deb-src-control(5) dpkg suite deb-src-control(5)
NAME
deb-src-control - Debian source package template control file format
SYNOPSIS
debian/control
DESCRIPTION
Each Debian source package contains the «debian/control» template source
control file, and its deb822(5) format is a superset of the control file
shipped in Debian binary packages, see deb-control(5).
This file contains at least 2 stanzas, separated by a blank line. The
first stanza is called the source package stanza and lists all
information about the source package in general, while each following
stanzas are called the binary package stanzas and describe exactly one
binary package per stanza. Each stanza consists of at least one field.
A field starts with a field name, such as Package or Section (case
insensitive), followed by a colon, the body of the field (case sensitive
unless stated otherwise) and a newline. Multi-line fields are also
allowed, but each supplementary line, without a field name, must start
with at least one space. The content of the multi-line fields is
generally joined to a single line by the tools (except in the case of
the Description field, see below). To insert empty lines into a multi-
line field, insert a dot after the space. Lines starting with a ‘#’ are
treated as comments.
SOURCE FIELDS
Source: source-package-name (required)
The value of this field is the name of the source package, and must
match the name of the source package in the debian/changelog file.
A package name must consist only of lowercase letters (a-z), digits
(0-9), plus (+) and minus (-) signs, and periods (.). Package names
must be at least two characters long and must start with a lowercase
alphanumeric character (a-z0-9).
Maintainer: fullname-email (recommended)
Should be in the format «Joe Bloggs <jbloggs@foo.com>», and
references the person who currently maintains the package, as
opposed to the author of the software or the original packager.
Uploaders: fullname-email
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.
Standards-Version: version-string
This documents the most recent version of the distribution policy
standards this package complies with.
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.
Bugs: url
The url of the bug tracking system for this package. The current
used format is bts-type://bts-address, like
debbugs://bugs.debian.org. This field is usually not needed.
Build-Driver: driver-name
This experimental field specifies the name of the build driver to
use to build this package. When omitted the driver-name defaults to
debian-rules.
This field is supported since dpkg 1.22.7.
Rules-Requires-Root: no|binary-targets|impl-keywords
This field is used to indicate whether the debian/rules file
requires (fake)root privileges to run some of its targets, and if so
when.
no The binary targets will not require (fake)root at all. This is
the default in dpkg-build-api level >= 1, or since dpkg 1.22.13.
binary-targets
The binary targets must always be run under (fake)root. This
value is the default in dpkg-build-api level 0 until dpkg
1.22.13, when the field is omitted; adding the field with an
explicit binary-targets, while not strictly needed, marks it as
having been analyzed for this requirement.
impl-keywords
This is a space-separated list of keywords which define when
(fake)root is required.
Keywords consist of namespace/cases. The namespace part cannot
contain "/" or whitespace. The cases part cannot contain
whitespace. Furthermore, both parts must consist entirely of
printable ASCII characters.
Each tool/package will define a namespace named after itself and
provide a number of cases where (fake)root is required. (See
"Implementation provided keywords" in rootless-builds.txt).
When the field is set to one of the impl-keywords, the builder
will expose an interface that is used to run a command under
(fake)root. (See "Gain Root API" in rootless-builds.txt.)
Testsuite: name-list
Testsuite-Triggers: package-list
These fields are described in the dsc(5) manual page, as they are
generated from information inferred from debian/tests/control or
copied literally to the source control file.
Vcs-Arch: url
Vcs-Bzr: url
Vcs-Cvs: url
Vcs-Darcs: url
Vcs-Git: url
Vcs-Hg: url
Vcs-Mtn: url
Vcs-Svn: url
The url of the Version Control System repository used to maintain
this package. Currently supported are Arch, Bzr (Bazaar), Cvs,
Darcs, Git, Hg (Mercurial), Mtn (Monotone) and Svn (Subversion).
Usually this field points to the latest version of the package, such
as the main branch or the trunk.
Vcs-Browser: url
The url of a web interface to browse the Version Control System
repository.
Origin: name
The name of the distribution this package is originating from. This
field is usually not needed.
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.
When omitted, the section defaults to unknown (since dpkg 1.22.13).
The accepted values are based on the specific distribution policy.
Priority: priority
Sets the importance of this package in relation to the system as a
whole. The known priorities are required, important, standard,
optional, extra, and unknown, but other values can be used as well.
