summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/man/dpkg-gensymbols.man
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-06 00:45:20 +0000
committerDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-05-06 00:45:20 +0000
commit9a08cbfcc1ef900a04580f35afe2a4592d7d6030 (patch)
tree004cc7027bca2f2c0bcb5806527c8e0c48df2d6e /man/dpkg-gensymbols.man
parentInitial commit. (diff)
downloaddpkg-9a08cbfcc1ef900a04580f35afe2a4592d7d6030.tar.xz
dpkg-9a08cbfcc1ef900a04580f35afe2a4592d7d6030.zip
Adding upstream version 1.19.8.upstream/1.19.8upstream
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to '')
-rw-r--r--man/dpkg-gensymbols.man540
1 files changed, 540 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/man/dpkg-gensymbols.man b/man/dpkg-gensymbols.man
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36aaf9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/dpkg-gensymbols.man
@@ -0,0 +1,540 @@
+.\" dpkg manual page - dpkg-gensymbols(1)
+.\"
+.\" Copyright © 2007-2011 Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>
+.\" Copyright © 2009-2010 Modestas Vainius <modestas@vainius.eu>
+.\" Copyright © 2012-2015 Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>
+.\"
+.\" This is free software; you can 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 of the License, 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
+.\" along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+.
+.TH dpkg\-gensymbols 1 "%RELEASE_DATE%" "%VERSION%" "dpkg suite"
+.nh
+.SH NAME
+dpkg\-gensymbols \- generate symbols files (shared library dependency information)
+.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.B dpkg\-gensymbols
+.RI [ option ...]
+.
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.B dpkg\-gensymbols
+scans a temporary build tree (debian/tmp by default) looking for libraries
+and generates a \fIsymbols\fR file describing them. This file, if
+non-empty, is then installed in the DEBIAN subdirectory of the build tree
+so that it ends up included in the control information of the package.
+.P
+When generating those files, it uses as input some symbols files
+provided by the maintainer. It looks for the following files (and uses the
+first that is found):
+.IP • 4
+debian/\fIpackage\fR.symbols.\fIarch\fR
+.IP • 4
+debian/symbols.\fIarch\fR
+.IP • 4
+debian/\fIpackage\fR.symbols
+.IP • 4
+debian/symbols
+.P
+The main interest of those files is to provide the minimal version
+associated to each symbol provided by the libraries. Usually it
+corresponds to the first version of that package that provided the symbol,
+but it can be manually incremented by the maintainer if the ABI of the
+symbol is extended without breaking backwards compatibility. It's the
+responsibility of the maintainer to keep those files up-to-date and
+accurate, but \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR helps with that.
+.P
+When the generated symbols files differ from the maintainer supplied
+one, \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR will print a diff between the two versions.
+Furthermore if the difference is too significant, it will even fail (you
+can customize how much difference you can tolerate, see the \fB\-c\fR
+option).
+.SH MAINTAINING SYMBOLS FILES
+The symbols files are really useful only if they reflect the evolution of
+the package through several releases. Thus the maintainer has to update
+them every time that a new symbol is added so that its associated minimal
+version matches reality.
+The diffs contained in the build logs can be used as a starting point,
+but the maintainer, additionally, has to make sure that the behaviour
+of those symbols has not changed in a way that would make anything
+using those symbols and linking against the new version, stop working
+with the old version.
+In most cases, the diff applies directly to the
+debian/\fIpackage\fR.symbols file. That said, further tweaks are usually
+needed: it's recommended for example to drop the Debian revision
+from the minimal version so that backports with a lower version number
+but the same upstream version still satisfy the generated dependencies.
+If the Debian revision can't be dropped because the symbol really got
+added by the Debian specific change, then one should suffix the version
+with ‘\fB~\fP’.
+.P
+Before applying any patch to the symbols file, the maintainer should
+double-check that it's sane. Public symbols are not supposed to disappear,
+so the patch should ideally only add new lines.
+.P
+Note that you can put comments in symbols files: any line with ‘#’ as
+the first character is a comment except if it starts with ‘#include’
+(see section \fBUsing includes\fP).
+Lines starting with ‘#MISSING:’ are special comments documenting
+symbols that have disappeared.
