man > dsc(5)

dsc(5)                                       dpkg suite                                       dsc(5)

NAME
       dsc - Debian source package control file format

SYNOPSIS
       filename.dsc

DESCRIPTION
       Each Debian source package is composed of a .dsc control file, which contains a number of
       fields, in deb822(5) format.

       Each field begins with a tag, such as Source or Binary (case insensitive), followed by a
       colon, and the body of the field (case sensitive unless stated otherwise).  Fields are
       delimited only by field tags.  In other words, field text may be multiple lines in length,
       but the installation tools will generally join lines when processing the body of the field
       (except in case of the multiline fields Package-List, Files, Checksums-Sha1 and
       Checksums-Sha256, see below).

       The control data might be enclosed in an OpenPGP ASCII Armored signature, as specified in
       RFC4880.

FIELDS
       Format: format-version (required)
           The  value  of  this  field declares the format version of the source package.  The field
           value is used by programs acting on a source package to interpret the list  of  files  in
           the  source  package  and determine how to unpack it.  The syntax of the field value is a
           numeric major revision (“0-9”), a period (“.”), a numeric  minor  revision  (“0-9”),  and
           then  an  optional  subtype  after  whitespace (“ \t”), which if specified is a lowercase
           alphanumeric (“a-z0-9”) word in parentheses (“()”).   The  subtype  is  optional  in  the
           syntax but may be mandatory for particular source format revisions.

           The  source  formats currently supported by dpkg are 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 (native), 3.0 (quilt),
           3.0 (git), 3.0 (bzr) and 3.0 (custom).  See dpkg-source(1) for their description.

       Source: source-name (required)
           The value of this field determines the package name, and is used to generate  file  names
           by most installation tools.

       Binary: binary-package-list
           This  folded field lists binary packages which this source package can produce, separated
           by commas.

           This field has now  been  superseded  by  the  Package-List  field,  which  gives  enough
           information  about what binary packages are produced on which architecture, build-profile
           and other involved restrictions.

       Architecture: arch-list (recommended)
           A list of architectures and architecture wildcards separated by spaces which specify  the
           type  of  hardware  this  package  can  be  compiled  for.  Common architecture names and
           architecture wildcards are amd64, armel, i386, linux-any, any-amd64, etc.

           Note that the all value is meant for packages that are architecture independent, and  any
           for  packages  that  are architecture dependent.  The list may include (or consist solely
           of) the special value all.  When the list contains the  architecture  wildcard  any,  the
           only other value allowed in the list is all.

           The   field   value   is  generally  generated  from  Architecture  fields  from  in  the
           debian/control in the source package.

       Version: version-string (required)
           Typically, this is the original package's version number in whatever form  the  program's
           author  uses.   It  may  also include a Debian revision number (for non-native packages).
           The exact format and sorting algorithm are described in deb-version(7).

       Origin: name
           The name of the distribution this package is originating from.

       Maintainer: fullname-email (recommended)
           Should be in the format “Joe Bloggs <jbloggs AT foo.com>”, and is typically the  person  who
           created the package, as opposed to the author of the software that was packaged.

       Uploaders: fullname-email-list
           Lists  all  the  names  and email addresses of co-maintainers of the package, in the same
           format as the Maintainer field.  Multiple co-maintainers should be separated by a comma.

       Description short-description
        long-description
           The format for the source package description is a short brief summary on the first  line
           (after  the  Description  field).   The  following lines should be used as a longer, more
           detailed description.  Each line of the long description must be preceded by a space, and
           blank lines in the long description must contain a single  ‘.’  following  the  preceding
           space.

       Homepage: url
           The upstream project home page url.

       Standards-Version: version-string (recommended)
           This  documents the most recent version of the distribution policy standards this package
           complies with.

       Vcs-Browser: url
           The url of a web interface to browse the Version Control System repository.

       Vcs-Arch: url
       Vcs-Bzr: url
       Vcs-Cvs: url
       Vcs-Darcs: url
       Vcs-Git: url
       Vcs-Hg: url
       Vcs-Mtn: url
       Vcs-Svn: url
           These fields declare the url of the Version Control System repository  used  to  maintain
           this package.  See deb-src-control(5) for more details.

       Testsuite: name-list
           This  field  declares  that  the  source package contains the specified test suites.  The
           value is a comma-separated list of test suites.  If the autopkgtest value is  present,  a
           debian/tests/control is expected to be present, if the file is present but not the value,
           then dpkg-source will automatically add it, preserving previous values.

       Testsuite-Triggers: package-list
           This field declares the comma-separated union of all test dependencies (Depends fields in
           debian/tests/control  file), with all restrictions removed, and OR dependencies flattened
           (that is, converted to separate AND relationships), except for binaries generated by this
           source package and its meta-dependency equivalent @.

           Rationale:  this  field  is  needed  because  otherwise  to  be  able  to  get  the  test
           dependencies, each source package would need to be unpacked.

       Build-Depends: package-list
       Build-Depends-Arch: package-list
       Build-Depends-Indep: package-list
       Build-Conflicts: package-list
       Build-Conflicts-Arch: package-list
       Build-Conflicts-Indep: package-list
           These  fields declare relationships between the source package and packages used to build
           it.  They are discussed in the deb-src-control(5) manual page.

       Package-List:
        package package-type section priority key-value-list
           This multiline field contains a list of binary packages generated by this source package.

           The package is the binary package name.

           The package-type is the binary package type, usually deb, another common value is udeb.

           The section and priority match the binary package fields of the same name.

           The key-value-list is a space separated key=value list, and the currently known  optional
           keys are:

           arch
               The  architecture restriction from the binary package Architecture field, with spaces
               converted to ‘,’.

           profile
               The normalized build-profile restriction  formula  from  the  binary  package  Build-
               Profile field, with ORs converted to ‘+’ and ANDs to ‘,’.

           protected
               If  the binary package is protected, this key will contain the value of the Protected
               field, that is a yes value.

               Supported since dpkg 1.20.1.

           essential
               If the binary package is essential, this key will contain the value of the  Essential
               field, that is a yes value.

       Files: (required)
       Checksums-Sha1: (required)
       Checksums-Sha256: (required)
        checksum size filename
           These  multiline  fields  contain  a list of files with a checksum and size for each one.
           These fields have the same syntax and differ only in the checksum algorithm used: MD5 for
           Files, SHA-1 for Checksums-Sha1 and SHA-256 for Checksums-Sha256.

           The first line of the field value (the part on the same line as the field  name  followed
           by  a  colon)  is  always  empty.   The content of the field is expressed as continuation
           lines, one line per file.  Each line consists of the checksum, a space, the file size,  a
           space, and the file name.

           These  fields list all files that make up the source package.  The list of files in these
           fields must match the list of files in the other related fields.

BUGS
       The Format field conflates the format for  the  .dsc  file  itself  and  the  format  of  the
       extracted source package.

SEE ALSO
       deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-version(7), dpkg-source(1).

1.22.6                                       2026-05-06                                       dsc(5)