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 RFC9580.
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This field has now been superseded by the Package-List field, which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@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, or if omitted default to unknown and optional respectively
(since dpkg 1.22.13).
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, weak)
Checksums-Sha1: (required, weak)
Checksums-Sha256: (required, strong)
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.
Note: The MD5 and SHA-1 checksums are considered weak, and should
never be assumed to be sufficient for secure verification.
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).
1.22.21 2025-06-30 dsc(5)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:52:59 CET 2025.