{ "mode": "man", "parameter": "dpkg-source", "section": "1", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dpkg-source/1/json", "generated": "2026-10-04T07:28:12Z", "synopsis": "dpkg-source [option...] command", "sections": { "NAME": { "content": "dpkg-source - Debian source package (.dsc) manipulation tool\n", "subsections": [] }, "SYNOPSIS": { "content": "dpkg-source [option...] command\n", "subsections": [] }, "DESCRIPTION": { "content": "dpkg-source packs and unpacks Debian source archives.\n\nNone of these commands allow multiple options to be combined into one, and they do not allow\nthe value for an option to be specified in a separate argument.\n", "subsections": [] }, "COMMANDS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "-x --extract _", "content": "Extract a source package (--extract since dpkg 1.17.14). One non-option argument must be\nsupplied, the name of the Debian source control file (.dsc). An optional second non-\noption argument may be supplied to specify the directory to extract the source package\nto, this must not exist. If no output directory is specified, the source package is\nextracted into a directory named source-version under the current working directory.\n\ndpkg-source will read the names of the other file(s) making up the source package from\nthe control file; they are assumed to be in the same directory as the .dsc.\n\nThe files in the extracted package will have their permissions and ownerships set to\nthose which would have been expected if the files and directories had simply been created\n- directories and executable files will be 0777 and plain files will be 0666, both\nmodified by the extractors' umask; if the parent directory is setgid then the extracted\ndirectories will be too, and all the files and directories will inherit its group\nownership.\n\nIf the source package uses a non-standard format (currently this means all formats except\n“1.0”), its name will be stored in debian/source/format so that the following builds of\nthe source package use the same format by default.\n", "flag": "-x", "long": "--extract" }, { "name": "-b --build _", "content": "Build a source package (--build since dpkg 1.17.14). The first non-option argument is\ntaken as the name of the directory containing the debianized source tree (i.e. with a\ndebian sub-directory and maybe changes to the original files). Depending on the source\npackage format used to build the package, additional parameters might be accepted.\n\ndpkg-source will build the source package with the first format found in this ordered\nlist: the format indicated with the --format command line option, the format indicated in\ndebian/source/format, “1.0”. The fallback to “1.0” is deprecated and will be removed at\nsome point in the future, you should always document the desired source format in\ndebian/source/format. See section \"SOURCE PACKAGE FORMATS\" for an extensive description\nof the various source package formats.\n\n--print-format directory\nPrint the source format that would be used to build the source package if dpkg-source\n--build directory was called (in the same conditions and with the same parameters; since\ndpkg 1.15.5).\n\n--before-build directory\nRun the corresponding hook of the source package format (since dpkg 1.15.8). This hook\nis called before any build of the package (dpkg-buildpackage calls it very early even\nbefore debian/rules clean). This command is idempotent and can be called multiple times.\nNot all source formats implement something in this hook, and those that do usually\nprepare the source tree for the build for example by ensuring that the Debian patches are\napplied.\n\n--after-build directory\nRun the corresponding hook of the source package format (since dpkg 1.15.8). This hook\nis called after any build of the package (dpkg-buildpackage calls it last). This command\nis idempotent and can be called multiple times. Not all source formats implement\nsomething in this hook, and those that do usually use it to undo what --before-build has\ndone.\n\n--commit [directory] ...\nRecord changes in the source tree unpacked in directory (since dpkg 1.16.1). This\ncommand can take supplementary parameters depending on the source format. It will error\nout for formats where this operation doesn't mean anything.\n\n-?, --help\nShow the usage message and exit. The format specific build and extract options can be\nshown by using the --format option.\n", "flag": "-b", "long": "--build" }, { "name": "--version", "content": "Show the version and exit.\n", "long": "--version" } ] }, "OPTIONS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "Generic build options", "content": "" }, { "name": "-c_", "content": "Specifies the main source control file to read information from. The default is\ndebian/control. If given with relative pathname this is interpreted starting at the\nsource tree's top level directory.\n" }, { "name": "-l_", "content": "Specifies the changelog file to read information from. The default is debian/changelog.\nIf given with relative pathname this is interpreted starting at the source tree's top\nlevel directory.\n" }, { "name": "-F_", "content": "Specifies the format of the changelog. See dpkg-parsechangelog(1) for information about\nalternative formats.\n\n--format=value\nUse the given format for building the source package (since dpkg 1.14.17). It does\noverride any format given in debian/source/format.\n" }, { "name": "-V_", "content": "Set an output substitution variable. See deb-substvars(5) for a discussion of output\nsubstitution.