When omitted, the priority defaults to optional (since dpkg
1.22.13).
How to apply these values depends on the specific distribution
policy.
Build-Depends: package-list
A list of packages that need to be installed and configured to be
able to build from source package. These dependencies need to be
satisfied when building binary architecture dependent or independent
packages and source packages. Including a dependency in this field
does not have the exact same effect as including it in both Build-
Depends-Arch and Build-Depends-Indep, because the dependency also
needs to be satisfied when building the source package.
Build-Depends-Arch: package-list
Same as Build-Depends, but they are only needed when building the
architecture dependent packages. The Build-Depends are also
installed in this case. This field is supported since dpkg 1.16.4;
in order to build with older dpkg versions, Build-Depends should be
used instead.
Build-Depends-Indep: package-list
Same as Build-Depends, but they are only needed when building the
architecture independent packages. The Build-Depends are also
installed in this case.
Build-Conflicts: package-list
A list of packages that should not be installed when the package is
built, for example because they interfere with the build system
used. Including a dependency in this list has the same effect as
including it in both Build-Conflicts-Arch and Build-Conflicts-Indep,
with the additional effect of being used for source-only builds.
Build-Conflicts-Arch: package-list
Same as Build-Conflicts, but only when building the architecture
dependent packages. This field is supported since dpkg 1.16.4; in
order to build with older dpkg versions, Build-Conflicts should be
used instead.
Build-Conflicts-Indep: package-list
Same as Build-Conflicts, but only when building the architecture
independent packages.
The syntax of the Build-Depends, Build-Depends-Arch and Build-Depends-
Indep 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 ‘,’, and can end with a trailing
comma that will be eliminated when generating the fields for
deb-control(5) (since dpkg 1.10.14). Commas are to be read as “AND”,
and pipes as “OR”, with pipes binding more tightly. Each package name
is optionally followed by an architecture qualifier appended after a
colon ‘:’, optionally followed by a version number specification in
parentheses ‘(’ and ‘)’, an architecture specification in square
brackets ‘[’ and ‘]’, and a restriction formula consisting of one or
more lists of profile names in angle brackets ‘<’ and ‘>’.
The syntax of the Build-Conflicts, Build-Conflicts-Arch and Build-
Conflicts-Indep fields is a list of comma-separated package names, where
the comma is read as an “AND”, and where the list can end with a
trailing comma that will be eliminated when generating the fields for
deb-control(5) (since dpkg 1.10.14). Specifying alternative packages
using a “pipe” is not supported. Each package name is optionally
followed by a version number specification in parentheses, an
architecture specification in square brackets, and a restriction formula
consisting of one or more lists of profile names in angle brackets.
An architecture qualifier name can be a real Debian architecture name
(since dpkg 1.16.5), any (since dpkg 1.16.2) or native (since dpkg
1.16.5). If omitted, the default for Build-Depends fields is the
current host architecture, the default for Build-Conflicts fields is
any. A real Debian architecture name will match exactly that
architecture for that package name, any will match any architecture for
that package name if the package is marked with Multi-Arch: allowed, and
native will match the current build architecture if the package is not
marked with Multi-Arch: foreign.
A version number may start with a ‘>>’, in which case any later version
will match, and may specify or omit the Debian packaging revision
(separated 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.
An architecture specification consists of one or more architecture
names, separated by whitespace. Exclamation marks may be prepended to
each of the names, meaning “NOT”.
A restriction formula consists of one or more restriction lists,
separated by whitespace. Each restriction list is enclosed in angle
brackets. Items in the restriction list are build profile names,
separated by whitespace and can be prefixed with an exclamation mark,
meaning “NOT”. A restriction formula represents a disjunctive normal
form expression.
Note that dependencies on packages in the build-essential set can be
omitted and that declaring build conflicts against them is impossible.
A list of these packages is in the build-essential package.
BINARY FIELDS
Note that the Priority, Section and Homepage fields can also be in a
binary stanza to override the global value from the source package.
Package: binary-package-name (required)
This field is used to name the binary package name. The same
restrictions as to a source package name apply.
Package-Type: deb|udeb|type
This field defines the type of the package. udeb is for size-
constrained packages used by the debian installer. deb is the
default value, it is assumed if the field is absent. More types
might be added in the future.
