><qref id="f-Checksums"><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
2665 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt></qref> (recommended)</item>
2666 <item><qref id="f-Files"><tt>Files</tt></qref> (mandatory)</item>
2671 <sect id="controlfieldslist">
2672 <heading>List of fields</heading>
2674 <sect1 id="f-Source">
2675 <heading><tt>Source</tt></heading>
2678 This field identifies the source package name.
2682 In <file>debian/control</file> or a <file>.dsc</file> file,
2683 this field must contain only the name of the source package.
2687 In a binary package control file or a <file>.changes</file>
2688 file, the source package name may be followed by a version
2689 number in parentheses<footnote>
2690 It is customary to leave a space after the package name
2691 if a version number is specified.
2693 This version number may be omitted (and is, by
2694 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>) if it has the same value as
2695 the <tt>Version</tt> field of the binary package in
2696 question. The field itself may be omitted from a binary
2697 package control file when the source package has the same
2698 name and version as the binary package.
2702 Package names (both source and binary,
2703 see <ref id="f-Package">) must consist only of lower case
2704 letters (<tt>a-z</tt>), digits (<tt>0-9</tt>), plus
2705 (<tt>+</tt>) and minus (<tt>-</tt>) signs, and periods
2706 (<tt>.</tt>). They must be at least two characters long and
2707 must start with an alphanumeric character.
2711 <sect1 id="f-Maintainer">
2712 <heading><tt>Maintainer</tt></heading>
2715 The package maintainer's name and email address. The name
2716 must come first, then the email address inside angle
2717 brackets <tt><></tt> (in RFC822 format).
2721 If the maintainer's name contains a full stop then the
2722 whole field will not work directly as an email address due
2723 to a misfeature in the syntax specified in RFC822; a
2724 program using this field as an address must check for this
2725 and correct the problem if necessary (for example by
2726 putting the name in round brackets and moving it to the
2727 end, and bringing the email address forward).
2731 <sect1 id="f-Uploaders">
2732 <heading><tt>Uploaders</tt></heading>
2735 List of the names and email addresses of co-maintainers of
2736 the package, if any. If the package has other maintainers
2737 beside the one named in the
2738 <qref id="f-Maintainer">Maintainer field</qref>, their names
2739 and email addresses should be listed here. The format of each
2740 entry is the same as that of the Maintainer field, and
2741 multiple entries must be comma separated. This is an optional
2746 Any parser that interprets the Uploaders field in
2747 <file>debian/control</file> must permit it to span multiple
2748 lines. Line breaks in an Uploaders field that spans multiple
2749 lines are not significant and the semantics of the field are
2750 the same as if the line breaks had not been present.
2754 <sect1 id="f-Changed-By">
2755 <heading><tt>Changed-By</tt></heading>
2758 The name and email address of the person who prepared this
2759 version of the package, usually a maintainer. The syntax is
2760 the same as for the <qref id="f-Maintainer">Maintainer
2765 <sect1 id="f-Section">
2766 <heading><tt>Section</tt></heading>
2769 This field specifies an application area into which the package
2770 has been classified. See <ref id="subsections">.
2774 When it appears in the <file>debian/control</file> file,
2775 it gives the value for the subfield of the same name in
2776 the <tt>Files</tt> field of the <file>.changes</file> file.
2777 It also gives the default for the same field in the binary
2782 <sect1 id="f-Priority">
2783 <heading><tt>Priority</tt></heading>
2786 This field represents how important it is that the user
2787 have the package installed. See <ref id="priorities">.
2791 When it appears in the <file>debian/control</file> file,
2792 it gives the value for the subfield of the same name in
2793 the <tt>Files</tt> field of the <file>.changes</file> file.
2794 It also gives the default for the same field in the binary
2799 <sect1 id="f-Package">
2800 <heading><tt>Package</tt></heading>
2803 The name of the binary package.
2807 Binary package names must follow the same syntax and
2808 restrictions as source package names. See <ref id="f-Source">
2813 <sect1 id="f-Architecture">
2814 <heading><tt>Architecture</tt></heading>
2817 Depending on context and the control file used, the
2818 <tt>Architecture</tt> field can include the following sets of
2822 A unique single word identifying a Debian machine
2823 architecture as described in <ref id="arch-spec">.
2826 An architecture wildcard identifying a set of Debian
2827 machine architectures, see <ref id="arch-wildcard-spec">.
2828 <tt>any</tt> matches all Debian machine architectures
2829 and is the most frequently used.
2832 <tt>all</tt>, which indicates an
2833 architecture-independent package.
2836 <tt>source</tt>, which indicates a source package.
2842 In the main <file>debian/control</file> file in the source
2843 package, this field may contain the special
2844 value <tt>all</tt>, the special architecture
2845 wildcard <tt>any</tt>, or a list of specific and wildcard
2846 architectures separated by spaces. If <tt>all</tt>
2847 or <tt>any</tt> appears, that value must be the entire
2848 contents of the field. Most packages will use
2849 either <tt>all</tt> or <tt>any</tt>.
2853 Specifying a specific list of architectures indicates that the
2854 source will build an architecture-dependent package only on
2855 architectures included in the list. Specifying a list of
2856 architecture wildcards indicates that the source will build an
2857 architecture-dependent package on only those architectures
2858 that match any of the specified architecture wildcards.
2859 Specifying a list of architectures or architecture wildcards
2860 other than <tt>any</tt> is for the minority of cases where a
2861 program is not portable or is not useful on some
2862 architectures. Where possible, the program should be made
2867 In the source package control file <file>.dsc</file>, this
2868 field may contain either the architecture
2869 wildcard <tt>any</tt> or a list of architectures and
2870 architecture wildcards separated by spaces. If a list is
2871 given, it may include (or consist solely of) the special
2872 value <tt>all</tt>. In other words, in <file>.dsc</file>
2873 files unlike the <file>debian/control</file>, <tt>all</tt> may
2874 occur in combination with specific architectures.
2875 The <tt>Architecture</tt> field in the source package control
2876 file <file>.dsc</file> is generally constructed from
2877 the <tt>Architecture</tt> fields in
2878 the <file>debian/control</file> in the source package.
2882 Specifying <tt>any</tt> indicates that the source package
2883 isn't dependent on any particular architecture and should
2884 compile fine on any one. The produced binary package(s)
2885 will either be specific to whatever the current build
2886 architecture is or will be architecture-independent.
2890 Specifying only <tt>all</tt> indicates that the source package
2891 will only build architecture-independent packages. If this is
2892 the case, <tt>all</tt> must be used rather than <tt>any</tt>;
2893 <tt>any</tt> implies that the source package will build at
2894 least one architecture-dependent package.
2898 Specifying a list of architectures or architecture wildcards
2899 indicates that the source will build an architecture-dependent
2900 package, and will only work correctly on the listed or
2901 matching architectures. If the source package also builds at
2902 least one architecture-independent package, <tt>all</tt> will
2903 also be included in the list.
2907 In a <file>.changes</file> file, the <tt>Architecture</tt>
2908 field lists the architecture(s) of the package(s) currently
2909 being uploaded. This will be a list; if the source for the
2910 package is also being uploaded, the special
2911 entry <tt>source</tt> is also present. <tt>all</tt> will be
2912 present if any architecture-independent packages are being
2913 uploaded. Architecture wildcards such as <tt>any</tt> must
2914 never occur in the <tt>Architecture</tt> field in
2915 the <file>.changes</file> file.
2919 See <ref id="debianrules"> for information on how to get
2920 the architecture for the build process.
2924 <sect1 id="f-Essential">
2925 <heading><tt>Essential</tt></heading>
2928 This is a boolean field which may occur only in the
2929 control file of a binary package or in a per-package fields
2930 paragraph of a main source control data file.
2934 If set to <tt>yes</tt> then the package management system
2935 will refuse to remove the package (upgrading and replacing
2936 it is still possible). The other possible value is <tt>no</tt>,
2937 which is the same as not having the field at all.
2942 <heading>Package interrelationship fields:
2943 <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
2944 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>,
2945 <tt>Breaks</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt>,
2946 <tt>Provides</tt>, <tt>Replaces</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>
2950 These fields describe the package's relationships with
2951 other packages. Their syntax and semantics are described
2952 in <ref id="relationships">.</p>
2955 <sect1 id="f-Standards-Version">
2956 <heading><tt>Standards-Version</tt></heading>
2959 The most recent version of the standards (the policy
2960 manual and associated texts) with which the package
2965 The version number has four components: major and minor
2966 version number and major and minor patch level. When the
2967 standards change in a way that requires every package to
2968 change the major number will be changed. Significant
2969 changes that will require work in many packages will be
2970 signaled by a change to the minor number. The major patch
2971 level will be changed for any change to the meaning of the
2972 standards, however small; the minor patch level will be
2973 changed when only cosmetic, typographical or other edits
2974 are made which neither change the meaning of the document
2975 nor affect the contents of packages.
2979 Thus only the first three components of the policy version
2980 are significant in the <em>Standards-Version</em> control
2981 field, and so either these three components or all four
2982 components may be specified.<footnote>
2983 In the past, people specified the full version number
2984 in the Standards-Version field, for example "2.3.0.0".
2985 Since minor patch-level changes don't introduce new
2986 policy, it was thought it would be better to relax
2987 policy and only require the first 3 components to be
2988 specified, in this example "2.3.0". All four
2989 components may still be used if someone wishes to do so.
2995 <sect1 id="f-Version">
2996 <heading><tt>Version</tt></heading>
2999 The version number of a package. The format is:
3000 [<var>epoch</var><tt>:</tt>]<var>upstream_version</var>[<tt>-</tt><var>debian_revision</var>]
3004 The three components here are:
3006 <tag><var>epoch</var></tag>
3009 This is a single (generally small) unsigned integer. It
3010 may be omitted, in which case zero is assumed. If it is
3011 omitted then the <var>upstream_version</var> may not
3016 It is provided to allow mistakes in the version numbers
3017 of older versions of a package, and also a package's
3018 previous version numbering schemes, to be left behind.
3022 <tag><var>upstream_version</var></tag>
3025 This is the main part of the version number. It is
3026 usually the version number of the original ("upstream")
3027 package from which the <file>.deb</file> file has been made,
3028 if this is applicable. Usually this will be in the same
3029 format as that specified by the upstream author(s);
3030 however, it may need to be reformatted to fit into the
3031 package management system's format and comparison
3036 The comparison behavior of the package management system
3037 with respect to the <var>upstream_version</var> is
3038 described below. The <var>upstream_version</var>
3039 portion of the version number is mandatory.
3043 The <var>upstream_version</var> may contain only
3044 alphanumerics<footnote>
3045 Alphanumerics are <tt>A-Za-z0-9</tt> only.
3047 and the characters <tt>.</tt> <tt>+</tt> <tt>-</tt>
3048 <tt>:</tt> <tt>~</tt> (full stop, plus, hyphen, colon,
3049 tilde) and should start with a digit. If there is no
3050 <var>debian_revision</var> then hyphens are not allowed;
3051 if there is no <var>epoch</var> then colons are not
3056 <tag><var>debian_revision</var></tag>
3059 This part of the version number specifies the version of
3060 the Debian package based on the upstream version. It
3061 may contain only alphanumerics and the characters
3062 <tt>+</tt> <tt>.</tt> <tt>~</tt> (plus, full stop,
3063 tilde) and is compared in the same way as the
3064 <var>upstream_version</var> is.
3068 It is optional; if it isn't present then the
3069 <var>upstream_version</var> may not contain a hyphen.
3070 This format represents the case where a piece of
3071 software was written specifically to be a Debian
3072 package, where the Debian package source must always
3073 be identical to the pristine source and therefore no
3074 revision indication is required.
3078 It is conventional to restart the
3079 <var>debian_revision</var> at <tt>1</tt> each time the
3080 <var>upstream_version</var> is increased.
3084 The package management system will break the version
3085 number apart at the last hyphen in the string (if there
3086 is one) to determine the <var>upstream_version</var> and
3087 <var>debian_revision</var>. The absence of a
3088 <var>debian_revision</var> is equivalent to a
3089 <var>debian_revision</var> of <tt>0</tt>.
3096 When comparing two version numbers, first the <var>epoch</var>
3097 of each are compared, then the <var>upstream_version</var> if
3098 <var>epoch</var> is equal, and then <var>debian_revision</var>
3099 if <var>upstream_version</var> is also equal.
3100 <var>epoch</var> is compared numerically. The
3101 <var>upstream_version</var> and <var>debian_revision</var>
3102 parts are compared by the package management system using the
3103 following algorithm:
3107 The strings are compared from left to right.
3111 First the initial part of each string consisting entirely of
3112 non-digit characters is determined. These two parts (one of
3113 which may be empty) are compared lexically. If a difference
3114 is found it is returned. The lexical comparison is a
3115 comparison of ASCII values modified so that all the letters
3116 sort earlier than all the non-letters and so that a tilde
3117 sorts before anything, even the end of a part. For example,
3118 the following parts are in sorted order from earliest to
3119 latest: <tt>~~</tt>, <tt>~~a</tt>, <tt>~</tt>, the empty part,
3120 <tt>a</tt>.<footnote>
3121 One common use of <tt>~</tt> is for upstream pre-releases.
3122 For example, <tt>1.0~beta1~svn1245</tt> sorts earlier than
3123 <tt>1.0~beta1</tt>, which sorts earlier than <tt>1.0</tt>.
3128 Then the initial part of the remainder of each string which
3129 consists entirely of digit characters is determined. The
3130 numerical values of these two parts are compared, and any
3131 difference found is returned as the result of the comparison.
3132 For these purposes an empty string (which can only occur at
3133 the end of one or both version strings being compared) counts
3138 These two steps (comparing and removing initial non-digit
3139 strings and initial digit strings) are repeated until a
3140 difference is found or both strings are exhausted.
3144 Note that the purpose of epochs is to allow us to leave behind
3145 mistakes in version numbering, and to cope with situations
3146 where the version numbering scheme changes. It is
3147 <em>not</em> intended to cope with version numbers containing
3148 strings of letters which the package management system cannot
3149 interpret (such as <tt>ALPHA</tt> or <tt>pre-</tt>), or with
3150 silly orderings.<footnote>
3151 The author of this manual has heard of a package whose
3152 versions went <tt>1.1</tt>, <tt>1.2</tt>, <tt>1.3</tt>,
3153 <tt>1</tt>, <tt>2.1</tt>, <tt>2.2</tt>, <tt>2</tt> and so
3159 <sect1 id="f-Description">
3160 <heading><tt>Description</tt></heading>
3163 In a source or binary control file, the <tt>Description</tt>
3164 field contains a description of the binary package, consisting
3165 of two parts, the synopsis or the short description, and the
3166 long description. The field's format is as follows:
3171 Description: <single line synopsis>
3172 <extended description over several lines>
3177 The lines in the extended description can have these formats:
3183 Those starting with a single space are part of a paragraph.
3184 Successive lines of this form will be word-wrapped when
3185 displayed. The leading space will usually be stripped off.
3189 Those starting with two or more spaces. These will be
3190 displayed verbatim. If the display cannot be panned
3191 horizontally, the displaying program will line wrap them "hard"
3192 (i.e., without taking account of word breaks). If it can they
3193 will be allowed to trail off to the right. None, one or two
3194 initial spaces may be deleted, but the number of spaces
3195 deleted from each line will be the same (so that you can have
3196 indenting work correctly, for example).
3200 Those containing a single space followed by a single full stop
3201 character. These are rendered as blank lines. This is the
3202 <em>only</em> way to get a blank line<footnote>
3203 Completely empty lines will not be rendered as blank lines.
3204 Instead, they will cause the parser to think you're starting
3205 a whole new record in the control file, and will therefore
3206 likely abort with an error.
3211 Those containing a space, a full stop and some more characters.
3212 These are for future expansion. Do not use them.
3218 Do not use tab characters. Their effect is not predictable.
3222 See <ref id="descriptions"> for further information on this.
3226 In a <file>.changes</file> file, the <tt>Description</tt>
3227 field contains a summary of the descriptions for the packages
3228 being uploaded. For this case, the first line of the field
3229 value (the part on the same line as <tt>Description:</tt>) is
3230 always empty. The content of the field is expressed as
3231 continuation lines, one line per package. Each line is
3232 indented by one space and contains the name of a binary
3233 package, a space, a hyphen (<tt>-</tt>), a space, and the
3234 short description line from that package.
3238 <sect1 id="f-Distribution">
3239 <heading><tt>Distribution</tt></heading>
3242 In a <file>.changes</file> file or parsed changelog output
3243 this contains the (space-separated) name(s) of the
3244 distribution(s) where this version of the package should
3245 be installed. Valid distributions are determined by the
3246 archive maintainers.<footnote>
3247 Example distribution names in the Debian archive used in
3248 <file>.changes</file> files are:
3249 <taglist compact="compact">
3250 <tag><em>unstable</em></tag>
3252 This distribution value refers to the
3253 <em>developmental</em> part of the Debian distribution
3254 tree. Most new packages, new upstream versions of
3255 packages and bug fixes go into the <em>unstable</em>
3259 <tag><em>experimental</em></tag>
3261 The packages with this distribution value are deemed
3262 by their maintainers to be high risk. Oftentimes they
3263 represent early beta or developmental packages from
3264 various sources that the maintainers want people to
3265 try, but are not ready to be a part of the other parts
3266 of the Debian distribution tree.
3271 Others are used for updating stable releases or for
3272 security uploads. More information is available in the
3273 Debian Developer's Reference, section "The Debian
3277 The Debian archive software only supports listing a single
3278 distribution. Migration of packages to other distributions is
3279 handled outside of the upload process.
3284 <heading><tt>Date</tt></heading>
3287 This field includes the date the package was built or last
3288 edited. It must be in the same format as the <var>date</var>
3289 in a <file>debian/changelog</file> entry.
3293 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
3294 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
3295 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">).
3299 <sect1 id="f-Format">
3300 <heading><tt>Format</tt></heading>
3303 In <qref id="debianchangesfiles"><file>.changes</file></qref>
3304 files, this field declares the format version of that file.
3305 The syntax of the field value is the same as that of
3306 a <qref id="f-Version">package version number</qref> except
3307 that no epoch or Debian revision is allowed. The format
3308 described in this document is <tt>&changesversion;</tt>.
3312 In <qref id="debiansourcecontrolfiles"><file>.dsc</file>
3313 Debian source control</qref> files, this field declares the
3314 format of the source package. The field value is used by
3315 programs acting on a source package to interpret the list of
3316 files in the source package and determine how to unpack it.
3317 The syntax of the field value is a numeric major revision, a
3318 period, a numeric minor revision, and then an optional subtype
3319 after whitespace, which if specified is an alphanumeric word
3320 in parentheses. The subtype is optional in the syntax but may
3321 be mandatory for particular source format revisions.
3323 The source formats currently supported by the Debian archive
3324 software are <tt>1.0</tt>, <tt>3.0 (native)</tt>,
3325 and <tt>3.0 (quilt)</tt>.
3330 <sect1 id="f-Urgency">
3331 <heading><tt>Urgency</tt></heading>
3334 This is a description of how important it is to upgrade to
3335 this version from previous ones. It consists of a single
3336 keyword taking one of the values <tt>low</tt>,
3337 <tt>medium</tt>, <tt>high</tt>, <tt>emergency</tt>, or
3338 <tt>critical</tt><footnote>
3339 Other urgency values are supported with configuration
3340 changes in the archive software but are not used in Debian.
3341 The urgency affects how quickly a package will be considered
3342 for inclusion into the <tt>testing</tt> distribution and
3343 gives an indication of the importance of any fixes included
3344 in the upload. <tt>Emergency</tt> and <tt>critical</tt> are
3345 treated as synonymous.
3346 </footnote> (not case-sensitive) followed by an optional
3347 commentary (separated by a space) which is usually in
3348 parentheses. For example:
3351 Urgency: low (HIGH for users of diversions)
3357 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
3358 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
3359 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
3363 <sect1 id="f-Changes">
3364 <heading><tt>Changes</tt></heading>
3367 This field contains the human-readable changes data, describing
3368 the differences between the last version and the current one.
3372 The first line of the field value (the part on the same line
3373 as <tt>Changes:</tt>) is always empty. The content of the
3374 field is expressed as continuation lines, with each line
3375 indented by at least one space. Blank lines must be
3376 represented by a line consisting only of a space and a full
3381 The value of this field is usually extracted from the
3382 <file>debian/changelog</file> file - see
3383 <ref id="dpkgchangelog">).
3387 Each version's change information should be preceded by a
3388 "title" line giving at least the version, distribution(s)
3389 and urgency, in a human-readable way.
3393 If data from several versions is being returned the entry
3394 for the most recent version should be returned first, and
3395 entries should be separated by the representation of a
3396 blank line (the "title" line may also be followed by the
3397 representation of a blank line).
3401 <sect1 id="f-Binary">
3402 <heading><tt>Binary</tt></heading>
3405 This field is a list of binary packages. Its syntax and
3406 meaning varies depending on the control file in which it
3411 When it appears in the <file>.dsc</file> file, it lists binary
3412 packages which a source package can produce, separated by
3414 A space after each comma is conventional.
3415 </footnote>. It may span multiple lines. The source package
3416 does not necessarily produce all of these binary packages for
3417 every architecture. The source control file doesn't contain
3418 details of which architectures are appropriate for which of
3419 the binary packages.
3423 When it appears in a <file>.changes</file> file, it lists the
3424 names of the binary packages being uploaded, separated by
3425 whitespace (not commas). It may span multiple lines.
3429 <sect1 id="f-Installed-Size">
3430 <heading><tt>Installed-Size</tt></heading>
3433 This field appears in the control files of binary packages,
3434 and in the <file>Packages</file> files. It gives an estimate
3435 of the total amount of disk space required to install the
3436 named package. Actual installed size may vary based on block
3437 size, file system properties, or actions taken by package
3442 The disk space is given as the integer value of the estimated
3443 installed size in bytes, divided by 1024 and rounded up.
3447 <sect1 id="f-Files">
3448 <heading><tt>Files</tt></heading>
3451 This field contains a list of files with information about
3452 each one. The exact information and syntax varies with
3457 In all cases, Files is a multiline field. The first line of
3458 the field value (the part on the same line as <tt>Files:</tt>)
3459 is always empty. The content of the field is expressed as
3460 continuation lines, one line per file. Each line must be
3461 indented by one space and contain a number of sub-fields,
3462 separated by spaces, as described below.
3466 In the <file>.dsc</file> file, each line contains the MD5
3467 checksum, size and filename of the tar file and (if
3468 applicable) diff file which make up the remainder of the
3469 source package<footnote>
3470 That is, the parts which are not the <tt>.dsc</tt>.
3471 </footnote>. For example:
3474 c6f698f19f2a2aa07dbb9bbda90a2754 571925 example_1.2.orig.tar.gz
3475 938512f08422f3509ff36f125f5873ba 6220 example_1.2-1.diff.gz
3477 The exact forms of the filenames are described
3478 in <ref id="pkg-sourcearchives">.
3482 In the <file>.changes</file> file this contains one line per
3483 file being uploaded. Each line contains the MD5 checksum,
3484 size, section and priority and the filename. For example:
3487 4c31ab7bfc40d3cf49d7811987390357 1428 text extra example_1.2-1.dsc
3488 c6f698f19f2a2aa07dbb9bbda90a2754 571925 text extra example_1.2.orig.tar.gz
3489 938512f08422f3509ff36f125f5873ba 6220 text extra example_1.2-1.diff.gz
3490 7c98fe853b3bbb47a00e5cd129b6cb56 703542 text extra example_1.2-1_i386.deb
3492 The <qref id="f-Section">section</qref>
3493 and <qref id="f-Priority">priority</qref> are the values of
3494 the corresponding fields in the main source control file. If
3495 no section or priority is specified then <tt>-</tt> should be
3496 used, though section and priority values must be specified for
3497 new packages to be installed properly.
3501 The special value <tt>byhand</tt> for the section in a
3502 <tt>.changes</tt> file indicates that the file in question
3503 is not an ordinary package file and must by installed by
3504 hand by the distribution maintainers. If the section is
3505 <tt>byhand</tt> the priority should be <tt>-</tt>.
3509 If a new Debian revision of a package is being shipped and
3510 no new original source archive is being distributed the
3511 <tt>.dsc</tt> must still contain the <tt>Files</tt> field
3512 entry for the original source archive
3513 <file><var>package</var>_<var>upstream-version</var>.orig.tar.gz</file>,
3514 but the <file>.changes</file> file should leave it out. In
3515 this case the original source archive on the distribution
3516 site must match exactly, byte-for-byte, the original
3517 source archive which was used to generate the
3518 <file>.dsc</file> file and diff which are being uploaded.</p>
3521 <sect1 id="f-Closes">
3522 <heading><tt>Closes</tt></heading>
3525 A space-separated list of bug report numbers that the upload
3526 governed by the .changes file closes.
3530 <sect1 id="f-Homepage">
3531 <heading><tt>Homepage</tt></heading>
3534 The URL of the web site for this package, preferably (when
3535 applicable) the site from which the original source can be
3536 obtained and any additional upstream documentation or
3537 information may be found. The content of this field is a
3538 simple URL without any surrounding characters such as
3543 <sect1 id="f-Checksums">
3544 <heading><tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
3545 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt></heading>
3548 These fields contain a list of files with a checksum and size
3549 for each one. Both <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt>
3550 and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> have the same syntax and differ
3551 only in the checksum algorithm used: SHA-1
3552 for <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and SHA-256
3553 for <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt>.
3557 <tt>Checksums-Sha1</tt> and <tt>Checksums-Sha256</tt> are
3558 multiline fields. The first line of the field value (the part
3559 on the same line as <tt>Checksums-Sha1:</tt>
3560 or <tt>Checksums-Sha256:</tt>) is always empty. The content
3561 of the field is expressed as continuation lines, one line per
3562 file. Each line consists of the checksum, a space, the file
3563 size, a space, and the file name. For example (from
3564 a <file>.changes</file> file):
3567 1f418afaa01464e63cc1ee8a66a05f0848bd155c 1276 example_1.0-1.dsc
3568 a0ed1456fad61116f868b1855530dbe948e20f06 171602 example_1.0.orig.tar.gz
3569 5e86ecf0671e113b63388dac81dd8d00e00ef298 6137 example_1.0-1.debian.tar.gz
3570 71a0ff7da0faaf608481195f9cf30974b142c183 548402 example_1.0-1_i386.deb
3572 ac9d57254f7e835bed299926fd51bf6f534597cc3fcc52db01c4bffedae81272 1276 example_1.0-1.dsc
3573 0d123be7f51e61c4bf15e5c492b484054be7e90f3081608a5517007bfb1fd128 171602 example_1.0.orig.tar.gz
3574 f54ae966a5f580571ae7d9ef5e1df0bd42d63e27cb505b27957351a495bc6288 6137 example_1.0-1.debian.tar.gz
3575 3bec05c03974fdecd11d020fc2e8250de8404867a8a2ce865160c250eb723664 548402 example_1.0-1_i386.deb
3580 In the <file>.dsc</file> file, these fields should list all
3581 files that make up the source package. In
3582 the <file>.changes</file> file, these fields should list all
3583 files being uploaded. The list of files in these fields
3584 must match the list of files in the <tt>Files</tt> field.
3590 <heading>User-defined fields</heading>
3593 Additional user-defined fields may be added to the
3594 source package control file. Such fields will be
3595 ignored, and not copied to (for example) binary or
3596 source package control files or upload control files.
3600 If you wish to add additional unsupported fields to
3601 these output files you should use the mechanism
3606 Fields in the main source control information file with
3607 names starting <tt>X</tt>, followed by one or more of
3608 the letters <tt>BCS</tt> and a hyphen <tt>-</tt>, will
3609 be copied to the output files. Only the part of the
3610 field name after the hyphen will be used in the output
3611 file. Where the letter <tt>B</tt> is used the field
3612 will appear in binary package control files, where the
3613 letter <tt>S</tt> is used in source package control
3614 files and where <tt>C</tt> is used in upload control
3615 (<tt>.changes</tt>) files.
3619 For example, if the main source information control file
3622 XBS-Comment: I stand between the candle and the star.
3624 then the binary and source package control files will contain the
3627 Comment: I stand between the candle and the star.
3636 <chapt id="maintainerscripts">
3637 <heading>Package maintainer scripts and installation procedure</heading>
3640 <heading>Introduction to package maintainer scripts</heading>
3643 It is possible to supply scripts as part of a package which
3644 the package management system will run for you when your
3645 package is installed, upgraded or removed.
3649 These scripts are the control information
3650 files <prgn>preinst</prgn>, <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn>
3651 and <prgn>postrm</prgn>. They must be proper executable files;
3652 if they are scripts (which is recommended), they must start with
3653 the usual <tt>#!</tt> convention. They should be readable and
3654 executable by anyone, and must not be world-writable.
3658 The package management system looks at the exit status from
3659 these scripts. It is important that they exit with a
3660 non-zero status if there is an error, so that the package
3661 management system can stop its processing. For shell
3662 scripts this means that you <em>almost always</em> need to
3663 use <tt>set -e</tt> (this is usually true when writing shell
3664 scripts, in fact). It is also important, of course, that
3665 they exit with a zero status if everything went well.
3669 Additionally, packages interacting with users
3670 using <prgn>debconf</prgn> in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script
3671 should install a <prgn>config</prgn> script as a control
3672 information file. See <ref id="maintscriptprompt"> for details.
