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🏷️ NAME

deb-shlibs – Debian shared library information file

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command / File	Description
📄 Define library dependencies for a binary package	debian/shlibs	Map shared library SONAMEs to package dependencies
📄 Per-binary shlibs file	debian/binary-name.shlibs	Override or supplement the main shlibs file for a specific binary package
📦 Package-level shlibs file	DEBIAN/shlibs	Shipped inside the binary package for consumer packages to use
📐 File format	[type:] library version dependencies	One line per library; whitespace-delimited fields; dependencies extend to end of line
🔍 Supported SONAME patterns	name.so.version and name-version.so	Typically lib‑prefixed name

📋 SYNOPSIS

debian/shlibs, debian/binary-name.shlibs, DEBIAN/shlibs

📝 DESCRIPTION

shlibs files map shared library names and versions (SONAMEs) to dependencies suitable for a package control file. There is one entry per line. Blank lines are not allowed. Lines beginning with a # character are considered commentary, and are ignored. All other lines must have the format:

[type:] library version dependencies

The library and version fields are whitespace-delimited, but the dependencies field extends to the end of the line. The type field is optional and normally not needed.

The dependencies field has the same syntax as the Depends field in a binary control file, see deb-control(5).

🔤 SONAME FORMATS

The SONAME formats supported are:

• name.so.version
• name-version.so

where name is usually prefixed by lib.

🧪 EXAMPLES

The shlibs file for a typical library package, named libcrunch1, that provides one library whose SONAME is libcrunch.so.1, might read:

libcrunch 1 libcrunch1 (>= 1.2-1)

The dependencies must mention the most recent version of the package that added new symbols to the library: in the above example, new symbols were added to version 1.2 of libcrunch. This is not the only reason the dependencies might need to be tightened.

🔗 SEE ALSO

• deb-control(5)
• dpkg-shlibdeps(1)
• deb-symbols(5)

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1.21.1   2025-09-09   deb-shlibs(5)

🏷️ NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📋 SYNOPSIS 📝 DESCRIPTION 🔤 SONAME FORMATS 🧪 EXAMPLES 🔗 SEE ALSO