\n" }, { "name": "-T_", "content": "Read substitution variables in substvars-file; the default is to not read any file. This\noption can be used multiple times to read substitution variables from multiple files\n(since dpkg 1.15.6).\n" }, { "name": "-D_", "content": "Override or add an output control file field.\n" }, { "name": "-U_", "content": "Remove an output control file field.\n" }, { "name": "-Z_ --compression", "content": "Specify the compression to use for created tarballs and diff files (--compression since\ndpkg 1.15.5). Note that this option will not cause existing tarballs to be recompressed,\nit only affects new files. Supported values are: gzip, bzip2, lzma and xz. The default\nis xz for formats 2.0 and newer, and gzip for format 1.0. xz is only supported since\ndpkg 1.15.5.\n", "long": "--compression" }, { "name": "-z_ --compression-level", "content": "Compression level to use (--compression-level since dpkg 1.15.5). As with -Z it only\naffects newly created files. Supported values are: 1 to 9, best, and fast. The default\nis 9 for gzip and bzip2, 6 for xz and lzma.\n", "long": "--compression-level" }, { "name": "-i --diff-ignore", "content": "You may specify a perl regular expression to match files you want filtered out of the\nlist of files for the diff (--diff-ignore since dpkg 1.15.6). (This list is generated by\na find command.) (If the source package is being built as a version 3 source package\nusing a VCS, this can be used to ignore uncommitted changes on specific files. Using\n-i.* will ignore all of them.)\n\nThe -i option by itself enables this setting with a default regex (preserving any\nmodification to the default regex done by a previous use of --extend-diff-ignore) that\nwill filter out control files and directories of the most common revision control\nsystems, backup and swap files and Libtool build output directories. There can only be\none active regex, of multiple -i options only the last one will take effect.\n\nThis is very helpful in cutting out extraneous files that get included in the diff, for\nexample if you maintain your source in a revision control system and want to use a\ncheckout to build a source package without including the additional files and directories\nthat it will usually contain (e.g. CVS/, .cvsignore, .svn/). The default regex is\nalready very exhaustive, but if you need to replace it, please note that by default it\ncan match any part of a path, so if you want to match the begin of a filename or only\nfull filenames, you will need to provide the necessary anchors (e.g. ‘(^|/)’, ‘($|/)’)\nyourself.\n\n--extend-diff-ignore=regex\nThe perl regular expression specified will extend the default value used by --diff-ignore\nand its current value, if set (since dpkg 1.15.6). It does this by concatenating\n“|regex” to the existing value. This option is convenient to use in\ndebian/source/options to exclude some auto-generated files from the automatic patch\ngeneration.\n", "flag": "-i", "long": "--diff-ignore" }, { "name": "-I --tar-ignore", "content": "If this option is specified, the pattern will be passed to tar(1)'s --exclude option when\nit is called to generate a .orig.tar or .tar file (--tar-ignore since dpkg 1.15.6). For\nexample, -ICVS will make tar skip over CVS directories when generating a .tar.gz file.\nThe option may be repeated multiple times to list multiple patterns to exclude.\n\n-I by itself adds default --exclude options that will filter out control files and\ndirectories of the most common revision control systems, backup and swap files and\nLibtool build output directories.\n\nNote: While they have similar purposes, -i and -I have very different syntax and semantics.", "flag": "-I", "long": "--tar-ignore" }, { "name": "-i", "content": "against the full relative path of each file. -I can specified multiple times and takes a\nfilename pattern with shell wildcards. The pattern is applied to the full relative path but\nalso to each part of the path individually. The exact semantic of tar's --exclude option is\nsomewhat complicated, see for a\nfull documentation.\n\nThe default regex and patterns for both options can be seen in the output of the --help\ncommand.\n", "flag": "-i" }, { "name": "Generic extract options", "content": "" }, { "name": "--no-copy", "content": "Do not copy original tarballs near the extracted source package (since dpkg 1.14.17).\n", "long": "--no-copy" }, { "name": "--no-check", "content": "Do not check signatures and checksums before unpacking (since dpkg 1.14.17).\n", "long": "--no-check" }, { "name": "--no-overwrite-dir", "content": "Do not overwrite the extraction directory if it already exists (since dpkg 1.18.8).\n", "long": "--no-overwrite-dir" }, { "name": "--require-valid-signature", "content": "Refuse to unpack the source package if it doesn't contain an OpenPGP signature that can\nbe verified (since dpkg 1.15.0) either with the user's trustedkeys.gpg keyring, one of\nthe vendor-specific keyrings, or one of the official Debian keyrings\n(/usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg, /usr/share/keyrings/debian-nonupload.gpg and\n/usr/share/keyrings/debian-maintainers.gpg).\n", "long": "--require-valid-signature" }, { "name": "--require-strong-checksums", "content": "Refuse to unpack the source package if it does not contain any strong checksums (since\ndpkg 1.18.7). Currently the only known checksum considered strong is SHA-256.\n", "long": "--require-strong-checksums" }, { "name": "--ignore-bad-version", "content": "Turns the bad source package version check into a non-fatal warning (since dpkg 1.17.7).\nThis option should only be necessary when extracting ancient source packages with broken\nversions, just for backwards compatibility.