deb-control man page on Darwin

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DEB-CONTROL(5)			dpkg utilities			DEB-CONTROL(5)

NAME
       deb-control - Debian packages' master control file format

SYNOPSIS
       control

DESCRIPTION
       Each  Debian package contains the master `control' file, which contains
       a number of fields.  Each field begins with a tag, such as  Package  or
       Version	(case  insensitive),  followed by a colon, and the body of the
       field.  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
       the case of the Description field, see below).

REQUIRED FIELDS
       Package: <package name>
	      The value of this field determines the package name, and is used
	      to generate file names by most installation tools.

       Version: <version string>
	      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). If  both  ver‐
	      sion  and revision are supplied, they are seperated by a hyphen,
	      `-'. For this reason, the original version may not have a hyphen
	      in its version number.

       Maintainer: <fullname email>
	      Should  be  in the format `Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@foo.com>', and is
	      typically the person who created the package, as opposed to  the
	      author of the software that was packaged.

       Description: <short description>
	       <long description>
	      The  format for the package description is a short brief summary
	      on the first line (after the "Description" field). The following
	      lines  can  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 desription must contain a single '.'
	      following the preceding space.

OPTIONAL FIELDS
       Section: <section>
	      This is a general field that gives the package a category	 based
	      on  the  software	 that  it  installs.  Some common sections are
	      `utils', `net', `mail', `text', `x11' etc.

       Priority: <priority>
	      Sets the importance of this package in relation to the system as
	      a	  whole.    Common   priorities	 are  `required',  `standard',
	      `optional', `extra' etc.

       In Debian, the Section and  Priority  fields  have  a  defined  set  of
       accepted	 values	 based	on the Policy Manual.  They are used to decide
       how the packages are layed out in the archive.  A list of these can  be
       obtained from the latest version of debian-policy package.

       Essential: <yes|no>
	      This  field  is usually only needed when the answer is `yes'. It
	      denotes a package that is required for proper operation  of  the
	      system.  Dpkg  or	 any other installation tool will not allow an
	      Essential package to be removed (at least not without using  one
	      of the force options).

       Architecture: <arch|all>
	      The  architecture	 specifies which type of hardware this package
	      was compiled  for.  Common  architectures	 are  `i386',  `m68k',
	      `sparc',	`alpha',  `powerpc'  etc.  Note that the all option is
	      meant for packages that are architecture independent. Some exam‐
	      ples of this are shell or Perl scripts, or documentation.

       Source: <source name>
	      The  name	 of  the  source package that this binary package came
	      from, if different than the name of the package itself.

       Depends: <package list>
	      List of packages that are required for this package to provide a
	      non-trivial  amount  of  functionality.  The package maintenance
	      software will not allow a package to be installed if  the	 pack‐
	      ages  listed in its Depends field aren't installed (at least not
	      without using the force options),	 and  will  run	 the  postinst
	      scripts  of  packages  listed in Depends: fields before those of
	      the packages which depend on them, and run prerm scripts before.

       Pre-Depends: <package list>
	      List of packages that must be installed  and  configured	before
	      this  one	 can  be  installed.  This is usually used in the case
	      where this package requires another package for running its pre‐
	      inst script.

       Recommends: <package list>
	      Lists packages that would be found together with this one in all
	      but unusual installations.   The	package	 maintenance  software
	      will  warn  the  user  if	 they  install a package without those
	      listed in its Recommends field.

       Suggests: <package list>
	      Lists packages that are related to  this	one  and  can  perhaps
	      enhance  its usefulness, but without which installing this pack‐
	      age is perfectly reasonable.

       The syntax of Depends , Pre-Depends , Recommends and Suggests fields is
       a  list	of  groups  of	alternative packages.  Each group is a list of
       packages separated by vertical  bar  (or	 `pipe')  symbols,  `|'.   The
       groups  are  separated  by commas.  Commas are to be read as `AND', and
       pipes as `OR', with pipes binding more tightly.	Each item is a package
       name optionally followed by a version number specification in parenthe‐
       ses.

       A version number may start with a `>>', in which case any later version
       will match, and may specify or omit the Debian packaging revision (sep‐
       arated by a  hyphen).  Accepted	version	 relationships	are  ">>"  for
       greater	than,  "<<"  for less than, ">=" for greater than or equal to,
       "<=" for less than or equal to, and "=" for equal to.

       Conflicts: <package list>
	      Lists packages that conflict with this one, for example by  con‐
	      taining files with the same names. The package maintenance soft‐
	      ware will not allow conflicting packages to be installed at  the
	      same  time.  Two conflicting packages should each include a Con‐
	      flicts line mentioning the other.

       Replaces: <package list>
	      List of packages files from which this  one  replaces.  This  is
	      used for allowing this package to overwrite the files of another
	      package and is usually used with the Conflicts  field  to	 force
	      removal  of  the	other  package,	 if this one also has the same
	      files as the conflicted package.

       Provides: <package list>
	      This is a list of virtual packages that this one provides.  Usu‐
	      ally  this is used in the case of several packages all providing
	      the same service.	 For example, sendmail and exim can serve as a
	      mail  server, so they provide a common package (`mail-transport-
	      agent') on which other packages  can  depend.  This  will	 allow
	      sendmail or exim to serve as a valid option to satisy the depen‐
	      dency. This prevents the packages that depend on a  mail	server
	      from having to know the package names for all of them, and using
	      `|' to separate the list.

       The syntax of Conflicts , Replaces and Provides is a  list  of  package
       names, separated by commas (and optional whitespace).  In the Conflicts
       field, the comma should be read as `OR'. An optional version  can  also
       be  given  with the same syntax as above for the Conflicts and Replaces
       fields.

EXAMPLE
       Package: grep
       Essential: yes
       Priority: required
       Section: base
       Maintainer: Wichert Akkerman <wakkerma@debian.org>
       Architecture: sparc
       Version: 2.4-1
       Pre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.0.105)
       Provides: rgrep
       Conflicts: rgrep
       Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
	The GNU family of grep utilities may be the "fastest grep in the west".
	GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about
	twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper
	search for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being
	considered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to
	look at every character. The result is typically many times faster
	than Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing
	will run more slowly, however.)

SEE ALSO
       deb(5), dpkg(8), dpkg-deb(1).

Debian Project			 January 2000			DEB-CONTROL(5)
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