Architecture: arch|all|any (required)
The architecture specifies on which type of hardware this package
runs. For packages that run on all architectures, use the any
value. For packages that are architecture independent, such as
shell and Perl scripts or documentation, use the all value. To
restrict the packages to a certain set of architectures, specify the
architecture names, separated by a space. It's also possible to put
architecture wildcards in that list (see dpkg-architecture(1) for
more information about them).
Build-Profiles: restriction-formula
This field specifies the conditions for which this binary package
does or does not build. To express that condition, the same
restriction formula syntax from the Build-Depends field is used
(including the angle brackets).
If a binary package stanza does not contain this field, then it
implicitly means that it builds with all build profiles (including
none at all).
In other words, if a binary package stanza is annotated with a non-
empty Build-Profiles field, then this binary package is generated if
and only if the condition expressed by the conjunctive normal form
expression evaluates to true.
Protected: yes|no
Essential: yes|no
Build-Essential: yes|no
Multi-Arch: same|foreign|allowed|no
Tag: tag-list
Description: short-description (recommended)
These fields are described in the deb-control(5) manual page, as
they are copied literally to the control file of the binary package.
Depends: package-list
Pre-Depends: package-list
Recommends: package-list
Suggests: package-list
Breaks: package-list
Enhances: package-list
Replaces: package-list
Conflicts: package-list
Provides: package-list
Built-Using: package-list
Static-Built-Using: package-list
These fields declare relationships between packages. They are
discussed in the deb-control(5) manual page. When these fields are
found in debian/control they can also end with a trailing comma
(since dpkg 1.10.14), have architecture specifications and
restriction formulas which will all get reduced when generating the
fields for deb-control(5).
Subarchitecture: value
Kernel-Version: value
Installer-Menu-Item: value
These fields are used by the debian-installer in udebs and are
usually not needed. For more details about them, see
<https://salsa.debian.org/installer-team/debian-installer/-/raw/master/doc/devel/modules.txt>.
USER-DEFINED FIELDS
It is allowed to add additional user-defined fields to the control file.
The tools will ignore these fields. If you want the fields to be copied
over to the output files, such as the binary packages, you need to use a
custom naming scheme: the fields should start with an X, followed by
zero or more of the letters SBC and a hyphen.
S The field will appear in the source package control file, see
dsc(5).
B The field will appear in the control file in the binary package, see
deb-control(5).
C The field will appear in the upload control (.changes) file, see
deb-changes(5).
Note that the X[SBC]- prefixes are stripped when the fields are copied
over to the output files. A field XC-Approved-By will appear as
Approved-By in the changes file and will not appear in the binary or
source package control files.
Take into account that these user-defined fields will be using the
global namespace, which might at some point in the future collide with
officially recognized fields. To avoid such potential situation you can
prefix those fields with Private-, such as XB-Private-New-Field.
EXAMPLE
# Comment
Source: dpkg
Section: admin
Priority: required
Maintainer: Dpkg Developers <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>
# This field is copied to the binary and source packages.
XBS-Upstream-Release-Status: stable
Homepage: https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg
Vcs-Browser: https://git.dpkg.org/cgit/dpkg/dpkg.git
Vcs-Git: https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git
Standards-Version: 4.7.0
Build-Depends:
debhelper-compat (= 13),
debhelper (>= 13.10~),
pkgconf,
libselinux1-dev (>= 1.28-4) [!linux-any],
Package: dpkg-dev
Section: utils
Priority: optional
Architecture: all
# This is a custom field in the binary package.
XB-Mentoring-Contact: Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
Depends:
binutils,
bzip2,
cpio (>= 2.4.2-2),
# This is a comment in the middle of a field value.
dpkg (>= 1.14.6),
libtimedate-perl,
lzma,
make,
patch (>= 2.2-1),
perl-modules,
perl5,
Recommends:
gcc | c-compiler,
build-essential,
Suggests:
gnupg,
debian-keyring,
Conflicts:
dpkg-cross (<< 2.0.0),
devscripts (<< 2.10.26),
Replaces:
manpages-pl (<= 20051117-1),
Description: Debian package development tools
This package provides the development tools (including dpkg-source)
required to unpack, build and upload Debian source packages.
.
Most Debian source packages will require additional tools to build;
for example, most packages need make and the C compiler gcc.
SEE ALSO
/usr/share/doc/dpkg/spec/rootless-builds.txt, deb822(5), deb-control(5),
deb-version(7), dpkg-source(1)
1.22.21 2025-06-30 deb-src-control(5)
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