3676 When a package is upgraded a combination of the scripts from
3677 the old and new packages is called during the upgrade
3678 procedure. If your scripts are going to be at all
3679 complicated you need to be aware of this, and may need to
3680 check the arguments to your scripts.
3684 Broadly speaking the <prgn>preinst</prgn> is called before
3685 (a particular version of) a package is installed, and the
3686 <prgn>postinst</prgn> afterwards; the <prgn>prerm</prgn>
3687 before (a version of) a package is removed and the
3688 <prgn>postrm</prgn> afterwards.
3692 Programs called from maintainer scripts should not normally
3693 have a path prepended to them. Before installation is
3694 started, the package management system checks to see if the
3695 programs <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>,
3696 <prgn>start-stop-daemon</prgn>, <prgn>install-info</prgn>,
3697 and <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> can be found via the
3698 <tt>PATH</tt> environment variable. Those programs, and any
3699 other program that one would expect to be in the
3700 <tt>PATH</tt>, should thus be invoked without an absolute
3701 pathname. Maintainer scripts should also not reset the
3702 <tt>PATH</tt>, though they might choose to modify it by
3703 prepending or appending package-specific directories. These
3704 considerations really apply to all shell scripts.</p>
3707 <sect id="idempotency">
3708 <heading>Maintainer scripts idempotency</heading>
3711 It is necessary for the error recovery procedures that the
3712 scripts be idempotent. This means that if it is run
3713 successfully, and then it is called again, it doesn't bomb
3714 out or cause any harm, but just ensures that everything is
3715 the way it ought to be. If the first call failed, or
3716 aborted half way through for some reason, the second call
3717 should merely do the things that were left undone the first
3718 time, if any, and exit with a success status if everything
3720 This is so that if an error occurs, the user interrupts
3721 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> or some other unforeseen circumstance
3722 happens you don't leave the user with a badly-broken
3723 package when <prgn>dpkg</prgn> attempts to repeat the
3729 <sect id="controllingterminal">
3730 <heading>Controlling terminal for maintainer scripts</heading>
3733 Maintainer scripts are not guaranteed to run with a controlling
3734 terminal and may not be able to interact with the user. They
3735 must be able to fall back to noninteractive behavior if no
3736 controlling terminal is available. Maintainer scripts that
3737 prompt via a program conforming to the Debian Configuration
3738 Management Specification (see <ref id="maintscriptprompt">) may
3739 assume that program will handle falling back to noninteractive
3744 For high-priority prompts without a reasonable default answer,
3745 maintainer scripts may abort if there is no controlling
3746 terminal. However, this situation should be avoided if at all
3747 possible, since it prevents automated or unattended installs.
3748 In most cases, users will consider this to be a bug in the
3753 <sect id="exitstatus">
3754 <heading>Exit status</heading>
3757 Each script must return a zero exit status for
3758 success, or a nonzero one for failure, since the package
3759 management system looks for the exit status of these scripts
3760 and determines what action to take next based on that datum.
3764 <sect id="mscriptsinstact"><heading>Summary of ways maintainer
3769 <list compact="compact">
3771 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>install</tt>
3774 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>install</tt> <var>old-version</var>
3777 <var>new-preinst</var> <tt>upgrade</tt> <var>old-version</var>
3780 <var>old-preinst</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3781 <var>new-version</var>
3786 <list compact="compact">
3788 <var>postinst</var> <tt>configure</tt>
3789 <var>most-recently-configured-version</var>
3792 <var>old-postinst</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3793 <var>new-version</var>
3796 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> <tt>abort-remove</tt>
3797 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package</var>
3798 <var>new-version</var>
3801 <var>postinst</var> <tt>abort-remove</tt>
3804 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var>
3805 <tt>abort-deconfigure</tt> <tt>in-favour</tt>
3806 <var>failed-install-package</var> <var>version</var>
3807 [<tt>removing</tt> <var>conflicting-package</var>
3813 <list compact="compact">
3815 <var>prerm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3818 <var>old-prerm</var> <tt>upgrade</tt>
3819 <var>new-version</var>
3822 <var>new-prerm</var> <tt>failed-upgrade</tt>
3823 <var>old-version</var>
3826 <var>conflictor's-prerm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3827 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package</var>
3828 <var>new-version</var>
3831 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> <tt>deconfigure</tt>
3832 <tt>in-favour</tt> <var>package-being-installed</var>
3833 <var>version</var> [<tt>removing</tt>
3834 <var>conflicting-package</var>
3840 <list compact="compact">
3842 <var>postrm</var> <tt>remove</tt>
3845 <var>postrm</var> <tt>purge</tt>
3848 <var>old-postrm</var> <tt>upgrade</tt>
3849 <var>new-version</var>
3852 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>failed-upgrade</tt>
3853 <var>old-version</var>
3856 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-install</tt>
3859 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-install</tt>
3860 <var>old-version</var>
3863 <var>new-postrm</var> <tt>abort-upgrade</tt>
3864 <var>old-version</var>
3867 <var>disappearer's-postrm</var> <tt>disappear</tt>
3868 <var>overwriter</var>
3869 <var>overwriter-version</var>
3875 <sect id="unpackphase">
3876 <heading>Details of unpack phase of installation or upgrade</heading>
3879 The procedure on installation/upgrade/overwrite/disappear
3880 (i.e., when running <tt>dpkg --unpack</tt>, or the unpack
3881 stage of <tt>dpkg --install</tt>) is as follows. In each
3882 case, if a major error occurs (unless listed below) the
3883 actions are, in general, run backwards - this means that the
3884 maintainer scripts are run with different arguments in
3885 reverse order. These are the "error unwind" calls listed
3892 If a version of the package is already installed, call
3893 <example compact="compact">
3894 <var>old-prerm</var> upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3898 If the script runs but exits with a non-zero
3899 exit status, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will attempt:
3900 <example compact="compact">
3901 <var>new-prerm</var> failed-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3903 If this works, the upgrade continues. If this
3904 does not work, the error unwind:
3905 <example compact="compact">
3906 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3908 If this works, then the old-version is
3909 "Installed", if not, the old version is in a
3910 "Half-Configured" state.
3916 If a "conflicting" package is being removed at the same time,
3917 or if any package will be broken (due to <tt>Breaks</tt>):
3920 If <tt>--auto-deconfigure</tt> is
3921 specified, call, for each package to be deconfigured
3922 due to <tt>Breaks</tt>:
3923 <example compact="compact">
3924 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> deconfigure \
3925 in-favour <var>package-being-installed</var> <var>version</var>
3928 <example compact="compact">
3929 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var> abort-deconfigure \
3930 in-favour <var>package-being-installed-but-failed</var> <var>version</var>
3932 The deconfigured packages are marked as
3933 requiring configuration, so that if
3934 <tt>--install</tt> is used they will be
3935 configured again if possible.
3938 If any packages depended on a conflicting
3939 package being removed and <tt>--auto-deconfigure</tt> is
3940 specified, call, for each such package:
3941 <example compact="compact">
3942 <var>deconfigured's-prerm</var> deconfigure \
3943 in-favour <var>package-being-installed</var> <var>version</var> \
3944 removing <var>conflicting-package</var> <var>version</var>
3947 <example compact="compact">
3948 <var>deconfigured's-postinst</var> abort-deconfigure \
3949 in-favour <var>package-being-installed-but-failed</var> <var>version</var> \
3950 removing <var>conflicting-package</var> <var>version</var>
3952 The deconfigured packages are marked as
3953 requiring configuration, so that if
3954 <tt>--install</tt> is used they will be
3955 configured again if possible.
3958 To prepare for removal of each conflicting package, call:
3959 <example compact="compact">
3960 <var>conflictor's-prerm</var> remove \
3961 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
3964 <example compact="compact">
3965 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> abort-remove \
3966 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
3975 If the package is being upgraded, call:
3976 <example compact="compact">
3977 <var>new-preinst</var> upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3979 If this fails, we call:
3981 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
3988 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
3990 is called. If this works, then the old version
3991 is in an "Installed" state, or else it is left
3992 in an "Unpacked" state.
3997 If it fails, then the old version is left
3998 in an "Half-Installed" state.
4005 Otherwise, if the package had some configuration
4006 files from a previous version installed (i.e., it
4007 is in the "configuration files only" state):
4008 <example compact="compact">
4009 <var>new-preinst</var> install <var>old-version</var>
4013 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-install <var>old-version</var>
4015 If this fails, the package is left in a
4016 "Half-Installed" state, which requires a
4017 reinstall. If it works, the packages is left in
4018 a "Config-Files" state.
4021 Otherwise (i.e., the package was completely purged):
4022 <example compact="compact">
4023 <var>new-preinst</var> install
4026 <example compact="compact">
4027 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-install
4029 If the error-unwind fails, the package is in a
4030 "Half-Installed" phase, and requires a
4031 reinstall. If the error unwind works, the
4032 package is in a not installed state.
4039 The new package's files are unpacked, overwriting any
4040 that may be on the system already, for example any
4041 from the old version of the same package or from
4042 another package. Backups of the old files are kept
4043 temporarily, and if anything goes wrong the package
4044 management system will attempt to put them back as
4045 part of the error unwind.
4049 It is an error for a package to contain files which
4050 are on the system in another package, unless
4051 <tt>Replaces</tt> is used (see <ref id="replaces">).
4053 The following paragraph is not currently the case:
4054 Currently the <tt>- - force-overwrite</tt> flag is
4055 enabled, downgrading it to a warning, but this may not
4061 It is a more serious error for a package to contain a
4062 plain file or other kind of non-directory where another
4063 package has a directory (again, unless
4064 <tt>Replaces</tt> is used). This error can be
4065 overridden if desired using
4066 <tt>--force-overwrite-dir</tt>, but this is not
4071 Packages which overwrite each other's files produce
4072 behavior which, though deterministic, is hard for the
4073 system administrator to understand. It can easily
4074 lead to "missing" programs if, for example, a package
4075 is installed which overwrites a file from another
4076 package, and is then removed again.<footnote>
4077 Part of the problem is due to what is arguably a
4078 bug in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
4083 A directory will never be replaced by a symbolic link
4084 to a directory or vice versa; instead, the existing
4085 state (symlink or not) will be left alone and
4086 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will follow the symlink if there is
4095 If the package is being upgraded, call
4096 <example compact="compact">
4097 <var>old-postrm</var> upgrade <var>new-version</var>
4101 If this fails, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will attempt:
4102 <example compact="compact">
4103 <var>new-postrm</var> failed-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
4105 If this works, installation continues. If not,
4107 <example compact="compact">
4108 <var>old-preinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
4110 If this fails, the old version is left in a
4111 "Half-Installed" state. If it works, dpkg now
4113 <example compact="compact">
4114 <var>new-postrm</var> abort-upgrade <var>old-version</var>
4116 If this fails, the old version is left in a
4117 "Half-Installed" state. If it works, dpkg now
4119 <example compact="compact">
4120 <var>old-postinst</var> abort-upgrade <var>new-version</var>
4122 If this fails, the old version is in an
4129 This is the point of no return - if
4130 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> gets this far, it won't back off
4131 past this point if an error occurs. This will
4132 leave the package in a fairly bad state, which
4133 will require a successful re-installation to clear
4134 up, but it's when <prgn>dpkg</prgn> starts doing
4135 things that are irreversible.
4140 Any files which were in the old version of the package
4141 but not in the new are removed.
4145 The new file list replaces the old.
4149 The new maintainer scripts replace the old.
4153 Any packages all of whose files have been overwritten
4154 during the installation, and which aren't required for
4155 dependencies, are considered to have been removed.
4156 For each such package
4159 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> calls:
4160 <example compact="compact">
4161 <var>disappearer's-postrm</var> disappear \
4162 <var>overwriter</var> <var>overwriter-version</var>
4166 The package's maintainer scripts are removed.
4169 It is noted in the status database as being in a
4170 sane state, namely not installed (any conffiles
4171 it may have are ignored, rather than being
4172 removed by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>). Note that
4173 disappearing packages do not have their prerm
4174 called, because <prgn>dpkg</prgn> doesn't know
4175 in advance that the package is going to
4182 Any files in the package we're unpacking that are also
4183 listed in the file lists of other packages are removed
4184 from those lists. (This will lobotomize the file list
4185 of the "conflicting" package if there is one.)
4189 The backup files made during installation, above, are
4195 The new package's status is now sane, and recorded as
4200 Here is another point of no return - if the
4201 conflicting package's removal fails we do not unwind
4202 the rest of the installation; the conflicting package
4203 is left in a half-removed limbo.
4208 If there was a conflicting package we go and do the
4209 removal actions (described below), starting with the
4210 removal of the conflicting package's files (any that
4211 are also in the package being installed have already
4212 been removed from the conflicting package's file list,
4213 and so do not get removed now).
4219 <sect id="configdetails"><heading>Details of configuration</heading>
4222 When we configure a package (this happens with <tt>dpkg
4223 --install</tt> and <tt>dpkg --configure</tt>), we first
4224 update any <tt>conffile</tt>s and then call:
4225 <example compact="compact">
4226 <var>postinst</var> configure <var>most-recently-configured-version</var>
4231 No attempt is made to unwind after errors during
4232 configuration. If the configuration fails, the package is in
4233 a "Failed Config" state, and an error message is generated.
4237 If there is no most recently configured version
4238 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will pass a null argument.
4241 Historical note: Truly ancient (pre-1997) versions of
4242 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> passed <tt><unknown></tt>
4243 (including the angle brackets) in this case. Even older
4244 ones did not pass a second argument at all, under any
4245 circumstance. Note that upgrades using such an old dpkg
4246 version are unlikely to work for other reasons, even if
4247 this old argument behavior is handled by your postinst script.
4253 <sect id="removedetails"><heading>Details of removal and/or
4254 configuration purging</heading>
4260 <example compact="compact">
4261 <var>prerm</var> remove
4265 If prerm fails during replacement due to conflict
4267 <var>conflictor's-postinst</var> abort-remove \
4268 in-favour <var>package</var> <var>new-version</var>
4272 <var>postinst</var> abort-remove
4276 If this fails, the package is in a "Half-Configured"
4277 state, or else it remains "Installed".
4281 The package's files are removed (except <tt>conffile</tt>s).
4284 <example compact="compact">
4285 <var>postrm</var> remove
4289 If it fails, there's no error unwind, and the package is in
4290 an "Half-Installed" state.
4295 All the maintainer scripts except the <prgn>postrm</prgn>
4300 If we aren't purging the package we stop here. Note
4301 that packages which have no <prgn>postrm</prgn> and no
4302 <tt>conffile</tt>s are automatically purged when
4303 removed, as there is no difference except for the
4304 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> status.
4308 The <tt>conffile</tt>s and any backup files
4309 (<tt>~</tt>-files, <tt>#*#</tt> files,
4310 <tt>%</tt>-files, <tt>.dpkg-{old,new,tmp}</tt>, etc.)
4315 <example compact="compact">
4316 <var>postrm</var> purge
4320 If this fails, the package remains in a "Config-Files"
4325 The package's file list is removed.
4334 <chapt id="relationships">
4335 <heading>Declaring relationships between packages</heading>
4337 <sect id="depsyntax">
4338 <heading>Syntax of relationship fields</heading>
4341 These fields all have a uniform syntax. They are a list of
4342 package names separated by commas.
4346 In the <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Recommends</tt>,
4347 <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
4348 <tt>Build-Depends</tt> and <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>
4349 control fields of the package, which declare
4350 dependencies on other packages, the package names listed may
4351 also include lists of alternative package names, separated
4352 by vertical bar (pipe) symbols <tt>|</tt>. In such a case,
4353 if any one of the alternative packages is installed, that
4354 part of the dependency is considered to be satisfied.
4358 All of the fields except for <tt>Provides</tt> may restrict
4359 their applicability to particular versions of each named
4360 package. This is done in parentheses after each individual
4361 package name; the parentheses should contain a relation from
4362 the list below followed by a version number, in the format
4363 described in <ref id="f-Version">.
4367 The relations allowed are <tt><<</tt>, <tt><=</tt>,
4368 <tt>=</tt>, <tt>>=</tt> and <tt>>></tt> for
4369 strictly earlier, earlier or equal, exactly equal, later or
4370 equal and strictly later, respectively. The deprecated
4371 forms <tt><</tt> and <tt>></tt> were used to mean
4372 earlier/later or equal, rather than strictly earlier/later,
4373 so they should not appear in new packages (though
4374 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> still supports them).
4378 Whitespace may appear at any point in the version
4379 specification subject to the rules in <ref
4380 id="controlsyntax">, and must appear where it's necessary to
4381 disambiguate; it is not otherwise significant. All of the
4382 relationship fields may span multiple lines. For
4383 consistency and in case of future changes to
4384 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> it is recommended that a single space be
4385 used after a version relationship and before a version
4386 number; it is also conventional to put a single space after
4387 each comma, on either side of each vertical bar, and before
4388 each open parenthesis. When wrapping a relationship field, it
4389 is conventional to do so after a comma and before the space
4390 following that comma.
4394 For example, a list of dependencies might appear as:
4395 <example compact="compact">
4398 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.2.1), exim | mail-transport-agent
4403 Relationships may be restricted to a certain set of
4404 architectures. This is indicated in brackets after each
4405 individual package name and the optional version specification.
4406 The brackets enclose a list of Debian architecture names
4407 separated by whitespace. Exclamation marks may be prepended to
4408 each of the names. (It is not permitted for some names to be
4409 prepended with exclamation marks while others aren't.)
4413 For build relationship fields
4414 (<tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
4415 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>), if
4416 the current Debian host architecture is not in this list and
4417 there are no exclamation marks in the list, or it is in the list
4418 with a prepended exclamation mark, the package name and the
4419 associated version specification are ignored completely for the
4420 purposes of defining the relationships.
4425 <example compact="compact">
4427 Build-Depends-Indep: texinfo
4428 Build-Depends: kernel-headers-2.2.10 [!hurd-i386],
4429 hurd-dev [hurd-i386], gnumach-dev [hurd-i386]
4431 requires <tt>kernel-headers-2.2.10</tt> on all architectures
4432 other than hurd-i386 and requires <tt>hurd-dev</tt> and
4433 <tt>gnumach-dev</tt> only on hurd-i386.
4437 For binary relationship fields, the architecture restriction
4438 syntax is only supported in the source package control
4439 file <file>debian/control</file>. When the corresponding binary
4440 package control file is generated, the relationship will either
4441 be omitted or included without the architecture restriction
4442 based on the architecture of the binary package. This means
4443 that architecture restrictions must not be used in binary
4444 relationship fields for architecture-independent packages
4445 (<tt>Architecture: all</tt>).
4450 <example compact="compact">
4451 Depends: foo [i386], bar [amd64]
4453 becomes <tt>Depends: foo</tt> when the package is built on
4454 the <tt>i386</tt> architecture, <tt>Depends: bar</tt> when the
4455 package is built on the <tt>amd64</tt> architecture, and omitted
4456 entirely in binary packages built on all other architectures.
4460 If the architecture-restricted dependency is part of a set of
4461 alternatives using <tt>|</tt>, that alternative is ignored
4462 completely on architectures that do not match the restriction.
4464 <example compact="compact">
4465 Build-Depends: foo [!i386] | bar [!amd64]
4467 is equivalent to <tt>bar</tt> on the i386 architecture, to
4468 <tt>foo</tt> on the amd64 architecture, and to <tt>foo |
4469 bar</tt> on all other architectures.
4473 Relationships may also be restricted to a certain set of
4474 architectures using architecture wildcards. The syntax for
4475 declaring such restrictions is the same as declaring
4476 restrictions using a certain set of architectures without
4477 architecture wildcards. For example:
4478 <example compact="compact">
4479 Build-Depends: foo [linux-any], bar [any-i386], baz [!linux-any]
4481 is equivalent to <tt>foo</tt> on architectures using the Linux
4482 kernel and any cpu, <tt>bar</tt> on architectures using any
4483 kernel and an i386 cpu, and <tt>baz</tt> on any architecture
4484 using a kernel other than Linux.
4488 Note that the binary package relationship fields such as
4489 <tt>Depends</tt> appear in one of the binary package
4490 sections of the control file, whereas the build-time
4491 relationships such as <tt>Build-Depends</tt> appear in the
4492 source package section of the control file (which is the
4497 <sect id="binarydeps">
4498 <heading>Binary Dependencies - <tt>Depends</tt>,
4499 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
4500 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>
4504 Packages can declare in their control file that they have
4505 certain relationships to other packages - for example, that
4506 they may not be installed at the same time as certain other
4507 packages, and/or that they depend on the presence of others.
4511 This is done using the <tt>Depends</tt>, <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>,
4512 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
4513 <tt>Breaks</tt> and <tt>Conflicts</tt> control fields.
4514 <tt>Breaks</tt> is described in <ref id="breaks">, and
4515 <tt>Conflicts</tt> is described in <ref id="conflicts">. The
4516 rest are described below.
4520 These seven fields are used to declare a dependency
4521 relationship by one package on another. Except for
4522 <tt>Enhances</tt> and <tt>Breaks</tt>, they appear in the
4523 depending (binary) package's control file.
4524 (<tt>Enhances</tt> appears in the recommending package's
4525 control file, and <tt>Breaks</tt> appears in the version of
4526 depended-on package which causes the named package to
4531 A <tt>Depends</tt> field takes effect <em>only</em> when a
4532 package is to be configured. It does not prevent a package
4533 being on the system in an unconfigured state while its
4534 dependencies are unsatisfied, and it is possible to replace
4535 a package whose dependencies are satisfied and which is
4536 properly installed with a different version whose
4537 dependencies are not and cannot be satisfied; when this is
4538 done the depending package will be left unconfigured (since
4539 attempts to configure it will give errors) and will not
4540 function properly. If it is necessary, a
4541 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> field can be used, which has a partial
4542 effect even when a package is being unpacked, as explained
4543 in detail below. (The other three dependency fields,
4544 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt> and
4545 <tt>Enhances</tt>, are only used by the various front-ends
4546 to <prgn>dpkg</prgn> such as <prgn>apt-get</prgn>,
4547 <prgn>aptitude</prgn>, and <prgn>dselect</prgn>.)
4551 For this reason packages in an installation run are usually
4552 all unpacked first and all configured later; this gives
4553 later versions of packages with dependencies on later
4554 versions of other packages the opportunity to have their
4555 dependencies satisfied.
4559 In case of circular dependencies, since installation or
4560 removal order honoring the dependency order can't be
4561 established, dependency loops are broken at some point
4562 (based on rules below), and some packages may not be able to
4563 rely on their dependencies being present when being
4564 installed or removed, depending on which side of the break
4565 of the circular dependency loop they happen to be on. If one
4566 of the packages in the loop has no postinst script, then the
4567 cycle will be broken at that package, so as to ensure that
4568 all postinst scripts run with the dependencies properly
4569 configured if this is possible. Otherwise the breaking point
4574 The <tt>Depends</tt> field thus allows package maintainers
4575 to impose an order in which packages should be configured.
4579 The meaning of the five dependency fields is as follows:
4581 <tag><tt>Depends</tt></tag>
4584 This declares an absolute dependency. A package will
4585 not be configured unless all of the packages listed in
4586 its <tt>Depends</tt> field have been correctly
4591 The <tt>Depends</tt> field should be used if the
4592 depended-on package is required for the depending
4593 package to provide a significant amount of
4598 The <tt>Depends</tt> field should also be used if the
4599 <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn> or
4600 <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts require the package to be
4601 present in order to run. Note, however, that the
4602 <prgn>postrm</prgn> cannot rely on any non-essential
4603 packages to be present during the <tt>purge</tt>
4607 <tag><tt>Recommends</tt></tag>
4610 This declares a strong, but not absolute, dependency.
4614 The <tt>Recommends</tt> field should list packages
4615 that would be found together with this one in all but
4616 unusual installations.
4620 <tag><tt>Suggests</tt></tag>
4622 This is used to declare that one package may be more
4623 useful with one or more others. Using this field
4624 tells the packaging system and the user that the
4625 listed packages are related to this one and can
4626 perhaps enhance its usefulness, but that installing
4627 this one without them is perfectly reasonable.
4630 <tag><tt>Enhances</tt></tag>
4632 This field is similar to Suggests but works in the
4633 opposite direction. It is used to declare that a
4634 package can enhance the functionality of another
4638 <tag><tt>Pre-Depends</tt></tag>
4641 This field is like <tt>Depends</tt>, except that it
4642 also forces <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to complete installation
4643 of the packages named before even starting the
4644 installation of the package which declares the
4645 pre-dependency, as follows:
4649 When a package declaring a pre-dependency is about to
4650 be <em>unpacked</em> the pre-dependency can be
4651 satisfied if the depended-on package is either fully
4652 configured, <em>or even if</em> the depended-on
4653 package(s) are only unpacked or in the "Half-Configured"
4654 state, provided that they have been configured
4655 correctly at some point in the past (and not removed
4656 or partially removed since). In this case, both the
4657 previously-configured and currently unpacked or
4658 "Half-Configured" versions must satisfy any version
4659 clause in the <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> field.
4663 When the package declaring a pre-dependency is about
4664 to be <em>configured</em>, the pre-dependency will be
4665 treated as a normal <tt>Depends</tt>, that is, it will
4666 be considered satisfied only if the depended-on
4667 package has been correctly configured.
4671 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> should be used sparingly,
4672 preferably only by packages whose premature upgrade or
4673 installation would hamper the ability of the system to
4674 continue with any upgrade that might be in progress.
4678 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> are also required if the
4679 <prgn>preinst</prgn> script depends on the named
4680 package. It is best to avoid this situation if
4688 When selecting which level of dependency to use you should
4689 consider how important the depended-on package is to the
4690 functionality of the one declaring the dependency. Some
4691 packages are composed of components of varying degrees of
4692 importance. Such a package should list using
4693 <tt>Depends</tt> the package(s) which are required by the
4694 more important components. The other components'
4695 requirements may be mentioned as Suggestions or
4696 Recommendations, as appropriate to the components' relative
4702 <heading>Packages which break other packages - <tt>Breaks</tt></heading>
4705 When one binary package declares that it breaks another,
4706 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will refuse to allow the package which
4707 declares <tt>Breaks</tt> be installed unless the broken
4708 package is deconfigured first, and it will refuse to
4709 allow the broken package to be reconfigured.
4713 A package will not be regarded as causing breakage merely
4714 because its configuration files are still installed; it must
4715 be at least "Half-Installed".
4719 A special exception is made for packages which declare that
4720 they break their own package name or a virtual package which
4721 they provide (see below): this does not count as a real
4726 Normally a <tt>Breaks</tt> entry will have an "earlier than"
4727 version clause; such a <tt>Breaks</tt> is introduced in the
4728 version of an (implicit or explicit) dependency which violates
4729 an assumption or reveals a bug in earlier versions of the broken
4730 package, or which takes over a file from earlier versions of the
4731 package named in <tt>Breaks</tt>. This use of <tt>Breaks</tt>
4732 will inform higher-level package management tools that the
4733 broken package must be upgraded before the new one.
4737 If the breaking package also overwrites some files from the
4738 older package, it should use <tt>Replaces</tt> to ensure this
4739 goes smoothly. See <ref id="replaces"> for a full discussion
4740 of taking over files from other packages, including how to
4741 use <tt>Breaks</tt> in those cases.
4745 Many of the cases where <tt>Breaks</tt> should be used were
4746 previously handled with <tt>Conflicts</tt>
4747 because <tt>Breaks</tt> did not yet exist.
4748 Many <tt>Conflicts</tt> fields should now be <tt>Breaks</tt>.
4749 See <ref id="conflicts"> for more information about the
4754 <sect id="conflicts">
4755 <heading>Conflicting binary packages - <tt>Conflicts</tt></heading>
4758 When one binary package declares a conflict with another
4759 using a <tt>Conflicts</tt> field, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will
4760 refuse to allow them to be installed on the system at the
4761 same time. This is a stronger restriction than <tt>Breaks</tt>,
4762 which just prevents both packages from being configured at the
4763 same time. Conflicting packages cannot be unpacked on the
4764 system at the same time.
4768 If one package is to be installed, the other must be removed
4769 first. If the package being installed is marked as replacing
4770 (see <ref id="replaces">, but note that <tt>Breaks</tt> should
4771 normally be used in this case) the one on the system, or the one
4772 on the system is marked as deselected, or both packages are
4773 marked <tt>Essential</tt>, then <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will
4774 automatically remove the package which is causing the conflict.
4775 Otherwise, it will halt the installation of the new package with
4776 an error. This mechanism is specifically designed to produce an
4777 error when the installed package is <tt>Essential</tt>, but the
4782 A package will not cause a conflict merely because its
4783 configuration files are still installed; it must be at least
4788 A special exception is made for packages which declare a
4789 conflict with their own package name, or with a virtual
4790 package which they provide (see below): this does not
4791 prevent their installation, and allows a package to conflict
4792 with others providing a replacement for it. You use this
4793 feature when you want the package in question to be the only
4794 package providing some feature.