\n", "long": "--ignore-bad-version" }, { "name": "Generic general options", "content": "--threads-max=threads\nSets the maximum number of threads allowed for compressors that support multi-threaded\noperations (since dpkg 1.21.14).\n" }, { "name": "-q", "content": "", "flag": "-q" } ] }, "SOURCE PACKAGE FORMATS": { "content": "If you don't know what source format to use, you should probably pick either “3.0 (quilt)” or\n“3.0 (native)”. See for information on the\ndeployment of those formats within Debian.\n", "subsections": [ { "name": "Format: 1.0", "content": "A source package in this format consists either of a .orig.tar.gz associated to a .diff.gz or\na single .tar.gz (in that case the package is said to be native). Optionally the original\ntarball might be accompanied by a detached upstream signature .orig.tar.gz.asc, extraction\nsupported since dpkg 1.18.5.\n" }, { "name": "Extracting", "content": "Extracting a native package is a simple extraction of the single tarball in the target\ndirectory. Extracting a non-native package is done by first unpacking the .orig.tar.gz and\nthen applying the patch contained in the .diff.gz file. The timestamp of all patched files\nis reset to the extraction time of the source package (this avoids timestamp skews leading to\nproblems when autogenerated files are patched). The diff can create new files (the whole\ndebian directory is created that way) but cannot remove files (empty files will be left over)\nand cannot create or change symlinks.\n" }, { "name": "Building", "content": "Building a native package is just creating a single tarball with the source directory.\nBuilding a non-native package involves extracting the original tarball in a separate “.orig”\ndirectory and regenerating the .diff.gz by comparing the source package directory with the\n.orig directory.\n" }, { "name": "Build options (with --build):", "content": "If a second non-option argument is supplied it should be the name of the original source\ndirectory or tarfile or the empty string if the package is a Debian-specific one and so has\nno debianization diffs. If no second argument is supplied then dpkg-source will look for the\noriginal source tarfile packageupstream-version.orig.tar.gz or the original source directory\ndirectory.orig depending on the -sX arguments.\n" }, { "name": "-sa -sp -sk -su -sr", "content": "desired then -sA, -sP, -sK, -sU and -sR should be used instead.\n" }, { "name": "-sk", "content": "version.orig.tar.extension. It will leave this original source in place as a tarfile, or\ncopy it to the current directory if it isn't already there. The tarball will be unpacked\ninto directory.orig for the generation of the diff.\n" }, { "name": "-sp -sk", "content": "" }, { "name": "-su", "content": "package-upstream-version.orig and dpkg-source will create a new original source archive\nfrom it.\n" }, { "name": "-sr -su", "content": "" }, { "name": "-ss", "content": "dpkg-source will use the directory to create the diff, but the tarfile to create the\n.dsc. This option must be used with care - if the directory and tarfile do not match a\nbad source archive will be generated.\n" }, { "name": "-sn", "content": "argument, if supplied, must be the empty string. This is used for Debian-specific\npackages which do not have a separate upstream source and therefore have no debianization\ndiffs.\n" }, { "name": "-sa -sA", "content": "Specifies to look for the original source archive as a tarfile or as a directory - the\nsecond argument, if any, may be either, or the empty string (this is equivalent to using\n-sn). If a tarfile is found it will unpack it to create the diff and remove it\nafterwards (this is equivalent to -sp); if a directory is found it will pack it to create\nthe original source and remove it afterwards (this is equivalent to -sr); if neither is\nfound it will assume that the package has no debianization diffs, only a straightforward\nsource archive (this is equivalent to -sn). If both are found then dpkg-source will\nignore the directory, overwriting it, if -sA was specified (this is equivalent to -sP) or\nraise an error if -sa was specified. -sa is the default.\n" }, { "name": "--abort-on-upstream-changes", "content": "The process fails if the generated diff contains changes to files outside of the debian\nsub-directory (since dpkg 1.15.8). This option is not allowed in debian/source/options\nbut can be used in debian/source/local-options.\n", "long": "--abort-on-upstream-changes" }, { "name": "Extract options (with --extract):", "content": "In all cases any existing original source tree will be removed.\n" }, { "name": "-sp", "content": "is not already located in the current directory or if an existing but different file is\nthere it will be copied there. (This is the default).\n" }, { "name": "-su", "content": "" }, { "name": "-sn", "content": "Any original source tree that was in the current directory is still removed.\n\nAll the -sX options are mutually exclusive. If you specify more than one only the last one\nwill be used.\n" }, { "name": "--skip-debianization", "content": "Skips application of the debian diff on top of the upstream sources (since dpkg 1.15.1).\n", "long": "--skip-debianization" }, { "name": "Format: 2.0", "content": "Extraction supported since dpkg 1.13.9, building supported since dpkg 1.14.8. Also known as\nwig&pen. This format is not recommended for wide-spread usage, the format “3.0 (quilt)”\nreplaces it. Wig&pen was the first specification of a new-generation source package format.\n\nThe behavior of this format is the same as the “3.0 (quilt)” format except that it doesn't\nuse an explicit list of patches. All files in debian/patches/ matching the perl regular\nexpression [\\w-]+ must be valid patches: they are applied at extraction time.