Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Control

Timestamp:

01/23/13 17:45:48 (11 years ago)

Author:

jdreed

Comment:

--

Control

@@ +1 @@
+= The control file =
+
+The control file contains metadata necessary for building the package.  Some of the metadata ends up in the `.dsc` file, some ends up in the binary package, some in the `.changes` file, and some is only used at build time.
+
+The canonical information about control fields and their meaning can be found at http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html
+
+== Sample `control` file ==
+
+{{{
+Source: rpncalc
+Section: utils
+Priority: extra
+Maintainer: Jonathan Reed <jdreed@mit.edu>
+Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 8.0.0)
+Standards-Version: 3.9.3
+
+Package: rpncalc
+Architecture: any
+Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
+Description: Simple RPN calculator in bash
+ A simple RPN calculator, implemented in bash.
+ Not legal for trade.
+ This was taken from the O'Reilly bash cookbook.
+}}}
+
+As you may notice, the file is divided into 2 sections.  The `Source:` section and the `Package:` section, which correspond to the source and binary packages, respectively.  As noted earlier, a single source package can build multiple binary packages, and so `control` files may have multiple `Package:` sections.  Section breaks are indicated by a blank line.
+
+* `Priority`: Used by package managers to decide what to keep when there are conflicts.  This is general `optional` or `extra`.  You may also see `required`, or `essential` which will make it harder for package managers to resolve conflicts, and is generally reserved for things that are truly required, like the kernel, or libc.
+* `Section`: The Section is mostly irrelevant; copy it from a package similar to yours.  This field has a special format, section/subsection.  The section part determines what component of a Debian repository (i.e. the things after the name of the distro in the /etc/apt/sources.list line) to upload the package to (in standard Debian, main, contrib, or non-free; in Debathena, debathena, debathena-standard, debathena-system, or openafs); if it is not specified the section is assumed to be main.  The subsection field is simply used for organizing graphical user interfaces to the Debian archive.  
+* `Standards-Version`: Indicates what version of the Debian Policy Manual the package is compatible with.  Should generally be the current version you're running.  Used by Lintian.  Get it using apt-cache show debian-policy | grep Version.
+* `Maintainer`: Your contact information, e.g. Tim Abbott <tabbott@mit.edu>
+* `Build-Depends`: List packages needed to build your package.  You don’t need to include any Priority: essential packages or anything depended on by build-essential.
+* `Architecture`: If your package is architecture-independent (e.g. a shell script), you want “all”.  If your package only works on some architectures, list those architectures.  Otherwise, you want “any”.  In Debathena, we generally use 'any' or 'all'.
+* `Depends`: A hard dependency; the package will not be installed unless the packages it depends on are installed.  Necessary
+shared libraries should be automatically added if you include “${shlibs:Depends}”.  Other useful dependencies may be added
+by debhelper if you include “${misc:Depends}”.  You don’t need to include any Priority: essential packages.
+* `Recommends:` A soft dependency; aptitude and recent apt-get will prompt you to install the recommended packages along with your
+package, but they will let you install your package without its recommended packages.
+* `Suggests:` A dependency that doesn’t do anything.  Modern package managers may tell the user that some packages are suggested, but will never automatically install them.
+* `Conflicts`: A dependency that prevents both packages from being installed simultaneously.
+* `Provides`: Assign virtual names to the package.  Debian uses this for defining alternatives (e.g. mail-transport-agent is anything providing sendmail), but Provides is useful for many other applications.
+* `Replaces`: When one package replaces or is a renaming of another, you want to specify Replaces: and Conflicts: against that package.  Files from the named packages will be overwritten with the files from your package and it’ll make aptitude happier about the upgrade.
+* `Pre-Depends`, `Breaks`: These are stronger versions of Depends and Conflicts, and should only be used in very specific situations.
+* `Description`: A description of the package.  This is a multi-line field.  The first line is a short synopsis of the package, and the remaining lines (indented by a single space) is a longer description.  Read Debian Policy for more information, as Lintian can be very pedantic about grammar and syntax in this field.
+