4798 Normally, <tt>Breaks</tt> should be used instead
4799 of <tt>Conflicts</tt> since <tt>Conflicts</tt> imposes a
4800 stronger restriction on the ordering of package installation or
4801 upgrade and can make it more difficult for the package manager
4802 to find a correct solution to an upgrade or installation
4803 problem. <tt>Breaks</tt> should be used
4805 <item>when moving a file from one package to another (see
4806 <ref id="replaces">),</item>
4807 <item>when splitting a package (a special case of the previous
4809 <item>when the breaking package exposes a bug in or interacts
4810 badly with particular versions of the broken
4813 <tt>Conflicts</tt> should be used
4815 <item>when two packages provide the same file and will
4816 continue to do so,</item>
4817 <item>in conjunction with <tt>Provides</tt> when only one
4818 package providing a given virtual facility may be installed
4819 at a time (see <ref id="virtual">),</item>
4820 <item>in other cases where one must prevent simultaneous
4821 installation of two packages for reasons that are ongoing
4822 (not fixed in a later version of one of the packages) or
4823 that must prevent both packages from being unpacked at the
4824 same time, not just configured.</item>
4826 Be aware that adding <tt>Conflicts</tt> is normally not the best
4827 solution when two packages provide the same files. Depending on
4828 the reason for that conflict, using alternatives or renaming the
4829 files is often a better approach. See, for
4830 example, <ref id="binaries">.
4834 A <tt>Conflicts</tt> entry may have an "earlier than" version
4835 clause if the reason for the conflict is corrected in a later
4836 version of one of the packages. However, normally the presence
4837 of an "earlier than" version clause is a sign
4838 that <tt>Breaks</tt> should have been used instead. An "earlier
4839 than" version clause in <tt>Conflicts</tt>
4840 prevents <prgn>dpkg</prgn> from upgrading or installing the
4841 package which declares such a conflict until the upgrade or
4842 removal of the conflicted-with package has been completed, which
4843 is a strong restriction.
4847 <sect id="virtual"><heading>Virtual packages - <tt>Provides</tt>
4851 As well as the names of actual ("concrete") packages, the
4852 package relationship fields <tt>Depends</tt>,
4853 <tt>Recommends</tt>, <tt>Suggests</tt>, <tt>Enhances</tt>,
4854 <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, <tt>Breaks</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt>,
4855 <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
4856 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>
4857 may mention "virtual packages".
4861 A <em>virtual package</em> is one which appears in the
4862 <tt>Provides</tt> control field of another package. The effect
4863 is as if the package(s) which provide a particular virtual
4864 package name had been listed by name everywhere the virtual
4865 package name appears. (See also <ref id="virtual_pkg">)
4869 If there are both concrete and virtual packages of the same
4870 name, then the dependency may be satisfied (or the conflict
4871 caused) by either the concrete package with the name in
4872 question or any other concrete package which provides the
4873 virtual package with the name in question. This is so that,
4874 for example, supposing we have
4875 <example compact="compact">
4878 </example> and someone else releases an enhanced version of
4879 the <tt>bar</tt> package they can say:
4880 <example compact="compact">
4884 and the <tt>bar-plus</tt> package will now also satisfy the
4885 dependency for the <tt>foo</tt> package.
4889 If a relationship field has a version number attached, only real
4890 packages will be considered to see whether the relationship is
4891 satisfied (or the prohibition violated, for a conflict or
4892 breakage). In other words, if a version number is specified,
4893 this is a request to ignore all <tt>Provides</tt> for that
4894 package name and consider only real packages. The package
4895 manager will assume that a package providing that virtual
4896 package is not of the "right" version. A <tt>Provides</tt>
4897 field may not contain version numbers, and the version number of
4898 the concrete package which provides a particular virtual package
4899 will not be considered when considering a dependency on or
4900 conflict with the virtual package name.<footnote>
4901 It is possible that a future release of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> may
4902 add the ability to specify a version number for each virtual
4903 package it provides. This feature is not yet present,
4904 however, and is expected to be used only infrequently.
4909 To specify which of a set of real packages should be the default
4910 to satisfy a particular dependency on a virtual package, list
4911 the real package as an alternative before the virtual one.
4915 If the virtual package represents a facility that can only be
4916 provided by one real package at a time, such as
4917 the <package>mail-transport-agent</package> virtual package that
4918 requires installation of a binary that would conflict with all
4919 other providers of that virtual package (see
4920 <ref id="mail-transport-agents">), all packages providing that
4921 virtual package should also declare a conflict with it
4922 using <tt>Conflicts</tt>. This will ensure that at most one
4923 provider of that virtual package is unpacked or installed at a
4928 <sect id="replaces"><heading>Overwriting files and replacing
4929 packages - <tt>Replaces</tt></heading>
4932 Packages can declare in their control file that they should
4933 overwrite files in certain other packages, or completely replace
4934 other packages. The <tt>Replaces</tt> control field has these
4935 two distinct purposes.
4938 <sect1><heading>Overwriting files in other packages</heading>
4941 It is usually an error for a package to contain files which
4942 are on the system in another package. However, if the
4943 overwriting package declares that it <tt>Replaces</tt> the one
4944 containing the file being overwritten, then <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
4945 will replace the file from the old package with that from the
4946 new. The file will no longer be listed as "owned" by the old
4947 package and will be taken over by the new package.
4948 Normally, <tt>Breaks</tt> should be used in conjunction
4949 with <tt>Replaces</tt>.<footnote>
4950 To see why <tt>Breaks</tt> is normally needed in addition
4951 to <tt>Replaces</tt>, consider the case of a file in the
4952 package <package>foo</package> being taken over by the
4953 package <package>foo-data</package>.
4954 <tt>Replaces</tt> will allow <package>foo-data</package> to
4955 be installed and take over that file. However,
4956 without <tt>Breaks</tt>, nothing
4957 requires <package>foo</package> to be upgraded to a newer
4958 version that knows it does not include that file and instead
4959 depends on <package>foo-data</package>. Nothing would
4960 prevent the new <package>foo-data</package> package from
4961 being installed and then removed, removing the file that it
4962 took over from <package>foo</package>. After that
4963 operation, the package manager would think the system was in
4964 a consistent state, but the <package>foo</package> package
4965 would be missing one of its files.
4970 For example, if a package <package>foo</package> is split
4971 into <package>foo</package> and <package>foo-data</package>
4972 starting at version 1.2-3, <package>foo-data</package> would
4974 <example compact="compact">
4975 Replaces: foo (<< 1.2-3)
4976 Breaks: foo (<< 1.2-3)
4978 in its control file. The new version of the
4979 package <package>foo</package> would normally have the field
4980 <example compact="compact">
4981 Depends: foo-data (>= 1.2-3)
4983 (or possibly <tt>Recommends</tt> or even <tt>Suggests</tt> if
4984 the files moved into <package>foo-data</package> are not
4985 required for normal operation).
4989 If a package is completely replaced in this way, so that
4990 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> does not know of any files it still
4991 contains, it is considered to have "disappeared". It will
4992 be marked as not wanted on the system (selected for
4993 removal) and not installed. Any <tt>conffile</tt>s
4994 details noted for the package will be ignored, as they
4995 will have been taken over by the overwriting package. The
4996 package's <prgn>postrm</prgn> script will be run with a
4997 special argument to allow the package to do any final
4998 cleanup required. See <ref id="mscriptsinstact">.
5000 Replaces is a one way relationship. You have to install
5001 the replacing package after the replaced package.
5006 For this usage of <tt>Replaces</tt>, virtual packages (see
5007 <ref id="virtual">) are not considered when looking at a
5008 <tt>Replaces</tt> field. The packages declared as being
5009 replaced must be mentioned by their real names.
5013 This usage of <tt>Replaces</tt> only takes effect when both
5014 packages are at least partially on the system at once. It is
5015 not relevant if the packages conflict unless the conflict has
5020 <sect1><heading>Replacing whole packages, forcing their
5024 Second, <tt>Replaces</tt> allows the packaging system to
5025 resolve which package should be removed when there is a
5026 conflict (see <ref id="conflicts">). This usage only takes
5027 effect when the two packages <em>do</em> conflict, so that the
5028 two usages of this field do not interfere with each other.
5032 In this situation, the package declared as being replaced
5033 can be a virtual package, so for example, all mail
5034 transport agents (MTAs) would have the following fields in
5035 their control files:
5036 <example compact="compact">
5037 Provides: mail-transport-agent
5038 Conflicts: mail-transport-agent
5039 Replaces: mail-transport-agent
5041 ensuring that only one MTA can be installed at any one
5042 time. See <ref id="virtual"> for more information about this
5047 <sect id="sourcebinarydeps">
5048 <heading>Relationships between source and binary packages -
5049 <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>,
5050 <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt>
5054 Source packages that require certain binary packages to be
5055 installed or absent at the time of building the package
5056 can declare relationships to those binary packages.
5060 This is done using the <tt>Build-Depends</tt>,
5061 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt> and
5062 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> control fields.
5066 Build-dependencies on "build-essential" binary packages can be
5067 omitted. Please see <ref id="pkg-relations"> for more information.
5071 The dependencies and conflicts they define must be satisfied
5072 (as defined earlier for binary packages) in order to invoke
5073 the targets in <tt>debian/rules</tt>, as follows:<footnote>
5075 There is no Build-Depends-Arch; this role is essentially
5076 met with Build-Depends. Anyone building the
5077 <tt>build-indep</tt> and binary-indep<tt></tt> targets is
5078 assumed to be building the whole package, and therefore
5079 installation of all build dependencies is required.
5082 The autobuilders use <tt>dpkg-buildpackage -B</tt>, which
5083 calls <tt>build</tt>, not <tt>build-arch</tt> since it does
5084 not yet know how to check for its existence, and
5085 <tt>binary-arch</tt>. The purpose of the original split
5086 between <tt>Build-Depends</tt> and
5087 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt> was so that the autobuilders
5088 wouldn't need to install extra packages needed only for the
5089 binary-indep targets. But without a build-arch/build-indep
5090 split, this didn't work, since most of the work is done in
5091 the build target, not in the binary target.
5095 <tag><tt>clean</tt>, <tt>build-arch</tt>, and
5096 <tt>binary-arch</tt></tag>
5098 Only the <tt>Build-Depends</tt> and <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>
5099 fields must be satisfied when these targets are invoked.
5101 <tag><tt>build</tt>, <tt>build-indep</tt>, <tt>binary</tt>,
5102 and <tt>binary-indep</tt></tag>
5104 The <tt>Build-Depends</tt>, <tt>Build-Conflicts</tt>,
5105 <tt>Build-Depends-Indep</tt>, and
5106 <tt>Build-Conflicts-Indep</tt> fields must be satisfied when
5107 these targets are invoked.
5115 <chapt id="sharedlibs"><heading>Shared libraries</heading>
5118 Packages containing shared libraries must be constructed with
5119 a little care to make sure that the shared library is always
5120 available. This is especially important for packages whose
5121 shared libraries are vitally important, such as the C library
5122 (currently <tt>libc6</tt>).
5126 Packages involving shared libraries should be split up into
5127 several binary packages. This section mostly deals with how
5128 this separation is to be accomplished; rules for files within
5129 the shared library packages are in <ref id="libraries"> instead.
5132 <sect id="sharedlibs-runtime">
5133 <heading>Run-time shared libraries</heading>
5136 The run-time shared library needs to be placed in a package
5137 whose name changes whenever the shared object version
5140 Since it is common place to install several versions of a
5141 package that just provides shared libraries, it is a
5142 good idea that the library package should not
5143 contain any extraneous non-versioned files, unless they
5144 happen to be in versioned directories.</p>
5146 The most common mechanism is to place it in a package
5148 <package><var>libraryname</var><var>soversion</var></package>,
5149 where <file><var>soversion</var></file> is the version number
5150 in the soname of the shared library<footnote>
5151 The soname is the shared object name: it's the thing
5152 that has to match exactly between building an executable
5153 and running it for the dynamic linker to be able run the
5154 program. For example, if the soname of the library is
5155 <file>libfoo.so.6</file>, the library package would be
5156 called <file>libfoo6</file>.
5158 Alternatively, if it would be confusing to directly append
5159 <var>soversion</var> to <var>libraryname</var> (e.g. because
5160 <var>libraryname</var> itself ends in a number), you may use
5161 <package><var>libraryname</var>-<var>soversion</var></package> and
5162 <package><var>libraryname</var>-<var>soversion</var>-dev</package>
5167 If you have several shared libraries built from the same
5168 source tree you may lump them all together into a single
5169 shared library package, provided that you change all of
5170 their sonames at once (so that you don't get filename
5171 clashes if you try to install different versions of the
5172 combined shared libraries package).
5176 The package should install the shared libraries under
5177 their normal names. For example, the <package>libgdbm3</package>
5178 package should install <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file> as
5179 <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. The files should not be
5180 renamed or re-linked by any <prgn>prerm</prgn> or
5181 <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts; <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will take care
5182 of renaming things safely without affecting running programs,
5183 and attempts to interfere with this are likely to lead to
5188 Shared libraries should not be installed executable, since
5189 the dynamic linker does not require this and trying to
5190 execute a shared library usually results in a core dump.
5194 The run-time library package should include the symbolic link that
5195 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> would create for the shared libraries.
5196 For example, the <package>libgdbm3</package> package should include
5197 a symbolic link from <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so.3</file> to
5198 <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. This is needed so that the dynamic
5199 linker (for example <prgn>ld.so</prgn> or
5200 <prgn>ld-linux.so.*</prgn>) can find the library between the
5201 time that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> installs it and the time that
5202 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> is run in the <prgn>postinst</prgn>
5204 The package management system requires the library to be
5205 placed before the symbolic link pointing to it in the
5206 <file>.deb</file> file. This is so that when
5207 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> comes to install the symlink
5208 (overwriting the previous symlink pointing at an older
5209 version of the library), the new shared library is already
5210 in place. In the past, this was achieved by creating the
5211 library in the temporary packaging directory before
5212 creating the symlink. Unfortunately, this was not always
5213 effective, since the building of the tar file in the
5214 <file>.deb</file> depended on the behavior of the underlying
5215 file system. Some file systems (such as reiserfs) reorder
5216 the files so that the order of creation is forgotten.
5217 Since version 1.7.0, <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
5218 reorders the files itself as necessary when building a
5219 package. Thus it is no longer important to concern
5220 oneself with the order of file creation.
5224 <sect1 id="ldconfig">
5225 <heading><tt>ldconfig</tt></heading>
5228 Any package installing shared libraries in one of the default
5229 library directories of the dynamic linker (which are currently
5230 <file>/usr/lib</file> and <file>/lib</file>) or a directory that is
5231 listed in <file>/etc/ld.so.conf</file><footnote>
5233 <list compact="compact">
5234 <item>/usr/local/lib</item>
5235 <item>/usr/lib/libc5-compat</item>
5236 <item>/lib/libc5-compat</item>
5239 must use <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> to update the shared library
5244 The package maintainer scripts must only call
5245 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> under these circumstances:
5246 <list compact="compact">
5247 <item>When the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script is run with a
5248 first argument of <tt>configure</tt>, the script must call
5249 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>, and may optionally invoke
5250 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn> at other times.
5252 <item>When the <prgn>postrm</prgn> script is run with a
5253 first argument of <tt>remove</tt>, the script should call
5254 <prgn>ldconfig</prgn>.
5259 During install or upgrade, the preinst is called before
5260 the new files are installed, so calling "ldconfig" is
5261 pointless. The preinst of an existing package can also be
5262 called if an upgrade fails. However, this happens during
5263 the critical time when a shared libs may exist on-disk
5264 under a temporary name. Thus, it is dangerous and
5265 forbidden by current policy to call "ldconfig" at this
5270 When a package is installed or upgraded, "postinst
5271 configure" runs after the new files are safely on-disk.
5272 Since it is perfectly safe to invoke ldconfig
5273 unconditionally in a postinst, it is OK for a package to
5274 simply put ldconfig in its postinst without checking the
5275 argument. The postinst can also be called to recover from
5276 a failed upgrade. This happens before any new files are
5277 unpacked, so there is no reason to call "ldconfig" at this
5282 For a package that is being removed, prerm is
5283 called with all the files intact, so calling ldconfig is
5284 useless. The other calls to "prerm" happen in the case of
5285 upgrade at a time when all the files of the old package
5286 are on-disk, so again calling "ldconfig" is pointless.
5290 postrm, on the other hand, is called with the "remove"
5291 argument just after the files are removed, so this is
5292 the proper time to call "ldconfig" to notify the system
5293 of the fact that the shared libraries from the package
5294 are removed. The postrm can be called at several other
5295 times. At the time of "postrm purge", "postrm
5296 abort-install", or "postrm abort-upgrade", calling
5297 "ldconfig" is useless because the shared lib files are
5298 not on-disk. However, when "postrm" is invoked with
5299 arguments "upgrade", "failed-upgrade", or "disappear", a
5300 shared lib may exist on-disk under a temporary filename.
5308 <sect id="sharedlibs-support-files">
5309 <heading>Shared library support files</heading>
5312 If your package contains files whose names do not change with
5313 each change in the library shared object version, you must not
5314 put them in the shared library package. Otherwise, several
5315 versions of the shared library cannot be installed at the same
5316 time without filename clashes, making upgrades and transitions
5317 unnecessarily difficult.
5321 It is recommended that supporting files and run-time support
5322 programs that do not need to be invoked manually by users, but
5323 are nevertheless required for the package to function, be placed
5324 (if they are binary) in a subdirectory of <file>/usr/lib</file>,
5325 preferably under <file>/usr/lib/</file><var>package-name</var>.
5326 If the program or file is architecture independent, the
5327 recommendation is for it to be placed in a subdirectory of
5328 <file>/usr/share</file> instead, preferably under
5329 <file>/usr/share/</file><var>package-name</var>. Following the
5330 <var>package-name</var> naming convention ensures that the file
5331 names change when the shared object version changes.
5335 Run-time support programs that use the shared library but are
5336 not required for the library to function or files used by the
5337 shared library that can be used by any version of the shared
5338 library package should instead be put in a separate package.
5339 This package might typically be named
5340 <package><var>libraryname</var>-tools</package>; note the
5341 absence of the <var>soversion</var> in the package name.
5345 Files and support programs only useful when compiling software
5346 against the library should be included in the development
5347 package for the library.<footnote>
5348 For example, a <file><var>package-name</var>-config</file>
5349 script or <package>pkg-config</package> configuration files.
5354 <sect id="sharedlibs-static">
5355 <heading>Static libraries</heading>
5358 The static library (<file><var>libraryname.a</var></file>)
5359 is usually provided in addition to the shared version.
5360 It is placed into the development package (see below).
5364 In some cases, it is acceptable for a library to be
5365 available in static form only; these cases include:
5367 <item>libraries for languages whose shared library support
5368 is immature or unstable</item>
5369 <item>libraries whose interfaces are in flux or under
5370 development (commonly the case when the library's
5371 major version number is zero, or where the ABI breaks
5372 across patchlevels)</item>
5373 <item>libraries which are explicitly intended to be
5374 available only in static form by their upstream
5379 <sect id="sharedlibs-dev">
5380 <heading>Development files</heading>
5383 If there are development files associated with a shared library,
5384 the source package needs to generate a binary development package
5385 named <package><var>libraryname</var><var>soversion</var>-dev</package>,
5386 or if you prefer only to support one development version at a
5387 time, <package><var>libraryname</var>-dev</package>. Installing
5388 the development package must result in installation of all the
5389 development files necessary for compiling programs against that
5390 shared library.<footnote>
5391 This wording allows the development files to be split into
5392 several packages, such as a separate architecture-independent
5393 <package><var>libraryname</var>-headers</package>, provided that
5394 the development package depends on all the required additional
5400 In case several development versions of a library exist, you may
5401 need to use <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s Conflicts mechanism (see
5402 <ref id="conflicts">) to ensure that the user only installs one
5403 development version at a time (as different development versions are
5404 likely to have the same header files in them, which would cause a
5405 filename clash if both were installed).
5409 The development package should contain a symlink for the associated
5410 shared library without a version number. For example, the
5411 <package>libgdbm-dev</package> package should include a symlink
5412 from <file>/usr/lib/libgdbm.so</file> to
5413 <file>libgdbm.so.3.0.0</file>. This symlink is needed by the linker
5414 (<prgn>ld</prgn>) when compiling packages, as it will only look for
5415 <file>libgdbm.so</file> when compiling dynamically.
5419 <sect id="sharedlibs-intradeps">
5420 <heading>Dependencies between the packages of the same library</heading>
5423 Typically the development version should have an exact
5424 version dependency on the runtime library, to make sure that
5425 compilation and linking happens correctly. The
5426 <tt>${binary:Version}</tt> substitution variable can be
5427 useful for this purpose.
5429 Previously, <tt>${Source-Version}</tt> was used, but its name
5430 was confusing and it has been deprecated since dpkg 1.13.19.
5435 <sect id="sharedlibs-shlibdeps">
5436 <heading>Dependencies between the library and other packages -
5437 the <tt>shlibs</tt> system</heading>
5440 If a package contains a binary or library which links to a
5441 shared library, we must ensure that when the package is
5442 installed on the system, all of the libraries needed are
5443 also installed. This requirement led to the creation of the
5444 <tt>shlibs</tt> system, which is very simple in its design:
5445 any package which <em>provides</em> a shared library also
5446 provides information on the package dependencies required to
5447 ensure the presence of this library, and any package which
5448 <em>uses</em> a shared library uses this information to
5449 determine the dependencies it requires. The files which
5450 contain the mapping from shared libraries to the necessary
5451 dependency information are called <file>shlibs</file> files.
5455 When a package is built which contains any shared libraries, it
5456 must provide a <file>shlibs</file> file for other packages to
5457 use. When a package is built which contains any shared
5458 libraries or compiled binaries, it must run
5459 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>
5460 on these to determine the libraries used and hence the
5461 dependencies needed by this package.<footnote>
5463 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> will use a program
5464 like <prgn>objdump</prgn> or <prgn>readelf</prgn> to find
5465 the libraries directly needed by the binaries or shared
5466 libraries in the package.
5470 We say that a binary <tt>foo</tt> <em>directly</em> uses
5471 a library <tt>libbar</tt> if it is explicitly linked
5472 with that library (that is, the library is listed in the ELF
5473 <tt>NEEDED</tt> attribute, caused by adding <tt>-lbar</tt>
5474 to the link line when the binary is created). Other
5475 libraries that are needed by <tt>libbar</tt> are linked
5476 <em>indirectly</em> to <tt>foo</tt>, and the dynamic
5477 linker will load them automatically when it loads
5478 <tt>libbar</tt>. A package should depend on the libraries
5479 it directly uses, but not the libraries it indirectly uses.
5480 The dependencies for those libraries will automatically pull
5481 in the other libraries.
5485 A good example of where this helps is the following. We
5486 could update <tt>libimlib</tt> with a new version that
5487 supports a new graphics format called dgf (but retaining the
5488 same major version number) and depends on <tt>libdgf</tt>.
5489 If we used <prgn>ldd</prgn> to add dependencies for every
5490 library directly or indirectly linked with a binary, every
5491 package that uses <tt>libimlib</tt> would need to be
5492 recompiled so it would also depend on <tt>libdgf</tt> or it
5493 wouldn't run due to missing symbols. Since dependencies are
5494 only added based on ELF <tt>NEEDED</tt> attribute, packages
5495 using <tt>libimlib</tt> can rely on <tt>libimlib</tt> itself
5496 having the dependency on <tt>libdgf</tt> and so they would
5497 not need rebuilding.
5503 In the following sections, we will first describe where the
5504 various <tt>shlibs</tt> files are to be found, then how to
5505 use <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>, and finally the <tt>shlibs</tt>
5506 file format and how to create them if your package contains a
5511 <heading>The <tt>shlibs</tt> files present on the system</heading>
5514 There are several places where <tt>shlibs</tt> files are
5515 found. The following list gives them in the order in which
5517 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>.
5518 (The first one which gives the required information is used.)
5524 <p><file>debian/shlibs.local</file></p>
5527 This lists overrides for this package. This file should
5528 normally not be used, but may be needed temporarily in
5529 unusual situations to work around bugs in other packages,
5530 or in unusual cases where the normally declared dependency
5531 information in the installed <file>shlibs</file> file for
5532 a library cannot be used. This file overrides information
5533 obtained from any other source.
5538 <p><file>/etc/dpkg/shlibs.override</file></p>
5541 This lists global overrides. This list is normally
5542 empty. It is maintained by the local system
5548 <p><file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files in the "build directory"</p>
5551 When packages are being built,
5552 any <file>debian/shlibs</file> files are copied into the
5553 control information file area of the temporary build
5554 directory and given the name <file>shlibs</file>. These
5555 files give details of any shared libraries included in the
5556 same package.<footnote>
5557 An example may help here. Let us say that the source
5558 package <tt>foo</tt> generates two binary
5559 packages, <tt>libfoo2</tt> and <tt>foo-runtime</tt>.
5560 When building the binary packages, the two packages are
5561 created in the directories <file>debian/libfoo2</file>
5562 and <file>debian/foo-runtime</file> respectively.
5563 (<file>debian/tmp</file> could be used instead of one of
5564 these.) Since <tt>libfoo2</tt> provides the
5565 <tt>libfoo</tt> shared library, it will require a
5566 <tt>shlibs</tt> file, which will be installed in
5567 <file>debian/libfoo2/DEBIAN/shlibs</file>, eventually to
5568 become <file>/var/lib/dpkg/info/libfoo2.shlibs</file>.
5569 When <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> is run on the
5570 executable <file>debian/foo-runtime/usr/bin/foo-prog</file>,
5572 the <file>debian/libfoo2/DEBIAN/shlibs</file> file to
5573 determine whether <tt>foo-prog</tt>'s library
5574 dependencies are satisfied by any of the libraries
5575 provided by <tt>libfoo2</tt>. For this reason,
5576 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> must only be run once all of
5577 the individual binary packages' <tt>shlibs</tt> files
5578 have been installed into the build directory.
5584 <p><file>/var/lib/dpkg/info/*.shlibs</file></p>
5587 These are the <file>shlibs</file> files corresponding to
5588 all of the packages installed on the system, and are
5589 maintained by the relevant package maintainers.
5594 <p><file>/etc/dpkg/shlibs.default</file></p>
5597 This file lists any shared libraries whose packages
5598 have failed to provide correct <file>shlibs</file> files.
5599 It was used when the <file>shlibs</file> setup was first
5600 introduced, but it is now normally empty. It is
5601 maintained by the <tt>dpkg</tt> maintainer.
5609 <heading>How to use <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> and the
5610 <file>shlibs</file> files</heading>
5614 <qref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"><prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn></qref>
5615 into your <file>debian/rules</file> file. If your package
5616 contains only compiled binaries and libraries (but no scripts),
5617 you can use a command such as:
5618 <example compact="compact">
5619 dpkg-shlibdeps debian/tmp/usr/bin/* debian/tmp/usr/sbin/* \
5620 debian/tmp/usr/lib/*
5622 Otherwise, you will need to explicitly list the compiled
5623 binaries and libraries.<footnote>
5624 If you are using <tt>debhelper</tt>, the
5625 <prgn>dh_shlibdeps</prgn> program will do this work for you.
5626 It will also correctly handle multi-binary packages.
5631 This command puts the dependency information into the
5632 <file>debian/substvars</file> file, which is then used by
5633 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>. You will need to place a
5634 <tt>${shlibs:Depends}</tt> variable in the <tt>Depends</tt>
5635 field in the control file for this to work.
5639 If you have multiple binary packages, you will need to call
5640 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> on each one which contains
5641 compiled libraries or binaries. In such a case, you will
5642 need to use the <tt>-T</tt> option to the <tt>dpkg</tt>
5643 utilities to specify a different <file>substvars</file> file.
5647 If you are creating a udeb for use in the Debian Installer,
5648 you will need to specify that <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>
5649 should use the dependency line of type <tt>udeb</tt> by
5650 adding the <tt>-tudeb</tt> option<footnote>
5651 <prgn>dh_shlibdeps</prgn> from the <tt>debhelper</tt> suite
5652 will automatically add this option if it knows it is
5654 </footnote>. If there is no dependency line of
5655 type <tt>udeb</tt> in the <file>shlibs</file>
5656 file, <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> will fall back to the regular
5661 For more details on <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>, please see
5662 <ref id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps"> and
5663 <manref name="dpkg-shlibdeps" section="1">.
5668 <heading>The <file>shlibs</file> File Format</heading>
5671 Each <file>shlibs</file> file has the same format. Lines
5672 beginning with <tt>#</tt> are considered to be comments and
5673 are ignored. Each line is of the form:
5674 <example compact="compact">
5675 [<var>type</var>: ]<var>library-name</var> <var>soname-version</var> <var>dependencies ...</var>
5680 We will explain this by reference to the example of the
5681 <tt>zlib1g</tt> package, which (at the time of writing)
5682 installs the shared library <file>/usr/lib/libz.so.1.1.3</file>.
5686 <var>type</var> is an optional element that indicates the type
5687 of package for which the line is valid. The only type currently
5688 in use is <tt>udeb</tt>. The colon and space after the type are
5693 <var>library-name</var> is the name of the shared library,
5694 in this case <tt>libz</tt>. (This must match the name part
5695 of the soname, see below.)
5699 <var>soname-version</var> is the version part of the soname of
5700 the library. The soname is the thing that must exactly match
5701 for the library to be recognized by the dynamic linker, and is
5703 <tt><var>name</var>.so.<var>major-version</var></tt>, in our
5704 example, <tt>libz.so.1</tt>.<footnote>
5705 This can be determined using the command
5706 <example compact="compact">
5707 objdump -p /usr/lib/libz.so.1.1.3 | grep SONAME
5710 The version part is the part which comes after
5711 <tt>.so.</tt>, so in our case, it is <tt>1</tt>. The soname may
5712 instead be of the form
5713 <tt><var>name</var>-<var>major-version</var>.so</tt>, such
5714 as <tt>libdb-4.8.so</tt>, in which case the name would
5715 be <tt>libdb</tt> and the version would be <tt>4.8</tt>.