\n\nWhen building a new source package, any change to the upstream source is stored in a patch\nnamed zzdebian-diff-auto.\n" }, { "name": "Format: 3.0 (native)", "content": "Supported since dpkg 1.14.17. This format is an extension of the native package format as\ndefined in the 1.0 format. It supports all compression methods and will ignore by default\nany VCS specific files and directories as well as many temporary files (see default value\nassociated to -I option in the --help output).\n" }, { "name": "Format: 3.0 (quilt)", "content": "Supported since dpkg 1.14.17. A source package in this format contains at least an original\ntarball (.orig.tar.ext where ext can be gz, bz2, lzma and xz) and a debian tarball\n(.debian.tar.ext). It can also contain additional original tarballs\n(.orig-component.tar.ext). component can only contain alphanumeric (‘a-zA-Z0-9’) characters\nand hyphens (‘-’). Optionally each original tarball can be accompanied by a detached\nupstream signature (.orig.tar.ext.asc and .orig-component.tar.ext.asc), extraction supported\nsince dpkg 1.17.20, building supported since dpkg 1.18.5.\n" }, { "name": "Extracting", "content": "The main original tarball is extracted first, then all additional original tarballs are\nextracted in subdirectories named after the component part of their filename (any pre-\nexisting directory is replaced). The debian tarball is extracted on top of the source\ndirectory after prior removal of any pre-existing debian directory. Note that the debian\ntarball must contain a debian sub-directory but it can also contain binary files outside of\nthat directory (see --include-binaries option).\n\nAll patches listed in debian/patches/vendor.series or debian/patches/series are then applied,\nwhere vendor will be the lowercase name of the current vendor, or debian if there is no\nvendor defined. If the former file is used and the latter one doesn't exist (or is a\nsymlink), then the latter is replaced with a symlink to the former. This is meant to\nsimplify usage of quilt to manage the set of patches. Vendor-specific series files are\nintended to make it possible to serialize multiple development branches based on the vendor,\nin a declarative way, in preference to open-coding this handling in debian/rules. This is\nparticularly useful when the source would need to be patched conditionally because the\naffected files do not have built-in conditional occlusion support. Note however that while\ndpkg-source parses correctly series files with explicit options used for patch application\n(stored on each line after the patch filename and one or more spaces), it does ignore those\noptions and always expects patches that can be applied with the -p1 option of patch. It will\nthus emit a warning when it encounters such options, and the build is likely to fail.\n\nNote that lintian(1) will emit unconditional warnings when using vendor series due to a\ncontroversial Debian specific ruling, which should not affect any external usage; to silence\nthese, the dpkg lintian profile can be used by passing «--profile dpkg» to lintian(1).\n\nThe timestamp of all patched files is reset to the extraction time of the source package\n(this avoids timestamp skews leading to problems when autogenerated files are patched).\n\nContrary to quilt's default behavior, patches are expected to apply without any fuzz. When\nthat is not the case, you should refresh such patches with quilt, or dpkg-source will error\nout while trying to apply them.\n\nSimilarly to quilt's default behavior, the patches can remove files too.\n\nThe file .pc/applied-patches is created if some patches have been applied during the\nextraction.\n" }, { "name": "Building", "content": "All original tarballs found in the current directory are extracted in a temporary directory\nby following the same logic as for the unpack, the debian directory is copied over in the\ntemporary directory, and all patches except the automatic patch (debian-changes-version or\ndebian-changes, depending on --single-debian-patch) are applied. The temporary directory is\ncompared to the source package directory. When the diff is non-empty, the build fails unless\n--single-debian-patch or --auto-commit has been used, in which case the diff is stored in the\nautomatic patch. If the automatic patch is created/deleted, it's added/removed from the\nseries file and from the quilt metadata.\n\nAny change on a binary file is not representable in a diff and will thus lead to a failure\nunless the maintainer deliberately decided to include that modified binary file in the debian\ntarball (by listing it in debian/source/include-binaries). The build will also fail if it\nfinds binary files in the debian sub-directory unless they have been allowed through\ndebian/source/include-binaries.\n\nThe updated debian directory and the list of modified binaries is then used to generate the\ndebian tarball.\n\nThe automatically generated diff doesn't include changes on VCS specific files as well as\nmany temporary files (see default value associated to -i option in the --help output). In\nparticular, the .pc directory used by quilt is ignored during generation of the automatic\npatch.\n\nNote: dpkg-source --before-build (and --build) will ensure that all patches listed in the\nseries file are applied so that a package build always has all patches applied. It does this\nby finding unapplied patches (they are listed in the series file but not in\n.pc/applied-patches), and if the first patch in that set can be applied without errors, it\nwill apply them all. The option --no-preparation can be used to disable this behavior.