+.P
+Do not forget to check if old symbol versions need to be increased.
+There is no way \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fP can warn about this. Blindly
+applying the diff or assuming there is nothing to change if there is
+no diff, without checking for such changes, can lead to packages with
+loose dependencies that claim they can work with older packages they
+cannot work with. This will introduce hard to find bugs with (partial)
+upgrades.
+.SS Using #PACKAGE# substitution
+.P
+In some rare cases, the name of the library varies between architectures.
+To avoid hardcoding the name of the package in the symbols file, you can
+use the marker \fI#PACKAGE#\fR. It will be replaced by the real package
+name during installation of the symbols files. Contrary to the
+\fI#MINVER#\fR marker, \fI#PACKAGE#\fR will never appear in a symbols file
+inside a binary package.
+.SS Using symbol tags
+.P
+Symbol tagging is useful for marking symbols that are special in some way. Any
+symbol can have an arbitrary number of tags associated with it. While all tags are
+parsed and stored, only some of them are understood by
+\fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR and trigger special handling of the symbols. See
+subsection \fBStandard symbol tags\fR for reference of these tags.
+.P
+Tag specification comes right before the symbol name (no whitespace is allowed
+in between). It always starts with an opening bracket \fB(\fR, ends with a
+closing bracket \fB)\fR and must contain at least one tag. Multiple tags are
+separated by the \fB|\fR character. Each tag can optionally have a value which
+is separated form the tag name by the \fB=\fR character. Tag names and values
+can be arbitrary strings except they cannot contain any of the special \fB)\fR
+\fB|\fR \fB=\fR characters. Symbol names following a tag specification can
+optionally be quoted with either \fB'\fR or \fB"\fR characters to allow
+whitespaces in them. However, if there are no tags specified for the symbol,
+quotes are treated as part of the symbol name which continues up until the
+first space.
+.P
+ (tag1=i am marked|tag name with space)"tagged quoted symbol"@Base 1.0
+ (optional)tagged_unquoted_symbol@Base 1.0 1
+ untagged_symbol@Base 1.0
+.P
+The first symbol in the example is named \fItagged quoted symbol\fR and has two
+tags: \fItag1\fR with value \fIi am marked\fR and \fItag name with space\fR
+that has no value. The second symbol named \fItagged_unquoted_symbol\fR is
+only tagged with the tag named \fIoptional\fR. The last symbol is an
+example of the normal untagged symbol.
+.P
+Since symbol tags are an extension of the \fBdeb\-symbols\fP(5) format, they
+can only be part of the symbols files used in source packages (those files
+should then be seen as templates used to build the symbols files that are
+embedded in binary packages). When
+\fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR is called without the \fB\-t\fP option, it will
+output symbols files compatible to the \fBdeb\-symbols\fP(5) format:
+it fully processes symbols according to the requirements of their standard tags
+and strips all tags from the output. On the contrary, in template mode
+(\fB\-t\fP) all symbols and their tags (both standard and unknown ones)
+are kept in the output and are written in their original form as they were
+loaded.
+.SS Standard symbol tags
+.TP
+.B optional
+A symbol marked as optional can disappear from the library at any time and that
+will never cause \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR to fail. However, disappeared optional
+symbols will continuously appear as MISSING in the diff in each new package
+revision. This behaviour serves as a reminder for the maintainer that such a
+symbol needs to be removed from the symbol file or readded to the library. When
+the optional symbol, which was previously declared as MISSING, suddenly
+reappears in the next revision, it will be upgraded back to the “existing”
+status with its minimum version unchanged.
+
+This tag is useful for symbols which are private where their disappearance do
+not cause ABI breakage. For example, most of C++ template instantiations fall
+into this category. Like any other tag, this one may also have an arbitrary
+value: it could be used to indicate why the symbol is considered optional.