5719 <var>dependencies</var> has the same syntax as a dependency
5720 field in a binary package control file. It should give
5721 details of which packages are required to satisfy a binary
5722 built against the version of the library contained in the
5723 package. See <ref id="depsyntax"> for details.
5727 In our example, if the first version of the <tt>zlib1g</tt>
5728 package which contained a minor number of at least
5729 <tt>1.3</tt> was <var>1:1.1.3-1</var>, then the
5730 <tt>shlibs</tt> entry for this library could say:
5731 <example compact="compact">
5732 libz 1 zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.3)
5734 The version-specific dependency is to avoid warnings from
5735 the dynamic linker about using older shared libraries with
5740 As zlib1g also provides a udeb containing the shared library,
5741 there would also be a second line:
5742 <example compact="compact">
5743 udeb: libz 1 zlib1g-udeb (>= 1:1.1.3)
5749 <heading>Providing a <file>shlibs</file> file</heading>
5752 If your package provides a shared library, you need to create
5753 a <file>shlibs</file> file following the format described above.
5754 It is usual to call this file <file>debian/shlibs</file> (but if
5755 you have multiple binary packages, you might want to call it
5756 <file>debian/shlibs.<var>package</var></file> instead). Then
5757 let <file>debian/rules</file> install it in the control
5758 information file area:
5759 <example compact="compact">
5760 install -m644 debian/shlibs debian/tmp/DEBIAN
5762 or, in the case of a multi-binary package:
5763 <example compact="compact">
5764 install -m644 debian/shlibs.<var>package</var> debian/<var>package</var>/DEBIAN/shlibs
5766 An alternative way of doing this is to create the
5767 <file>shlibs</file> file in the control information file area
5768 directly from <file>debian/rules</file> without using
5769 a <file>debian/shlibs</file> file at all,<footnote>
5770 This is what <prgn>dh_makeshlibs</prgn> in
5771 the <package>debhelper</package> suite does. If your package
5772 also has a udeb that provides a shared
5773 library, <prgn>dh_makeshlibs</prgn> can automatically generate
5774 the <tt>udeb:</tt> lines if you specify the name of the udeb
5775 with the <tt>--add-udeb</tt> option.
5777 since the <file>debian/shlibs</file> file itself is ignored by
5778 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>.
5782 As <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> reads the
5783 <file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files in all of the binary packages
5784 being built from this source package, all of the
5785 <file>DEBIAN/shlibs</file> files should be installed before
5786 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> is called on any of the binary
5794 <chapt id="opersys"><heading>The Operating System</heading>
5797 <heading>File system hierarchy</heading>
5801 <heading>File System Structure</heading>
5804 The location of all installed files and directories must
5805 comply with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS),
5806 version 2.3, with the exceptions noted below, and except
5807 where doing so would violate other terms of Debian
5808 Policy. The following exceptions to the FHS apply:
5813 The optional rules related to user specific
5814 configuration files for applications are stored in
5815 the user's home directory are relaxed. It is
5816 recommended that such files start with the
5817 '<tt>.</tt>' character (a "dot file"), and if an
5818 application needs to create more than one dot file
5819 then the preferred placement is in a subdirectory
5820 with a name starting with a '.' character, (a "dot
5821 directory"). In this case it is recommended the
5822 configuration files not start with the '.'
5828 The requirement for amd64 to use <file>/lib64</file>
5829 for 64 bit binaries is removed.
5834 The requirement for object files, internal binaries, and
5835 libraries, including <file>libc.so.*</file>, to be located
5836 directly under <file>/lib{,32}</file> and
5837 <file>/usr/lib{,32}</file> is amended, permitting files
5838 to instead be installed to
5839 <file>/lib/<var>triplet</var></file> and
5840 <file>/usr/lib/<var>triplet</var></file>, where
5841 <tt><var>triplet</var></tt> is the value returned by
5842 <tt>dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE</tt> for the
5843 architecture of the package. Packages may <em>not</em>
5844 install files to any <var>triplet</var> path other
5845 than the one matching the architecture of that package;
5846 for instance, an <tt>Architecture: amd64</tt> package
5847 containing 32-bit x86 libraries may not install these
5848 libraries to <file>/usr/lib/i486-linux-gnu</file>.
5850 This is necessary in order to reserve the directories for
5851 use in cross-installation of library packages from other
5852 architectures, as part of the planned deployment of
5857 Applications may also use a single subdirectory under
5858 <file>/usr/lib/<var>triplet</var></file>.
5861 The execution time linker/loader, ld*, must still be made
5862 available in the existing location under /lib or /lib64
5863 since this is part of the ELF ABI for the architecture.
5868 The requirement that
5869 <file>/usr/local/share/man</file> be "synonymous"
5870 with <file>/usr/local/man</file> is relaxed to a
5875 The requirement that windowmanagers with a single
5876 configuration file call it <file>system.*wmrc</file>
5877 is removed, as is the restriction that the window
5878 manager subdirectory be named identically to the
5879 window manager name itself.
5884 The requirement that boot manager configuration
5885 files live in <file>/etc</file>, or at least are
5886 symlinked there, is relaxed to a recommendation.
5891 The following directories in the root filesystem are
5892 additionally allowed: <file>/sys</file> and
5893 <file>/selinux</file>. <footnote>These directories
5894 are used as mount points to mount virtual filesystems
5895 to get access to kernel information.</footnote>
5902 The version of this document referred here can be
5903 found in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package or on <url
5904 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/fhs/"
5905 name="FHS (Debian copy)"> alongside this manual (or, if
5906 you have the <package>debian-policy</package> installed,
5908 id="file:///usr/share/doc/debian-policy/fhs/" name="FHS
5909 (local copy)">). The
5910 latest version, which may be a more recent version, may
5912 <url id="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/" name="FHS (upstream)">.
5913 Specific questions about following the standard may be
5914 asked on the <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list, or
5915 referred to the FHS mailing list (see the
5916 <url id="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/" name="FHS web site"> for
5922 <heading>Site-specific programs</heading>
5925 As mandated by the FHS, packages must not place any
5926 files in <file>/usr/local</file>, either by putting them in
5927 the file system archive to be unpacked by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
5928 or by manipulating them in their maintainer scripts.
5932 However, the package may create empty directories below
5933 <file>/usr/local</file> so that the system administrator knows
5934 where to place site-specific files. These are not
5935 directories <em>in</em> <file>/usr/local</file>, but are
5936 children of directories in <file>/usr/local</file>. These
5937 directories (<file>/usr/local/*/dir/</file>)
5938 should be removed on package removal if they are
5943 Note that this applies only to
5944 directories <em>below</em> <file>/usr/local</file>,
5945 not <em>in</em> <file>/usr/local</file>. Packages must
5946 not create sub-directories in the
5947 directory <file>/usr/local</file> itself, except those
5948 listed in FHS, section 4.5. However, you may create
5949 directories below them as you wish. You must not remove
5950 any of the directories listed in 4.5, even if you created
5955 Since <file>/usr/local</file> can be mounted read-only from a
5956 remote server, these directories must be created and
5957 removed by the <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>prerm</prgn>
5958 maintainer scripts and not be included in the
5959 <file>.deb</file> archive. These scripts must not fail if
5960 either of these operations fail.
5964 For example, the <tt>emacsen-common</tt> package could
5965 contain something like
5966 <example compact="compact">
5967 if [ ! -e /usr/local/share/emacs ]
5969 if mkdir /usr/local/share/emacs 2>/dev/null
5971 chown root:staff /usr/local/share/emacs
5972 chmod 2775 /usr/local/share/emacs
5976 in its <prgn>postinst</prgn> script, and
5977 <example compact="compact">
5978 rmdir /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp 2>/dev/null || true
5979 rmdir /usr/local/share/emacs 2>/dev/null || true
5981 in the <prgn>prerm</prgn> script. (Note that this form is
5982 used to ensure that if the script is interrupted, the
5983 directory <file>/usr/local/share/emacs</file> will still be
5988 If you do create a directory in <file>/usr/local</file> for
5989 local additions to a package, you should ensure that
5990 settings in <file>/usr/local</file> take precedence over the
5991 equivalents in <file>/usr</file>.
5995 However, because <file>/usr/local</file> and its contents are
5996 for exclusive use of the local administrator, a package
5997 must not rely on the presence or absence of files or
5998 directories in <file>/usr/local</file> for normal operation.
6002 The <file>/usr/local</file> directory itself and all the
6003 subdirectories created by the package should (by default) have
6004 permissions 2775 (group-writable and set-group-id) and be
6005 owned by <tt>root:staff</tt>.
6010 <heading>The system-wide mail directory</heading>
6012 The system-wide mail directory
6013 is <file>/var/mail</file>. This directory is part of the
6014 base system and should not be owned by any particular mail
6015 agents. The use of the old
6016 location <file>/var/spool/mail</file> is deprecated, even
6017 though the spool may still be physically located there.
6023 <heading>Users and groups</heading>
6026 <heading>Introduction</heading>
6028 The Debian system can be configured to use either plain or
6033 Some user ids (UIDs) and group ids (GIDs) are reserved
6034 globally for use by certain packages. Because some
6035 packages need to include files which are owned by these
6036 users or groups, or need the ids compiled into binaries,
6037 these ids must be used on any Debian system only for the
6038 purpose for which they are allocated. This is a serious
6039 restriction, and we should avoid getting in the way of
6040 local administration policies. In particular, many sites
6041 allocate users and/or local system groups starting at 100.
6045 Apart from this we should have dynamically allocated ids,
6046 which should by default be arranged in some sensible
6047 order, but the behavior should be configurable.
6051 Packages other than <tt>base-passwd</tt> must not modify
6052 <file>/etc/passwd</file>, <file>/etc/shadow</file>,
6053 <file>/etc/group</file> or <file>/etc/gshadow</file>.
6058 <heading>UID and GID classes</heading>
6060 The UID and GID numbers are divided into classes as
6066 Globally allocated by the Debian project, the same
6067 on every Debian system. These ids will appear in
6068 the <file>passwd</file> and <file>group</file> files of all
6069 Debian systems, new ids in this range being added
6070 automatically as the <tt>base-passwd</tt> package is
6075 Packages which need a single statically allocated
6076 uid or gid should use one of these; their
6077 maintainers should ask the <tt>base-passwd</tt>
6085 Dynamically allocated system users and groups.
6086 Packages which need a user or group, but can have
6087 this user or group allocated dynamically and
6088 differently on each system, should use <tt>adduser
6089 --system</tt> to create the group and/or user.
6090 <prgn>adduser</prgn> will check for the existence of
6091 the user or group, and if necessary choose an unused
6092 id based on the ranges specified in
6093 <file>adduser.conf</file>.
6097 <tag>1000-59999:</tag>
6100 Dynamically allocated user accounts. By default
6101 <prgn>adduser</prgn> will choose UIDs and GIDs for
6102 user accounts in this range, though
6103 <file>adduser.conf</file> may be used to modify this
6108 <tag>60000-64999:</tag>
6111 Globally allocated by the Debian project, but only
6112 created on demand. The ids are allocated centrally
6113 and statically, but the actual accounts are only
6114 created on users' systems on demand.
6118 These ids are for packages which are obscure or
6119 which require many statically-allocated ids. These
6120 packages should check for and create the accounts in
6121 <file>/etc/passwd</file> or <file>/etc/group</file> (using
6122 <prgn>adduser</prgn> if it has this facility) if
6123 necessary. Packages which are likely to require
6124 further allocations should have a "hole" left after
6125 them in the allocation, to give them room to
6130 <tag>65000-65533:</tag>
6138 User <tt>nobody</tt>. The corresponding gid refers
6139 to the group <tt>nogroup</tt>.
6146 <tt>(uid_t)(-1) == (gid_t)(-1)</tt> <em>must
6147 not</em> be used, because it is the error return
6156 <sect id="sysvinit">
6157 <heading>System run levels and <file>init.d</file> scripts</heading>
6159 <sect1 id="/etc/init.d">
6160 <heading>Introduction</heading>
6163 The <file>/etc/init.d</file> directory contains the scripts
6164 executed by <prgn>init</prgn> at boot time and when the
6165 init state (or "runlevel") is changed (see <manref
6166 name="init" section="8">).
6170 There are at least two different, yet functionally
6171 equivalent, ways of handling these scripts. For the sake
6172 of simplicity, this document describes only the symbolic
6173 link method. However, it must not be assumed by maintainer
6174 scripts that this method is being used, and any automated
6175 manipulation of the various runlevel behaviors by
6176 maintainer scripts must be performed using
6177 <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> as described below and not by
6178 manually installing or removing symlinks. For information
6179 on the implementation details of the other method,
6180 implemented in the <tt>file-rc</tt> package, please refer
6181 to the documentation of that package.
6185 These scripts are referenced by symbolic links in the
6186 <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directories. When changing
6187 runlevels, <prgn>init</prgn> looks in the directory
6188 <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> for the scripts it should
6189 execute, where <tt><var>n</var></tt> is the runlevel that
6190 is being changed to, or <tt>S</tt> for the boot-up
6195 The names of the links all have the form
6196 <file>S<var>mm</var><var>script</var></file> or
6197 <file>K<var>mm</var><var>script</var></file> where
6198 <var>mm</var> is a two-digit number and <var>script</var>
6199 is the name of the script (this should be the same as the
6200 name of the actual script in <file>/etc/init.d</file>).
6204 When <prgn>init</prgn> changes runlevel first the targets
6205 of the links whose names start with a <tt>K</tt> are
6206 executed, each with the single argument <tt>stop</tt>,
6207 followed by the scripts prefixed with an <tt>S</tt>, each
6208 with the single argument <tt>start</tt>. (The links are
6209 those in the <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directory
6210 corresponding to the new runlevel.) The <tt>K</tt> links
6211 are responsible for killing services and the <tt>S</tt>
6212 link for starting services upon entering the runlevel.
6216 For example, if we are changing from runlevel 2 to
6217 runlevel 3, init will first execute all of the <tt>K</tt>
6218 prefixed scripts it finds in <file>/etc/rc3.d</file>, and then
6219 all of the <tt>S</tt> prefixed scripts in that directory.
6220 The links starting with <tt>K</tt> will cause the
6221 referred-to file to be executed with an argument of
6222 <tt>stop</tt>, and the <tt>S</tt> links with an argument
6227 The two-digit number <var>mm</var> is used to determine
6228 the order in which to run the scripts: low-numbered links
6229 have their scripts run first. For example, the
6230 <tt>K20</tt> scripts will be executed before the
6231 <tt>K30</tt> scripts. This is used when a certain service
6232 must be started before another. For example, the name
6233 server <prgn>bind</prgn> might need to be started before
6234 the news server <prgn>inn</prgn> so that <prgn>inn</prgn>
6235 can set up its access lists. In this case, the script
6236 that starts <prgn>bind</prgn> would have a lower number
6237 than the script that starts <prgn>inn</prgn> so that it
6239 <example compact="compact">
6246 The two runlevels 0 (halt) and 6 (reboot) are slightly
6247 different. In these runlevels, the links with an
6248 <tt>S</tt> prefix are still called after those with a
6249 <tt>K</tt> prefix, but they too are called with the single
6250 argument <tt>stop</tt>.
6254 <sect1 id="writing-init">
6255 <heading>Writing the scripts</heading>
6258 Packages that include daemons for system services should
6259 place scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file> to start or stop
6260 services at boot time or during a change of runlevel.
6261 These scripts should be named
6262 <file>/etc/init.d/<var>package</var></file>, and they should
6263 accept one argument, saying what to do:
6266 <tag><tt>start</tt></tag>
6267 <item>start the service,</item>
6269 <tag><tt>stop</tt></tag>
6270 <item>stop the service,</item>
6272 <tag><tt>restart</tt></tag>
6273 <item>stop and restart the service if it's already running,
6274 otherwise start the service</item>
6276 <tag><tt>reload</tt></tag>
6277 <item><p>cause the configuration of the service to be
6278 reloaded without actually stopping and restarting
6281 <tag><tt>force-reload</tt></tag>
6282 <item>cause the configuration to be reloaded if the
6283 service supports this, otherwise restart the
6287 The <tt>start</tt>, <tt>stop</tt>, <tt>restart</tt>, and
6288 <tt>force-reload</tt> options should be supported by all
6289 scripts in <file>/etc/init.d</file>, the <tt>reload</tt>
6294 The <file>init.d</file> scripts must ensure that they will
6295 behave sensibly (i.e., returning success and not starting
6296 multiple copies of a service) if invoked with <tt>start</tt>
6297 when the service is already running, or with <tt>stop</tt>
6298 when it isn't, and that they don't kill unfortunately-named
6299 user processes. The best way to achieve this is usually to
6300 use <prgn>start-stop-daemon</prgn> with the <tt>--oknodo</tt>
6305 Be careful of using <tt>set -e</tt> in <file>init.d</file>
6306 scripts. Writing correct <file>init.d</file> scripts requires
6307 accepting various error exit statuses when daemons are already
6308 running or already stopped without aborting
6309 the <file>init.d</file> script, and common <file>init.d</file>
6310 function libraries are not safe to call with <tt>set -e</tt>
6312 <tt>/lib/lsb/init-functions</tt>, which assists in writing
6313 LSB-compliant init scripts, may fail if <tt>set -e</tt> is
6314 in effect and echoing status messages to the console fails,
6316 </footnote>. For <tt>init.d</tt> scripts, it's often easier
6317 to not use <tt>set -e</tt> and instead check the result of
6318 each command separately.
6322 If a service reloads its configuration automatically (as
6323 in the case of <prgn>cron</prgn>, for example), the
6324 <tt>reload</tt> option of the <file>init.d</file> script
6325 should behave as if the configuration has been reloaded
6330 The <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts must be treated as
6331 configuration files, either (if they are present in the
6332 package, that is, in the .deb file) by marking them as
6333 <tt>conffile</tt>s, or, (if they do not exist in the .deb)
6334 by managing them correctly in the maintainer scripts (see
6335 <ref id="config-files">). This is important since we want
6336 to give the local system administrator the chance to adapt
6337 the scripts to the local system, e.g., to disable a
6338 service without de-installing the package, or to specify
6339 some special command line options when starting a service,
6340 while making sure their changes aren't lost during the next
6345 These scripts should not fail obscurely when the
6346 configuration files remain but the package has been
6347 removed, as configuration files remain on the system after
6348 the package has been removed. Only when <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
6349 is executed with the <tt>--purge</tt> option will
6350 configuration files be removed. In particular, as the
6351 <file>/etc/init.d/<var>package</var></file> script itself is
6352 usually a <tt>conffile</tt>, it will remain on the system
6353 if the package is removed but not purged. Therefore, you
6354 should include a <tt>test</tt> statement at the top of the
6356 <example compact="compact">
6357 test -f <var>program-executed-later-in-script</var> || exit 0
6362 Often there are some variables in the <file>init.d</file>
6363 scripts whose values control the behavior of the scripts,
6364 and which a system administrator is likely to want to
6365 change. As the scripts themselves are frequently
6366 <tt>conffile</tt>s, modifying them requires that the
6367 administrator merge in their changes each time the package
6368 is upgraded and the <tt>conffile</tt> changes. To ease
6369 the burden on the system administrator, such configurable
6370 values should not be placed directly in the script.
6371 Instead, they should be placed in a file in
6372 <file>/etc/default</file>, which typically will have the same
6373 base name as the <file>init.d</file> script. This extra file
6374 should be sourced by the script when the script runs. It
6375 must contain only variable settings and comments in SUSv3
6376 <prgn>sh</prgn> format. It may either be a
6377 <tt>conffile</tt> or a configuration file maintained by
6378 the package maintainer scripts. See <ref id="config-files">
6383 To ensure that vital configurable values are always
6384 available, the <file>init.d</file> script should set default
6385 values for each of the shell variables it uses, either
6386 before sourcing the <file>/etc/default/</file> file or
6387 afterwards using something like the <tt>:
6388 ${VAR:=default}</tt> syntax. Also, the <file>init.d</file>
6389 script must behave sensibly and not fail if the
6390 <file>/etc/default</file> file is deleted.
6394 <file>/var/run</file> and <file>/var/lock</file> may be mounted
6395 as temporary filesystems<footnote>
6396 For example, using the <tt>RAMRUN</tt> and <tt>RAMLOCK</tt>
6397 options in <file>/etc/default/rcS</file>.
6398 </footnote>, so the <file>init.d</file> scripts must handle this
6399 correctly. This will typically amount to creating any required
6400 subdirectories dynamically when the <file>init.d</file> script
6401 is run, rather than including them in the package and relying on
6402 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to create them.
6407 <heading>Interfacing with the initscript system</heading>
6410 Maintainers should use the abstraction layer provided by
6411 the <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> and <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>
6412 programs to deal with initscripts in their packages'
6413 scripts such as <prgn>postinst</prgn>, <prgn>prerm</prgn>
6414 and <prgn>postrm</prgn>.
6418 Directly managing the /etc/rc?.d links and directly
6419 invoking the <file>/etc/init.d/</file> initscripts should
6420 be done only by packages providing the initscript
6421 subsystem (such as <prgn>sysv-rc</prgn> and
6422 <prgn>file-rc</prgn>).
6426 <heading>Managing the links</heading>
6429 The program <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> is provided for
6430 package maintainers to arrange for the proper creation and
6431 removal of <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> symbolic links,
6432 or their functional equivalent if another method is being
6433 used. This may be used by maintainers in their packages'
6434 <prgn>postinst</prgn> and <prgn>postrm</prgn> scripts.
6438 You must not include any <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file>
6439 symbolic links in the actual archive or manually create or
6440 remove the symbolic links in maintainer scripts; you must
6441 use the <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> program instead. (The
6442 former will fail if an alternative method of maintaining
6443 runlevel information is being used.) You must not include
6444 the <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> directories themselves
6445 in the archive either. (Only the <tt>sysvinit</tt>
6450 By default <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> will start services in
6451 each of the multi-user state runlevels (2, 3, 4, and 5)
6452 and stop them in the halt runlevel (0), the single-user
6453 runlevel (1) and the reboot runlevel (6). The system
6454 administrator will have the opportunity to customize
6455 runlevels by simply adding, moving, or removing the
6456 symbolic links in <file>/etc/rc<var>n</var>.d</file> if
6457 symbolic links are being used, or by modifying
6458 <file>/etc/runlevel.conf</file> if the <tt>file-rc</tt> method
6463 To get the default behavior for your package, put in your
6464 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script
6465 <example compact="compact">
6466 update-rc.d <var>package</var> defaults
6468 and in your <prgn>postrm</prgn>
6469 <example compact="compact">
6470 if [ "$1" = purge ]; then
6471 update-rc.d <var>package</var> remove
6473 </example>. Note that if your package changes runlevels
6474 or priority, you may have to remove and recreate the links,
6475 since otherwise the old links may persist. Refer to the
6476 documentation of <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn>.
6480 This will use a default sequence number of 20. If it does
6481 not matter when or in which order the <file>init.d</file>
6482 script is run, use this default. If it does, then you
6483 should talk to the maintainer of the <prgn>sysvinit</prgn>
6484 package or post to <tt>debian-devel</tt>, and they will
6485 help you choose a number.
6489 For more information about using <tt>update-rc.d</tt>,
6490 please consult its man page <manref name="update-rc.d"
6496 <heading>Running initscripts</heading>
6498 The program <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> is provided to make
6499 it easier for package maintainers to properly invoke an
6500 initscript, obeying runlevel and other locally-defined
6501 constraints that might limit a package's right to start,
6502 stop and otherwise manage services. This program may be
6503 used by maintainers in their packages' scripts.
6507 The package maintainer scripts must use
6508 <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> to invoke the
6509 <file>/etc/init.d/*</file> initscripts, instead of
6510 calling them directly.
6514 By default, <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn> will pass any
6515 action requests (start, stop, reload, restart...) to the
6516 <file>/etc/init.d</file> script, filtering out requests
6517 to start or restart a service out of its intended
6522 Most packages will simply need to change:
6523 <example compact="compact">/etc/init.d/<package>
6524 <action></example> in their <prgn>postinst</prgn>
6525 and <prgn>prerm</prgn> scripts to:
6526 <example compact="compact">
6527 if which invoke-rc.d >/dev/null 2>&1; then
6528 invoke-rc.d <var>package</var> <action>
6530 /etc/init.d/<var>package</var> <action>
6536 A package should register its initscript services using
6537 <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> before it tries to invoke them
6538 using <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>. Invocation of
6539 unregistered services may fail.
6543 For more information about using
6544 <prgn>invoke-rc.d</prgn>, please consult its man page
6545 <manref name="invoke-rc.d" section="8">.
6551 <heading>Boot-time initialization</heading>
6554 There used to be another directory, <file>/etc/rc.boot</file>,
6555 which contained scripts which were run once per machine
6556 boot. This has been deprecated in favour of links from
6557 <file>/etc/rcS.d</file> to files in <file>/etc/init.d</file> as
6558 described in <ref id="/etc/init.d">. Packages must not
6559 place files in <file>/etc/rc.boot</file>.
6564 <heading>Example</heading>
6567 An example on which you can base your
6568 <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts is found in
6569 <file>/etc/init.d/skeleton</file>.
6576 <heading>Console messages from <file>init.d</file> scripts</heading>
6579 This section describes the formats to be used for messages
6580 written to standard output by the <file>/etc/init.d</file>
6581 scripts. The intent is to improve the consistency of
6582 Debian's startup and shutdown look and feel. For this
6583 reason, please look very carefully at the details. We want
6584 the messages to have the same format in terms of wording,
6585 spaces, punctuation and case of letters.
6589 Here is a list of overall rules that should be used for
6590 messages generated by <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts.
6596 The message should fit in one line (fewer than 80
6597 characters), start with a capital letter and end with
6598 a period (<tt>.</tt>) and line feed (<tt>"\n"</tt>).
6602 If the script is performing some time consuming task in
6603 the background (not merely starting or stopping a
6604 program, for instance), an ellipsis (three dots:
6605 <tt>...</tt>) should be output to the screen, with no
6606 leading or tailing whitespace or line feeds.
6610 The messages should appear as if the computer is telling
6611 the user what it is doing (politely :-), but should not
6612 mention "it" directly. For example, instead of:
6613 <example compact="compact">
6614 I'm starting network daemons: nfsd mountd.
6616 the message should say
6617 <example compact="compact">
6618 Starting network daemons: nfsd mountd.
6625 <tt>init.d</tt> script should use the following standard
6626 message formats for the situations enumerated below.
6632 <p>When daemons are started</p>
6635 If the script starts one or more daemons, the output
6636 should look like this (a single line, no leading
6638 <example compact="compact">
6639 Starting <var>description</var>: <var>daemon-1</var> ... <var>daemon-n</var>.
6641 The <var>description</var> should describe the
6642 subsystem the daemon or set of daemons are part of,
6643 while <var>daemon-1</var> up to <var>daemon-n</var>
6644 denote each daemon's name (typically the file name of
6649 For example, the output of <file>/etc/init.d/lpd</file>
6651 <example compact="compact">
6652 Starting printer spooler: lpd.
6657 This can be achieved by saying
6658 <example compact="compact">
6659 echo -n "Starting printer spooler: lpd"
6660 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --exec /usr/sbin/lpd
6663 in the script. If there are more than one daemon to
6664 start, the output should look like this:
6665 <example compact="compact">
6666 echo -n "Starting remote file system services:"
6667 echo -n " nfsd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet nfsd
6668 echo -n " mountd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet mountd
6669 echo -n " ugidd"; start-stop-daemon --start --quiet ugidd
6672 This makes it possible for the user to see what is
6673 happening and when the final daemon has been started.
6674 Care should be taken in the placement of white spaces:
6675 in the example above the system administrators can
6676 easily comment out a line if they don't want to start
6677 a specific daemon, while the displayed message still
6683 <p>When a system parameter is being set</p>
6686 If you have to set up different system parameters
6687 during the system boot, you should use this format:
6688 <example compact="compact">
6689 Setting <var>parameter</var> to "<var>value</var>".
6694 You can use a statement such as the following to get
6696 <example compact="compact">
6697 echo "Setting DNS domainname to \"$domainname\"."
6702 Note that the same symbol (<tt>"</tt>) <!-- " --> is used
6703 for the left and right quotation marks. A grave accent
6704 (<tt>`</tt>) is not a quote character; neither is an
6705 apostrophe (<tt>'</tt>).
6710 <p>When a daemon is stopped or restarted</p>
6713 When you stop or restart a daemon, you should issue a
6714 message identical to the startup message, except that
6715 <tt>Starting</tt> is replaced with <tt>Stopping</tt>
6716 or <tt>Restarting</tt> respectively.
6720 For example, stopping the printer daemon will look like
6722 <example compact="compact">
6723 Stopping printer spooler: lpd.
6729 <p>When something is executed</p>
6732 There are several examples where you have to run a
6733 program at system startup or shutdown to perform a
6734 specific task, for example, setting the system's clock
6735 using <prgn>netdate</prgn> or killing all processes
6736 when the system shuts down. Your message should look
6738 <example compact="compact">
6739 Doing something very useful...done.
6741 You should print the <tt>done.</tt> immediately after
6742 the job has been completed, so that the user is
6743 informed why they have to wait. You can get this
6745 <example compact="compact">
6746 echo -n "Doing something very useful..."