\n" }, { "name": "Recording changes", "content": "--commit [directory] [patch-name] [patch-file]\nGenerates a patch corresponding to the local changes that are not managed by the quilt\npatch system and integrates it in the patch system under the name patch-name. If the\nname is missing, it will be asked interactively. If patch-file is given, it is used as\nthe patch corresponding to the local changes to integrate. Once integrated, an editor\n(the first one found from sensible-editor, $VISUAL, $EDITOR, vi) is launched so that you\ncan edit the meta-information in the patch header.\n\nPassing patch-file is mainly useful after a build failure that pre-generated this file,\nand on this ground the given file is removed after integration. Note also that the\nchanges contained in the patch file must already be applied on the tree and that the\nfiles modified by the patch must not have supplementary unrecorded changes.\n\nIf the patch generation detects modified binary files, they will be automatically added\nto debian/source/include-binaries so that they end up in the debian tarball (exactly like\ndpkg-source --include-binaries --build would do).\n" }, { "name": "Build options", "content": "--allow-version-of-quilt-db=version\nAllow dpkg-source to build the source package if the version of the quilt metadata is the\none specified, even if dpkg-source doesn't know about it (since dpkg 1.15.5.4).\nEffectively this says that the given version of the quilt metadata is compatible with the\nversion 2 that dpkg-source currently supports. The version of the quilt metadata is\nstored in .pc/.version.\n" }, { "name": "--include-removal", "content": "Do not ignore removed files and include them in the automatically generated patch.\n", "long": "--include-removal" }, { "name": "--include-timestamp", "content": "Include timestamp in the automatically generated patch.\n", "long": "--include-timestamp" }, { "name": "--include-binaries", "content": "Add all modified binaries in the debian tarball. Also add them to\ndebian/source/include-binaries: they will be added by default in subsequent builds and\nthis option is thus no more needed.\n", "long": "--include-binaries" }, { "name": "--no-preparation", "content": "Do not try to prepare the build tree by applying patches which are apparently unapplied\n(since dpkg 1.14.18).\n", "long": "--no-preparation" }, { "name": "--single-debian-patch", "content": "Use debian/patches/debian-changes instead of debian/patches/debian-changes-version for\nthe name of the automatic patch generated during build (since dpkg 1.15.5.4). This\noption is particularly useful when the package is maintained in a VCS and a patch set\ncan't reliably be generated. Instead the current diff with upstream should be stored in\na single patch. The option would be put in debian/source/local-options and would be\naccompanied by a debian/source/local-patch-header file explaining how the Debian changes\ncan be best reviewed, for example in the VCS that is used.\n", "long": "--single-debian-patch" }, { "name": "--create-empty-orig", "content": "Automatically create the main original tarball as empty if it's missing and if there are\nsupplementary original tarballs (since dpkg 1.15.6). This option is meant to be used\nwhen the source package is just a bundle of multiple upstream software and where there's\nno “main” software.\n", "long": "--create-empty-orig" }, { "name": "--no-unapply-patches, --unapply-patches", "content": "By default, dpkg-source will automatically unapply the patches in the --after-build hook\nif it did apply them during --before-build (--unapply-patches since dpkg 1.15.8,\n--no-unapply-patches since dpkg 1.16.5). Those options allow you to forcefully disable\nor enable the patch unapplication process. Those options are only allowed in\ndebian/source/local-options so that all generated source packages have the same behavior\nby default.\n", "long": "--unapply-patches" }, { "name": "--abort-on-upstream-changes", "content": "The process fails if an automatic patch has been generated (since dpkg 1.15.8). This\noption can be used to ensure that all changes were properly recorded in separate quilt\npatches prior to the source package build. This option is not allowed in\ndebian/source/options but can be used in debian/source/local-options.\n", "long": "--abort-on-upstream-changes" }, { "name": "--auto-commit", "content": "The process doesn't fail if an automatic patch has been generated, instead it's\nimmediately recorded in the quilt series.\n", "long": "--auto-commit" }, { "name": "Extract options", "content": "" }, { "name": "--skip-debianization", "content": "Skips extraction of the debian tarball on top of the upstream sources (since dpkg\n1.15.1).\n", "long": "--skip-debianization" }, { "name": "--skip-patches", "content": "Do not apply patches at the end of the extraction (since dpkg 1.14.18).\n", "long": "--skip-patches" }, { "name": "Format: 3.0 (custom)", "content": "Supported since dpkg 1.14.17. This format is special. It doesn't represent a real source\npackage format but can be used to create source packages with arbitrary files.\n" }, { "name": "Build options", "content": "All non-option arguments are taken as files to integrate in the generated source package.\nThey must exist and are preferably in the current directory. At least one file must be\ngiven.\n\n--target-format=value\nRequired. Defines the real format of the generated source package. The generated .dsc\nfile will contain this value in its Format field and not “3.0 (custom)”.\n" }, { "name": "Format: 3.0 (git)", "content": "Supported since dpkg 1.14.17. This format is experimental.