+.TP
+.B arch=\fIarchitecture-list\fR
+.TQ
+.B arch\-bits=\fIarchitecture-bits\fR
+.TQ
+.B arch\-endian=\fIarchitecture-endianness\fR
+These tags allow one to restrict the set of architectures where the symbol
+is supposed to exist. The \fBarch\-bits\fP and \fBarch\-endian\fP tags
+are supported since dpkg 1.18.0. When the symbols list is updated with
+the symbols
+discovered in the library, all arch-specific symbols which do not concern
+the current host architecture are treated as if they did not exist. If an
+arch-specific symbol matching the current host architecture does not exist
+in the library, normal procedures for missing symbols apply and it may
+cause \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR to fail. On the other hand, if the
+arch-specific symbol is found when it was not supposed to exist (because
+the current host architecture is not listed in the tag or does not match
+the endianness and bits), it is made arch neutral (i.e. the arch, arch-bits
+and arch-endian tags are dropped and the symbol will appear in the diff due
+to this change), but it is not considered as new.
+
+When operating in the default non-template mode, among arch-specific symbols
+only those that match the current host architecture are written to the
+symbols file. On the contrary, all arch-specific symbols (including those
+from foreign arches) are always written to the symbol file when operating
+in template mode.
+
+The format of \fIarchitecture-list\fR is the same as the one used in the
+\fBBuild\-Depends\fP field of \fIdebian/control\fR (except the enclosing
+square brackets []). For example, the first symbol from the list below
+will be considered only on alpha, any\-amd64 and ia64 architectures,
+the second only on linux architectures, while the third one anywhere
+except on armel.
+
+ (arch=alpha any\-amd64 ia64)64bit_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+ (arch=linux\-any)linux_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+ (arch=!armel)symbol_armel_does_not_have@Base 1.0
+
+The \fIarchitecture-bits\fP is either \fB32\fP or \fB64\fP.
+
+ (arch-bits=32)32bit_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+ (arch-bits=64)64bit_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+
+The \fIarchitecture-endianness\fP is either \fBlittle\fP or \fBbig\fP.
+
+ (arch-endian=little)little_endian_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+ (arch-endian=big)big_endian_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+
+Multiple restrictions can be chained.
+
+ (arch-bits=32|arch-endian=little)32bit_le_symbol@Base 1.0
+.TP
+.B ignore\-blacklist
+dpkg\-gensymbols has an internal blacklist of symbols that should not
+appear in symbols files as they are usually only side-effects of
+implementation details of the toolchain. If for some reason, you really
+want one of those symbols to be included in the symbols file, you should
+tag the symbol with \fBignore\-blacklist\fP. It can be necessary for
+some low level toolchain libraries like libgcc.
+.TP
+.B c++
+Denotes \fIc++\fR symbol pattern. See \fBUsing symbol patterns\fR subsection
+below.
+.TP
+.B symver
+Denotes \fIsymver\fR (symbol version) symbol pattern. See \fBUsing symbol
+patterns\fR subsection below.
+.TP
+.B regex
+Denotes \fIregex\fR symbol pattern. See \fBUsing symbol patterns\fR subsection
+below.
+.SS Using symbol patterns
+.P
+Unlike a standard symbol specification, a pattern may cover multiple real
+symbols from the library. \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR will attempt to match each
+pattern against each real symbol that does \fInot\fR have a specific symbol
+counterpart defined in the symbol file. Whenever the first matching pattern is
+found, all its tags and properties will be used as a basis specification of the
+symbol. If none of the patterns matches, the symbol will be considered as new.
+
+A pattern is considered lost if it does not match any symbol in the library. By
+default this will trigger a \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fP failure under \fB\-c1\fP or
+higher level. However, if the failure is undesired, the pattern may be marked
+with the \fIoptional\fR tag. Then if the pattern does not match anything, it
+will only appear in the diff as MISSING. Moreover, like any symbol, the pattern
+may be limited to the specific architectures with the \fIarch\fR tag. Please
+refer to \fBStandard symbol tags\fR subsection above for more information.
+
+Patterns are an extension of the \fBdeb\-symbols\fP(5) format hence they are
+only valid in symbol file templates. Pattern specification syntax is not any
+different from the one of a specific symbol. However, symbol name part of the
+specification serves as an expression to be matched against \fIname@version\fR
+of the real symbol. In order to distinguish among different pattern types, a
+pattern will typically be tagged with a special tag.