6755 <p>When the configuration is reloaded</p>
6758 When a daemon is forced to reload its configuration
6759 files you should use the following format:
6760 <example compact="compact">
6761 Reloading <var>description</var> configuration...done.
6763 where <var>description</var> is the same as in the
6764 daemon starting message.
6772 <heading>Cron jobs</heading>
6775 Packages must not modify the configuration file
6776 <file>/etc/crontab</file>, and they must not modify the files in
6777 <file>/var/spool/cron/crontabs</file>.</p>
6780 If a package wants to install a job that has to be executed
6781 via cron, it should place a file with the name of the
6782 package in one or more of the following directories:
6783 <example compact="compact">
6789 As these directory names imply, the files within them are
6790 executed on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis,
6791 respectively. The exact times are listed in
6792 <file>/etc/crontab</file>.</p>
6795 All files installed in any of these directories must be
6796 scripts (e.g., shell scripts or Perl scripts) so that they
6797 can easily be modified by the local system administrator.
6798 In addition, they must be treated as configuration files.
6802 If a certain job has to be executed at some other frequency or
6803 at a specific time, the package should install a file
6804 <file>/etc/cron.d/<var>package</var></file>. This file uses the
6805 same syntax as <file>/etc/crontab</file> and is processed by
6806 <prgn>cron</prgn> automatically. The file must also be
6807 treated as a configuration file. (Note that entries in the
6808 <file>/etc/cron.d</file> directory are not handled by
6809 <prgn>anacron</prgn>. Thus, you should only use this
6810 directory for jobs which may be skipped if the system is not
6813 Unlike <file>crontab</file> files described in the IEEE Std
6814 1003.1-2008 (POSIX.1) available from
6815 <url id="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/"
6816 name="The Open Group">, the files in
6817 <file>/etc/cron.d</file> and the file
6818 <file>/etc/crontab</file> have seven fields; namely:
6820 <item>Minute [0,59]</item>
6821 <item>Hour [0,23]</item>
6822 <item>Day of the month [1,31]</item>
6823 <item>Month of the year [1,12]</item>
6824 <item>Day of the week ([0,6] with 0=Sunday)</item>
6825 <item>Username</item>
6826 <item>Command to be run</item>
6828 Ranges of numbers are allowed. Ranges are two numbers
6829 separated with a hyphen. The specified range is inclusive.
6830 Lists are allowed. A list is a set of numbers (or ranges)
6831 separated by commas. Step values can be used in conjunction
6836 The scripts or <tt>crontab</tt> entries in these directories should
6837 check if all necessary programs are installed before they
6838 try to execute them. Otherwise, problems will arise when a
6839 package was removed but not purged since configuration files
6840 are kept on the system in this situation.
6844 Any <tt>cron</tt> daemon must provide
6845 <file>/usr/bin/crontab</file> and support normal
6846 <tt>crontab</tt> entries as specified in POSIX. The daemon
6847 must also support names for days and months, ranges, and
6848 step values. It has to support <file>/etc/crontab</file>,
6849 and correctly execute the scripts in
6850 <file>/etc/cron.d</file>. The daemon must also correctly
6852 <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file>.
6857 <heading>Menus</heading>
6860 The Debian <tt>menu</tt> package provides a standard
6861 interface between packages providing applications and
6862 <em>menu programs</em> (either X window managers or
6863 text-based menu programs such as <prgn>pdmenu</prgn>).
6867 All packages that provide applications that need not be
6868 passed any special command line arguments for normal
6869 operation should register a menu entry for those
6870 applications, so that users of the <tt>menu</tt> package
6871 will automatically get menu entries in their window
6872 managers, as well in shells like <tt>pdmenu</tt>.
6876 Menu entries should follow the current menu policy.
6880 The menu policy can be found in the <tt>menu-policy</tt>
6881 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
6882 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
6883 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/menu-policy/"
6884 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu-policy/"></tt>.
6888 Please also refer to the <em>Debian Menu System</em>
6889 documentation that comes with the <package>menu</package>
6890 package for information about how to register your
6896 <heading>Multimedia handlers</heading>
6899 MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, RFCs 2045-2049)
6900 is a mechanism for encoding files and data streams and
6901 providing meta-information about them, in particular their
6902 type (e.g. audio or video) and format (e.g. PNG, HTML,
6907 Registration of MIME type handlers allows programs like mail
6908 user agents and web browsers to invoke these handlers to
6909 view, edit or display MIME types they don't support directly.
6913 Packages which provide the ability to view/show/play,
6914 compose, edit or print MIME types should register themselves
6915 as such following the current MIME support policy.
6919 The MIME support policy can be found in the <tt>mime-policy</tt>
6920 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
6921 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
6922 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/mime-policy/"
6923 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/mime-policy/"></tt>.
6929 <heading>Keyboard configuration</heading>
6932 To achieve a consistent keyboard configuration so that all
6933 applications interpret a keyboard event the same way, all
6934 programs in the Debian distribution must be configured to
6935 comply with the following guidelines.
6939 The following keys must have the specified interpretations:
6942 <tag><tt><--</tt></tag>
6943 <item>delete the character to the left of the cursor</item>
6945 <tag><tt>Delete</tt></tag>
6946 <item>delete the character to the right of the cursor</item>
6948 <tag><tt>Control+H</tt></tag>
6949 <item>emacs: the help prefix</item>
6952 The interpretation of any keyboard events should be
6953 independent of the terminal that is used, be it a virtual
6954 console, an X terminal emulator, an rlogin/telnet session,
6959 The following list explains how the different programs
6960 should be set up to achieve this:
6966 <tt><--</tt> generates <tt>KB_BackSpace</tt> in X.
6970 <tt>Delete</tt> generates <tt>KB_Delete</tt> in X.
6974 X translations are set up to make
6975 <tt>KB_Backspace</tt> generate ASCII DEL, and to make
6976 <tt>KB_Delete</tt> generate <tt>ESC [ 3 ~</tt> (this
6977 is the vt220 escape code for the "delete character"
6978 key). This must be done by loading the X resources
6979 using <prgn>xrdb</prgn> on all local X displays, not
6980 using the application defaults, so that the
6981 translation resources used correspond to the
6982 <prgn>xmodmap</prgn> settings.
6986 The Linux console is configured to make
6987 <tt><--</tt> generate DEL, and <tt>Delete</tt>
6988 generate <tt>ESC [ 3 ~</tt>.
6992 X applications are configured so that <tt><</tt>
6993 deletes left, and <tt>Delete</tt> deletes right. Motif
6994 applications already work like this.
6998 Terminals should have <tt>stty erase ^?</tt> .
7002 The <tt>xterm</tt> terminfo entry should have <tt>ESC
7003 [ 3 ~</tt> for <tt>kdch1</tt>, just as for
7004 <tt>TERM=linux</tt> and <tt>TERM=vt220</tt>.
7008 Emacs is programmed to map <tt>KB_Backspace</tt> or
7009 the <tt>stty erase</tt> character to
7010 <tt>delete-backward-char</tt>, and <tt>KB_Delete</tt>
7011 or <tt>kdch1</tt> to <tt>delete-forward-char</tt>, and
7012 <tt>^H</tt> to <tt>help</tt> as always.
7016 Other applications use the <tt>stty erase</tt>
7017 character and <tt>kdch1</tt> for the two delete keys,
7018 with ASCII DEL being "delete previous character" and
7019 <tt>kdch1</tt> being "delete character under
7027 This will solve the problem except for the following
7034 Some terminals have a <tt><--</tt> key that cannot
7035 be made to produce anything except <tt>^H</tt>. On
7036 these terminals Emacs help will be unavailable on
7037 <tt>^H</tt> (assuming that the <tt>stty erase</tt>
7038 character takes precedence in Emacs, and has been set
7039 correctly). <tt>M-x help</tt> or <tt>F1</tt> (if
7040 available) can be used instead.
7044 Some operating systems use <tt>^H</tt> for <tt>stty
7045 erase</tt>. However, modern telnet versions and all
7046 rlogin versions propagate <tt>stty</tt> settings, and
7047 almost all UNIX versions honour <tt>stty erase</tt>.
7048 Where the <tt>stty</tt> settings are not propagated
7049 correctly, things can be made to work by using
7050 <tt>stty</tt> manually.
7054 Some systems (including previous Debian versions) use
7055 <prgn>xmodmap</prgn> to arrange for both
7056 <tt><--</tt> and <tt>Delete</tt> to generate
7057 <tt>KB_Delete</tt>. We can change the behavior of
7058 their X clients using the same X resources that we use
7059 to do it for our own clients, or configure our clients
7060 using their resources when things are the other way
7061 around. On displays configured like this
7062 <tt>Delete</tt> will not work, but <tt><--</tt>
7067 Some operating systems have different <tt>kdch1</tt>
7068 settings in their <tt>terminfo</tt> database for
7069 <tt>xterm</tt> and others. On these systems the
7070 <tt>Delete</tt> key will not work correctly when you
7071 log in from a system conforming to our policy, but
7072 <tt><--</tt> will.
7079 <heading>Environment variables</heading>
7082 A program must not depend on environment variables to get
7083 reasonable defaults. (That's because these environment
7084 variables would have to be set in a system-wide
7085 configuration file like <file>/etc/profile</file>, which is not
7086 supported by all shells.)
7090 If a program usually depends on environment variables for its
7091 configuration, the program should be changed to fall back to
7092 a reasonable default configuration if these environment
7093 variables are not present. If this cannot be done easily
7094 (e.g., if the source code of a non-free program is not
7095 available), the program must be replaced by a small
7096 "wrapper" shell script which sets the environment variables
7097 if they are not already defined, and calls the original program.
7101 Here is an example of a wrapper script for this purpose:
7103 <example compact="compact">
7105 BAR=${BAR:-/var/lib/fubar}
7107 exec /usr/lib/foo/foo "$@"
7112 Furthermore, as <file>/etc/profile</file> is a configuration
7113 file of the <prgn>base-files</prgn> package, other packages must
7114 not put any environment variables or other commands into that
7119 <sect id="doc-base">
7120 <heading>Registering Documents using doc-base</heading>
7123 The <package>doc-base</package> package implements a
7124 flexible mechanism for handling and presenting
7125 documentation. The recommended practice is for every Debian
7126 package that provides online documentation (other than just
7127 manual pages) to register these documents with
7128 <package>doc-base</package> by installing a
7129 <package>doc-base</package> control file via the
7130 <prgn/install-docs/ script at installation time and
7131 de-register the manuals again when the package is removed.
7134 Please refer to the documentation that comes with the
7135 <package>doc-base</package> package for information and
7144 <heading>Files</heading>
7146 <sect id="binaries">
7147 <heading>Binaries</heading>
7150 Two different packages must not install programs with
7151 different functionality but with the same filenames. (The
7152 case of two programs having the same functionality but
7153 different implementations is handled via "alternatives" or
7154 the "Conflicts" mechanism. See <ref id="maintscripts"> and
7155 <ref id="conflicts"> respectively.) If this case happens,
7156 one of the programs must be renamed. The maintainers should
7157 report this to the <tt>debian-devel</tt> mailing list and
7158 try to find a consensus about which program will have to be
7159 renamed. If a consensus cannot be reached, <em>both</em>
7160 programs must be renamed.
7164 By default, when a package is being built, any binaries
7165 created should include debugging information, as well as
7166 being compiled with optimization. You should also turn on
7167 as many reasonable compilation warnings as possible; this
7168 makes life easier for porters, who can then look at build
7169 logs for possible problems. For the C programming language,
7170 this means the following compilation parameters should be
7172 <example compact="compact">
7174 CFLAGS = -O2 -g -Wall # sane warning options vary between programs
7176 INSTALL = install -s # (or use strip on the files in debian/tmp)
7181 Note that by default all installed binaries should be stripped,
7182 either by using the <tt>-s</tt> flag to
7183 <prgn>install</prgn>, or by calling <prgn>strip</prgn> on
7184 the binaries after they have been copied into
7185 <file>debian/tmp</file> but before the tree is made into a
7190 Although binaries in the build tree should be compiled with
7191 debugging information by default, it can often be difficult to
7192 debug programs if they are also subjected to compiler
7193 optimization. For this reason, it is recommended to support the
7194 standardized environment variable <tt>DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS</tt>
7195 (see <ref id="debianrules-options">). This variable can contain
7196 several flags to change how a package is compiled and built.
7200 It is up to the package maintainer to decide what
7201 compilation options are best for the package. Certain
7202 binaries (such as computationally-intensive programs) will
7203 function better with certain flags (<tt>-O3</tt>, for
7204 example); feel free to use them. Please use good judgment
7205 here. Don't use flags for the sake of it; only use them
7206 if there is good reason to do so. Feel free to override
7207 the upstream author's ideas about which compilation
7208 options are best: they are often inappropriate for our
7214 <sect id="libraries">
7215 <heading>Libraries</heading>
7218 If the package is <strong>architecture: any</strong>, then
7219 the shared library compilation and linking flags must have
7220 <tt>-fPIC</tt>, or the package shall not build on some of
7221 the supported architectures<footnote>
7223 If you are using GCC, <tt>-fPIC</tt> produces code with
7224 relocatable position independent code, which is required for
7225 most architectures to create a shared library, with i386 and
7226 perhaps some others where non position independent code is
7227 permitted in a shared library.
7230 Position independent code may have a performance penalty,
7231 especially on <tt>i386</tt>. However, in most cases the
7232 speed penalty must be measured against the memory wasted on
7233 the few architectures where non position independent code is
7236 </footnote>. Any exception to this rule must be discussed on
7237 the mailing list <em>debian-devel@lists.debian.org</em>, and
7238 a rough consensus obtained. The reasons for not compiling
7239 with <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag must be recorded in the file
7240 <tt>README.Debian</tt>, and care must be taken to either
7241 restrict the architecture or arrange for <tt>-fPIC</tt> to
7242 be used on architectures where it is required.<footnote>
7244 Some of the reasons why this might be required is if the
7245 library contains hand crafted assembly code that is not
7246 relocatable, the speed penalty is excessive for compute
7247 intensive libs, and similar reasons.
7252 As to the static libraries, the common case is not to have
7253 relocatable code, since there is no benefit, unless in specific
7254 cases; therefore the static version must not be compiled
7255 with the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag. Any exception to this rule
7256 should be discussed on the mailing list
7257 <em>debian-devel@lists.debian.org</em>, and the reasons for
7258 compiling with the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag must be recorded in
7259 the file <tt>README.Debian</tt>. <footnote>
7261 Some of the reasons for linking static libraries with
7262 the <tt>-fPIC</tt> flag are if, for example, one needs a
7263 Perl API for a library that is under rapid development,
7264 and has an unstable API, so shared libraries are
7265 pointless at this phase of the library's development. In
7266 that case, since Perl needs a library with relocatable
7267 code, it may make sense to create a static library with
7268 relocatable code. Another reason cited is if you are
7269 distilling various libraries into a common shared
7270 library, like <tt>mklibs</tt> does in the Debian
7276 In other words, if both a shared and a static library is
7277 being built, each source unit (<tt>*.c</tt>, for example,
7278 for C files) will need to be compiled twice, for the normal
7282 You must specify the gcc option <tt>-D_REENTRANT</tt>
7283 when building a library (either static or shared) to make
7284 the library compatible with LinuxThreads.
7288 Although not enforced by the build tools, shared libraries
7289 must be linked against all libraries that they use symbols from
7290 in the same way that binaries are. This ensures the correct
7291 functioning of the <qref id="sharedlibs-shlibdeps">shlibs</qref>
7292 system and guarantees that all libraries can be safely opened
7293 with <tt>dlopen()</tt>. Packagers may wish to use the gcc
7294 option <tt>-Wl,-z,defs</tt> when building a shared library.
7295 Since this option enforces symbol resolution at build time,
7296 a missing library reference will be caught early as a fatal
7301 All installed shared libraries should be stripped with
7302 <example compact="compact">
7303 strip --strip-unneeded <var>your-lib</var>
7305 (The option <tt>--strip-unneeded</tt> makes
7306 <prgn>strip</prgn> remove only the symbols which aren't
7307 needed for relocation processing.) Shared libraries can
7308 function perfectly well when stripped, since the symbols for
7309 dynamic linking are in a separate part of the ELF object
7311 You might also want to use the options
7312 <tt>--remove-section=.comment</tt> and
7313 <tt>--remove-section=.note</tt> on both shared libraries
7314 and executables, and <tt>--strip-debug</tt> on static
7320 Note that under some circumstances it may be useful to
7321 install a shared library unstripped, for example when
7322 building a separate package to support debugging.
7326 Shared object files (often <file>.so</file> files) that are not
7327 public libraries, that is, they are not meant to be linked
7328 to by third party executables (binaries of other packages),
7329 should be installed in subdirectories of the
7330 <file>/usr/lib</file> directory. Such files are exempt from the
7331 rules that govern ordinary shared libraries, except that
7332 they must not be installed executable and should be
7334 A common example are the so-called "plug-ins",
7335 internal shared objects that are dynamically loaded by
7336 programs using <manref name="dlopen" section="3">.
7341 Packages that use <prgn>libtool</prgn> to create and install
7342 their shared libraries install a file containing additional
7343 metadata (ending in <file>.la</file>) alongside the library.
7344 For public libraries intended for use by other packages, these
7345 files normally should not be included in the Debian package,
7346 since the information they include is not necessary to link with
7347 the shared library on Debian and can add unnecessary additional
7348 dependencies to other programs or libraries.<footnote>
7349 These files store, among other things, all libraries on which
7350 that shared library depends. Unfortunately, if
7351 the <file>.la</file> file is present and contains that
7352 dependency information, using <prgn>libtool</prgn> when
7353 linking against that library will cause the resulting program
7354 or library to be linked against those dependencies as well,
7355 even if this is unnecessary. This can create unneeded
7356 dependencies on shared library packages that would otherwise
7357 be hidden behind the library ABI, and can make library
7358 transitions to new SONAMEs unnecessarily complicated and
7359 difficult to manage.
7361 If the <file>.la</file> file is required for that library (if,
7362 for instance, it's loaded via <tt>libltdl</tt> in a way that
7363 requires that meta-information), the <tt>dependency_libs</tt>
7364 setting in the <file>.la</file> file should normally be set to
7365 the empty string. If the shared library development package has
7366 historically included the <file>.la</file>, it must be retained
7367 in the development package (with <tt>dependency_libs</tt>
7368 emptied) until all libraries that depend on it have removed or
7369 emptied <tt>dependency_libs</tt> in their <file>.la</file>
7370 files to prevent linking with those other libraries
7371 using <prgn>libtool</prgn> from failing.
7375 If the <file>.la</file> must be included, it should be included
7376 in the development (<tt>-dev</tt>) package, unless the library
7377 will be loaded by <prgn>libtool</prgn>'s <tt>libltdl</tt>
7378 library. If it is intended for use with <tt>libltdl</tt>,
7379 the <file>.la</file> files must go in the run-time library
7384 These requirements for handling of <file>.la</file> files do not
7385 apply to loadable modules or libraries not installed in
7386 directories searched by default by the dynamic linker. Packages
7387 installing loadable modules will frequently need to install
7388 the <file>.la</file> files alongside the modules so that they
7389 can be loaded by <tt>libltdl</tt>. <tt>dependency_libs</tt>
7390 does not need to be modified for libraries or modules that are
7391 not installed in directories searched by the dynamic linker by
7392 default and not intended for use by other packages.
7396 You must make sure that you use only released versions of
7397 shared libraries to build your packages; otherwise other
7398 users will not be able to run your binaries
7399 properly. Producing source packages that depend on
7400 unreleased compilers is also usually a bad
7407 <heading>Shared libraries</heading>
7409 This section has moved to <ref id="sharedlibs">.
7415 <heading>Scripts</heading>
7418 All command scripts, including the package maintainer
7419 scripts inside the package and used by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>,
7420 should have a <tt>#!</tt> line naming the shell to be used
7425 In the case of Perl scripts this should be
7426 <tt>#!/usr/bin/perl</tt>.
7430 When scripts are installed into a directory in the system
7431 PATH, the script name should not include an extension such
7432 as <tt>.sh</tt> or <tt>.pl</tt> that denotes the scripting
7433 language currently used to implement it.
7436 Shell scripts (<prgn>sh</prgn> and <prgn>bash</prgn>) other than
7437 <file>init.d</file> scripts should almost certainly start
7438 with <tt>set -e</tt> so that errors are detected.
7439 <file>init.d</file> scripts are something of a special case, due
7440 to how frequently they need to call commands that are allowed to
7441 fail, and it may instead be easier to check the exit status of
7442 commands directly. See <ref id="writing-init"> for more
7443 information about writing <file>init.d</file> scripts.
7446 Every script should use <tt>set -e</tt> or check the exit status
7447 of <em>every</em> command.
7450 Scripts may assume that <file>/bin/sh</file> implements the
7451 SUSv3 Shell Command Language<footnote>
7452 Single UNIX Specification, version 3, which is also IEEE
7453 1003.1-2004 (POSIX), and is available on the World Wide Web
7454 from <url id="http://www.unix.org/version3/online.html"
7455 name="The Open Group"> after free
7456 registration.</footnote>
7457 plus the following additional features not mandated by
7459 These features are in widespread use in the Linux community
7460 and are implemented in all of bash, dash, and ksh, the most
7461 common shells users may wish to use as <file>/bin/sh</file>.
7464 <item><tt>echo -n</tt>, if implemented as a shell built-in,
7465 must not generate a newline.</item>
7466 <item><tt>test</tt>, if implemented as a shell built-in, must
7467 support <tt>-a</tt> and <tt>-o</tt> as binary logical
7469 <item><tt>local</tt> to create a scoped variable must be
7470 supported, including listing multiple variables in a single
7471 local command and assigning a value to a variable at the
7472 same time as localizing it. <tt>local</tt> may or
7473 may not preserve the variable value from an outer scope if
7474 no assignment is present. Uses such as:
7478 # ... use a, b, c, d ...
7481 must be supported and must set the value of <tt>c</tt> to
7485 If a shell script requires non-SUSv3 features from the shell
7486 interpreter other than those listed above, the appropriate shell
7487 must be specified in the first line of the script (e.g.,
7488 <tt>#!/bin/bash</tt>) and the package must depend on the package
7489 providing the shell (unless the shell package is marked
7490 "Essential", as in the case of <prgn>bash</prgn>).
7494 You may wish to restrict your script to SUSv3 features plus the
7495 above set when possible so that it may use <file>/bin/sh</file>
7496 as its interpreter. If your script works with <prgn>dash</prgn>
7497 (originally called <prgn>ash</prgn>), it probably complies with
7498 the above requirements, but if you are in doubt, use
7499 <file>/bin/bash</file>.
7503 Perl scripts should check for errors when making any
7504 system calls, including <tt>open</tt>, <tt>print</tt>,
7505 <tt>close</tt>, <tt>rename</tt> and <tt>system</tt>.
7509 <prgn>csh</prgn> and <prgn>tcsh</prgn> should be avoided as
7510 scripting languages. See <em>Csh Programming Considered
7511 Harmful</em>, one of the <tt>comp.unix.*</tt> FAQs, which
7512 can be found at <url id="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/">.
7513 If an upstream package comes with <prgn>csh</prgn> scripts
7514 then you must make sure that they start with
7515 <tt>#!/bin/csh</tt> and make your package depend on the
7516 <prgn>c-shell</prgn> virtual package.
7520 Any scripts which create files in world-writeable
7521 directories (e.g., in <file>/tmp</file>) must use a
7522 mechanism which will fail atomically if a file with the same
7523 name already exists.
7527 The Debian base system provides the <prgn>tempfile</prgn>
7528 and <prgn>mktemp</prgn> utilities for use by scripts for
7535 <heading>Symbolic links</heading>
7538 In general, symbolic links within a top-level directory
7539 should be relative, and symbolic links pointing from one
7540 top-level directory into another should be absolute. (A
7541 top-level directory is a sub-directory of the root
7542 directory <file>/</file>.)
7546 In addition, symbolic links should be specified as short as
7547 possible, i.e., link targets like <file>foo/../bar</file> are
7552 Note that when creating a relative link using
7553 <prgn>ln</prgn> it is not necessary for the target of the
7554 link to exist relative to the working directory you're
7555 running <prgn>ln</prgn> from, nor is it necessary to change
7556 directory to the directory where the link is to be made.
7557 Simply include the string that should appear as the target
7558 of the link (this will be a pathname relative to the
7559 directory in which the link resides) as the first argument
7564 For example, in your <prgn>Makefile</prgn> or
7565 <file>debian/rules</file>, you can do things like:
7566 <example compact="compact">
7567 ln -fs gcc $(prefix)/bin/cc
7568 ln -fs gcc debian/tmp/usr/bin/cc
7569 ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail $(prefix)/bin/runq
7570 ln -fs ../sbin/sendmail debian/tmp/usr/bin/runq
7575 A symbolic link pointing to a compressed file should always
7576 have the same file extension as the referenced file. (For
7577 example, if a file <file>foo.gz</file> is referenced by a
7578 symbolic link, the filename of the link has to end with
7579 "<file>.gz</file>" too, as in <file>bar.gz</file>.)
7584 <heading>Device files</heading>
7587 Packages must not include device files or named pipes in the
7592 If a package needs any special device files that are not
7593 included in the base system, it must call
7594 <prgn>MAKEDEV</prgn> in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script,
7595 after notifying the user<footnote>
7596 This notification could be done via a (low-priority)
7597 debconf message, or an echo (printf) statement.
7602 Packages must not remove any device files in the
7603 <prgn>postrm</prgn> or any other script. This is left to the
7604 system administrator.
7608 Debian uses the serial devices
7609 <file>/dev/ttyS*</file>. Programs using the old
7610 <file>/dev/cu*</file> devices should be changed to use
7611 <file>/dev/ttyS*</file>.
7615 Named pipes needed by the package must be created in
7616 the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script<footnote>
7617 It's better to use <prgn>mkfifo</prgn> rather
7618 than <prgn>mknod</prgn> to create named pipes so that
7619 automated checks for packages incorrectly creating device
7620 files with <prgn>mknod</prgn> won't have false positives.
7621 </footnote> and removed in
7622 the <prgn>prerm</prgn> or <prgn>postrm</prgn> script as
7627 <sect id="config-files">
7628 <heading>Configuration files</heading>
7631 <heading>Definitions</heading>
7635 <tag>configuration file</tag>
7637 A file that affects the operation of a program, or
7638 provides site- or host-specific information, or
7639 otherwise customizes the behavior of a program.
7640 Typically, configuration files are intended to be
7641 modified by the system administrator (if needed or
7642 desired) to conform to local policy or to provide
7643 more useful site-specific behavior.
7646 <tag><tt>conffile</tt></tag>
7648 A file listed in a package's <tt>conffiles</tt>
7649 file, and is treated specially by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
7650 (see <ref id="configdetails">).
7656 The distinction between these two is important; they are
7657 not interchangeable concepts. Almost all
7658 <tt>conffile</tt>s are configuration files, but many
7659 configuration files are not <tt>conffiles</tt>.
7663 As noted elsewhere, <file>/etc/init.d</file> scripts,
7664 <file>/etc/default</file> files, scripts installed in
7665 <file>/etc/cron.{hourly,daily,weekly,monthly}</file>, and cron
7666 configuration installed in <file>/etc/cron.d</file> must be
7667 treated as configuration files. In general, any script that
7668 embeds configuration information is de-facto a configuration
7669 file and should be treated as such.
7674 <heading>Location</heading>
7677 Any configuration files created or used by your package
7678 must reside in <file>/etc</file>. If there are several,
7679 consider creating a subdirectory of <file>/etc</file>
7680 named after your package.
7684 If your package creates or uses configuration files
7685 outside of <file>/etc</file>, and it is not feasible to modify
7686 the package to use <file>/etc</file> directly, put the files
7687 in <file>/etc</file> and create symbolic links to those files
7688 from the location that the package requires.
7693 <heading>Behavior</heading>
7696 Configuration file handling must conform to the following
7698 <list compact="compact">
7700 local changes must be preserved during a package
7704 configuration files must be preserved when the
7705 package is removed, and only deleted when the
7709 Obsolete configuration files without local changes may be
7710 removed by the package during upgrade.
7714 The easy way to achieve this behavior is to make the
7715 configuration file a <tt>conffile</tt>. This is
7716 appropriate only if it is possible to distribute a default
7717 version that will work for most installations, although
7718 some system administrators may choose to modify it. This
7719 implies that the default version will be part of the
7720 package distribution, and must not be modified by the
7721 maintainer scripts during installation (or at any other
7726 In order to ensure that local changes are preserved
7727 correctly, no package may contain or make hard links to
7728 conffiles.<footnote>
7729 Rationale: There are two problems with hard links.
7730 The first is that some editors break the link while
7731 editing one of the files, so that the two files may
7732 unwittingly become unlinked and different. The second
7733 is that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> might break the hard link
7734 while upgrading <tt>conffile</tt>s.