\n\nA source package in this format consists of a single bundle of a git repository .git to hold\nthe source of a package. There may also be a .gitshallow file listing revisions for a\nshallow git clone.\n" }, { "name": "Extracting", "content": "The bundle is cloned as a git repository to the target directory. If there is a gitshallow\nfile, it is installed as .git/shallow inside the cloned git repository.\n\nNote that by default the new repository will have the same branch checked out that was\nchecked out in the original source. (Typically “main”, but it could be anything.) Any other\nbranches will be available under remotes/origin/.\n" }, { "name": "Building", "content": "Before going any further, some checks are done to ensure that we don't have any non-ignored\nuncommitted changes.\n\ngit-bundle(1) is used to generate a bundle of the git repository. By default, all branches\nand tags in the repository are included in the bundle.\n" }, { "name": "Build options", "content": "--git-ref=ref\nAllows specifying a git ref to include in the git bundle. Use disables the default\nbehavior of including all branches and tags. May be specified multiple times. The ref\ncan be the name of a branch or tag to include. It may also be any parameter that can be\npassed to git-rev-list(1). For example, to include only the main branch, use\n--git-ref=main. To include all tags and branches, except for the private branch, use\n--git-ref=--all --git-ref=^private\n\n--git-depth=number\nCreates a shallow clone with a history truncated to the specified number of revisions.\n" }, { "name": "Format: 3.0 (bzr)", "content": "Supported since dpkg 1.14.17. This format is experimental. It generates a single tarball\ncontaining the bzr repository.\n" }, { "name": "Extracting", "content": "The tarball is unpacked and then bzr is used to checkout the current branch.\n" }, { "name": "Building", "content": "Before going any further, some checks are done to ensure that we don't have any non-ignored\nuncommitted changes.\n\nThen the VCS specific part of the source directory is copied over to a temporary directory.\nBefore this temporary directory is packed in a tarball, various cleanup are done to save\nspace.\n" } ] }, "DIAGNOSTICS": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "no source format specified in debian/source/format", "content": "The file debian/source/format should always exist and indicate the desired source format.\nFor backwards compatibility, format “1.0” is assumed when the file doesn't exist but you\nshould not rely on this: at some point in the future dpkg-source will be modified to fail\nwhen that file doesn't exist.\n\nThe rationale is that format “1.0” is no longer the recommended format, you should usually\npick one of the newer formats (“3.0 (quilt)”, “3.0 (native)”) but dpkg-source will not do\nthis automatically for you. If you want to continue using the old format, you should be\nexplicit about it and put “1.0” in debian/source/format.\n" }, { "name": "the diff modifies the following upstream files", "content": "When using source format “1.0” it is usually a bad idea to modify upstream files directly as\nthe changes end up hidden and mostly undocumented in the .diff.gz file. Instead you should\nstore your changes as patches in the debian directory and apply them at build-time. To avoid\nthis complexity you can also use the format “3.0 (quilt)” that offers this natively.\n" }, { "name": "cannot represent change to file", "content": "Changes to upstream sources are usually stored with patch files, but not all changes can be\nrepresented with patches: they can only alter the content of plain text files. If you try\nreplacing a file with something of a different type (for example replacing a plain file with\na symlink or a directory), you will get this error message.\n" }, { "name": "newly created empty file _file_ will not be represented in diff", "content": "Empty files can't be created with patch files. Thus this change is not recorded in the\nsource package and you are warned about it.\n" }, { "name": "executable mode _perms_ of _file_ will not be represented in diff", "content": "Patch files do not record permissions of files and thus executable permissions are not stored\nin the source package. This warning reminds you of that fact.\n" }, { "name": "special mode _perms_ of _file_ will not be represented in diff", "content": "Patch files do not record permissions of files and thus modified permissions are not stored\nin the source package. This warning reminds you of that fact.\n" } ] }, "ENVIRONMENT": { "content": "DPKGCOLORS\nSets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted values are: auto\n(default), always and never.\n\nDPKGNLS\nIf set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native Language Support, also known\nas internationalization (or i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0). The accepted values are:\n0 and 1 (default).\n\nSOURCEDATEEPOCH\nIf set, it will be used as the timestamp (as seconds since the epoch) to clamp the mtime\nin the tar(5) file entries.\n\nSince dpkg 1.18.11.\n\nVISUAL\nEDITOR\nUsed by the “2.0” and “3.0 (quilt)” source format modules.\n\nGITDIR\nGITINDEXFILE\nGITOBJECTDIRECTORY\nGITALTERNATEOBJECTDIRECTORIES\nGITWORKTREE\nUsed by the “3.0 (git)” source format modules.\n", "subsections": [] }, "FILES": { "content": "", "subsections": [ { "name": "debian/source/format", "content": "This file contains on a single line the format that should be used to build the source\npackage (possible formats are described above). No leading or trailing spaces are allowed.