dpkg-architecture(1) dpkg suite dpkg-architecture(1)
NAME
dpkg-architecture - set and determine the architecture for package
building
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-architecture [option...] [command]
DESCRIPTION
dpkg-architecture provides a facility to determine and set the build and
host architecture for package building.
The build architecture is always determined by either the DEB_BUILD_ARCH
variable if set (and --force not being specified) or by an external call
to dpkg(1), and cannot be set at the command line.
You can specify the host architecture by providing one or both of the
options --host-arch and --host-type, otherwise the DEB_HOST_ARCH
variable is used if set (and --force not being specified). The default
is determined by an external call to gcc(1), or the same as the build
architecture if CC or gcc are both not available. One out of
--host-arch and --host-type is sufficient, the value of the other will
be set to a usable default. Indeed, it is often better to only specify
one, because dpkg-architecture will warn you if your choice does not
match the default.
COMMANDS
-l, --list
Print the environment variables, one each line, in the format
VARIABLE=value. This is the default action.
-e, --equal architecture
Check for equality of architecture (since dpkg 1.13.13). It
compares the current or specified Debian host architecture against
architecture, to check if they are equal. This action will not
expand the architecture wildcards. Command finishes with an exit
status of 0 if matched, 1 if not matched.
-i, --is architecture-wildcard
Check for identity of architecture (since dpkg 1.13.13). It
compares the current or specified Debian host architecture against
architecture-wildcard after having expanded it as an architecture
wildcard, to check if they match. Command finishes with an exit
status of 0 if matched, 1 if not matched.
-q, --query variable-name
Print the value of a single variable.
-s, --print-set
Print an export command. This can be used to set the environment
variables using the POSIX shell or make eval, depending on the
output format.
-u, --print-unset
Print a similar command to --print-set but to unset all variables.
-c, --command command-string
Execute a command-string in an environment which has all variables
set to the determined value.
If the command-string contains shell metacharacters, then it will be
invoked through the system bourne shell.
-L, --list-known
Print a list of valid architecture names. Possibly restricted by
one or more of the matching options --match-wildcard, --match-bits
or --match-endian (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-?, --help
Show the usage message and exit.
--version
Show the version and exit.
OPTIONS
-a, --host-arch architecture
Set the host Debian architecture.
-t, --host-type gnu-system-type
Set the host GNU system type.
-A, --target-arch architecture
Set the target Debian architecture (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-T, --target-type gnu-system-type
Set the target GNU system type (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-W, --match-wildcard architecture-wildcard
Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to ones matching
the specified architecture wildcard (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-B, --match-bits architecture-bits
Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to ones with the
specified CPU bits (since dpkg 1.17.14). Either 32 or 64.
-E, --match-endian architecture-endianness
Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to ones with the
specified endianness (since dpkg 1.17.14). Either little or big.
--print-format format
Sets the output format for --print-set and --print-unset (since dpkg
1.20.6), to either shell (default) or make.
-f, --force
Values set by existing environment variables with the same name as
used by the scripts are honored (i.e. used by dpkg-architecture),
except if this force flag is present. This allows the user to
override a value even when the call to dpkg-architecture is buried
in some other script (for example dpkg-buildpackage(1)).
TERMS
build machine
The machine the package is built on.
host machine
The machine the package is built for.
target machine
The machine the compiler is building for, or the emulator will run
code for. This is only needed when building a cross-toolchain (or
emulator), one that will be built on the build architecture, to be
run on the host architecture, and that itself will build (or run
emulated) code for the target architecture.
Debian architecture
The Debian architecture string, used in binary packages, which
specifies the binary tree in a package repository.
Examples: i386, sparc, hurd-i386.
Debian architecture tuple
A Debian architecture tuple is the fully qualified architecture with
all its components spelled out. This differs with Debian
architectures in that at least the cpu component does not embed the
abi. The current tuple has the form abi-libc-os-cpu.
Examples: base-gnu-linux-amd64, eabihf-musl-linux-arm.
Debian architecture wildcard
A Debian architecture wildcard is a special architecture string that
will match any real architecture being part of it. The general form
is a Debian architecture tuple with four or less elements, and with
at least one of them being any. Missing elements of the tuple are
prefixed implicitly as any, and thus the following pairs are
equivalent:
any-any-any-any = any
any-any-os-any = os-any
any-libc-any-any = libc-any-any
Examples: linux-any, any-i386, hurd-any, eabi-any-any-arm, musl-any-
any.
GNU system type
An architecture specification string consisting of two parts
separated by a hyphen: CPU and system.
The CPU part never contains a hyphen, while the system part might
itself contain a hyphen to separate a kernel from its general ABI,
where the general ABI might contain both runtime (such as libc) and
executable ABI specifiers joined without a hyphen.
Examples: i586-linux-gnu, sparc-linux-gnu, i686-gnu, x86_64-netbsd.
multiarch triplet
The clarified GNU system type, used for filesystem paths. This
triplet does not change even when the baseline ISA gets bumped, so
that the resulting paths are stable over time. The only current
difference with the GNU system type is that the CPU part for i386
based systems is always i386.
Examples: i386-linux-gnu, x86_64-linux-gnu. Example paths:
/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/, /usr/lib/i386-kfreebsd-gnu/.
VARIABLES
The following variables are read from the environment (unless --force
has been specified) and set by dpkg-architecture (see the TERMS section
for a description of the naming scheme):
DEB_BUILD_ARCH
The Debian architecture of the build machine.
Note: If you are not building tools that need to run during the
build, these are probably not the variables you are looking for.
Please see "TERMS" section for the meanings of these terms.
