Chapter 6. Basics of the Debian package management system

27

6.4 What is a Debian control file?

Specifics regarding the contents of a Debian control file are provided in the Debian Policy

Manual, section 5, see `What other documentation exists on and for a Debian system?' on

page

59

.

Briefly, a sample control file is shown below for the Debian package hello:

Package: hello

Priority: optional

Section: devel

Installed Size: 45

Maintainer: Adam Heath 

Architecture: i386

Version: 1.3 16

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.1)

Description: The classic greeting, and a good example

The GNU hello program produces a familiar, friendly greeting.

It

allows nonprogrammers to use a classic computer science tool which

would otherwise be unavailable to them.

.

Seriously, though: this is an example of how to do a Debian package.

It is the Debian version of the GNU Project's `hello world' program

(which is itself an example for the GNU Project).

The Package field gives the package name. This is the name by which the package can be

manipulated by the package tools, and usually similar to but not necessarily the same as the

first component string in the Debian archive file name.

The Version field gives both the upstream developer's version number and (in the last compo 

nent) the revision level of the Debian package of this program as explained in `Why are Debian

package file names so long?' on the preceding page.

The Architecture field specifies the chip for which this particular binary was compiled.

The Depends field gives a list of packages that have to be installed in order to install this

package successfully.

The Installed Size indicates how much disk space the installed package will consume. This is

intended to be used by installation front ends in order to show whether there is enough disk

space available to install the program.

The Section line gives the  section  where this Debian package is stored at the Debian FTP

sites. This is the name of a subdirectory (within one of the main directories, see `What are all

those directories at the Debian FTP archives?' on page

19

) where the package is stored.

The Priority indicates how important is this package for installation, so that semi intelligent

software like dselect or console apt can sort the package into a category of e.g. packages op 

tionally installed. See `What is an Essential Required, Important, Standard, Optional, or Extra

package?' on page

29

.