deb-symbols(5) - man - phpMan

deb-symbols(5)                               dpkg suite                               deb-symbols(5)



NAME
       deb-symbols - Debian's extended shared library information file

SYNOPSIS
       DEBIAN/symbols

DESCRIPTION
       The symbol files are shipped in Debian binary packages, and its format is a subset of the
       template symbol files used by dpkg-gensymbols(1) in Debian source packages.

       The format for an extended shared library dependency information entry in these files is:

        library-soname main-dependency-template
        [| alternative-dependency-template]
        [...]
        [* field-name: field-value]
        [...]
         symbol minimal-version [id-of-dependency-template]

       The library-soname is exactly the value of the SONAME field as exported by objdump(1). A
       dependency-template is a dependency where #MINVER# is dynamically replaced either by a
       version check like “(>= minimal-version)” or by nothing (if an unversioned dependency is
       deemed sufficient).

       Each exported symbol (listed as name@version, with version being “Base” if the library is not
       versioned) is associated to a minimal-version of its dependency template (the main dependency
       template is always used and will end up being combined with the dependency template
       referenced by id-of-dependency-template if present). The first alternative dependency
       template is numbered 1, the second one 2, etc.  Each column is separated by exactly a single
       whitespace.

       Each entry for a library can also have some fields of meta-information.  Those fields are
       stored on lines starting with an asterisk. Currently, the only valid fields are:

       Build-Depends-Package
           It indicates the name of the “-dev” package associated to the library and is used by
           dpkg-shlibdeps to make sure that the dependency generated is at least as strict as the
           corresponding build dependency (since dpkg 1.14.13).

       Build-Depends-Packages
           The same as Build-Depends-Package but accepts a comma-separated list of package names
           (since dpkg 1.20.0).  This field will override any Build-Depends-Package field present,
           and is mostly useful with “-dev” packages and metapackages depending on these, say for a
           transition period.

       Allow-Internal-Symbol-Groups
           It indicates what internal symbol groups should be ignored, as a whitespace separated
           list, so that the symbols contained in those groups get included in the output file
           (since dpkg 1.20.1).  This should only be necessary for toolchain packages providing
           those internal symbols. The available groups are system dependent, for ELF and GNU-based
           systems these are aeabi and gomp.

       Ignore-Blacklist-Groups
           A deprecated alias for Allow-Internal-Symbol-Groups (since dpkg 1.20.1, supported since
           dpkg 1.17.6).

EXAMPLES
   Simple symbols file
        libftp.so.3 libftp3 #MINVER#
         DefaultNetbuf@Base 3.1-1-6
         FtpAccess@Base 3.1-1-6
         [...]

   Advanced symbols file
        libGL.so.1 libgl1
        | libgl1-mesa-glx #MINVER#
        * Build-Depends-Package: libgl1-mesa-dev
         publicGlSymbol@Base 6.3-1
         [...]
         implementationSpecificSymbol@Base 6.5.2-7 1
         [...]

SEE ALSO
       <https://wiki.debian.org/Projects/ImprovedDpkgShlibdeps>, dpkg-shlibdeps(1), dpkg-
       gensymbols(1).



1.21.1                                       2025-09-09                               deb-symbols(5)