7739 The other way to do it is via the maintainer scripts. In
7740 this case, the configuration file must not be listed as a
7741 <tt>conffile</tt> and must not be part of the package
7742 distribution. If the existence of a file is required for
7743 the package to be sensibly configured it is the
7744 responsibility of the package maintainer to provide
7745 maintainer scripts which correctly create, update and
7746 maintain the file and remove it on purge. (See <ref
7747 id="maintainerscripts"> for more information.) These
7748 scripts must be idempotent (i.e., must work correctly if
7749 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> needs to re-run them due to errors
7750 during installation or removal), must cope with all the
7751 variety of ways <prgn>dpkg</prgn> can call maintainer
7752 scripts, must not overwrite or otherwise mangle the user's
7753 configuration without asking, must not ask unnecessary
7754 questions (particularly during upgrades), and must
7755 otherwise be good citizens.
7759 The scripts are not required to configure every possible
7760 option for the package, but only those necessary to get
7761 the package running on a given system. Ideally the
7762 sysadmin should not have to do any configuration other
7763 than that done (semi-)automatically by the
7764 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script.
7768 A common practice is to create a script called
7769 <file><var>package</var>-configure</file> and have the
7770 package's <prgn>postinst</prgn> call it if and only if the
7771 configuration file does not already exist. In certain
7772 cases it is useful for there to be an example or template
7773 file which the maintainer scripts use. Such files should
7774 be in <file>/usr/share/<var>package</var></file> or
7775 <file>/usr/lib/<var>package</var></file> (depending on whether
7776 they are architecture-independent or not). There should
7777 be symbolic links to them from
7778 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file> if
7779 they are examples, and should be perfectly ordinary
7780 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>-handled files (<em>not</em>
7781 configuration files).
7785 These two styles of configuration file handling must
7786 not be mixed, for that way lies madness:
7787 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will ask about overwriting the file
7788 every time the package is upgraded.
7793 <heading>Sharing configuration files</heading>
7796 Packages which specify the same file as a
7797 <tt>conffile</tt> must be tagged as <em>conflicting</em>
7798 with each other. (This is an instance of the general rule
7799 about not sharing files. Note that neither alternatives
7800 nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case;
7801 in particular, <prgn>dpkg</prgn> does not handle diverted
7802 <tt>conffile</tt>s well.)
7806 The maintainer scripts must not alter a <tt>conffile</tt>
7807 of <em>any</em> package, including the one the scripts
7812 If two or more packages use the same configuration file
7813 and it is reasonable for both to be installed at the same
7814 time, one of these packages must be defined as
7815 <em>owner</em> of the configuration file, i.e., it will be
7816 the package which handles that file as a configuration
7817 file. Other packages that use the configuration file must
7818 depend on the owning package if they require the
7819 configuration file to operate. If the other package will
7820 use the configuration file if present, but is capable of
7821 operating without it, no dependency need be declared.
7825 If it is desirable for two or more related packages to
7826 share a configuration file <em>and</em> for all of the
7827 related packages to be able to modify that configuration
7828 file, then the following should be done:
7829 <enumlist compact="compact">
7831 One of the related packages (the "owning" package)
7832 will manage the configuration file with maintainer
7833 scripts as described in the previous section.
7836 The owning package should also provide a program
7837 that the other packages may use to modify the
7841 The related packages must use the provided program
7842 to make any desired modifications to the
7843 configuration file. They should either depend on
7844 the core package to guarantee that the configuration
7845 modifier program is available or accept gracefully
7846 that they cannot modify the configuration file if it
7847 is not. (This is in addition to the fact that the
7848 configuration file may not even be present in the
7855 Sometimes it's appropriate to create a new package which
7856 provides the basic infrastructure for the other packages
7857 and which manages the shared configuration files. (The
7858 <tt>sgml-base</tt> package is a good example.)
7863 <heading>User configuration files ("dotfiles")</heading>
7866 The files in <file>/etc/skel</file> will automatically be
7867 copied into new user accounts by <prgn>adduser</prgn>.
7868 No other program should reference the files in
7869 <file>/etc/skel</file>.
7873 Therefore, if a program needs a dotfile to exist in
7874 advance in <file>$HOME</file> to work sensibly, that dotfile
7875 should be installed in <file>/etc/skel</file> and treated as a
7880 However, programs that require dotfiles in order to
7881 operate sensibly are a bad thing, unless they do create
7882 the dotfiles themselves automatically.
7886 Furthermore, programs should be configured by the Debian
7887 default installation to behave as closely to the upstream
7888 default behavior as possible.
7892 Therefore, if a program in a Debian package needs to be
7893 configured in some way in order to operate sensibly, that
7894 should be done using a site-wide configuration file placed
7895 in <file>/etc</file>. Only if the program doesn't support a
7896 site-wide default configuration and the package maintainer
7897 doesn't have time to add it may a default per-user file be
7898 placed in <file>/etc/skel</file>.
7902 <file>/etc/skel</file> should be as empty as we can make it.
7903 This is particularly true because there is no easy (or
7904 necessarily desirable) mechanism for ensuring that the
7905 appropriate dotfiles are copied into the accounts of
7906 existing users when a package is installed.
7912 <heading>Log files</heading>
7914 Log files should usually be named
7915 <file>/var/log/<var>package</var>.log</file>. If you have many
7916 log files, or need a separate directory for permission
7917 reasons (<file>/var/log</file> is writable only by
7918 <file>root</file>), you should usually create a directory named
7919 <file>/var/log/<var>package</var></file> and place your log
7924 Log files must be rotated occasionally so that they don't
7925 grow indefinitely; the best way to do this is to drop a log
7926 rotation configuration file into the directory
7927 <file>/etc/logrotate.d</file> and use the facilities provided by
7928 logrotate.<footnote>
7930 The traditional approach to log files has been to set up
7931 <em>ad hoc</em> log rotation schemes using simple shell
7932 scripts and cron. While this approach is highly
7933 customizable, it requires quite a lot of sysadmin work.
7934 Even though the original Debian system helped a little
7935 by automatically installing a system which can be used
7936 as a template, this was deemed not enough.
7940 The use of <prgn>logrotate</prgn>, a program developed
7941 by Red Hat, is better, as it centralizes log management.
7942 It has both a configuration file
7943 (<file>/etc/logrotate.conf</file>) and a directory where
7944 packages can drop their individual log rotation
7945 configurations (<file>/etc/logrotate.d</file>).
7948 Here is a good example for a logrotate config
7949 file (for more information see <manref name="logrotate"
7951 <example compact="compact">
7952 /var/log/foo/*.log {
7957 /etc/init.d/foo force-reload
7961 This rotates all files under <file>/var/log/foo</file>, saves 12
7962 compressed generations, and forces the daemon to reload its
7963 configuration information after the log rotation.
7967 Log files should be removed when the package is
7968 purged (but not when it is only removed). This should be
7969 done by the <prgn>postrm</prgn> script when it is called
7970 with the argument <tt>purge</tt> (see <ref
7971 id="removedetails">).
7976 <heading>Permissions and owners</heading>
7979 The rules in this section are guidelines for general use.
7980 If necessary you may deviate from the details below.
7981 However, if you do so you must make sure that what is done
7982 is secure and you should try to be as consistent as possible
7983 with the rest of the system. You should probably also
7984 discuss it on <prgn>debian-devel</prgn> first.
7988 Files should be owned by <tt>root:root</tt>, and made
7989 writable only by the owner and universally readable (and
7990 executable, if appropriate), that is mode 644 or 755.
7994 Directories should be mode 755 or (for group-writability)
7995 mode 2775. The ownership of the directory should be
7996 consistent with its mode: if a directory is mode 2775, it
7997 should be owned by the group that needs write access to
8000 When a package is upgraded, and the owner or permissions
8001 of a file included in the package has changed, dpkg
8002 arranges for the ownership and permissions to be
8003 correctly set upon installation. However, this does not
8004 extend to directories; the permissions and ownership of
8005 directories already on the system does not change on
8006 install or upgrade of packages. This makes sense, since
8007 otherwise common directories like <tt>/usr</tt> would
8008 always be in flux. To correctly change permissions of a
8009 directory the package owns, explicit action is required,
8010 usually in the <tt>postinst</tt> script. Care must be
8011 taken to handle downgrades as well, in that case.
8018 Setuid and setgid executables should be mode 4755 or 2755
8019 respectively, and owned by the appropriate user or group.
8020 They should not be made unreadable (modes like 4711 or
8021 2711 or even 4111); doing so achieves no extra security,
8022 because anyone can find the binary in the freely available
8023 Debian package; it is merely inconvenient. For the same
8024 reason you should not restrict read or execute permissions
8025 on non-set-id executables.
8029 Some setuid programs need to be restricted to particular
8030 sets of users, using file permissions. In this case they
8031 should be owned by the uid to which they are set-id, and by
8032 the group which should be allowed to execute them. They
8033 should have mode 4754; again there is no point in making
8034 them unreadable to those users who must not be allowed to
8039 It is possible to arrange that the system administrator can
8040 reconfigure the package to correspond to their local
8041 security policy by changing the permissions on a binary:
8042 they can do this by using <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>, as
8043 described below.<footnote>
8044 Ordinary files installed by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> (as
8045 opposed to <tt>conffile</tt>s and other similar objects)
8046 normally have their permissions reset to the distributed
8047 permissions when the package is reinstalled. However,
8048 the use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> overrides this
8051 Another method you should consider is to create a group for
8052 people allowed to use the program(s) and make any setuid
8053 executables executable only by that group.
8057 If you need to create a new user or group for your package
8058 there are two possibilities. Firstly, you may need to
8059 make some files in the binary package be owned by this
8060 user or group, or you may need to compile the user or
8061 group id (rather than just the name) into the binary
8062 (though this latter should be avoided if possible, as in
8063 this case you need a statically allocated id).</p>
8066 If you need a statically allocated id, you must ask for a
8067 user or group id from the <tt>base-passwd</tt> maintainer,
8068 and must not release the package until you have been
8069 allocated one. Once you have been allocated one you must
8070 either make the package depend on a version of the
8071 <tt>base-passwd</tt> package with the id present in
8072 <file>/etc/passwd</file> or <file>/etc/group</file>, or arrange for
8073 your package to create the user or group itself with the
8074 correct id (using <tt>adduser</tt>) in its
8075 <prgn>preinst</prgn> or <prgn>postinst</prgn>. (Doing it in
8076 the <prgn>postinst</prgn> is to be preferred if it is
8077 possible, otherwise a pre-dependency will be needed on the
8078 <tt>adduser</tt> package.)
8082 On the other hand, the program might be able to determine
8083 the uid or gid from the user or group name at runtime, so
8084 that a dynamically allocated id can be used. In this case
8085 you should choose an appropriate user or group name,
8086 discussing this on <prgn>debian-devel</prgn> and checking
8087 with the <package/base-passwd/ maintainer that it is unique and that
8088 they do not wish you to use a statically allocated id
8089 instead. When this has been checked you must arrange for
8090 your package to create the user or group if necessary using
8091 <prgn>adduser</prgn> in the <prgn>preinst</prgn> or
8092 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script (again, the latter is to be
8093 preferred if it is possible).
8097 Note that changing the numeric value of an id associated
8098 with a name is very difficult, and involves searching the
8099 file system for all appropriate files. You need to think
8100 carefully whether a static or dynamic id is required, since
8101 changing your mind later will cause problems.
8104 <sect1><heading>The use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn></heading>
8106 This section is not intended as policy, but as a
8107 description of the use of <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>.
8111 If a system administrator wishes to have a file (or
8112 directory or other such thing) installed with owner and
8113 permissions different from those in the distributed Debian
8114 package, they can use the <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn>
8115 program to instruct <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to use the different
8116 settings every time the file is installed. Thus the
8117 package maintainer should distribute the files with their
8118 normal permissions, and leave it for the system
8119 administrator to make any desired changes. For example, a
8120 daemon which is normally required to be setuid root, but
8121 in certain situations could be used without being setuid,
8122 should be installed setuid in the <tt>.deb</tt>. Then the
8123 local system administrator can change this if they wish.
8124 If there are two standard ways of doing it, the package
8125 maintainer can use <tt>debconf</tt> to find out the
8126 preference, and call <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> in the
8127 maintainer script if necessary to accommodate the system
8128 administrator's choice. Care must be taken during
8129 upgrades to not override an existing setting.
8133 Given the above, <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> is
8134 essentially a tool for system administrators and would not
8135 normally be needed in the maintainer scripts. There is
8136 one type of situation, though, where calls to
8137 <prgn>dpkg-statoverride</prgn> would be needed in the
8138 maintainer scripts, and that involves packages which use
8139 dynamically allocated user or group ids. In such a
8140 situation, something like the following idiom can be very
8141 helpful in the package's <prgn>postinst</prgn>, where
8142 <tt>sysuser</tt> is a dynamically allocated id:
8144 for i in /usr/bin/foo /usr/sbin/bar
8146 # only do something when no setting exists
8147 if ! dpkg-statoverride --list $i >/dev/null 2>&1
8149 #include: debconf processing, question about foo and bar
8150 if [ "$RET" = "true" ] ; then
8151 dpkg-statoverride --update --add sysuser root 4755 $i
8156 The corresponding code to remove the override when the package
8159 for i in /usr/bin/foo /usr/sbin/bar
8161 if dpkg-statoverride --list $i >/dev/null 2>&1
8163 dpkg-statoverride --remove $i
8173 <chapt id="customized-programs">
8174 <heading>Customized programs</heading>
8176 <sect id="arch-spec">
8177 <heading>Architecture specification strings</heading>
8180 If a program needs to specify an <em>architecture specification
8181 string</em> in some place, it should select one of the strings
8182 provided by <tt>dpkg-architecture -L</tt>. The strings are in
8183 the format <tt><var>os</var>-<var>arch</var></tt>, though the OS
8184 part is sometimes elided, as when the OS is Linux.
8188 Note that we don't want to use
8189 <tt><var>arch</var>-debian-linux</tt> to apply to the rule
8190 <tt><var>architecture</var>-<var>vendor</var>-<var>os</var></tt>
8191 since this would make our programs incompatible with other
8192 Linux distributions. We also don't use something like
8193 <tt><var>arch</var>-unknown-linux</tt>, since the
8194 <tt>unknown</tt> does not look very good.
8197 <sect1 id="arch-wildcard-spec">
8198 <heading>Architecture wildcards</heading>
8201 A package may specify an architecture wildcard. Architecture
8202 wildcards are in the format <tt>any</tt> (which matches every
8203 architecture), <tt><var>os</var></tt>-any, or
8204 any-<tt><var>cpu</var></tt>. <footnote>
8205 Internally, the package system normalizes the GNU triplets
8206 and the Debian arches into Debian arch triplets (which are
8207 kind of inverted GNU triplets), with the first component of
8208 the triplet representing the libc and ABI in use, and then
8209 does matching against those triplets. However, such
8210 triplets are an internal implementation detail that should
8211 not be used by packages directly. The libc and ABI portion
8212 is handled internally by the package system based on
8213 the <var>os</var> and <var>cpu</var>.
8220 <heading>Daemons</heading>
8223 The configuration files <file>/etc/services</file>,
8224 <file>/etc/protocols</file>, and <file>/etc/rpc</file> are managed
8225 by the <prgn>netbase</prgn> package and must not be modified
8230 If a package requires a new entry in one of these files, the
8231 maintainer should get in contact with the
8232 <prgn>netbase</prgn> maintainer, who will add the entries
8233 and release a new version of the <prgn>netbase</prgn>
8238 The configuration file <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file> must not be
8239 modified by the package's scripts except via the
8240 <prgn>update-inetd</prgn> script or the
8241 <file>DebianNet.pm</file> Perl module. See their documentation
8242 for details on how to add entries.
8246 If a package wants to install an example entry into
8247 <file>/etc/inetd.conf</file>, the entry must be preceded with
8248 exactly one hash character (<tt>#</tt>). Such lines are
8249 treated as "commented out by user" by the
8250 <prgn>update-inetd</prgn> script and are not changed or
8251 activated during package updates.
8256 <heading>Using pseudo-ttys and modifying wtmp, utmp and
8260 Some programs need to create pseudo-ttys. This should be done
8261 using Unix98 ptys if the C library supports it. The resulting
8262 program must not be installed setuid root, unless that
8263 is required for other functionality.
8267 The files <file>/var/run/utmp</file>, <file>/var/log/wtmp</file> and
8268 <file>/var/log/lastlog</file> must be installed writable by
8269 group <tt>utmp</tt>. Programs which need to modify those
8270 files must be installed setgid <tt>utmp</tt>.
8275 <heading>Editors and pagers</heading>
8278 Some programs have the ability to launch an editor or pager
8279 program to edit or display a text document. Since there are
8280 lots of different editors and pagers available in the Debian
8281 distribution, the system administrator and each user should
8282 have the possibility to choose their preferred editor and
8287 In addition, every program should choose a good default
8288 editor/pager if none is selected by the user or system
8293 Thus, every program that launches an editor or pager must
8294 use the EDITOR or PAGER environment variable to determine
8295 the editor or pager the user wishes to use. If these
8296 variables are not set, the programs <file>/usr/bin/editor</file>
8297 and <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> should be used, respectively.
8301 These two files are managed through the <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
8302 "alternatives" mechanism. Thus every package providing an
8303 editor or pager must call the
8304 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> script to register these
8309 If it is very hard to adapt a program to make use of the
8310 EDITOR or PAGER variables, that program may be configured to
8311 use <file>/usr/bin/sensible-editor</file> and
8312 <file>/usr/bin/sensible-pager</file> as the editor or pager
8313 program respectively. These are two scripts provided in the
8314 <package>sensible-utils</package> package that check the EDITOR
8315 and PAGER variables and launch the appropriate program, and fall
8316 back to <file>/usr/bin/editor</file>
8317 and <file>/usr/bin/pager</file> if the variable is not set.
8321 A program may also use the VISUAL environment variable to
8322 determine the user's choice of editor. If it exists, it
8323 should take precedence over EDITOR. This is in fact what
8324 <file>/usr/bin/sensible-editor</file> does.
8328 It is not required for a package to depend on
8329 <tt>editor</tt> and <tt>pager</tt>, nor is it required for a
8330 package to provide such virtual packages.<footnote>
8331 The Debian base system already provides an editor and a
8337 <sect id="web-appl">
8338 <heading>Web servers and applications</heading>
8341 This section describes the locations and URLs that should
8342 be used by all web servers and web applications in the
8349 Cgi-bin executable files are installed in the
8351 <example compact="compact">
8352 /usr/lib/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
8354 and should be referred to as
8355 <example compact="compact">
8356 http://localhost/cgi-bin/<var>cgi-bin-name</var>
8362 <p>Access to HTML documents</p>
8365 HTML documents for a package are stored in
8366 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>
8367 and can be referred to as
8368 <example compact="compact">
8369 http://localhost/doc/<var>package</var>/<var>filename</var>
8374 The web server should restrict access to the document
8375 tree so that only clients on the same host can read
8376 the documents. If the web server does not support such
8377 access controls, then it should not provide access at
8378 all, or ask about providing access during installation.
8383 <p>Access to images</p>
8385 It is recommended that images for a package be stored
8386 in <tt>/usr/share/images/<var>package</var></tt> and
8387 may be referred to through an alias <tt>/images/</tt>
8390 http://localhost/images/<package>/<filename>
8397 <p>Web Document Root</p>
8400 Web Applications should try to avoid storing files in
8401 the Web Document Root. Instead they should use the
8402 /usr/share/doc/<var>package</var> directory for
8403 documents and register the Web Application via the
8404 <package>doc-base</package> package. If access to the
8405 web document root is unavoidable then use
8406 <example compact="compact">
8409 as the Document Root. This might be just a symbolic
8410 link to the location where the system administrator
8411 has put the real document root.
8414 <item><p>Providing httpd and/or httpd-cgi</p>
8416 All web servers should provide the virtual package
8417 <tt>httpd</tt>. If a web server has CGI support it should
8418 provide <tt>httpd-cgi</tt> additionally.
8421 All web applications which do not contain CGI scripts should
8422 depend on <tt>httpd</tt>, all those web applications which
8423 <tt>do</tt> contain CGI scripts, should depend on
8431 <sect id="mail-transport-agents">
8432 <heading>Mail transport, delivery and user agents</heading>
8435 Debian packages which process electronic mail, whether mail
8436 user agents (MUAs) or mail transport agents (MTAs), must
8437 ensure that they are compatible with the configuration
8438 decisions below. Failure to do this may result in lost
8439 mail, broken <tt>From:</tt> lines, and other serious brain
8444 The mail spool is <file>/var/mail</file> and the interface to
8445 send a mail message is <file>/usr/sbin/sendmail</file> (as per
8446 the FHS). On older systems, the mail spool may be
8447 physically located in <file>/var/spool/mail</file>, but all
8448 access to the mail spool should be via the
8449 <file>/var/mail</file> symlink. The mail spool is part of the
8450 base system and not part of the MTA package.
8454 All Debian MUAs, MTAs, MDAs and other mailbox accessing
8455 programs (such as IMAP daemons) must lock the mailbox in an
8456 NFS-safe way. This means that <tt>fcntl()</tt> locking must
8457 be combined with dot locking. To avoid deadlocks, a program
8458 should use <tt>fcntl()</tt> first and dot locking after
8459 this, or alternatively implement the two locking methods in
8460 a non blocking way<footnote>
8461 If it is not possible to establish both locks, the
8462 system shouldn't wait for the second lock to be
8463 established, but remove the first lock, wait a (random)
8464 time, and start over locking again.
8465 </footnote>. Using the functions <tt>maillock</tt> and
8466 <tt>mailunlock</tt> provided by the
8467 <tt>liblockfile*</tt><footnote>
8468 You will need to depend on <tt>liblockfile1 (>>1.01)</tt>
8469 to use these functions.
8470 </footnote> packages is the recommended way to realize this.
8474 Mailboxes are generally either mode 600 and owned by
8475 <var>user</var> or mode 660 and owned by
8476 <tt><var>user</var>:mail</tt><footnote>
8477 There are two traditional permission schemes for mail spools:
8478 mode 600 with all mail delivery done by processes running as
8479 the destination user, or mode 660 and owned by group mail with
8480 mail delivery done by a process running as a system user in
8481 group mail. Historically, Debian required mode 660 mail
8482 spools to enable the latter model, but that model has become
8483 increasingly uncommon and the principle of least privilege
8484 indicates that mail systems that use the first model should
8485 use permissions of 600. If delivery to programs is permitted,
8486 it's easier to keep the mail system secure if the delivery
8487 agent runs as the destination user. Debian Policy therefore
8488 permits either scheme.
8489 </footnote>. The local system administrator may choose a
8490 different permission scheme; packages should not make
8491 assumptions about the permission and ownership of mailboxes
8492 unless required (such as when creating a new mailbox). A MUA
8493 may remove a mailbox (unless it has nonstandard permissions) in
8494 which case the MTA or another MUA must recreate it if needed.
8498 The mail spool is 2775 <tt>root:mail</tt>, and MUAs should
8499 be setgid mail to do the locking mentioned above (and
8500 must obviously avoid accessing other users' mailboxes
8501 using this privilege).</p>
8504 <file>/etc/aliases</file> is the source file for the system mail
8505 aliases (e.g., postmaster, usenet, etc.), it is the one
8506 which the sysadmin and <prgn>postinst</prgn> scripts may
8507 edit. After <file>/etc/aliases</file> is edited the program or
8508 human editing it must call <prgn>newaliases</prgn>. All MTA
8509 packages must come with a <prgn>newaliases</prgn> program,
8510 even if it does nothing, but older MTA packages did not do
8511 this so programs should not fail if <prgn>newaliases</prgn>
8512 cannot be found. Note that because of this, all MTA
8513 packages must have <tt>Provides</tt>, <tt>Conflicts</tt> and
8514 <tt>Replaces: mail-transport-agent</tt> control fields.
8518 The convention of writing <tt>forward to
8519 <var>address</var></tt> in the mailbox itself is not
8520 supported. Use a <tt>.forward</tt> file instead.</p>
8523 The <prgn>rmail</prgn> program used by UUCP
8524 for incoming mail should be <file>/usr/sbin/rmail</file>.
8525 Likewise, <prgn>rsmtp</prgn>, for receiving
8526 batch-SMTP-over-UUCP, should be <file>/usr/sbin/rsmtp</file> if it
8530 If your package needs to know what hostname to use on (for
8531 example) outgoing news and mail messages which are generated
8532 locally, you should use the file <file>/etc/mailname</file>. It
8533 will contain the portion after the username and <tt>@</tt>
8534 (at) sign for email addresses of users on the machine
8535 (followed by a newline).
8539 Such a package should check for the existence of this file
8540 when it is being configured. If it exists, it should be
8541 used without comment, although an MTA's configuration script
8542 may wish to prompt the user even if it finds that this file
8543 exists. If the file does not exist, the package should
8544 prompt the user for the value (preferably using
8545 <prgn>debconf</prgn>) and store it in <file>/etc/mailname</file>
8546 as well as using it in the package's configuration. The
8547 prompt should make it clear that the name will not just be
8548 used by that package. For example, in this situation the
8549 <tt>inn</tt> package could say something like:
8550 <example compact="compact">
8551 Please enter the "mail name" of your system. This is the
8552 hostname portion of the address to be shown on outgoing
8553 news and mail messages. The default is
8554 <var>syshostname</var>, your system's host name. Mail
8555 name ["<var>syshostname</var>"]:
8557 where <var>syshostname</var> is the output of <tt>hostname
8563 <heading>News system configuration</heading>
8566 All the configuration files related to the NNTP (news)
8567 servers and clients should be located under
8568 <file>/etc/news</file>.</p>
8571 There are some configuration issues that apply to a number
8572 of news clients and server packages on the machine. These
8576 <tag><file>/etc/news/organization</file></tag>
8578 A string which should appear as the
8579 organization header for all messages posted
8580 by NNTP clients on the machine
8583 <tag><file>/etc/news/server</file></tag>
8585 Contains the FQDN of the upstream NNTP
8586 server, or localhost if the local machine is
8591 Other global files may be added as required for cross-package news
8598 <heading>Programs for the X Window System</heading>
8601 <heading>Providing X support and package priorities</heading>
8604 Programs that can be configured with support for the X
8605 Window System must be configured to do so and must declare
8606 any package dependencies necessary to satisfy their
8607 runtime requirements when using the X Window System. If
8608 such a package is of higher priority than the X packages
8609 on which it depends, it is required that either the
8610 X-specific components be split into a separate package, or
8611 that an alternative version of the package, which includes
8612 X support, be provided, or that the package's priority be
8618 <heading>Packages providing an X server</heading>
8621 Packages that provide an X server that, directly or
8622 indirectly, communicates with real input and display
8623 hardware should declare in their <tt>Provides</tt> control
8624 field that they provide the virtual
8625 package <tt>xserver</tt>.<footnote>
8626 This implements current practice, and provides an
8627 actual policy for usage of the <tt>xserver</tt>
8628 virtual package which appears in the virtual packages
8629 list. In a nutshell, X servers that interface
8630 directly with the display and input hardware or via
8631 another subsystem (e.g., GGI) should provide
8632 <tt>xserver</tt>. Things like <tt>Xvfb</tt>,
8633 <tt>Xnest</tt>, and <tt>Xprt</tt> should not.
8639 <heading>Packages providing a terminal emulator</heading>
8642 Packages that provide a terminal emulator for the X Window
8643 System which meet the criteria listed below should declare in
8644 their <tt>Provides</tt> control field that they provide the
8645 virtual package <tt>x-terminal-emulator</tt>. They should
8646 also register themselves as an alternative for
8647 <file>/usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator</file>, with a priority of
8652 To be an <tt>x-terminal-emulator</tt>, a program must:
8653 <list compact="compact">
8655 Be able to emulate a DEC VT100 terminal, or a
8656 compatible terminal.
8660 Support the command-line option <tt>-e
8661 <var>command</var></tt>, which creates a new
8662 terminal window<footnote>
8663 "New terminal window" does not necessarily mean
8664 a new top-level X window directly parented by
8665 the window manager; it could, if the terminal
8666 emulator application were so coded, be a new
8667 "view" in a multiple-document interface (MDI).
8669 and runs the specified <var>command</var>,
8670 interpreting the entirety of the rest of the command
8671 line as a command to pass straight to exec, in the
8672 manner that <tt>xterm</tt> does.
8676 Support the command-line option <tt>-T
8677 <var>title</var></tt>, which creates a new terminal
8678 window with the window title <var>title</var>.
8685 <heading>Packages providing a window manager</heading>
8688 Packages that provide a window manager should declare in
8689 their <tt>Provides</tt> control field that they provide the
8690 virtual package <tt>x-window-manager</tt>. They should also
8691 register themselves as an alternative for
8692 <file>/usr/bin/x-window-manager</file>, with a priority
8693 calculated as follows:
8694 <list compact="compact">
8696 Start with a priority of 20.
8700 If the window manager supports the Debian menu
8701 system, add 20 points if this support is available
8702 in the package's default configuration (i.e., no
8703 configuration files belonging to the system or user
8704 have to be edited to activate the feature); if
8705 configuration files must be modified, add only 10
8711 If the window manager complies with <url
8712 id="http://www.freedesktop.org/Standards/wm-spec"
8713 name="The Window Manager Specification Project">,
8714 written by the <url id="http://www.freedesktop.org/"
8715 name="Free Desktop Group">, add 40 points.
8719 If the window manager permits the X session to be
8720 restarted using a <em>different</em> window manager
8721 (without killing the X server) in its default
8722 configuration, add 10 points; otherwise add none.
