deb-symbols

deb-symbols(5)                    dpkg suite                    deb-symbols(5)

NAME
       deb-symbols - Debian's extended shared library information file

SYNOPSIS
       DEBIAN/symbols

DESCRIPTION
       The symbol files are shipped in Debian binary packages, and its format
       is a subset of the template symbol files used by dpkg-gensymbols(1) in
       Debian source packages.

       The format for an extended shared library dependency information entry
       in these files is:

        library-soname main-dependency-template
        [| alternative-dependency-template]
        [...]
        [* field-name: field-value]
        [...]
         symbol minimal-version [id-of-dependency-template]

       The library-soname is exactly the value of the SONAME field as exported
       by objdump(1). A dependency-template is a dependency where #MINVER# is
       dynamically replaced either by a version check like "(>= minimal-
       version)" or by nothing (if an unversioned dependency is deemed
       sufficient).

       Each exported symbol (listed as name@version, with version being "Base"
       if the library is not versioned) is associated to a minimal-version of
       its dependency template (the main dependency template is always used
       and will end up being combined with the dependency template referenced
       by id-of-dependency-template if present). The first alternative
       dependency template is numbered 1, the second one 2, etc.  Each column
       is separated by exactly a single whitespace.

       Each entry for a library can also have some fields of meta-information.
       Those fields are stored on lines starting with an asterisk. Currently,
       the only valid fields are:

       Build-Depends-Package
           It indicates the name of the "-dev" package associated to the
           library and is used by dpkg-shlibdeps to make sure that the
           dependency generated is at least as strict as the corresponding
           build dependency (since dpkg 1.14.13).

       Build-Depends-Packages
           The same as Build-Depends-Package but accepts a comma-separated
           list of package names (since dpkg 1.20.0).  This field will
           override any Build-Depends-Package field present, and is mostly
           useful with "-dev" packages and metapackages depending on these,
           say for a transition period.

       Allow-Internal-Symbol-Groups
           It indicates what internal symbol groups should be ignored, as a
           whitespace separated list, so that the symbols contained in those
           groups get included in the output file (since dpkg 1.20.1).  This
           should only be necessary for toolchain packages providing those
           internal symbols. The available groups are system dependent, for
           ELF and GNU-based systems these are aeabi and gomp.

       Ignore-Blacklist-Groups
           A deprecated alias for Allow-Internal-Symbol-Groups (since dpkg
           1.20.1, supported since dpkg 1.17.6).

EXAMPLES
   Simple symbols file
        libftp.so.3 libftp3 #MINVER#
         DefaultNetbuf@Base 3.1-1-6
         FtpAccess@Base 3.1-1-6
         [...]

   Advanced symbols file
        libGL.so.1 libgl1
        | libgl1-mesa-glx #MINVER#
        * Build-Depends-Package: libgl1-mesa-dev
         publicGlSymbol@Base 6.3-1
         [...]
         implementationSpecificSymbol@Base 6.5.2-7 1
         [...]

SEE ALSO
       <https://wiki.debian.org/Projects/ImprovedDpkgShlibdeps>, dpkg-
       shlibdeps(1), dpkg-gensymbols(1).

1.21.1                            2024-02-23                    deb-symbols(5)