+
+At the moment, \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR supports three basic pattern types:
+.TP 3
+.B c++
+This pattern is denoted by the \fIc++\fR tag. It matches only C++ symbols by
+their demangled symbol name (as emitted by \fBc++filt\fR(1) utility). This
+pattern is very handy for matching symbols which mangled names might vary
+across different architectures while their demangled names remain the same. One
+group of such symbols is \fInon\-virtual thunks\fR which have architecture
+specific offsets embedded in their mangled names. A common instance of this
+case is a virtual destructor which under diamond inheritance needs a
+non-virtual thunk symbol. For example, even if _ZThn8_N3NSB6ClassDD1Ev@Base on
+32bit architectures will probably be _ZThn16_N3NSB6ClassDD1Ev@Base on 64bit
+ones, it can be matched with a single \fIc++\fR pattern:
+
+libdummy.so.1 libdummy1 #MINVER#
+ [...]
+ (c++)"non\-virtual thunk to NSB::ClassD::~ClassD()@Base" 1.0
+ [...]
+
+The demangled name above can be obtained by executing the following command:
+
+ $ echo '_ZThn8_N3NSB6ClassDD1Ev@Base' | c++filt
+
+Please note that while mangled name is unique in the library by definition,
+this is not necessarily true for demangled names. A couple of distinct real
+symbols may have the same demangled name. For example, that's the case with
+non-virtual thunk symbols in complex inheritance configurations or with most
+constructors and destructors (since g++ typically generates two real symbols
+for them). However, as these collisions happen on the ABI level, they should
+not degrade quality of the symbol file.
+.TP
+.B symver
+This pattern is denoted by the \fIsymver\fR tag. Well maintained libraries have
+versioned symbols where each version corresponds to the upstream version where
+the symbol got added. If that's the case, you can use a \fIsymver\fR pattern to
+match any symbol associated to the specific version. For example:
+
+libc.so.6 libc6 #MINVER#
+ (symver)GLIBC_2.0 2.0
+ [...]
+ (symver)GLIBC_2.7 2.7
+ access@GLIBC_2.0 2.2
+
+All symbols associated with versions GLIBC_2.0 and GLIBC_2.7 will lead to
+minimal version of 2.0 and 2.7 respectively with the exception of the symbol
+access@GLIBC_2.0. The latter will lead to a minimal dependency on libc6 version
+2.2 despite being in the scope of the "(symver)GLIBC_2.0" pattern because
+specific symbols take precedence over patterns.
+
+Please note that while old style wildcard patterns (denoted by "*@version" in
+the symbol name field) are still supported, they have been deprecated by new
+style syntax "(symver|optional)version". For example, "*@GLIBC_2.0 2.0" should
+be written as "(symver|optional)GLIBC_2.0 2.0" if the same behaviour is needed.
+.TP
+.B regex
+Regular expression patterns are denoted by the \fIregex\fR tag. They match by
+the perl regular expression specified in the symbol name field. A regular
+expression is matched as it is, therefore do not forget to start it with the
+\fI^\fR character or it may match any part of the real symbol
+\fIname@version\fR string. For example:
+
+libdummy.so.1 libdummy1 #MINVER#
+ (regex)"^mystack_.*@Base$" 1.0
+ (regex|optional)"private" 1.0
+
+Symbols like "mystack_new@Base", "mystack_push@Base", "mystack_pop@Base" etc.
+will be matched by the first pattern while e.g. "ng_mystack_new@Base" won't.
+The second pattern will match all symbols having the string "private" in their
+names and matches will inherit \fIoptional\fR tag from the pattern.
+.P
+Basic patterns listed above can be combined where it makes sense. In that case,
+they are processed in the order in which the tags are specified. For example,
+both
+
+ (c++|regex)"^NSA::ClassA::Private::privmethod\\d\\(int\\)@Base" 1.0
+ (regex|c++)N3NSA6ClassA7Private11privmethod\\dEi@Base 1.0
+
+will match symbols "_ZN3NSA6ClassA7Private11privmethod1Ei@Base" and
+"_ZN3NSA6ClassA7Private11privmethod2Ei@Base". When matching the first pattern,
+the raw symbol is first demangled as C++ symbol, then the demangled name is
+matched against the regular expression. On the other hand, when matching the
+second pattern, regular expression is matched against the raw symbol name, then
+the symbol is tested if it is C++ one by attempting to demangle it. A failure
+of any basic pattern will result in the failure of the whole pattern.