8729 <heading>Packages providing fonts</heading>
8732 Packages that provide fonts for the X Window
8734 For the purposes of Debian Policy, a "font for the X
8735 Window System" is one which is accessed via X protocol
8736 requests. Fonts for the Linux console, for PostScript
8737 renderer, or any other purpose, do not fit this
8738 definition. Any tool which makes such fonts available
8739 to the X Window System, however, must abide by this
8742 must do a number of things to ensure that they are both
8743 available without modification of the X or font server
8744 configuration, and that they do not corrupt files used by
8745 other font packages to register information about
8749 Fonts of any type supported by the X Window System
8750 must be in a separate binary package from any
8751 executables, libraries, or documentation (except
8752 that specific to the fonts shipped, such as their
8753 license information). If one or more of the fonts
8754 so packaged are necessary for proper operation of
8755 the package with which they are associated the font
8756 package may be Recommended; if the fonts merely
8757 provide an enhancement, a Suggests relationship may
8758 be used. Packages must not Depend on font
8760 This is because the X server may retrieve fonts
8761 from the local file system or over the network
8762 from an X font server; the Debian package system
8763 is empowered to deal only with the local
8769 BDF fonts must be converted to PCF fonts with the
8770 <prgn>bdftopcf</prgn> utility (available in the
8771 <tt>xfonts-utils</tt> package, <prgn>gzip</prgn>ped, and
8772 placed in a directory that corresponds to their
8774 <list compact="compact">
8776 100 dpi fonts must be placed in
8777 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/</file>.
8781 75 dpi fonts must be placed in
8782 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/</file>.
8786 Character-cell fonts, cursor fonts, and other
8787 low-resolution fonts must be placed in
8788 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/</file>.
8794 Type 1 fonts must be placed in
8795 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/</file>. If font
8796 metric files are available, they must be placed here
8801 Subdirectories of <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file>
8802 other than those listed above must be neither
8803 created nor used. (The <file>PEX</file>, <file>CID</file>,
8804 <file>Speedo</file>, and <file>cyrillic</file> directories
8805 are excepted for historical reasons, but installation of
8806 files into these directories remains discouraged.)
8810 Font packages may, instead of placing files directly
8811 in the X font directories listed above, provide
8812 symbolic links in that font directory pointing to
8813 the files' actual location in the filesystem. Such
8814 a location must comply with the FHS.
8818 Font packages should not contain both 75dpi and
8819 100dpi versions of a font. If both are available,
8820 they should be provided in separate binary packages
8821 with <tt>-75dpi</tt> or <tt>-100dpi</tt> appended to
8822 the names of the packages containing the
8823 corresponding fonts.
8827 Fonts destined for the <file>misc</file> subdirectory
8828 should not be included in the same package as 75dpi
8829 or 100dpi fonts; instead, they should be provided in
8830 a separate package with <tt>-misc</tt> appended to
8835 Font packages must not provide the files
8836 <file>fonts.dir</file>, <file>fonts.alias</file>, or
8837 <file>fonts.scale</file> in a font directory:
8840 <file>fonts.dir</file> files must not be provided at all.
8844 <file>fonts.alias</file> and <file>fonts.scale</file>
8845 files, if needed, should be provided in the
8847 <file>/etc/X11/fonts/<var>fontdir</var>/<var>package</var>.<var>extension</var></file>,
8848 where <var>fontdir</var> is the name of the
8850 <file>/usr/share/fonts/X11/</file> where the
8851 package's corresponding fonts are stored
8852 (e.g., <tt>75dpi</tt> or <tt>misc</tt>),
8853 <var>package</var> is the name of the package
8854 that provides these fonts, and
8855 <var>extension</var> is either <tt>scale</tt>
8856 or <tt>alias</tt>, whichever corresponds to
8863 Font packages must declare a dependency on
8864 <tt>xfonts-utils</tt> in their <tt>Depends</tt>
8865 or <tt>Pre-Depends</tt> control field.
8869 Font packages that provide one or more
8870 <file>fonts.scale</file> files as described above must
8871 invoke <prgn>update-fonts-scale</prgn> on each
8872 directory into which they installed fonts
8873 <em>before</em> invoking
8874 <prgn>update-fonts-dir</prgn> on that directory.
8875 This invocation must occur in both the
8876 <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all arguments) and
8877 <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all arguments except
8878 <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8882 Font packages that provide one or more
8883 <file>fonts.alias</file> files as described above must
8884 invoke <prgn>update-fonts-alias</prgn> on each
8885 directory into which they installed fonts. This
8886 invocation must occur in both the
8887 <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all arguments) and
8888 <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all arguments except
8889 <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8893 Font packages must invoke
8894 <prgn>update-fonts-dir</prgn> on each directory into
8895 which they installed fonts. This invocation must
8896 occur in both the <prgn>postinst</prgn> (for all
8897 arguments) and <prgn>postrm</prgn> (for all
8898 arguments except <tt>upgrade</tt>) scripts.
8902 Font packages must not provide alias names for the
8903 fonts they include which collide with alias names
8904 already in use by fonts already packaged.
8908 Font packages must not provide fonts with the same
8909 XLFD registry name as another font already packaged.
8915 <sect1 id="appdefaults">
8916 <heading>Application defaults files</heading>
8919 Application defaults files must be installed in the
8920 directory <file>/etc/X11/app-defaults/</file> (use of a
8921 localized subdirectory of <file>/etc/X11/</file> as described
8922 in the <em>X Toolkit Intrinsics - C Language
8923 Interface</em> manual is also permitted). They must be
8924 registered as <tt>conffile</tt>s or handled as
8925 configuration files.
8929 Customization of programs' X resources may also be
8930 supported with the provision of a file with the same name
8931 as that of the package placed in
8932 the <file>/etc/X11/Xresources/</file> directory, which
8933 must be registered as a <tt>conffile</tt> or handled as a
8934 configuration file.<footnote>
8935 Note that this mechanism is not the same as using
8936 app-defaults; app-defaults are tied to the client
8937 binary on the local file system, whereas X resources
8938 are stored in the X server and affect all connecting
8945 <heading>Installation directory issues</heading>
8948 Historically, packages using the X Window System used a
8949 separate set of installation directories from other packages.
8950 This practice has been discontinued and packages using the X
8951 Window System should now generally be installed in the same
8952 directories as any other package. Specifically, packages must
8953 not install files under the <file>/usr/X11R6/</file> directory
8954 and the <file>/usr/X11R6/</file> directory hierarchy should be
8955 regarded as obsolete.
8959 Include files previously installed under
8960 <file>/usr/X11R6/include/X11/</file> should be installed into
8961 <file>/usr/include/X11/</file>. For files previously
8962 installed into subdirectories of
8963 <file>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/</file>, package maintainers should
8964 determine if subdirectories of <file>/usr/lib/</file> and
8965 <file>/usr/share/</file> can be used. If not, a subdirectory
8966 of <file>/usr/lib/X11/</file> should be used.
8970 Configuration files for window, display, or session managers
8971 or other applications that are tightly integrated with the X
8972 Window System may be placed in a subdirectory
8973 of <file>/etc/X11/</file> corresponding to the package name.
8974 Other X Window System applications should use
8975 the <file>/etc/</file> directory unless otherwise mandated by
8976 policy (such as for <ref id="appdefaults">).
8981 <heading>The OSF/Motif and OpenMotif libraries</heading>
8984 <em>Programs that require the non-DFSG-compliant OSF/Motif or
8985 OpenMotif libraries</em><footnote>
8986 OSF/Motif and OpenMotif are collectively referred to as
8987 "Motif" in this policy document.
8989 should be compiled against and tested with LessTif (a free
8990 re-implementation of Motif) instead. If the maintainer
8991 judges that the program or programs do not work
8992 sufficiently well with LessTif to be distributed and
8993 supported, but do so when compiled against Motif, then two
8994 versions of the package should be created; one linked
8995 statically against Motif and with <tt>-smotif</tt>
8996 appended to the package name, and one linked dynamically
8997 against Motif and with <tt>-dmotif</tt> appended to the
9002 Both Motif-linked versions are dependent
9003 upon non-DFSG-compliant software and thus cannot be
9004 uploaded to the <em>main</em> distribution; if the
9005 software is itself DFSG-compliant it may be uploaded to
9006 the <em>contrib</em> distribution. While known existing
9007 versions of Motif permit unlimited redistribution of
9008 binaries linked against the library (whether statically or
9009 dynamically), it is the package maintainer's
9010 responsibility to determine whether this is permitted by
9011 the license of the copy of Motif in their possession.
9017 <heading>Perl programs and modules</heading>
9020 Perl programs and modules should follow the current Perl policy.
9024 The Perl policy can be found in the <tt>perl-policy</tt>
9025 files in the <tt>debian-policy</tt> package.
9026 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
9027 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"
9028 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/perl-policy/"></tt>.
9033 <heading>Emacs lisp programs</heading>
9036 Please refer to the "Debian Emacs Policy" for details of how to
9037 package emacs lisp programs.
9041 The Emacs policy is available in
9042 <file>debian-emacs-policy.gz</file> of the
9043 <package>emacsen-common</package> package.
9044 It is also available from the Debian web mirrors at
9045 <tt><url name="/doc/packaging-manuals/debian-emacs-policy"
9046 id="http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/debian-emacs-policy"></tt>.
9051 <heading>Games</heading>
9054 The permissions on <file>/var/games</file> are mode 755, owner
9055 <tt>root</tt> and group <tt>root</tt>.
9059 Each game decides on its own security policy.</p>
9062 Games which require protected, privileged access to
9063 high-score files, saved games, etc., may be made
9064 set-<em>group</em>-id (mode 2755) and owned by
9065 <tt>root:games</tt>, and use files and directories with
9066 appropriate permissions (770 <tt>root:games</tt>, for
9067 example). They must not be made
9068 set-<em>user</em>-id, as this causes security problems. (If
9069 an attacker can subvert any set-user-id game they can
9070 overwrite the executable of any other, causing other players
9071 of these games to run a Trojan horse program. With a
9072 set-group-id game the attacker only gets access to less
9073 important game data, and if they can get at the other
9074 players' accounts at all it will take considerably more
9078 Some packages, for example some fortune cookie programs, are
9079 configured by the upstream authors to install with their
9080 data files or other static information made unreadable so
9081 that they can only be accessed through set-id programs
9082 provided. You should not do this in a Debian package: anyone can
9083 download the <file>.deb</file> file and read the data from it,
9084 so there is no point making the files unreadable. Not
9085 making the files unreadable also means that you don't have
9086 to make so many programs set-id, which reduces the risk of a
9090 As described in the FHS, binaries of games should be
9091 installed in the directory <file>/usr/games</file>. This also
9092 applies to games that use the X Window System. Manual pages
9093 for games (X and non-X games) should be installed in
9094 <file>/usr/share/man/man6</file>.</p>
9100 <heading>Documentation</heading>
9103 <heading>Manual pages</heading>
9106 You should install manual pages in <prgn>nroff</prgn> source
9107 form, in appropriate places under <file>/usr/share/man</file>.
9108 You should only use sections 1 to 9 (see the FHS for more
9109 details). You must not install a pre-formatted "cat page".
9113 Each program, utility, and function should have an
9114 associated manual page included in the same package. It is
9115 suggested that all configuration files also have a manual
9116 page included as well. Manual pages for protocols and other
9117 auxiliary things are optional.
9121 If no manual page is available, this is considered as a bug
9122 and should be reported to the Debian Bug Tracking System (the
9123 maintainer of the package is allowed to write this bug report
9124 themselves, if they so desire). Do not close the bug report
9125 until a proper man page is available.<footnote>
9126 It is not very hard to write a man page. See the
9127 <url id="http://www.schweikhardt.net/man_page_howto.html"
9128 name="Man-Page-HOWTO">,
9129 <manref name="man" section="7">, the examples
9130 created by <prgn>debmake</prgn> or <prgn>dh_make</prgn>,
9131 the helper program <prgn>help2man</prgn>, or the
9132 directory <file>/usr/share/doc/man-db/examples</file>.
9137 You may forward a complaint about a missing man page to the
9138 upstream authors, and mark the bug as forwarded in the
9139 Debian bug tracking system. Even though the GNU Project do
9140 not in general consider the lack of a man page to be a bug,
9141 we do; if they tell you that they don't consider it a bug
9142 you should leave the bug in our bug tracking system open
9147 Manual pages should be installed compressed using <tt>gzip -9</tt>.
9151 If one man page needs to be accessible via several names it
9152 is better to use a symbolic link than the <file>.so</file>
9153 feature, but there is no need to fiddle with the relevant
9154 parts of the upstream source to change from <file>.so</file> to
9155 symlinks: don't do it unless it's easy. You should not
9156 create hard links in the manual page directories, nor put
9157 absolute filenames in <file>.so</file> directives. The filename
9158 in a <file>.so</file> in a man page should be relative to the
9159 base of the man page tree (usually
9160 <file>/usr/share/man</file>). If you do not create any links
9161 (whether symlinks, hard links, or <tt>.so</tt> directives)
9162 in the file system to the alternate names of the man page,
9163 then you should not rely on <prgn>man</prgn> finding your
9164 man page under those names based solely on the information in
9165 the man page's header.<footnote>
9166 Supporting this in <prgn>man</prgn> often requires
9167 unreasonable processing time to find a manual page or to
9168 report that none exists, and moves knowledge into man's
9169 database that would be better left in the file system.
9170 This support is therefore deprecated and will cease to
9171 be present in the future.
9176 Manual pages in locale-specific subdirectories of
9177 <file>/usr/share/man</file> should use either UTF-8 or the usual
9178 legacy encoding for that language (normally the one corresponding
9179 to the shortest relevant locale name in
9180 <file>/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED</file>). For example, pages under
9181 <file>/usr/share/man/fr</file> should use either UTF-8 or
9182 ISO-8859-1.<footnote>
9183 <prgn>man</prgn> will automatically detect whether UTF-8 is in
9184 use. In future, all manual pages will be required to use
9190 A country name (the <tt>DE</tt> in <tt>de_DE</tt>) should not be
9191 included in the subdirectory name unless it indicates a
9192 significant difference in the language, as this excludes
9193 speakers of the language in other countries.<footnote>
9194 At the time of writing, Chinese and Portuguese are the main
9195 languages with such differences, so <file>pt_BR</file>,
9196 <file>zh_CN</file>, and <file>zh_TW</file> are all allowed.
9201 If a localized version of a manual page is provided, it should
9202 either be up-to-date or it should be obvious to the reader that
9203 it is outdated and the original manual page should be used
9204 instead. This can be done either by a note at the beginning of
9205 the manual page or by showing the missing or changed portions in
9206 the original language instead of the target language.
9211 <heading>Info documents</heading>
9214 Info documents should be installed in <file>/usr/share/info</file>.
9215 They should be compressed with <tt>gzip -9</tt>.
9219 The <prgn>install-info</prgn> program maintains a directory of
9220 installed info documents in <file>/usr/share/info/dir</file> for
9221 the use of info readers.<footnote>
9222 It was previously necessary for packages installing info
9223 documents to run <prgn>install-info</prgn> from maintainer
9224 scripts. This is no longer necessary. The installation
9225 system now uses dpkg triggers.
9227 This file must not be included in packages. Packages containing
9228 info documents should depend on <tt>dpkg (>= 1.15.4) |
9229 install-info</tt> to ensure that the directory file is properly
9230 rebuilt during partial upgrades from Debian 5.0 (lenny) and
9235 Info documents should contain section and directory entry
9236 information in the document for the use
9237 of <prgn>install-info</prgn>. The section should be specified
9238 via a line starting with <tt>INFO-DIR-SECTION</tt> followed by a
9239 space and the section of this info page. The directory entry or
9240 entries should be included between
9241 a <tt>START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY</tt> line and
9242 an <tt>END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY</tt> line. For example:
9244 INFO-DIR-SECTION Individual utilities
9245 START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
9246 * example: (example). An example info directory entry.
9249 To determine which section to use, you should look
9250 at <file>/usr/share/info/dir</file> on your system and choose
9251 the most relevant (or create a new section if none of the
9252 current sections are relevant).<footnote>
9253 Normally, info documents are generated from Texinfo source.
9254 To include this information in the generated info document, if
9255 it is absent, add commands like:
9257 @dircategory Individual utilities
9259 * example: (example). An example info directory entry.
9262 to the Texinfo source of the document and ensure that the info
9263 documents are rebuilt from source during the package build.
9269 <heading>Additional documentation</heading>
9272 Any additional documentation that comes with the package may
9273 be installed at the discretion of the package maintainer.
9274 Plain text documentation should be installed in the directory
9275 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>, where
9276 <var>package</var> is the name of the package, and
9277 compressed with <tt>gzip -9</tt> unless it is small.
9281 If a package comes with large amounts of documentation which
9282 many users of the package will not require you should create
9283 a separate binary package to contain it, so that it does not
9284 take up disk space on the machines of users who do not need
9285 or want it installed.</p>
9288 It is often a good idea to put text information files
9289 (<file>README</file>s, changelogs, and so forth) that come with
9290 the source package in <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>
9291 in the binary package. However, you don't need to install
9292 the instructions for building and installing the package, of
9296 Packages must not require the existence of any files in
9297 <file>/usr/share/doc/</file> in order to function
9299 The system administrator should be able to
9300 delete files in <file>/usr/share/doc/</file> without causing
9301 any programs to break.
9303 Any files that are referenced by programs but are also
9304 useful as stand alone documentation should be installed under
9305 <file>/usr/share/<var>package</var>/</file> with symbolic links from
9306 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
9310 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> may be a symbolic
9311 link to another directory in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> only if
9312 the two packages both come from the same source and the
9313 first package Depends on the second.<footnote>
9315 Please note that this does not override the section on
9316 changelog files below, so the file
9317 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.Debian.gz</file>
9318 must refer to the changelog for the current version of
9319 <var>package</var> in question. In practice, this means
9320 that the sources of the target and the destination of the
9321 symlink must be the same (same source package and
9328 Former Debian releases placed all additional documentation
9329 in <file>/usr/doc/<var>package</var></file>. This has been
9330 changed to <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>,
9331 and packages must not put documentation in the directory
9332 <file>/usr/doc/<var>package</var></file>. <footnote>
9333 At this phase of the transition, we no longer require a
9334 symbolic link in <file>/usr/doc/</file>. At a later point,
9335 policy shall change to make the symbolic links a bug.
9341 <heading>Preferred documentation formats</heading>
9344 The unification of Debian documentation is being carried out
9348 If your package comes with extensive documentation in a
9349 markup format that can be converted to various other formats
9350 you should if possible ship HTML versions in a binary
9351 package, in the directory
9352 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>appropriate-package</var></file> or
9353 its subdirectories.<footnote>
9354 The rationale: The important thing here is that HTML
9355 docs should be available in <em>some</em> package, not
9356 necessarily in the main binary package.
9361 Other formats such as PostScript may be provided at the
9362 package maintainer's discretion.
9366 <sect id="copyrightfile">
9367 <heading>Copyright information</heading>
9370 Every package must be accompanied by a verbatim copy of its
9371 copyright information and distribution license in the file
9372 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file>. This
9373 file must neither be compressed nor be a symbolic link.
9377 In addition, the copyright file must say where the upstream
9378 sources (if any) were obtained. It should name the original
9379 authors of the package and the Debian maintainer(s) who were
9380 involved with its creation.
9384 Packages in the <em>contrib</em> or <em>non-free</em> archive
9385 areas should state in the copyright file that the package is not
9386 part of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and briefly explain
9391 A copy of the file which will be installed in
9392 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/copyright</file> should
9393 be in <file>debian/copyright</file> in the source package.
9397 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> may be a symbolic
9398 link to another directory in <file>/usr/share/doc</file> only if
9399 the two packages both come from the same source and the
9400 first package Depends on the second. These rules are
9401 important because copyrights must be extractable by
9406 Packages distributed under the Apache license (version 2.0), the
9407 Artistic license, the GNU GPL (versions 1, 2, or 3), the GNU
9408 LGPL (versions 2, 2.1, or 3), and the GNU FDL (versions 1.2 or
9409 1.3) should refer to the corresponding files
9410 under <file>/usr/share/common-licenses</file>,<footnote>
9413 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/Apache-2.0</file>,
9414 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/Artistic</file>,
9415 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-1</file>,
9416 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-2</file>,
9417 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3</file>,
9418 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2</file>,
9419 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-2.1</file>,
9420 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-3</file>,
9421 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GFDL-1.2</file>, and
9422 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/GFDL-1.3</file>
9423 respectively. The University of California BSD license is
9424 also included in <package>base-files</package> as
9425 <file>/usr/share/common-licenses/BSD</file>, but given the
9426 brevity of this license, its specificity to code whose
9427 copyright is held by the Regents of the University of
9428 California, and the frequency of minor wording changes, its
9429 text should be included in the copyright file rather than
9430 referencing this file.
9432 </footnote> rather than quoting them in the copyright
9437 You should not use the copyright file as a general <file>README</file>
9438 file. If your package has such a file it should be
9439 installed in <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/README</file> or
9440 <file>README.Debian</file> or some other appropriate place.</p>
9444 <heading>Examples</heading>
9447 Any examples (configurations, source files, whatever),
9448 should be installed in a directory
9449 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file>. These
9450 files should not be referenced by any program: they're there
9451 for the benefit of the system administrator and users as
9452 documentation only. Architecture-specific example files
9453 should be installed in a directory
9454 <file>/usr/lib/<var>package</var>/examples</file> with symbolic
9456 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/examples</file>, or the
9457 latter directory itself may be a symbolic link to the
9462 If the purpose of a package is to provide examples, then the
9463 example files may be installed into
9464 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file>.
9468 <sect id="changelogs">
9469 <heading>Changelog files</heading>
9472 Packages that are not Debian-native must contain a
9473 compressed copy of the <file>debian/changelog</file> file from
9474 the Debian source tree in
9475 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var></file> with the name
9476 <file>changelog.Debian.gz</file>.
9480 If an upstream changelog is available, it should be accessible as
9481 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.gz</file> in
9482 plain text. If the upstream changelog is distributed in
9483 HTML, it should be made available in that form as
9484 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.html.gz</file>
9485 and a plain text <file>changelog.gz</file> should be generated
9486 from it using, for example, <tt>lynx -dump -nolist</tt>. If
9487 the upstream changelog files do not already conform to this
9488 naming convention, then this may be achieved either by
9489 renaming the files, or by adding a symbolic link, at the
9490 maintainer's discretion.<footnote>
9491 Rationale: People should not have to look in places for
9492 upstream changelogs merely because they are given
9493 different names or are distributed in HTML format.
9498 All of these files should be installed compressed using
9499 <tt>gzip -9</tt>, as they will become large with time even
9500 if they start out small.
9504 If the package has only one changelog which is used both as
9505 the Debian changelog and the upstream one because there is
9506 no separate upstream maintainer then that changelog should
9507 usually be installed as
9508 <file>/usr/share/doc/<var>package</var>/changelog.gz</file>; if
9509 there is a separate upstream maintainer, but no upstream
9510 changelog, then the Debian changelog should still be called
9511 <file>changelog.Debian.gz</file>.
9515 For details about the format and contents of the Debian
9516 changelog file, please see <ref id="dpkgchangelog">.
9521 <appendix id="pkg-scope">
9522 <heading>Introduction and scope of these appendices</heading>
9525 These appendices are taken essentially verbatim from the
9526 now-deprecated Packaging Manual, version 3.2.1.0. They are
9527 the chapters which are likely to be of use to package
9528 maintainers and which have not already been included in the
9529 policy document itself. Most of these sections are very likely
9530 not relevant to policy; they should be treated as
9531 documentation for the packaging system. Please note that these
9532 appendices are included for convenience, and for historical
9533 reasons: they used to be part of policy package, and they have
9534 not yet been incorporated into dpkg documentation. However,
9535 they still have value, and hence they are presented here.
9539 They have not yet been checked to ensure that they are
9540 compatible with the contents of policy, and if there are any
9541 contradictions, the version in the main policy document takes
9542 precedence. The remaining chapters of the old Packaging
9543 Manual have also not been read in detail to ensure that there
9544 are not parts which have been left out. Both of these will be
9549 Certain parts of the Packaging manual were integrated into the
9550 Policy Manual proper, and removed from the appendices. Links
9551 have been placed from the old locations to the new ones.
9555 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is a suite of programs for creating binary
9556 package files and installing and removing them on Unix
9558 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> is targeted primarily at Debian
9559 GNU/Linux, but may work on or be ported to other
9565 The binary packages are designed for the management of
9566 installed executable programs (usually compiled binaries) and
9567 their associated data, though source code examples and
9568 documentation are provided as part of some packages.</p>
9571 This manual describes the technical aspects of creating Debian
9572 binary packages (<file>.deb</file> files). It documents the
9573 behavior of the package management programs
9574 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>, <prgn>dselect</prgn> et al. and the way
9575 they interact with packages.</p>
9578 It also documents the interaction between
9579 <prgn>dselect</prgn>'s core and the access method scripts it
9580 uses to actually install the selected packages, and describes
9581 how to create a new access method.</p>
9584 This manual does not go into detail about the options and
9585 usage of the package building and installation tools. It
9586 should therefore be read in conjunction with those programs'
9591 The utility programs which are provided with <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
9592 for managing various system configuration and similar issues,
9593 such as <prgn>update-rc.d</prgn> and
9594 <prgn>install-info</prgn>, are not described in detail here -
9595 please see their man pages.
9599 It is assumed that the reader is reasonably familiar with the
9600 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> System Administrators' manual.
9601 Unfortunately this manual does not yet exist.
9605 The Debian version of the FSF's GNU hello program is provided
9606 as an example for people wishing to create Debian
9607 packages. The Debian <prgn>debmake</prgn> package is
9608 recommended as a very helpful tool in creating and maintaining
9609 Debian packages. However, while the tools and examples are
9610 helpful, they do not replace the need to read and follow the
9611 Policy and Programmer's Manual.</p>
9614 <appendix id="pkg-binarypkg">
9615 <heading>Binary packages (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
9618 The binary package has two main sections. The first part
9619 consists of various control information files and scripts used
9620 by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when installing and removing. See <ref
9621 id="pkg-controlarea">.
9625 The second part is an archive containing the files and
9626 directories to be installed.
9630 In the future binary packages may also contain other
9631 components, such as checksums and digital signatures. The
9632 format for the archive is described in full in the
9633 <file>deb(5)</file> man page.
9637 <sect id="pkg-bincreating"><heading>Creating package files -
9638 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn>
9642 All manipulation of binary package files is done by
9643 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn>; it's the only program that has
9644 knowledge of the format. (<prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> may be
9645 invoked by calling <prgn>dpkg</prgn>, as <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
9646 will spot that the options requested are appropriate to
9647 <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> and invoke that instead with the same
9652 In order to create a binary package you must make a
9653 directory tree which contains all the files and directories
9654 you want to have in the file system data part of the package.
9655 In Debian-format source packages this directory is usually
9656 <file>debian/tmp</file>, relative to the top of the package's
9661 They should have the locations (relative to the root of the
9662 directory tree you're constructing) ownerships and
9663 permissions which you want them to have on the system when
9668 With current versions of <prgn>dpkg</prgn> the uid/username
9669 and gid/groupname mappings for the users and groups being
9670 used should be the same on the system where the package is
9671 built and the one where it is installed.
9675 You need to add one special directory to the root of the
9676 miniature file system tree you're creating:
9677 <prgn>DEBIAN</prgn>. It should contain the control
9678 information files, notably the binary package control file
9679 (see <ref id="pkg-controlfile">).
9683 The <prgn>DEBIAN</prgn> directory will not appear in the
9684 file system archive of the package, and so won't be installed
9685 by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when the package is installed.
9689 When you've prepared the package, you should invoke:
9691 dpkg --build <var>directory</var>
9696 This will build the package in
9697 <file><var>directory</var>.deb</file>. (<prgn>dpkg</prgn> knows
9698 that <tt>--build</tt> is a <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> option, so
9699 it invokes <prgn>dpkg-deb</prgn> with the same arguments to
9704 See the man page <manref name="dpkg-deb" section="8"> for details of how
9705 to examine the contents of this newly-created file. You may find the
9706 output of following commands enlightening:
9708 dpkg-deb --info <var>filename</var>.deb
9709 dpkg-deb --contents <var>filename</var>.deb
9710 dpkg --contents <var>filename</var>.deb
9712 To view the copyright file for a package you could use this command:
9714 dpkg --fsys-tarfile <var>filename</var>.deb | tar xOf - --wildcards \*/copyright | pager
9719 <sect id="pkg-controlarea">
9720 <heading>Package control information files</heading>
9723 The control information portion of a binary package is a
9724 collection of files with names known to <prgn>dpkg</prgn>.
9725 It will treat the contents of these files specially - some
9726 of them contain information used by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when
9727 installing or removing the package; others are scripts which
9728 the package maintainer wants <prgn>dpkg</prgn> to run.
9732 It is possible to put other files in the package control
9733 information file area, but this is not generally a good idea
9734 (though they will largely be ignored).
9738 Here is a brief list of the control information files supported
9739 by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> and a summary of what they're used for.
9744 <tag><tt>control</tt>
9747 This is the key description file used by
9748 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. It specifies the package's name
9749 and version, gives its description for the user,
9750 states its relationships with other packages, and so
9751 forth. See <ref id="sourcecontrolfiles"> and
9752 <ref id="binarycontrolfiles">.
