{ "content": [ { "type": "text", "text": "# deb-version (man)\n\n## NAME\n\ndeb-version - Debian package version number format\n\n## SYNOPSIS\n\n[epoch:]upstream-version[-debian-revision]\n\n## DESCRIPTION\n\nVersion numbers as used for Debian binary and source packages consist of three components.\nThese are:\n\n## Sections\n\n- **NAME**\n- **SYNOPSIS**\n- **DESCRIPTION** (1 subsections)\n- **NOTES**\n- **SEE ALSO**\n\nUse structuredContent.sections for detailed options, examples, and full documentation.\n" } ], "structuredContent": { "command": "deb-version", "section": "", "mode": "man", "summary": "deb-version - Debian package version number format", "synopsis": "[epoch:]upstream-version[-debian-revision]", "tldr_summary": null, "tldr_examples": [], "tldr_source": null, "flags": [], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "deb-control", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-control/5/json" }, { "name": "deb", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb/5/json" }, { "name": "dpkg", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg/1/json" } ], "section_outline": [ { "name": "NAME", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SYNOPSIS", "lines": 2, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "DESCRIPTION", "lines": 44, "subsections": [ { "name": "Sorting algorithm", "lines": 26 } ] }, { "name": "NOTES", "lines": 3, "subsections": [] }, { "name": "SEE ALSO", "lines": 5, "subsections": [] } ], "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "deb-version - Debian package version number format\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "[epoch:]upstream-version[-debian-revision]\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "Version numbers as used for Debian binary and source packages consist of three components.\nThese are:\n\nepoch\nThis is a single (generally small) unsigned integer. It may be omitted, in which case\nzero is assumed. If it is omitted then the upstream-version may not contain any colons.\n\nIt is provided to allow mistakes in the version numbers of older versions of a package,\nand also a package's previous version numbering schemes, to be left behind.\n\nupstream-version\nThis is the main part of the version number. It is usually the version number of the\noriginal (“upstream”) package from which the .deb file has been made, if this is\napplicable. Usually this will be in the same format as that specified by the upstream\nauthor(s); however, it may need to be reformatted to fit into the package management\nsystem's format and comparison scheme.\n\nThe comparison behavior of the package management system with respect to the upstream-\nversion is described below. The upstream-version portion of the version number is\nmandatory.\n\nThe upstream-version may contain only alphanumerics (“A-Za-z0-9”) and the characters . +\n- : ~ (full stop, plus, hyphen, colon, tilde) and should start with a digit. If there is\nno debian-revision then hyphens are not allowed; if there is no epoch then colons are not\nallowed.\n\ndebian-revision\nThis part of the version number specifies the version of the Debian package based on the\nupstream version. It may contain only alphanumerics and the characters + . ~ (plus, full\nstop, tilde) and is compared in the same way as the upstream-version is.\n\nIt is optional; if it isn't present then the upstream-version may not contain a hyphen.\nThis format represents the case where a piece of software was written specifically to be\nturned into a Debian package, and so there is only one “debianization” of it and\ntherefore no revision indication is required.\n\nIt is conventional to restart the debian-revision at ‘1’ each time the upstream-version\nis increased.\n\nDpkg will break the version number apart at the last hyphen in the string (if there is\none) to determine the upstream-version and debian-revision. The absence of a debian-\nrevision compares earlier than the presence of one (but note that the debian-revision is\nthe least significant part of the version number).\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Sorting algorithm", "content": "The upstream-version and debian-revision parts are compared by the package management system\nusing the same algorithm:\n\nThe strings are compared from left to right.\n\nFirst the initial part of each string consisting entirely of non-digit characters is\ndetermined. These two parts (one of which may be empty) are compared lexically. If a\ndifference is found it is returned. The lexical comparison is a comparison of ASCII values\nmodified so that all the letters sort earlier than all the non-letters and so that a tilde\nsorts before anything, even the end of a part. For example, the following parts are in\nsorted order: ‘~~’, ‘~~a’, ‘~’, the empty part, ‘a’.\n\nThen the initial part of the remainder of each string which consists entirely of digit\ncharacters is determined. The numerical values of these two parts are compared, and any\ndifference found is returned as the result of the comparison. For these purposes an empty\nstring (which can only occur at the end of one or both version strings being compared) counts\nas zero.\n\nThese two steps (comparing and removing initial non-digit strings and initial digit strings)\nare repeated until a difference is found or both strings are exhausted.\n\nNote that the purpose of epochs is to allow us to leave behind mistakes in version numbering,\nand to cope with situations where the version numbering scheme changes. It is not intended\nto cope with version numbers containing strings of letters which the package management\nsystem cannot interpret (such as ‘ALPHA’ or ‘pre-’), or with silly orderings.\n" } ] }, "NOTES": { "content": "The tilde character and its special sorting properties were introduced in dpkg 1.10 and some\nparts of the dpkg build scripts only gained support for it later in the 1.10.x series.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "deb-control(5), deb(5), dpkg(1)\n\n\n\n1.21.1 2025-09-09 deb-version(7)", "subsections": [] } } } }