+Therefore, for example, "__N3NSA6ClassA7Private11privmethod\\dEi@Base" will not
+match either of the patterns because it is not a valid C++ symbol.
+
+In general, all patterns are divided into two groups: aliases (basic \fIc++\fR
+and \fIsymver\fR) and generic patterns (\fIregex\fR, all combinations of
+multiple basic patterns). Matching of basic alias-based patterns is fast (O(1))
+while generic patterns are O(N) (N - generic pattern count) for each symbol.
+Therefore, it is recommended not to overuse generic patterns.
+
+When multiple patterns match the same real symbol, aliases (first \fIc++\fR,
+then \fIsymver\fR) are preferred over generic patterns. Generic patterns are
+matched in the order they are found in the symbol file template until the first
+success. Please note, however, that manual reordering of template file entries
+is not recommended because \fBdpkg\-gensymbols\fR generates diffs based on the
+alphanumerical order of their names.
+.SS Using includes
+.P
+When the set of exported symbols differ between architectures, it may become
+inefficient to use a single symbol file. In those cases, an include directive
+may prove to be useful in a couple of ways:
+.IP • 4
+You can factorize the common part in some external file
+and include that file in your \fIpackage\fR.symbols.\fIarch\fR file by
+using an include directive like this:
+
+#include "\fIpackages\fR.symbols.common"
+.IP •
+The include directive may also be tagged like any symbol:
+
+(tag|...|tagN)#include "file-to-include"
+
+As a result, all symbols included from \fIfile-to-include\fR will be considered
+to be tagged with \fItag\fR ... \fItagN\fR by default. You can use this feature
+to create a common \fIpackage\fR.symbols file which includes architecture
+specific symbol files:
+
+ common_symbol1@Base 1.0
+ (arch=amd64 ia64 alpha)#include "package.symbols.64bit"
+ (arch=!amd64 !ia64 !alpha)#include "package.symbols.32bit"
+ common_symbol2@Base 1.0
+.P
+The symbols files are read line by line, and include directives are processed
+as soon as they are encountered. This means that the content of the included
+file can override any content that appeared before the include directive and
+that any content after the directive can override anything contained in the
+included file. Any symbol (or even another #include directive) in the included
+file can specify additional tags or override values of the inherited tags in
+its tag specification. However, there is no way for the symbol to remove
+any of the inherited tags.
+.P
+An included file can repeat the header line containing the SONAME of the
+library. In that case, it overrides any header line previously read.
+However, in general it's best to avoid duplicating header lines. One way
+to do it is the following:
+.PP
+#include "libsomething1.symbols.common"
+ arch_specific_symbol@Base 1.0
+.SS Good library management
+.P
+A well-maintained library has the following features:
+.IP • 4
+its API is stable (public symbols are never dropped, only new public
+symbols are added) and changes in incompatible ways only when the SONAME
+changes;
+.IP • 4
+ideally, it uses symbol versioning to achieve ABI stability despite
+internal changes and API extension;
+.IP • 4
+it doesn't export private symbols (such symbols can be tagged optional as
+workaround).
+.P
+While maintaining the symbols file, it's easy to notice appearance and
+disappearance of symbols. But it's more difficult to catch incompatible
+API and ABI change. Thus the maintainer should read thoroughly the
+upstream changelog looking for cases where the rules of good library
+management have been broken. If potential problems are discovered,
+the upstream author should be notified as an upstream fix is always better
+than a Debian specific work-around.
+.SH OPTIONS
+.TP
+.BI \-P package-build-dir
+Scan \fIpackage-build-dir\fR instead of debian/tmp.
+.TP
+.BI \-p package
+Define the package name. Required if more than one binary package is listed in
+debian/control (or if there's no debian/control file).
+.TP
+.BI \-v version
+Define the package version. Defaults to the version extracted from
+debian/changelog. Required if called outside of a source package tree.
