dpkg-gencontrol(1) - man - phpman

dpkg-gencontrol(1)                           dpkg suite                           dpkg-gencontrol(1)



NAME
       dpkg-gencontrol - generate Debian control files

SYNOPSIS
       dpkg-gencontrol [option...]

DESCRIPTION
       dpkg-gencontrol reads information from an unpacked Debian source tree and generates a binary
       package control file (which defaults to debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control); during this process it
       will simplify the relation fields.

       Thus Pre-Depends, Depends, Recommends and Suggests are simplified in this order by removing
       dependencies which are known to be true according to the stronger dependencies already
       parsed. It will also remove any self-dependency (in fact it will remove any dependency which
       evaluates to true given the current version of the package as installed). Logically it keeps
       the intersection of multiple dependencies on the same package. The order of dependencies is
       preserved as best as possible: if any dependency must be discarded due to another dependency
       appearing further in the field, the superseding dependency will take the place of the
       discarded one.

       The other relation fields (Enhances, Conflicts, Breaks, Replaces and Provides) are also
       simplified individually by computing the union of the various dependencies when a package is
       listed multiple times in the field.

       dpkg-gencontrol also adds an entry for the binary package to debian/files.

OPTIONS
       -vversion
           Sets the version number of the binary package which will be generated.

       -Vname=value
           Set an output substitution variable. See deb-substvars(5) for discussion of output
           substitution.

       -Tsubstvars-file
           Read substitution variables in substvars-file; the default is debian/substvars.  This
           option can be used multiple times to read substitution variables from multiple files
           (since dpkg 1.15.6).

       -Dfield=value
           Override or add an output control file field.

       -Ufield
           Remove an output control file field.

       -ccontrol-file
           Specifies the main source control file to read information from. The default is
           debian/control.

       -lchangelog-file
           Specifies the changelog file to read information from. The default is debian/changelog.

       -ffiles-list-file
           Read or write the list of files to be uploaded here, rather than using debian/files.

       -Fchangelog-format
           Specifies the format of the changelog. See dpkg-parsechangelog(1) for information about
           alternative formats.

       -ppackage
           Generate information for the binary package package.  If the source control file lists
           only one binary package then this option may be omitted; otherwise it is essential to
           select which binary package's information to generate.

       -nfilename
           Assume the filename of the package will be filename instead of the normal
           package_version_arch.deb filename.

       -is, -ip, -isp
           These options are ignored for compatibility with older versions of the dpkg build scripts
           but are now deprecated. Previously they were used to tell dpkg-gencontrol to include the
           Section and Priority fields in the control file. This is now the default behaviour. If
           you want to get the old behaviour you can use the -U option to delete the fields from the
           control file.

       -Ppackage-build-dir
           Scan package-build-dir instead of debian/tmp.  This value is used to find the default
           value of the Installed-Size substitution variable and control file field, and for the
           default location of the output file.

       -O[filename]
           Print the control file to standard output (or filename if specified, since dpkg 1.17.2),
           rather than to debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control (or package-build-dir/DEBIAN/control if -P was
           used).

       -?, --help
           Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT
       DPKG_COLORS
           Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently accepted values are: auto
           (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
           If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known
           as internationalization (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are:
           0 and 1 (default).

FILES
       debian/control
           The main source control information file, giving version-independent information about
           the source package and the binary packages it can produce.

       debian/files
           The list of generated files which are part of the upload being prepared.  dpkg-gencontrol
           adds the presumed filenames of binary packages whose control files it generates here.

SEE ALSO
       deb-substvars(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-changelog(5), deb-control(5).



1.21.1                                       2025-09-09                           dpkg-gencontrol(1)