dpkg programmers' manual

• 1 Introduction and scope of this manual
• 2 Binary packages
  • 2.1 Creating package files - dpkg-deb
  • 2.2 Package control information files
  • 2.3 The main control information file: control
• 3 Source packages
  • 3.1 The Debianised source tree
  • 3.2 Source packages as archives
  • 3.3 Unpacking a Debian source package without dpkg-source
• 4 Control files and their fields
  • 4.1 Syntax of control files
  • 4.2 List of fields
• 5 Version numbering
• 6 Package maintainer scripts and installation procedure
  • 6.1 Introduction to package maintainer scripts
  • 6.2 Summary of ways maintainer scripts are called
  • 6.3 Details of unpack phase of installation or upgrade
  • 6.4 Details of configuration
  • 6.5 Details of removal and/or configuration purging
• 7 Descriptions of packages - the Description field
  • 7.1 Types of formatting line in the extended description
  • 7.2 Notes about writing descriptions
  • 7.3 Example description in control file for Smail
• 8 Declaring relationships between packages
  • 8.1 Syntax of relationship fields
  • 8.2 Dependencies - Depends, Recommends, Suggests, Pre-Depends
  • 8.3 Alternative packages - Conflicts and Replaces
  • 8.4 Virtual packages - Provides
  • 8.5 Replaces - overwriting files and replacing packages
  • 8.6 Defaults for satisfying dependencies - ordering
• 9 Configuration file handling
  • 9.1 Automatic handling of configuration files by dpkg
  • 9.2 Fully-featured maintainer script configuration handling
• 10 Alternative versions of an interface - update-alternatives
• 11 Diversions - overriding a package's version of a file
• 12 Shared libraries
• 13 Configuration of init
  • 13.1 Introduction to the init.d scheme
  • 13.2 Writing init.d scripts
  • 13.3 Managing the rcn.d links - update-rc.d
  • 13.4 Boot-time initialisation - rc.boot
  • 13.5 Notes
  • 13.6 Example
• 14 dselect's interface to its installation methods
  • 14.1 Functions of the method scripts
  • 14.2 Location and arguments of the method scripts

This manual is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License with your Debian GNU/Linux system, in /usr/doc/copyright/GPL, or with the dpkg source package as the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.