deb-triggers(5) dpkg suite deb-triggers(5)
NAME
deb-triggers - package triggers
SYNOPSIS
debian/triggers, debian/binary-package.triggers, DEBIAN/triggers
DESCRIPTION
A package declares its relationship to some trigger(s) by including a
triggers file in its control archive (i.e. DEBIAN/triggers during
package creation).
This file contains directives, one per line. Leading and trailing
whitespace and everything after the first # on any line will be trimmed,
and empty lines will be ignored.
The trigger control directives currently supported are:
interest trigger-name
interest-await trigger-name
interest-noawait trigger-name
Specifies that the package is interested in the named trigger. All
triggers in which a package is interested must be listed using this
directive in the triggers control file.
The “await” variants put the triggering package in triggers-awaited
state depending on how the trigger was activated. The “noawait”
variant does not put the triggering packages in triggers-awaited
state, even if the triggering package declared an “await” activation
(either with an activate-await or activate directive, or by using
the dpkg-trigger --no-await command-line option). The “noawait”
variant should be used when the functionality provided by the
trigger is not crucial.
activate trigger-name
activate-await trigger-name
activate-noawait trigger-name
Arranges that changes to this package's state will activate the
specified trigger. The trigger will be activated at the start of
the following operations: unpack, configure, remove (including for
the benefit of a conflicting package), purge and deconfigure.
The “await” variants only put the triggering package in triggers-
awaited state if the interest directive is also “await”. The
“noawait” variant never puts the triggering packages in triggers-
awaited state. The “noawait” variant should be used when the
functionality provided by the trigger is not crucial.
If this package disappears during the unpacking of another package
the trigger will be activated when the disappearance is noted
towards the end of the unpack. Trigger processing, and transition
from triggers-awaited to installed, does not cause activations. In
the case of unpack, triggers mentioned in both the old and new
versions of the package will be activated.
Unknown directives are an error which will prevent installation of the
package.
The “-noawait” variants should always be favored when possible since
triggering packages are not put in triggers-awaited state and can thus
be immediately configured without requiring the processing of the
trigger. If the triggering packages are dependencies of other upgraded
packages, it will avoid an early trigger processing run and make it
possible to run the trigger only once as one of the last steps of the
upgrade.
The “-noawait” variants are supported since dpkg 1.16.1, and will lead
to errors if used with an older dpkg.
The “-await” alias variants are supported since dpkg 1.17.21, and will
lead to errors if used with an older dpkg.
When a package provides an interest-noawait directive, any activation
will set the triggering package into “noawait” mode, regardless of the
awaiting mode requested by the activation (either “await” or “noawait”).
When a package provides an interest or interest-await directive, any
activation will set the triggering package into “await” or “noawait“
depending on how it was activated.
SEE ALSO
dpkg-trigger(1), dpkg(1), /usr/share/doc/dpkg/spec/triggers.txt.
1.22.21 2025-06-30 deb-triggers(5)
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