5.2. Source package control files – debian/control

The debian/control file contains the most vital (and version-independent) information about the source package and about the binary packages it creates.

The first paragraph of the control file contains information about the source package in general. The subsequent paragraphs each describe a binary package that the source tree builds. Each binary package built from this source package has a corresponding paragraph, except for any automatically-generated debug packages that do not require one.

The fields in the general paragraph (the first one, for the source package) are:

• Source (mandatory)

• Maintainer (mandatory)

• Uploaders

• Section (recommended)

• Priority (recommended)

• Build-Depends et al

• Standards-Version (mandatory)

• Homepage

• Version Control System (VCS) fields

• Testsuite

• Rules-Requires-Root

The fields in the binary package paragraphs are:

• Package (mandatory)

• Architecture (mandatory)

• Section (recommended)

• Priority (recommended)

• Essential

• Depends et al

• Description (mandatory)

• Homepage

• Built-Using

• Package-Type

The syntax and semantics of the fields are described below.

These fields are used by dpkg-gencontrol to generate control files for binary packages (see below), by dpkg-genchanges to generate the .changes file to accompany the upload, and by dpkg-source when it creates the .dsc source control file as part of a source archive. Some fields are folded in debian/control, but not in any other control file. These tools are responsible for removing the line breaks from such fields when using fields from debian/control to generate other control files. They are also responsible for discarding empty fields.

The fields here may contain variable references - their values will be substituted by dpkg-gencontrol, dpkg-genchanges or dpkg-source when they generate output control files. See Variable substitutions: debian/substvars for details.