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_ABI
The Debian ABI name of the build machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_LIBC
The Debian libc name of the build machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_OS
The Debian system name of the build machine (since dpkg 1.13.2).
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_CPU
The Debian CPU name of the build machine (since dpkg 1.13.2).
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_BITS
The pointer size of the build machine (in bits; since dpkg 1.15.4).
DEB_BUILD_ARCH_ENDIAN
The endianness of the build machine (little / big; since dpkg
1.15.4).
DEB_BUILD_GNU_CPU
The GNU CPU part of DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE.
DEB_BUILD_GNU_SYSTEM
The GNU system part of DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE.
DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE
The GNU system type of the build machine.
DEB_BUILD_MULTIARCH
The clarified GNU system type of the build machine, used for
filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.16.0).
DEB_HOST_ARCH
The Debian architecture of the host machine.
DEB_HOST_ARCH_ABI
The Debian ABI name of the host machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_HOST_ARCH_LIBC
The Debian libc name of the host machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS
The Debian system name of the host machine (since dpkg 1.13.2).
DEB_HOST_ARCH_CPU
The Debian CPU name of the host machine (since dpkg 1.13.2).
DEB_HOST_ARCH_BITS
The pointer size of the host machine (in bits; since dpkg 1.15.4).
DEB_HOST_ARCH_ENDIAN
The endianness of the host machine (little / big; since dpkg
1.15.4).
DEB_HOST_GNU_CPU
The GNU CPU part of DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE.
DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM
The GNU system part of DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE.
DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE
The GNU system type of the host machine.
DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH
The clarified GNU system type of the host machine, used for
filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.16.0).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH
The Debian architecture of the target machine (since dpkg 1.17.14).
Note: If you are not building cross-toolchains (or emulators), these
are probably not the variables you are looking for. Please see
"TERMS" section for the meanings of these terms.
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_ABI
The Debian ABI name of the target machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_LIBC
The Debian libc name of the target machine (since dpkg 1.18.11).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_OS
The Debian system name of the target machine (since dpkg 1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_CPU
The Debian CPU name of the target machine (since dpkg 1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_BITS
The pointer size of the target machine (in bits; since dpkg
1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_ARCH_ENDIAN
The endianness of the target machine (little / big; since dpkg
1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_GNU_CPU
The GNU CPU part of DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE (since dpkg 1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_GNU_SYSTEM
The GNU system part of DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE (since dpkg 1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE
The GNU system type of the target machine (since dpkg 1.17.14).
DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH
The clarified GNU system type of the target machine, used for
filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.17.14).
FILES
Architecture tables
All these files have to be present for dpkg-architecture to work. Their
location can be overridden at runtime with the environment variable
DPKG_DATADIR. These tables contain a format Version pseudo-field on
their first line to mark their format, so that parsers can check if they
understand it, such as "# Version=1.0".
/usr/share/dpkg/cputable
Table of known CPU names and mapping to their GNU name. Format
version 1.0 (since dpkg 1.13.2).
/usr/share/dpkg/ostable
Table of known operating system names and mapping to their GNU name.
Format version 2.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
/usr/share/dpkg/tupletable
Mapping between Debian architecture tuples and Debian architecture
names. Format version 1.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
/usr/share/dpkg/abitable
Table of Debian architecture ABI attribute overrides. Format
version 2.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
Packaging support
/usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk
Makefile snippet that properly sets and exports all the variables
that dpkg-architecture outputs (since dpkg 1.16.1).
EXAMPLES
dpkg-buildpackage accepts the -a option and passes it to dpkg-
architecture. Other examples:
CC=i386-gnu-gcc dpkg-architecture -c debian/rules build
eval $(dpkg-architecture -u)
Check if the current or specified host architecture is equal to an
architecture:
dpkg-architecture -elinux-arm64
dpkg-architecture -ariscv64 -elinux-riscv64
Check if the current or specified host architecture is a Linux system:
dpkg-architecture -ilinux-any
dpkg-architecture -aamd64 -ilinux-any
Usage in debian/rules
The environment variables set by dpkg-architecture are passed to
debian/rules as make variables (see make documentation). However, you
should not rely on them, as this breaks manual invocation of the script.
Instead, you should always initialize them using dpkg-architecture with
the -q option. Here are some examples, which also show how you can
improve the cross compilation support in your package:
Retrieving the GNU system type and forwarding it to ./configure:
DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)
DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
[...]
ifeq ($(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE), $(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE))
confflags += --build=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
else
confflags += --build=$(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE) \
--host=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
endif
[...]
./configure $(confflags)
Doing something only for a specific architecture:
DEB_HOST_ARCH ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH)
ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_ARCH),arm64)
[...]
endif
or if you only need to check the CPU or OS type, use the
DEB_HOST_ARCH_CPU or DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS variables.
Note that you can also rely on an external Makefile snippet to properly
set all the variables that dpkg-architecture can provide:
include /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk
ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_ARCH),arm64)
[...]
endif
In any case, you should never use dpkg --print-architecture to get
architecture information during a package build.
ENVIRONMENT
DPKG_DATADIR
If set, it will be used as the dpkg data directory, where the
architecture tables are located (since dpkg 1.14.17). Defaults to
«/usr/share/dpkg».
DPKG_COLORS
Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5). The currently accepted
values are: auto (default), always and never.
DPKG_NLS
If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
Language Support, also known as internationalization (or i18n)
support (since dpkg 1.19.0). The accepted values are: 0 and 1
(default).
NOTES
All long command and option names available only since dpkg 1.17.17.
SEE ALSO
dpkg-buildpackage(1).
1.22.21 2025-06-30 dpkg-architecture(1)
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