+.TP
+.BI \-e library-file
+Only analyze libraries explicitly listed instead of finding all public
+libraries. You can use shell patterns used for pathname expansions (see
+the \fBFile::Glob\fP(3perl) manual page for details) in \fIlibrary-file\fR
+to match multiple libraries with a single argument (otherwise you need
+multiple \fB\-e\fR).
+.TP
+.BI \-l directory
+Prepend
+.I directory
+to the list of directories to search for private shared libraries
+(since dpkg 1.19.1). This option can be used multiple times.
+
+Note: Use this option instead of setting \fBLD_LIBRARY_PATH\fP,
+as that environment variable is used to control the run-time linker
+and abusing it to set the shared library paths at build-time can be
+problematic when cross-compiling for example.
+.TP
+.BI \-I filename
+Use \fIfilename\fR as reference file to generate the symbols file
+that is integrated in the package itself.
+.TP
+.BR \-O [\fIfilename\fP]
+Print the generated symbols file to standard output or to \fIfilename\fR
+if specified, rather than to
+.B debian/tmp/DEBIAN/symbols
+(or
+.IB package-build-dir /DEBIAN/symbols
+if
+.B \-P
+was used). If \fIfilename\fR is pre-existing, its contents are used as
+basis for the generated symbols file.
+You can use this feature to update a symbols file so that it matches a
+newer upstream version of your library.
+.TP
+.BI \-t
+Write the symbol file in template mode rather than the format compatible with
+\fBdeb\-symbols\fP(5). The main difference is that in the template mode symbol
+names and tags are written in their original form contrary to the
+post-processed symbol names with tags stripped in the compatibility mode.
+Moreover, some symbols might be omitted when writing a standard
+\fBdeb\-symbols\fP(5) file (according to the tag processing rules) while all
+symbols are always written to the symbol file template.
+.TP
+.BI \-c [0-4]
+Define the checks to do when comparing the generated symbols file with the
+template file used as starting point. By default the level is 1. Increasing
+levels do more checks and include all checks of lower levels. Level 0 never
+fails. Level 1 fails if some symbols have disappeared. Level 2 fails if some
+new symbols have been introduced. Level 3 fails if some libraries have
+disappeared. Level 4 fails if some libraries have been introduced.
+
+This value can be overridden by the environment variable
+.BR DPKG_GENSYMBOLS_CHECK_LEVEL .
+.TP
+.BI \-q
+Keep quiet and never generate a diff between generated symbols file and the
+template file used as starting point or show any warnings about new/lost
+libraries or new/lost symbols. This option only disables informational output
+but not the checks themselves (see \fB\-c\fP option).
+.TP
+.BI \-a arch
+Assume \fIarch\fR as host architecture when processing symbol files. Use this
+option to generate a symbol file or diff for any architecture provided its
+binaries are already available.
+.TP
+.BI \-d
+Enable debug mode. Numerous messages are displayed to explain what
+.B dpkg\-gensymbols
+does.
+.TP
+.BI \-V
+Enable verbose mode. The generated symbols file contains deprecated
+symbols as comments. Furthermore in template mode, pattern symbols
+are followed by comments listing real symbols that have matched the
+pattern.
+.TP
+.BR \-? ", " \-\-help
+Show the usage message and exit.
+.TP
+.BR \-\-version
+Show the version and exit.
+.
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+.TP
+.B DPKG_GENSYMBOLS_CHECK_LEVEL
+Overrides the command check level, even if the \fB\-c\fP command-line
+argument was given (note that this goes against the common convention
+of command-line arguments having precedence over environment variables).
+.TP
+.B DPKG_COLORS
+Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).
+The currently accepted values are: \fBauto\fP (default), \fBalways\fP and
+\fBnever\fP.
+.TP
+.B 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: \fB0\fP and \fB1\fP (default).
+.
+.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR https://people.redhat.com/drepper/symbol\-versioning
+.br
+.BR https://people.redhat.com/drepper/goodpractice.pdf
+.br
+.BR https://people.redhat.com/drepper/dsohowto.pdf
+.br
+.BR deb\-symbols (5),
+.BR dpkg\-shlibdeps (1).