dpkg-gencontrol(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

dpkg-gencontrol(1)             dpkg suite             dpkg-gencontrol(1)

NAME         top

       dpkg-gencontrol - generate Debian control files

SYNOPSIS         top

       dpkg-gencontrol [option...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       dpkg-gencontrol reads information from an unpacked Debian source
       tree and generates a binary package control file (which defaults
       to debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control); during this process it will
       simplify the relation fields.

       Thus Pre-Depends, Depends, Recommends and Suggests are simplified
       in this order by removing dependencies which are known to be true
       according to the stronger dependencies already parsed.  It will
       also remove any self-dependency (in fact it will remove any
       dependency which evaluates to true given the current version of
       the package as installed).  Logically it keeps the intersection
       of multiple dependencies on the same package.  The order of
       dependencies is preserved as best as possible: if any dependency
       must be discarded due to another dependency appearing further in
       the field, the superseding dependency will take the place of the
       discarded one.

       The other relation fields (Enhances, Conflicts, Breaks, Replaces
       and Provides) are also simplified individually by computing the
       union of the various dependencies when a package is listed
       multiple times in the field.

       dpkg-gencontrol also adds an entry for the binary package to
       debian/files.

OPTIONS         top

       -vversion
           Sets the version number of the binary package which will be
           generated.

       -Vname=value
           Set an output substitution variable.  See deb-substvars(5)
           for discussion of output substitution.

       -Tsubstvars-file
           Read substitution variables in substvars-file; the default is
           debian/substvars.  This option can be used multiple times to
           read substitution variables from multiple files (since dpkg
           1.15.6).

       -Dfield=value
           Override or add an output control file field.

       -Ufield
           Remove an output control file field.

       -ccontrol-file
           Specifies the main source control file to read information
           from.  The default is debian/control.

       -lchangelog-file
           Specifies the changelog file to read information from.  The
           default is debian/changelog.

       -ffiles-list-file
           Read or write the list of files to be uploaded here, rather
           than using debian/files.

       -Fchangelog-format
           Specifies the format of the changelog.  See
           dpkg-parsechangelog(1) for information about alternative
           formats.

       -ppackage
           Generate information for the binary package package.  If the
           source control file lists only one binary package then this
           option may be omitted; otherwise it is essential to select
           which binary package's information to generate.

       -nfilename
           Assume the filename of the package will be filename instead
           of the normal package_version_arch.deb filename.

       -is, -ip, -isp
           These options are ignored for compatibility with older
           versions of the dpkg build scripts but are now deprecated.
           Previously they were used to tell dpkg-gencontrol to include
           the Section and Priority fields in the control file.  This is
           now the default behavior.  If you want to get the old
           behavior you can use the -U option to delete the fields from
           the control file.

       -Ppackage-build-dir
           Scan package-build-dir instead of debian/tmp.  This value is
           used to find the default value of the Installed-Size
           substitution variable and control file field, and for the
           default location of the output file.

       -O[filename]
           Print the control file to standard output (or filename if
           specified, since dpkg 1.17.2), rather than to
           debian/tmp/DEBIAN/control (or package-build-
           dir/DEBIAN/control if -P was used).

       -?, --help
           Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       DEB_HOST_ARCH
           Sets the host architecture.

       DPKG_COLORS
           Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently
           accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
           If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
           Language Support, also known as internationalization (or
           i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are:
           0 and 1 (default).

FILES         top

       debian/control
           The main source control information file, giving version-
           independent information about the source package and the
           binary packages it can produce.

       debian/files
           The list of generated files which are part of the upload
           being prepared.  dpkg-gencontrol adds the presumed filenames
           of binary packages whose control files it generates here.

SEE ALSO         top

       deb-substvars(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-changelog(5),
       deb-control(5).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
       clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2024-06-14.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2024-05-21.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

1.22.6-77-g86fe7               2024-03-10             dpkg-gencontrol(1)

Pages that refer to this page: dh_gencontrol(1)dpkg-buildtree(1)deb-src-rules(5)deb-substvars(5)