| 23 | | Depends: xbitmaps, libc6 (>= 2.15), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.8.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libtinfo5, libutempter0 (>= 1.1.5), libx11-6, libxaw7, libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxmu6, libxt6 |
| | 23 | Depends: xbitmaps, libc6 (>= 2.15), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.8.0), libice6 (>= 1:1.0.0), libtinfo5, |
| | 24 | libutempter0 (>= 1.1.5), libx11-6, libxaw7, libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxmu6, libxt6 |
| | 38 | The first line tells us what version of the Debian package format this package uses. Then comes the size of the package itself and the "control archive" (metadata). The "control archive" contains several files such as `conffiles`, `control`, `md5sums`, `postinst`, `postrm`, `prerm`. `conffiles` is a list of files that Debian package system believes to be configuration files, intended to be customized by the user. The packaging system will not automatically replace these files on upgrade if the user has made changes to them. We'll talk more about conffiles later. The `md5sums` file contains MD5 checksums and helps verify package integrity, both while installing the file, and later on to determine if files have been changed after installation. The `postinst`, `postrm`, and `prerm` files are what are called "maintainer scripts". We will talk more about those later, but for now, they are scripts that are run after installation (postinst), after removal (postrm) and before removal (prerm). The remainder of the output is the `control` file itself, which has a number of fields. |
| | 39 | - Package and Version should be self-explanatory |
| | 40 | - Architecture is the specific processor architecture for which this package was built. There is also the architecture "all", meaning that it's architecture independent, as it does not use any compiled software. |
| | 41 | - Depends is a comma-separated list of packages which must be installed prior to installation of this package. The parenthetical portions specify a specific version for the preceeding package. For example, this package requires any version of the 'xbitmaps' package, but requires version 2.15 or later of the 'libc' package. |
| | 42 | - Recommends is a list of packages that should be installed, but aren't firm requirements. |
| | 43 | - Suggests is even more lax than Recommends, and is generally not used by any package managers. |
| | 44 | - Description: is a description of the package. The first line should be a summary, and subsequent lines should be a full-text description, indented by one space. |
