161 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
161 lines
5.5 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Man page of deb822</TITLE>
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</HEAD><BODY>
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<H1>deb822</H1>
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Section: dpkg suite (5)<BR>Updated: 2020-03-23<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
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<A NAME="lbAB"> </A>
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<H2>NAME</H2>
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deb822 - Debian RFC822 control data format
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<A NAME="lbAC"> </A>
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<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
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The package management system manipulates data represented in a common
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format, known as <I>control data</I>, stored in <I>control files</I>.
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Control files are used for source packages, binary packages and the
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<B>.changes</B> files which control the installation of uploaded
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files (<B>dpkg</B>'s internal databases are in a similar format).
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<A NAME="lbAD"> </A>
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<H2>SYNTAX</H2>
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A control file consists of one or more paragraphs of fields (the paragraphs
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are also sometimes referred to as stanzas).
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The paragraphs are separated by empty lines.
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Parsers may accept lines consisting solely of U+0020 <B>SPACE</B> and
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U+0009 <B>TAB</B> as paragraph separators, but control files should use
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empty lines.
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Some control files allow only one paragraph; others allow several, in which
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case each paragraph usually refers to a different package.
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(For example, in source packages, the first paragraph refers to the source
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package, and later paragraphs refer to binary packages generated from the
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source.)
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The ordering of the paragraphs in control files is significant.
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<P>
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Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields.
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Each field consists of the field name followed by a colon
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(U+003A '<B>:</B>'), and then the data/value associated with that field.
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The field name is composed of US-ASCII characters excluding control
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characters, space, and colon (i.e., characters in the ranges
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U+0021 '<B>!</B>' through U+0039 '<B>9</B>', and
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U+003B '<B>;</B>' through U+007E '<B>~</B>', inclusive).
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Field names must not begin with the comment character
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(U+0023 '<B>#</B>'), nor with the hyphen character
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(U+002D '<B>-</B>').
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<P>
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The field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the last continuation
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line (see below).
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Horizontal whitespace (U+0020 <B>SPACE</B> and U+0009 <B>TAB</B>) may occur
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immediately before or after the value and is ignored there; it is conventional
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to put a single space after the colon.
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For example, a field might be:
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<DL COMPACT><DT id="1"><DD>
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<PRE>
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Package: dpkg
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</PRE>
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</DL>
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the field name is <B>Package</B> and the field value <B>dpkg</B>.
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<P>
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Empty field values are only permitted in source package control files
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(<I>debian/control</I>).
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Such fields are ignored.
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<P>
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A paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a particular field name.
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<P>
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There are three types of fields:
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<P>
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<DL COMPACT><DT id="2"><DD>
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<DL COMPACT>
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<DT id="3"><B>simple</B>
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<DD>
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The field, including its value, must be a single line.
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Folding of the field is not permitted.
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This is the default field type if the definition of the field does not
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specify a different type.
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<DT id="4"><B>folded</B>
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<DD>
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The value of a folded field is a logical line that may span several lines.
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The lines after the first are called continuation lines and must start with
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a U+0020 <B>SPACE</B> or a U+0009 <B>TAB</B>.
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Whitespace, including any newlines, is not significant in the field values
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of folded fields.
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<P>
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This folding method is similar to RFC5322, allowing control files that
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contain only one paragraph and no multiline fields to be read by parsers
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written for RFC5322.
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<DT id="5"><B>multiline</B>
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<DD>
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The value of a multiline field may comprise multiple continuation lines.
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The first line of the value, the part on the same line as the field name,
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often has special significance or may have to be empty.
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Other lines are added following the same syntax as the continuation lines
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of the folded fields.
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Whitespace, including newlines, is significant in the values of multiline
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fields.
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</DL>
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</DL>
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<P>
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Whitespace must not appear inside names (of packages, architectures, files
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or anything else) or version numbers, or between the characters of
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multi-character version relationships.
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<P>
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The presence and purpose of a field, and the syntax of its value may differ
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between types of control files.
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<P>
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Field names are not case-sensitive, but it is usual to capitalize the field
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names using mixed case as shown below.
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Field values are case-sensitive unless the description of the field says
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otherwise.
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<P>
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Paragraph separators (empty lines) and lines consisting only of
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U+0020 <B>SPACE</B> and U+0009 <B>TAB</B>, are not allowed within field
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values or between fields.
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Empty lines in field values are usually escaped by representing them by a
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U+0020 <B>SPACE</B> followed by a dot (U+002E '<B>.</B>').
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<P>
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Lines starting with U+0023 '<B>#</B>', without any preceding whitespace
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are comments lines that are only permitted in source package control files
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(<I>debian/control</I>) and in <B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?5+deb-origin">deb-origin</A></B>(5) files.
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These comment lines are ignored, even between two continuation lines.
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They do not end logical lines.
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<P>
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All control files must be encoded in UTF-8.
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<A NAME="lbAE"> </A>
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<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
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<B>RFC822</B>,
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<B>RFC5322</B>.
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A NAME="index"> </A><H2>Index</H2>
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<DL>
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<DT id="6"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
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<DT id="7"><A HREF="#lbAC">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
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<DT id="8"><A HREF="#lbAD">SYNTAX</A><DD>
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<DT id="9"><A HREF="#lbAE">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
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</DL>
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<HR>
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This document was created by
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<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">man2html</A>,
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using the manual pages.<BR>
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Time: 00:06:02 GMT, March 31, 2021
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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