{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "deb-control", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-control/5/json", "generated": "2026-05-30T07:08:50Z", "synopsis": "", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "deb-control - Debian binary packages' master control file format\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "DEBIAN/control", "content": "" } ] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "Each Debian binary package contains a control file in its control member, and its deb822(5)\nformat is a subset of the master debian/control file in Debian source packages, see deb-src-\ncontrol(5).\n\nThis file contains a number of fields. Each field begins with a tag, such as Package or\nVersion (case insensitive), followed by a colon, and the body of the field (case sensitive\nunless stated otherwise). Fields are delimited only by field tags. In other words, field\ntext may be multiple lines in length, but the installation tools will generally join lines\nwhen processing the body of the field (except in the case of the Description field, see\nbelow).\n", "subsections": [] }, "FIELDS": { "content": "Package: package-name (required)\nThe value of this field determines the package name, and is used to generate file names\nby most installation tools.\n\nPackage-Type: deb|udeb|type\nThis field defines the type of the package. udeb is for size-constrained packages used\nby the debian installer. deb is the default value, it is assumed if the field is absent.\nMore types might be added in the future.\n\nVersion: version-string (required)\nTypically, this is the original package's version number in whatever form the program's\nauthor uses. It may also include a Debian revision number (for non-native packages). The\nexact format and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).\n\nMaintainer: fullname-email (recommended)\nShould be in the format “Joe Bloggs ”, and is typically the person who\ncreated the package, as opposed to the author of the software that was packaged.\n\nDescription: short-description (recommended)\nlong-description\nThe format for the package description is a short brief summary on the first line (after\nthe Description field). The following lines should be used as a longer, more detailed\ndescription. Each line of the long description must be preceded by a space, and blank\nlines in the long description must contain a single ‘.’ following the preceding space.\n\nSection: section\nThis is a general field that gives the package a category based on the software that it\ninstalls. Some common sections are utils, net, mail, text, x11, etc.\n\nPriority: priority\nSets the importance of this package in relation to the system as a whole. Common\npriorities are required, standard, optional, extra, etc.\n\nThe Section and Priority fields usually have a defined set of accepted values based on the\nspecific distribution policy.\n\nInstalled-Size: size\nThe approximate total size of the package's installed files, in KiB units. The algorithm\nto compute the size is described in deb-substvars(5).\n\nProtected: yes|no\nThis field is usually only needed when the answer is yes. It denotes a package that is\nrequired for proper booting of the system. dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will\nnot allow a Protected package to be removed (at least not without using one of the force\noptions).\n\nSupported since dpkg 1.20.1.\n\nEssential: yes|no\nThis field is usually only needed when the answer is yes. It denotes a package that is\nrequired for proper operation of the system. dpkg(1) or any other installation tool will\nnot allow an Essential package to be removed (at least not without using one of the force\noptions).\n\nBuild-Essential: yes|no\nThis field is usually only needed when the answer is yes, and is commonly injected by the\narchive software. It denotes a package that is required when building other packages.\n\nArchitecture: arch|all (required)\nThe architecture specifies which type of hardware this package was compiled for. Common\narchitectures are amd64, armel, i386, powerpc, etc. Note that the all value is meant for\npackages that are architecture independent. Some examples of this are shell and Perl\nscripts, and documentation.\n\nOrigin: name\nThe name of the distribution this package is originating from.\n\nBugs: url\nThe url of the bug tracking system for this package. The current used format is bts-\ntype://bts-address, like debbugs://bugs.debian.org.\n\nHomepage: url\nThe upstream project home page url.\n\nTag: tag-list\nList of tags describing the qualities of the package. The description and list of\nsupported tags can be found in the debtags package.\n\nMulti-Arch: no|same|foreign|allowed\nThis field is used to indicate how this package should behave on a multi-arch\ninstallations.\n\nno This value is the default when the field is omitted, in which case adding the field\nwith an explicit no value is generally not needed.\n\nsame\nThis package is co-installable with itself, but it must not be used to satisfy the\ndependency of any package of a different architecture from itself.