dpkg-gencontrol(1)
NAME
dpkg-gencontrol - generate Debian control files
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-gencontrol [option...]
DESCRIPTION
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
-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
behaviour. If you want to get the old behaviour you can use the
-U option to delete the fields from the control file.
-Ppackage-build-dir
Tells dpkg-source that the package is being built in 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 (using du), 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.
FILES
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
deb-substvars(5), deb-src-control(5), deb-changelog(5), deb-control(5).
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