\n" }, { "name": "debian/source/include-binaries", "content": "This file contains a list of pathnames of binary files (one per line) relative to the source\nroot directory that should be included in the debian tarball. Leading and trailing spaces\nare stripped. Lines starting with ‘#’ are comments and are skipped. Empty lines are\nignored.\n" }, { "name": "debian/source/options", "content": "This file contains a list of long options that should be automatically prepended to the set\nof command line options of a dpkg-source --build or dpkg-source --print-format call. Options\nlike --compression and --compression-level are well suited for this file.\n\nEach option should be put on a separate line. Empty lines and lines starting with ‘#’ are\nignored. The leading ‘--’ should be stripped and short options are not allowed. Optional\nspaces are allowed around the ‘=’ symbol and optional quotes are allowed around the value.\nHere's an example of such a file:\n\n# let dpkg-source create a debian.tar.bz2 with maximal compression\ncompression = \"bzip2\"\ncompression-level = 9\n# use debian/patches/debian-changes as automatic patch\nsingle-debian-patch\n# ignore changes on config.{sub,guess}\nextend-diff-ignore = \"(^|/)(config.sub|config.guess)$\"\n\nNote: format options are not accepted in this file, you should use debian/source/format\ninstead.\n" }, { "name": "debian/source/local-options", "content": "Exactly like debian/source/options except that the file is not included in the generated\nsource package. It can be useful to store a preference tied to the maintainer or to the VCS\nrepository where the source package is maintained.\n" }, { "name": "debian/source/local-patch-header", "content": "" }, { "name": "debian/source/patch-header", "content": "Free form text that is put on top of the automatic patch generated in formats “2.0” or “3.0\n(quilt)”. local-patch-header is not included in the generated source package while patch-\nheader is.\n" }, { "name": "debian/patches/_vendor_.series", "content": "" }, { "name": "debian/patches/series", "content": "This file lists all patches that have to be applied (in the given order) on top of the\nupstream source package. Leading and trailing spaces are stripped. The vendor will be the\nlowercase name of the current vendor, or debian if there is no vendor defined. If the\nvendor-specific series file does not exist, the vendor-less series file will be used. Lines\nstarting with ‘#’ are comments and are skipped. Empty lines are ignored. Remaining lines\nstart with a patch filename (relative to the debian/patches/ directory) up to the first space\ncharacter or the end of line. Optional quilt options can follow up to the end of line or the\nfirst ‘#’ preceded by one or more spaces (which marks the start of a comment up to the end of\nline).\n" } ] }, "SECURITY": { "content": "Examining untrusted source packages or extracting them into staging directories should be\nconsidered a security boundary, and any breakage of that boundary stemming from these\noperations should be considered a security vulnerability. But handling untrusted source\npackages should not be done lightly, as the surface area includes any compression command\nsupported, commands to handle specific data formats (such as tar(1) or patch(1)) in addition\nto the source package formats and control files themselves. Performing these operations over\nuntrusted data as root is strongly discouraged.\n\nBuilding source packages should only be performed over trusted data.\n", "subsections": [] }, "BUGS": { "content": "The point at which field overriding occurs compared to certain standard output field settings\nis rather confused.\n", "subsections": [] }, "SEE ALSO": { "content": "deb-src-control(5), deb-changelog(5), deb-substvars(5), dsc(5).\n\n1.22.6 2026-05-06 dpkg-source(1)", "subsections": [] } }, "summary": "dpkg-source - Debian source package (.dsc) manipulation tool", "flags": [ { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Specifies the main source control file to read information from. The default is debian/control. If given with relative pathname this is interpreted starting at the source tree's top level directory." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Specifies the changelog file to read information from. The default is debian/changelog. If given with relative pathname this is interpreted starting at the source tree's top level directory." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Specifies the format of the changelog. See dpkg-parsechangelog(1) for information about alternative formats. --format=value Use the given format for building the source package (since dpkg 1.14.17). It does override any format given in debian/source/format." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Set an output substitution variable. See deb-substvars(5) for a discussion of output substitution." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Read substitution variables in substvars-file; the default is to not read any file. This option can be used multiple times to read substitution variables from multiple files (since dpkg 1.15.6)." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Override or add an output control file field." }, { "flag": "", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "Remove an output control file field." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--compression", "arg": null, "description": "Specify the compression to use for created tarballs and diff files (--compression since dpkg 1.15.5). Note that this option will not cause existing tarballs to be recompressed, it only affects new files. Supported values are: gzip, bzip2, lzma and xz. The default is xz for formats 2.0 and newer, and gzip for format 1.0. xz is only supported since dpkg 1.15.5." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--compression-level", "arg": null, "description": "Compression level to use (--compression-level since dpkg 1.15.5). As with -Z it only affects newly created files. Supported values are: 1 to 9, best, and fast. The default is 9 for gzip and bzip2, 6 for xz and lzma." }, { "flag": "-i", "long": "--diff-ignore", "arg": null, "description": "You may specify a perl regular expression to match files you want filtered out of the list of files for the diff (--diff-ignore since dpkg 1.15.6). (This list is generated by a find command.) (If the source package is being built as a version 3 source package using a VCS, this can be used to ignore uncommitted changes on specific files. Using -i.* will ignore all of them.) The -i option by itself enables this setting with a default regex (preserving any modification to the default regex done by a previous use of --extend-diff-ignore) that will filter out control files and directories of the most common revision control systems, backup and swap files and Libtool build output directories. There can only be one active regex, of multiple -i options only the last one will take effect. This is very helpful in cutting out extraneous files that get included in the diff, for example if you maintain your source in a revision control system and want to use a checkout to build a source package without including the additional files and directories that it will usually contain (e.g. CVS/, .cvsignore, .svn/). The default regex is already very exhaustive, but if you need to replace it, please note that by default it can match any part of a path, so if you want to match the begin of a filename or only full filenames, you will need to provide the necessary anchors (e.g. ‘(^|/)’, ‘($|/)’) yourself. --extend-diff-ignore=regex The perl regular expression specified will extend the default value used by --diff-ignore and its current value, if set (since dpkg 1.15.6). It does this by concatenating “|regex” to the existing value. This option is convenient to use in debian/source/options to exclude some auto-generated files from the automatic patch generation." }, { "flag": "-I", "long": "--tar-ignore", "arg": null, "description": "If this option is specified, the pattern will be passed to tar(1)'s --exclude option when it is called to generate a .orig.tar or .tar file (--tar-ignore since dpkg 1.15.6). For example, -ICVS will make tar skip over CVS directories when generating a .tar.gz file. The option may be repeated multiple times to list multiple patterns to exclude. -I by itself adds default --exclude options that will filter out control files and directories of the most common revision control systems, backup and swap files and Libtool build output directories. Note: While they have similar purposes, -i and -I have very different syntax and semantics." }, { "flag": "-i", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "against the full relative path of each file. -I can specified multiple times and takes a filename pattern with shell wildcards. The pattern is applied to the full relative path but also to each part of the path individually. The exact semantic of tar's --exclude option is somewhat complicated, see for a full documentation. The default regex and patterns for both options can be seen in the output of the --help command." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-copy", "arg": null, "description": "Do not copy original tarballs near the extracted source package (since dpkg 1.14.17)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-check", "arg": null, "description": "Do not check signatures and checksums before unpacking (since dpkg 1.14.17)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--no-overwrite-dir", "arg": null, "description": "Do not overwrite the extraction directory if it already exists (since dpkg 1.18.8)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--require-valid-signature", "arg": null, "description": "Refuse to unpack the source package if it doesn't contain an OpenPGP signature that can be verified (since dpkg 1.15.0) either with the user's trustedkeys.gpg keyring, one of the vendor-specific keyrings, or one of the official Debian keyrings (/usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg, /usr/share/keyrings/debian-nonupload.gpg and /usr/share/keyrings/debian-maintainers.gpg)." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--require-strong-checksums", "arg": null, "description": "Refuse to unpack the source package if it does not contain any strong checksums (since dpkg 1.18.7). Currently the only known checksum considered strong is SHA-256." }, { "flag": "", "long": "--ignore-bad-version", "arg": null, "description": "Turns the bad source package version check into a non-fatal warning (since dpkg 1.17.7). This option should only be necessary when extracting ancient source packages with broken versions, just for backwards compatibility." }, { "flag": "-q", "long": null, "arg": null, "description": "" } ], "examples": [], "see_also": [ { "name": "deb-src-control", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-src-control/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-changelog", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-changelog/5/json" }, { "name": "deb-substvars", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/deb-substvars/5/json" }, { "name": "dsc", "section": "5", "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dsc/5/json" } ], "tldr": { "source": "not_found", "examples": [] } }