\n\nforeign\nThis package is not co-installable with itself, but should be allowed to satisfy a\nnon-arch-qualified dependency of a package of a different arch from itself (if a\ndependency has an explicit arch-qualifier then the value foreign is ignored).\n\nallowed\nThis allows reverse-dependencies to indicate in their Depends field that they accept\nthis package from a foreign architecture by qualifying the package name with :any,\nbut has no effect otherwise.\n\nSource: source-name [(source-version)]\nThe name of the source package that this binary package came from, if it is different\nthan the name of the package itself. If the source version differs from the binary\nversion, then the source-name will be followed by a source-version in parenthesis. This\ncan happen for example on a binary-only non-maintainer upload, or when setting a\ndifferent binary version via «dpkg-gencontrol -v».\n\nSubarchitecture: value\nKernel-Version: value\nInstaller-Menu-Item: value\nThese fields are used by the debian-installer and are usually not needed. See\n/usr/share/doc/debian-installer/devel/modules.txt from the debian-installer package for\nmore details about them.\n\nDepends: package-list\nList of packages that are required for this package to provide a non-trivial amount of\nfunctionality. The package maintenance software will not allow a package to be installed\nif the packages listed in its Depends field aren't installed (at least not without using\nthe force options). In an installation, the postinst scripts of packages listed in\nDepends fields are run before those of the packages which depend on them. On the\nopposite, in a removal, the prerm script of a package is run before those of the packages\nlisted in its Depends field.\n\nPre-Depends: package-list\nList of packages that must be installed and configured before this one can be installed.\nThis is usually used in the case where this package requires another package for running\nits preinst script.\n\nRecommends: package-list\nLists packages that would be found together with this one in all but unusual\ninstallations. The package maintenance software will warn the user if they install a\npackage without those listed in its Recommends field.\n\nSuggests: package-list\nLists packages that are related to this one and can perhaps enhance its usefulness, but\nwithout which installing this package is perfectly reasonable.\n\nThe syntax of Depends, Pre-Depends, Recommends and Suggests fields is a list of groups of\nalternative packages. Each group is a list of packages separated by vertical bar (or “pipe”)\nsymbols, ‘|’. The groups are separated by commas. Commas are to be read as “AND”, and pipes\nas “OR”, with pipes binding more tightly. Each package name is optionally followed by an\narchitecture qualifier appended after a colon ‘:’, optionally followed by a version number\nspecification in parentheses.\n\nAn architecture qualifier name can be a real Debian architecture name (since dpkg 1.16.5) or\nany (since dpkg 1.16.2). If omitted, the default is the current binary package architecture.\nA real Debian architecture name will match exactly that architecture for that package name,\nany will match any architecture for that package name if the package has been marked as\nMulti-Arch: allowed.\n\nA version number may start with a ‘>>’, in which case any later version will match, and may\nspecify or omit the Debian packaging revision (separated by a hyphen). Accepted version\nrelationships are ‘>>’ for greater than, ‘<<’ for less than, ‘>=’ for greater than or equal\nto, ‘<=’ for less than or equal to, and ‘=’ for equal to.\n\nBreaks: package-list\nLists packages that this one breaks, for example by exposing bugs when the named packages\nrely on this one. The package maintenance software will not allow broken packages to be\nconfigured; generally the resolution is to upgrade the packages named in a Breaks field.\n\nConflicts: package-list\nLists packages that conflict with this one, for example by containing files with the same\nnames. The package maintenance software will not allow conflicting packages to be\ninstalled at the same time. Two conflicting packages should each include a Conflicts line\nmentioning the other.\n\nReplaces: package-list\nList of packages files from which this one replaces. This is used for allowing this\npackage to overwrite the files of another package and is usually used with the Conflicts\nfield to force removal of the other package, if this one also has the same files as the\nconflicted package.\n\nThe syntax of Breaks, Conflicts and Replaces is a list of package names, separated by commas\n(and optional whitespace). In the Breaks and Conflicts fields, the comma should be read as\n“OR”. An optional architecture qualifier can also be appended to the package name with the\nsame syntax as above, but the default is any instead of the binary package architecture. An\noptional version can also be given with the same syntax as above for the Breaks, Conflicts\nand Replaces fields.\n\nEnhances: package-list\nThis is a list of packages that this one enhances. It is similar to Suggests but in the\nopposite direction.