deb-control(5) dpkg suite deb-control(5) (NAME) deb-control - (SYNOPSIS) DEBIAN/control (DESCRIPTION) control control deb822(5) debian/control deb-src-control(5) . . Package Version ( ) ( ) . . ( Description ). (FIELDS) Package: package-name (required) . Package-Type: deb|udeb|type . udeb (debian installer) . deb . . Version: version-string (required) . ( ). deb-version(7) . : dpkg . Maintainer: fullname-email (recommended) "Joe Bloggs " . Description: short-description (recommended) long-description ( Description) . . `.' . Section: section . utils net mail text x11 . . Priority: priority . required important standard optional extra unknown . . Installed-Size: size (KiB). deb-substvars(5) . Protected: yes|no yes . . dpkg(1) Protected ( ). dpkg 1.20.1 . Essential: yes|no yes . ( Protected ). dpkg(1) Essential ( ). Build-Essential: yes|no yes . . Architecture: all|arch (required) . amd64 armel i386 powerpc . all ( ). : (wildcards) . - ("0-9a-zA-Z") - (`-') . Origin: name . Bugs: url url . bts-type://bts-address debbugs://bugs.debian.org. Homepage: url url . Tag: tag-list . debtags . Multi-Arch: no|same|foreign|allowed (multi-arch) . no no . same (co-installable) . foreign ( foreign ). allowed Depends (foreign) :any . Source: source-name [(source-version)] . source-name source-version . (non- maintainer upload NMU) <> . Subarchitecture: value Kernel-Version: value Installer-Menu-Item: value (debian-installer) . : . Depends: package-list . Depends ( ). postinst Depends . prerm Depends . Pre-Depends: package-list . preinst . Recommends: package-list . Recommends . Suggests: package-list . Depends Pre-Depends Recommends Suggests . ( "") `|' . . " (AND)" " (OR)" . `:' . ( dpkg 1.16.5 ) any ( dpkg 1.16.2 ) . . any Multi-Arch: allowed . `>>' ( ). `>>' `<<' `>=' `<=' `=' . Breaks: package-list . Breaks . Conflicts: package-list . . Conflicts . Replaces: package-list . Conflicts . Breaks Conflicts Replaces ( ) . Breaks Conflicts " (OR)" . any . Breaks Conflicts Replaces . Enhances: package-list . Suggests . Provides: package-list . . sendmail exim ("mail-transport-agent") . sendmail exim . `|' . Provides ( ) . . . () ( dpkg 1.17.11 ). Built-Using: package-list . . `=' . Built-Using . Static-Built-Using: package-list ( Go Rust C/C++ (header-only) ) . ( ) . `=' . dpkg 1.21.3 . Built-For-Profiles: profile-list (obsolete) ( dpkg 1.17.2 1.18.18). .buildinfo . Auto-Built-Package: reason-list . debian/control . debug-symbols . Build-Ids: elf-build-id-list ELF (ELF build-ids) . ELF . . (EXAMPLE) Package: grep Version: 3.11-3 Essential: yes Priority: required Section: utils Maintainer: Anibal Monsalve Salazar Architecture: sparc Multi-Arch: foreign Pre-Depends: libc6 (>= 2.34), libpcre2-8-0 (>= 10.32) Provides: rgrep Conflicts: rgrep Installed-Size. 1267 Homepage: https://www.gnu.org/software/grep Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep The GNU family of grep utilities may be the "fastest grep in the west". GNU grep is based on a fast lazy-state deterministic matcher (about twice as fast as stock Unix egrep) hybridized with a Boyer-Moore-Gosper search for a fixed string that eliminates impossible text from being considered by the full regexp matcher without necessarily having to look at every character. The result is typically many times faster than Unix grep or egrep. (Regular expressions containing backreferencing will run more slowly, however). (BUGS) Build-Ids ELF . (SEE ALSO) deb822(5), deb-src-control(5), deb(5), deb-version(7), debtags(1), dpkg(1), dpkg-deb(1). 1.23.7-dirty 2026-03-06 deb-control(5)