9756 It is usually generated automatically from information
9757 in the source package by the
9758 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> program, and with
9759 assistance from <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>.
9760 See <ref id="pkg-sourcetools">.
9764 <tag><tt>postinst</tt>, <tt>preinst</tt>, <tt>postrm</tt>,
9769 These are executable files (usually scripts) which
9770 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> runs during installation, upgrade
9771 and removal of packages. They allow the package to
9772 deal with matters which are particular to that package
9773 or require more complicated processing than that
9774 provided by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>. Details of when and
9775 how they are called are in <ref id="maintainerscripts">.
9779 It is very important to make these scripts idempotent.
9780 See <ref id="idempotency">.
9784 The maintainer scripts are not guaranteed to run with a
9785 controlling terminal and may not be able to interact with
9786 the user. See <ref id="controllingterminal">.
9790 <tag><tt>conffiles</tt>
9793 This file contains a list of configuration files which
9794 are to be handled automatically by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>
9795 (see <ref id="pkg-conffiles">). Note that not necessarily
9796 every configuration file should be listed here.
9799 <tag><tt>shlibs</tt>
9802 This file contains a list of the shared libraries
9803 supplied by the package, with dependency details for
9804 each. This is used by <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn>
9805 when it determines what dependencies are required in a
9806 package control file. The <tt>shlibs</tt> file format
9807 is described on <ref id="shlibs">.
9812 <sect id="pkg-controlfile">
9813 <heading>The main control information file: <tt>control</tt></heading>
9816 The most important control information file used by
9817 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> when it installs a package is
9818 <tt>control</tt>. It contains all the package's "vital
9823 The binary package control files of packages built from
9824 Debian sources are made by a special tool,
9825 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>, which reads
9826 <file>debian/control</file> and <file>debian/changelog</file> to
9827 find the information it needs. See <ref id="pkg-sourcepkg"> for
9832 The fields in binary package control files are listed in
9833 <ref id="binarycontrolfiles">.
9837 A description of the syntax of control files and the purpose
9838 of the fields is available in <ref id="controlfields">.
9843 <heading>Time Stamps</heading>
9846 See <ref id="timestamps">.
9851 <appendix id="pkg-sourcepkg">
9852 <heading>Source packages (from old Packaging Manual) </heading>
9855 The Debian binary packages in the distribution are generated
9856 from Debian sources, which are in a special format to assist
9857 the easy and automatic building of binaries.
9860 <sect id="pkg-sourcetools">
9861 <heading>Tools for processing source packages</heading>
9864 Various tools are provided for manipulating source packages;
9865 they pack and unpack sources and help build of binary
9866 packages and help manage the distribution of new versions.
9870 They are introduced and typical uses described here; see
9871 <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1"> for full
9872 documentation about their arguments and operation.
9876 For examples of how to construct a Debian source package,
9877 and how to use those utilities that are used by Debian
9878 source packages, please see the <prgn>hello</prgn> example
9882 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-source">
9884 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> - packs and unpacks Debian source
9889 This program is frequently used by hand, and is also
9890 called from package-independent automated building scripts
9891 such as <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>.
9895 To unpack a package it is typically invoked with
9897 dpkg-source -x <var>.../path/to/filename</var>.dsc
9902 with the <file><var>filename</var>.tar.gz</file> and
9903 <file><var>filename</var>.diff.gz</file> (if applicable) in
9904 the same directory. It unpacks into
9905 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>, and if
9907 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var>.orig</file>, in
9908 the current directory.
9912 To create a packed source archive it is typically invoked:
9914 dpkg-source -b <var>package</var>-<var>version</var>
9919 This will create the <file>.dsc</file>, <file>.tar.gz</file> and
9920 <file>.diff.gz</file> (if appropriate) in the current
9921 directory. <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> does not clean the
9922 source tree first - this must be done separately if it is
9927 See also <ref id="pkg-sourcearchives">.</p>
9931 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-buildpackage">
9933 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> - overall package-building
9938 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn> is a script which invokes
9939 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>, the <file>debian/rules</file>
9940 targets <tt>clean</tt>, <tt>build</tt> and
9941 <tt>binary</tt>, <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> and
9942 <prgn>gpg</prgn> (or <prgn>pgp</prgn>) to build a signed
9943 source and binary package upload.
9947 It is usually invoked by hand from the top level of the
9948 built or unbuilt source directory. It may be invoked with
9949 no arguments; useful arguments include:
9950 <taglist compact="compact">
9951 <tag><tt>-uc</tt>, <tt>-us</tt></tag>
9954 Do not sign the <tt>.changes</tt> file or the
9955 source package <tt>.dsc</tt> file, respectively.</p>
9957 <tag><tt>-p<var>sign-command</var></tt></tag>
9960 Invoke <var>sign-command</var> instead of finding
9961 <tt>gpg</tt> or <tt>pgp</tt> on the <prgn>PATH</prgn>.
9962 <var>sign-command</var> must behave just like
9963 <prgn>gpg</prgn> or <tt>pgp</tt>.</p>
9965 <tag><tt>-r<var>root-command</var></tt></tag>
9968 When root privilege is required, invoke the command
9969 <var>root-command</var>. <var>root-command</var>
9970 should invoke its first argument as a command, from
9971 the <prgn>PATH</prgn> if necessary, and pass its
9972 second and subsequent arguments to the command it
9973 calls. If no <var>root-command</var> is supplied
9974 then <var>dpkg-buildpackage</var> will take no
9975 special action to gain root privilege, so that for
9976 most packages it will have to be invoked as root to
9979 <tag><tt>-b</tt>, <tt>-B</tt></tag>
9982 Two types of binary-only build and upload - see
9983 <manref name="dpkg-source" section="1">.
9990 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-gencontrol">
9992 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> - generates binary package
9997 This program is usually called from <file>debian/rules</file>
9998 (see <ref id="pkg-sourcetree">) in the top level of the source
10003 This is usually done just before the files and directories in the
10004 temporary directory tree where the package is being built have their
10005 permissions and ownerships set and the package is constructed using
10006 <prgn>dpkg-deb/</prgn>
10008 This is so that the control file which is produced has
10009 the right permissions
10014 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> must be called after all the
10015 files which are to go into the package have been placed in
10016 the temporary build directory, so that its calculation of
10017 the installed size of a package is correct.
10021 It is also necessary for <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> to
10022 be run after <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> so that the
10023 variable substitutions created by
10024 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> in <file>debian/substvars</file>
10029 For a package which generates only one binary package, and
10030 which builds it in <file>debian/tmp</file> relative to the top
10031 of the source package, it is usually sufficient to call
10032 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn>.
10036 Sources which build several binaries will typically need
10039 dpkg-gencontrol -Pdebian/tmp-<var>pkg</var> -p<var>package</var>
10040 </example> The <tt>-P</tt> tells
10041 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> that the package is being
10042 built in a non-default directory, and the <tt>-p</tt>
10043 tells it which package's control file should be generated.
10047 <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> also adds information to the
10048 list of files in <file>debian/files</file>, for the benefit of
10049 (for example) a future invocation of
10050 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn>.</p>
10053 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-shlibdeps">
10055 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> - calculates shared library
10060 This program is usually called from <file>debian/rules</file>
10061 just before <prgn>dpkg-gencontrol</prgn> (see <ref
10062 id="pkg-sourcetree">), in the top level of the source tree.
10066 Its arguments are executables and shared libraries
10069 They may be specified either in the locations in the
10070 source tree where they are created or in the locations
10071 in the temporary build tree where they are installed
10072 prior to binary package creation.
10074 </footnote> for which shared library dependencies should
10075 be included in the binary package's control file.
10079 If some of the found shared libraries should only
10080 warrant a <tt>Recommends</tt> or <tt>Suggests</tt>, or if
10081 some warrant a <tt>Pre-Depends</tt>, this can be achieved
10082 by using the <tt>-d<var>dependency-field</var></tt> option
10083 before those executable(s). (Each <tt>-d</tt> option
10084 takes effect until the next <tt>-d</tt>.)
10088 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> does not directly cause the
10089 output control file to be modified. Instead by default it
10090 adds to the <file>debian/substvars</file> file variable
10091 settings like <tt>shlibs:Depends</tt>. These variable
10092 settings must be referenced in dependency fields in the
10093 appropriate per-binary-package sections of the source
10098 For example, a package that generates an essential part
10099 which requires dependencies, and optional parts that
10100 which only require a recommendation, would separate those
10101 two sets of dependencies into two different fields.<footnote>
10102 At the time of writing, an example for this was the
10103 <package/xmms/ package, with Depends used for the xmms
10104 executable, Recommends for the plug-ins and Suggests for
10105 even more optional features provided by unzip.
10107 It can say in its <file>debian/rules</file>:
10109 dpkg-shlibdeps -dDepends <var>program anotherprogram ...</var> \
10110 -dRecommends <var>optionalpart anotheroptionalpart</var>
10112 and then in its main control file <file>debian/control</file>:
10115 Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}
10116 Recommends: ${shlibs:Recommends}
10122 Sources which produce several binary packages with
10123 different shared library dependency requirements can use
10124 the <tt>-p<var>varnameprefix</var></tt> option to override
10125 the default <tt>shlibs:</tt> prefix (one invocation of
10126 <prgn>dpkg-shlibdeps</prgn> per setting of this option).
10127 They can thus produce several sets of dependency
10128 variables, each of the form
10129 <tt><var>varnameprefix</var>:<var>dependencyfield</var></tt>,
10130 which can be referred to in the appropriate parts of the
10131 binary package control files.
10136 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-distaddfile">
10138 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> - adds a file to
10139 <file>debian/files</file>
10143 Some packages' uploads need to include files other than
10144 the source and binary package files.
10148 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn> adds a file to the
10149 <file>debian/files</file> file so that it will be included in
10150 the <file>.changes</file> file when
10151 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> is run.
10155 It is usually invoked from the <tt>binary</tt> target of
10156 <file>debian/rules</file>:
10158 dpkg-distaddfile <var>filename</var> <var>section</var> <var>priority</var>
10160 The <var>filename</var> is relative to the directory where
10161 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> will expect to find it - this
10162 is usually the directory above the top level of the source
10163 tree. The <file>debian/rules</file> target should put the
10164 file there just before or just after calling
10165 <prgn>dpkg-distaddfile</prgn>.
10169 The <var>section</var> and <var>priority</var> are passed
10170 unchanged into the resulting <file>.changes</file> file.
10175 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-genchanges">
10177 <prgn>dpkg-genchanges</prgn> - generates a <file>.changes</file>
10178 upload control file
10182 This program is usually called by package-independent
10183 automatic building scripts such as
10184 <prgn>dpkg-buildpackage</prgn>, but it may also be called
10189 It is usually called in the top level of a built source
10190 tree, and when invoked with no arguments will print out a
10191 straightforward <file>.changes</file> file based on the
10192 information in the source package's changelog and control
10193 file and the binary and source packages which should have
10199 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-parsechangelog">
10201 <prgn>dpkg-parsechangelog</prgn> - produces parsed
10202 representation of a changelog
10206 This program is used internally by
10207 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> et al. It may also occasionally
10208 be useful in <file>debian/rules</file> and elsewhere. It
10209 parses a changelog, <file>debian/changelog</file> by default,
10210 and prints a control-file format representation of the
10211 information in it to standard output.
10215 <sect1 id="pkg-dpkg-architecture">
10217 <prgn>dpkg-architecture</prgn> - information about the build and
10222 This program can be used manually, but is also invoked by
10223 <tt>dpkg-buildpackage</tt> or <file>debian/rules</file> to set
10224 environment or make variables which specify the build and host
10225 architecture for the package building process.
10230 <sect id="pkg-sourcetree">
10231 <heading>The Debian package source tree</heading>
10234 The source archive scheme described later is intended to
10235 allow a Debian package source tree with some associated
10236 control information to be reproduced and transported easily.
10237 The Debian package source tree is a version of the original
10238 program with certain files added for the benefit of the
10239 packaging process, and with any other changes required
10240 made to the rest of the source code and installation
10245 The extra files created for Debian are in the subdirectory
10246 <file>debian</file> of the top level of the Debian package
10247 source tree. They are described below.
10250 <sect1 id="pkg-debianrules">
10251 <heading><file>debian/rules</file> - the main building script</heading>
10254 See <ref id="debianrules">.
10258 <sect1 id="pkg-srcsubstvars">
10259 <heading><file>debian/substvars</file> and variable substitutions</heading>
10262 See <ref id="substvars">.
10268 <heading><file>debian/files</file></heading>
10271 See <ref id="debianfiles">.
10275 <sect1><heading><file>debian/tmp</file>
10279 This is the canonical temporary location for the
10280 construction of binary packages by the <tt>binary</tt>
10281 target. The directory <file>tmp</file> serves as the root of
10282 the file system tree as it is being constructed (for
10283 example, by using the package's upstream makefiles install
10284 targets and redirecting the output there), and it also
10285 contains the <tt>DEBIAN</tt> subdirectory. See <ref
10286 id="pkg-bincreating">.
10290 If several binary packages are generated from the same
10291 source tree it is usual to use several
10292 <file>debian/tmp<var>something</var></file> directories, for
10293 example <file>tmp-a</file> or <file>tmp-doc</file>.
10297 Whatever <file>tmp</file> directories are created and used by
10298 <tt>binary</tt> must of course be removed by the
10299 <tt>clean</tt> target.</p></sect1>
10303 <sect id="pkg-sourcearchives"><heading>Source packages as archives
10307 As it exists on the FTP site, a Debian source package
10308 consists of three related files. You must have the right
10309 versions of all three to be able to use them.
10314 <tag>Debian source control file - <tt>.dsc</tt></tag>
10316 This file is a control file used by <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>
10317 to extract a source package.
10318 See <ref id="debiansourcecontrolfiles">.
10322 Original source archive -
10324 <var>package</var>_<var>upstream-version</var>.orig.tar.gz
10330 This is a compressed (with <tt>gzip -9</tt>)
10331 <prgn>tar</prgn> file containing the source code from
10332 the upstream authors of the program.
10337 Debian package diff -
10339 <var>package</var>_<var>upstream_version-revision</var>.diff.gz
10345 This is a unified context diff (<tt>diff -u</tt>)
10346 giving the changes which are required to turn the
10347 original source into the Debian source. These changes
10348 may only include editing and creating plain files.
10349 The permissions of files, the targets of symbolic
10350 links and the characteristics of special files or
10351 pipes may not be changed and no files may be removed
10356 All the directories in the diff must exist, except the
10357 <file>debian</file> subdirectory of the top of the source
10358 tree, which will be created by
10359 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> if necessary when unpacking.
10363 The <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> program will
10364 automatically make the <file>debian/rules</file> file
10365 executable (see below).</p></item>
10370 If there is no original source code - for example, if the
10371 package is specially prepared for Debian or the Debian
10372 maintainer is the same as the upstream maintainer - the
10373 format is slightly different: then there is no diff, and the
10375 <file><var>package</var>_<var>version</var>.tar.gz</file>,
10376 and preferably contains a directory named
10377 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>.
10382 <heading>Unpacking a Debian source package without <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn></heading>
10385 <tt>dpkg-source -x</tt> is the recommended way to unpack a
10386 Debian source package. However, if it is not available it
10387 is possible to unpack a Debian source archive as follows:
10388 <enumlist compact="compact">
10391 Untar the tarfile, which will create a <file>.orig</file>
10395 <p>Rename the <file>.orig</file> directory to
10396 <file><var>package</var>-<var>version</var></file>.</p>
10400 Create the subdirectory <file>debian</file> at the top of
10401 the source tree.</p>
10403 <item><p>Apply the diff using <tt>patch -p0</tt>.</p>
10405 <item><p>Untar the tarfile again if you want a copy of the original
10406 source code alongside the Debian version.</p>
10411 It is not possible to generate a valid Debian source archive
10412 without using <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>. In particular,
10413 attempting to use <prgn>diff</prgn> directly to generate the
10414 <file>.diff.gz</file> file will not work.
10418 <heading>Restrictions on objects in source packages</heading>
10421 The source package may not contain any hard links
10423 This is not currently detected when building source
10424 packages, but only when extracting
10428 Hard links may be permitted at some point in the
10429 future, but would require a fair amount of
10431 </footnote>, device special files, sockets or setuid or
10434 Setgid directories are allowed.
10439 The source packaging tools manage the changes between the
10440 original and Debian source using <prgn>diff</prgn> and
10441 <prgn>patch</prgn>. Turning the original source tree as
10442 included in the <file>.orig.tar.gz</file> into the Debian
10443 package source must not involve any changes which cannot be
10444 handled by these tools. Problematic changes which cause
10445 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> to halt with an error when
10446 building the source package are:
10447 <list compact="compact">
10448 <item><p>Adding or removing symbolic links, sockets or pipes.</p>
10450 <item><p>Changing the targets of symbolic links.</p>
10452 <item><p>Creating directories, other than <file>debian</file>.</p>
10454 <item><p>Changes to the contents of binary files.</p></item>
10455 </list> Changes which cause <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> to
10456 print a warning but continue anyway are:
10457 <list compact="compact">
10460 Removing files, directories or symlinks.
10462 Renaming a file is not treated specially - it is
10463 seen as the removal of the old file (which
10464 generates a warning, but is otherwise ignored),
10465 and the creation of the new one.
10471 Changed text files which are missing the usual final
10472 newline (either in the original or the modified
10477 Changes which are not represented, but which are not detected by
10478 <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn>, are:
10479 <list compact="compact">
10480 <item><p>Changing the permissions of files (other than
10481 <file>debian/rules</file>) and directories.</p></item>
10486 The <file>debian</file> directory and <file>debian/rules</file>
10487 are handled specially by <prgn>dpkg-source</prgn> - before
10488 applying the changes it will create the <file>debian</file>
10489 directory, and afterwards it will make
10490 <file>debian/rules</file> world-executable.
10496 <appendix id="pkg-controlfields">
10497 <heading>Control files and their fields (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
10500 Many of the tools in the <prgn>dpkg</prgn> suite manipulate
10501 data in a common format, known as control files. Binary and
10502 source packages have control data as do the <file>.changes</file>
10503 files which control the installation of uploaded files, and
10504 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s internal databases are in a similar
10509 <heading>Syntax of control files</heading>
10512 See <ref id="controlsyntax">.
10516 It is important to note that there are several fields which
10517 are optional as far as <prgn>dpkg</prgn> and the related
10518 tools are concerned, but which must appear in every Debian
10519 package, or whose omission may cause problems.
10524 <heading>List of fields</heading>
10527 See <ref id="controlfieldslist">.
10531 This section now contains only the fields that didn't belong
10532 to the Policy manual.
10535 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Filename">
10536 <heading><tt>Filename</tt> and <tt>MSDOS-Filename</tt></heading>
10539 These fields in <tt>Packages</tt> files give the
10540 filename(s) of (the parts of) a package in the
10541 distribution directories, relative to the root of the
10542 Debian hierarchy. If the package has been split into
10543 several parts the parts are all listed in order, separated
10548 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Size">
10549 <heading><tt>Size</tt> and <tt>MD5sum</tt></heading>
10552 These fields in <file>Packages</file> files give the size (in
10553 bytes, expressed in decimal) and MD5 checksum of the
10554 file(s) which make(s) up a binary package in the
10555 distribution. If the package is split into several parts
10556 the values for the parts are listed in order, separated by
10561 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Status">
10562 <heading><tt>Status</tt></heading>
10565 This field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file records
10566 whether the user wants a package installed, removed or
10567 left alone, whether it is broken (requiring
10568 re-installation) or not and what its current state on the
10569 system is. Each of these pieces of information is a
10574 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Config-Version">
10575 <heading><tt>Config-Version</tt></heading>
10578 If a package is not installed or not configured, this
10579 field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file records the last
10580 version of the package which was successfully
10585 <sect1 id="pkg-f-Conffiles">
10586 <heading><tt>Conffiles</tt></heading>
10589 This field in <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s status file contains
10590 information about the automatically-managed configuration
10591 files held by a package. This field should <em>not</em>
10592 appear anywhere in a package!
10597 <heading>Obsolete fields</heading>
10600 These are still recognized by <prgn>dpkg</prgn> but should
10601 not appear anywhere any more.
10603 <taglist compact="compact">
10605 <tag><tt>Revision</tt></tag>
10606 <tag><tt>Package-Revision</tt></tag>
10607 <tag><tt>Package_Revision</tt></tag>
10609 The Debian revision part of the package version was
10610 at one point in a separate control field. This
10611 field went through several names.
10614 <tag><tt>Recommended</tt></tag>
10615 <item>Old name for <tt>Recommends</tt>.</item>
10617 <tag><tt>Optional</tt></tag>
10618 <item>Old name for <tt>Suggests</tt>.</item>
10620 <tag><tt>Class</tt></tag>
10621 <item>Old name for <tt>Priority</tt>.</item>
10630 <appendix id="pkg-conffiles">
10631 <heading>Configuration file handling (from old Packaging Manual)</heading>
10634 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> can do a certain amount of automatic
10635 handling of package configuration files.
10639 Whether this mechanism is appropriate depends on a number of
10640 factors, but basically there are two approaches to any
10641 particular configuration file.
10645 The easy method is to ship a best-effort configuration in the
10646 package, and use <prgn>dpkg</prgn>'s conffile mechanism to
10647 handle updates. If the user is unlikely to want to edit the
10648 file, but you need them to be able to without losing their
10649 changes, and a new package with a changed version of the file
10650 is only released infrequently, this is a good approach.
10654 The hard method is to build the configuration file from
10655 scratch in the <prgn>postinst</prgn> script, and to take the
10656 responsibility for fixing any mistakes made in earlier
10657 versions of the package automatically. This will be
10658 appropriate if the file is likely to need to be different on
10662 <sect><heading>Automatic handling of configuration files by
10667 A package may contain a control information file called
10668 <tt>conffiles</tt>. This file should be a list of filenames
10669 of configuration files needing automatic handling, separated
10670 by newlines. The filenames should be absolute pathnames,
10671 and the files referred to should actually exist in the
10676 When a package is upgraded <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will process
10677 the configuration files during the configuration stage,
10678 shortly before it runs the package's <prgn>postinst</prgn>
10683 For each file it checks to see whether the version of the
10684 file included in the package is the same as the one that was
10685 included in the last version of the package (the one that is
10686 being upgraded from); it also compares the version currently
10687 installed on the system with the one shipped with the last
10692 If neither the user nor the package maintainer has changed
10693 the file, it is left alone. If one or the other has changed
10694 their version, then the changed version is preferred - i.e.,
10695 if the user edits their file, but the package maintainer
10696 doesn't ship a different version, the user's changes will
10697 stay, silently, but if the maintainer ships a new version
10698 and the user hasn't edited it the new version will be
10699 installed (with an informative message). If both have
10700 changed their version the user is prompted about the problem
10701 and must resolve the differences themselves.
10705 The comparisons are done by calculating the MD5 message
10706 digests of the files, and storing the MD5 of the file as it
10707 was included in the most recent version of the package.
10711 When a package is installed for the first time
10712 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will install the file that comes with it,
10713 unless that would mean overwriting a file already on the
10718 However, note that <prgn>dpkg</prgn> will <em>not</em>
10719 replace a conffile that was removed by the user (or by a
10720 script). This is necessary because with some programs a
10721 missing file produces an effect hard or impossible to
10722 achieve in another way, so that a missing file needs to be
10723 kept that way if the user did it.
10727 Note that a package should <em>not</em> modify a
10728 <prgn>dpkg</prgn>-handled conffile in its maintainer
10729 scripts. Doing this will lead to <prgn>dpkg</prgn> giving
10730 the user confusing and possibly dangerous options for
10731 conffile update when the package is upgraded.</p>
10734 <sect><heading>Fully-featured maintainer script configuration
10739 For files which contain site-specific information such as
10740 the hostname and networking details and so forth, it is
10741 better to create the file in the package's
10742 <prgn>postinst</prgn> script.
10746 This will typically involve examining the state of the rest
10747 of the system to determine values and other information, and
10748 may involve prompting the user for some information which
10749 can't be obtained some other way.
10753 When using this method there are a couple of important
10754 issues which should be considered:
10758 If you discover a bug in the program which generates the
10759 configuration file, or if the format of the file changes
10760 from one version to the next, you will have to arrange for
10761 the postinst script to do something sensible - usually this
10762 will mean editing the installed configuration file to remove
10763 the problem or change the syntax. You will have to do this
10764 very carefully, since the user may have changed the file,
10765 perhaps to fix the very problem that your script is trying
10766 to deal with - you will have to detect these situations and
10767 deal with them correctly.
10771 If you do go down this route it's probably a good idea to
10772 make the program that generates the configuration file(s) a
10773 separate program in <file>/usr/sbin</file>, by convention called
10774 <file><var>package</var>config</file> and then run that if
10775 appropriate from the post-installation script. The
10776 <tt><var>package</var>config</tt> program should not
10777 unquestioningly overwrite an existing configuration - if its
10778 mode of operation is geared towards setting up a package for
10779 the first time (rather than any arbitrary reconfiguration
10780 later) you should have it check whether the configuration
10781 already exists, and require a <tt>--force</tt> flag to
10782 overwrite it.</p></sect>
10785 <appendix id="pkg-alternatives"><heading>Alternative versions of
10786 an interface - <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> (from old
10791 When several packages all provide different versions of the
10792 same program or file it is useful to have the system select a
10793 default, but to allow the system administrator to change it
10794 and have their decisions respected.
10798 For example, there are several versions of the <prgn>vi</prgn>
10799 editor, and there is no reason to prevent all of them from
10800 being installed at once, each under their own name
10801 (<prgn>nvi</prgn>, <prgn>vim</prgn> or whatever).
10802 Nevertheless it is desirable to have the name <tt>vi</tt>
10803 refer to something, at least by default.
10807 If all the packages involved cooperate, this can be done with
10808 <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn>.
10812 Each package provides its own version under its own name, and
10813 calls <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> in its postinst to
10814 register its version (and again in its prerm to deregister
10819 See the man page <manref name="update-alternatives"
10820 section="8"> for details.
10824 If <prgn>update-alternatives</prgn> does not seem appropriate
10825 you may wish to consider using diversions instead.</p>
10828 <appendix id="pkg-diversions"><heading>Diversions - overriding a
10829 package's version of a file (from old Packaging Manual)
10833 It is possible to have <prgn>dpkg</prgn> not overwrite a file
10834 when it reinstalls the package it belongs to, and to have it
10835 put the file from the package somewhere else instead.
10839 This can be used locally to override a package's version of a
10840 file, or by one package to override another's version (or
10841 provide a wrapper for it).
10845 Before deciding to use a diversion, read <ref
10846 id="pkg-alternatives"> to see if you really want a diversion
10847 rather than several alternative versions of a program.
10851 There is a diversion list, which is read by <prgn>dpkg</prgn>,
10852 and updated by a special program <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn>.
10853 Please see <manref name="dpkg-divert" section="8"> for full
10854 details of its operation.
10858 When a package wishes to divert a file from another, it should
10859 call <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> in its preinst to add the
10860 diversion and rename the existing file. For example,
10861 supposing that a <prgn>smailwrapper</prgn> package wishes to
10862 install a wrapper around <file>/usr/sbin/smail</file>:
10864 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --add --rename \
10865 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10866 </example> The <tt>--package smailwrapper</tt> ensures that
10867 <prgn>smailwrapper</prgn>'s copy of <file>/usr/sbin/smail</file>
10868 can bypass the diversion and get installed as the true version.
10869 It's safe to add the diversion unconditionally on upgrades since
10870 it will be left unchanged if it already exists, but
10871 <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn> will display a message. To suppress that
10872 message, make the command conditional on the version from which
10873 the package is being upgraded:
10875 if [ upgrade != "$1" ] || dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1.0-2; then
10876 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --add --rename \
10877 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10879 </example> where <tt>1.0-2</tt> is the version at which the
10880 diversion was first added to the package. Running the command
10881 during abort-upgrade is pointless but harmless.
10885 The postrm has to do the reverse:
10887 if [ remove = "$1" -o abort-install = "$1" -o disappear = "$1" ]; then
10888 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --remove --rename \
10889 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10891 </example> If the diversion was added at a particular version, the
10892 postrm should also handle the failure case of upgrading from an
10893 older version (unless the older version is so old that direct
10894 upgrades are no longer supported):
10896 if [ abort-upgrade = "$1" ] && dpkg --compare-versions "$2" lt 1.0-2; then
10897 dpkg-divert --package smailwrapper --remove --rename \
10898 --divert /usr/sbin/smail.real /usr/sbin/smail
10900 </example> where <tt>1.02-2</tt> is the version at which the
10901 diversion was first added to the package. The postrm should not
10902 remove the diversion on upgrades both because there's no reason to
10903 remove the diversion only to immediately re-add it and since the
10904 postrm of the old package is run after unpacking so the removal of
10905 the diversion will fail.
10909 Do not attempt to divert a file which is vitally important for
10910 the system's operation - when using <prgn>dpkg-divert</prgn>
10911 there is a time, after it has been diverted but before
10912 <prgn>dpkg</prgn> has installed the new version, when the file
10913 does not exist.</p>
10918 <!-- Local variables: -->
10919 <!-- indent-tabs-mode: t -->
10921 <!-- vim:set ai et sts=2 sw=2 tw=76: -->