\n\nProvides: package-list\nThis is a list of virtual packages that this one provides. Usually this is used in the\ncase of several packages all providing the same service. For example, sendmail and exim\ncan serve as a mail server, so they provide a common package (“mail-transport-agent”) on\nwhich other packages can depend. This will allow sendmail or exim to serve as a valid\noption to satisfy the dependency. This prevents the packages that depend on a mail\nserver from having to know the package names for all of them, and using ‘|’ to separate\nthe list.\n\nThe syntax of Provides is a list of package names, separated by commas (and optional\nwhitespace). An optional architecture qualifier can also be appended to the package name\nwith the same syntax as above. If omitted, the default is the current binary package\narchitecture. An optional exact (equal to) version can also be given with the same syntax as\nabove (honored since dpkg 1.17.11).\n\nBuilt-Using: package-list\nThis field lists extra source packages that were used during the build of this binary\npackage. This is an indication to the archive maintenance software that these extra\nsource packages must be kept whilst this binary package is maintained. This field must\nbe a list of source package names with strict ‘=’ version relationships. Note that the\narchive maintenance software is likely to refuse to accept an upload which declares a\nBuilt-Using relationship which cannot be satisfied within the archive.\n\nBuilt-For-Profiles: profile-list (obsolete)\nThis field used to specify a whitespace separated list of build profiles that this binary\npackages was built with (since dpkg 1.17.2 until 1.18.18). The information previously\nfound in this field can now be found in the .buildinfo file, which supersedes it.\n\nAuto-Built-Package: reason-list\nThis field specifies a whitespace separated list of reasons why this package was auto-\ngenerated. Binary packages marked with this field will not appear in the debian/control\nmaster source control file. The only currently used reason is debug-symbols.\n\nBuild-Ids: elf-build-id-list\nThis field specifies a whitespace separated list of ELF build-ids. These are unique\nidentifiers for semantically identical ELF objects, for each of these within the package.\n\nThe format or the way to compute each build-id is not defined by design.\n", "subsections": [] }, "EXAMPLE": { "content": "Package: grep\nEssential: yes\nPriority: required\nSection: base\nMaintainer: Wichert Akkerman \nArchitecture: sparc\nVersion: 2.4-1\nPre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0.105)\nProvides: rgrep\nConflicts: rgrep\nDescription: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.\nThe GNU family of grep utilities may be the \"fastest grep in the west\".\nGNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about\ntwice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper\nsearch for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being\nconsidered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to\nlook at every character. The result is typically many times faster\nthan Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing\nwill run more slowly, however).\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "The Build-Ids field uses a rather generic name out of its original context within an ELF\nobject, which serves a very specific purpose and executable format.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb(5), deb-version(7), debtags(1), dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1).\n\n\n\n1.21.1 2025-09-09 deb-control(5)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "deb-control - Debian binary packages' master control file format", "flags": [], "examples": [ "Package: grep", "Essential: yes", "Priority: required", "Section: base", "Maintainer: Wichert Akkerman ", "Architecture: sparc", "Version: 2.4-1", "Pre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0.105)", "Provides: rgrep", "Conflicts: rgrep", "Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.", "The GNU family of grep utilities may be the \"fastest grep in the west\".", "GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about", "twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper", "search for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being", "considered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to", "look at every character. The result is typically many times faster", "than Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing", "will run more slowly, however)." ], "see_also": [ { "name": "deb822", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb822/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-src-control", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-src-control/5/json" }, { "name": "deb", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-version", "section": "7", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-version/7/json" }, { "name": "debtags", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/debtags/1/json" }, { "name": "dpkg", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg/1/json" }, { "name": "dpkg-deb", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg-deb/1/json" } ] }