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diff --git a/man/deb822.man b/man/deb822.man new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d51d9b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/man/deb822.man @@ -0,0 +1,140 @@ +.\" dpkg manual page - deb822(5) +.\" +.\" Copyright © 1995-1996 Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> +.\" Copyright © 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 deb822 5 "%RELEASE_DATE%" "%VERSION%" "dpkg suite" +.nh +.SH NAME +deb822 \- Debian RFC822 control data format +. +.SH DESCRIPTION +The package management system manipulates data represented in a common +format, known as \fIcontrol data\fP, stored in \fIcontrol files\fP. +Control files are used for source packages, binary packages and the +\fB.changes\fP files which control the installation of uploaded +files (\fBdpkg\fP's internal databases are in a similar format). +. +.SH SYNTAX +A control file consists of one or more paragraphs of fields (the paragraphs +are also sometimes referred to as stanzas). +The paragraphs are separated by empty lines. +Parsers may accept lines consisting solely of U+0020 \fBSPACE\fP and +U+0009 \fBTAB\fP as paragraph separators, but control files should use +empty lines. +Some control files allow only one paragraph; others allow several, in which +case each paragraph usually refers to a different package. +(For example, in source packages, the first paragraph refers to the source +package, and later paragraphs refer to binary packages generated from the +source.) +The ordering of the paragraphs in control files is significant. + +Each paragraph consists of a series of data fields. +Each field consists of the field name followed by a colon +(U+003A ‘\fB:\fP’), and then the data/value associated with that field. +The field name is composed of US-ASCII characters excluding control +characters, space, and colon (i.e., characters in the ranges +U+0021 ‘\fB!\fP’ through U+0039 ‘\fB9\fP’, and +U+003B ‘\fB;\fP’ through U+007E ‘\fB~\fP’, inclusive). +Field names must not begin with the comment character +(U+0023 ‘\fB#\fP’), nor with the hyphen character +(U+002D ‘\fB\-\fP’). + +The field ends at the end of the line or at the end of the last continuation +line (see below). +Horizontal whitespace (U+0020 \fBSPACE\fP and U+0009 \fBTAB\fP) may occur +immediately before or after the value and is ignored there; it is conventional +to put a single space after the colon. +For example, a field might be: +.RS +.nf +Package: dpkg +.fi +.RE +the field name is \fBPackage\fP and the field value \fBdpkg\fP. + +Empty field values are only permitted in source package control files +(\fIdebian/control\fP). +Such fields are ignored. + +A paragraph must not contain more than one instance of a particular field name. + +There are three types of fields: + +.RS 0 +.TP +.B simple +The field, including its value, must be a single line. +Folding of the field is not permitted. +This is the default field type if the definition of the field does not +specify a different type. +.TP +.B folded +The value of a folded field is a logical line that may span several lines. +The lines after the first are called continuation lines and must start with +a U+0020 \fBSPACE\fP or a U+0009 \fBTAB\fP. +Whitespace, including any newlines, is not significant in the field values +of folded fields. + +This folding method is similar to RFC5322, allowing control files that +contain only one paragraph and no multiline fields to be read by parsers +written for RFC5322. +.TP +.B multiline +The value of a multiline field may comprise multiple continuation lines. +The first line of the value, the part on the same line as the field name, +often has special significance or may have to be empty. +Other lines are added following the same syntax as the continuation lines +of the folded fields. +Whitespace, including newlines, is significant in the values of multiline +fields. +.RE + +Whitespace must not appear inside names (of packages, architectures, files +or anything else) or version numbers, or between the characters of +multi-character version relationships. + +The presence and purpose of a field, and the syntax of its value may differ +between types of control files. + +Field names are not case-sensitive, but it is usual to capitalize the field +names using mixed case as shown below. +Field values are case-sensitive unless the description of the field says +otherwise. + +Paragraph separators (empty lines) and lines consisting only of +U+0020 \fBSPACE\fP and U+0009 \fBTAB\fP, are not allowed within field +values or between fields. +Empty lines in field values are usually escaped by representing them by a +U+0020 \fBSPACE\fP followed by a dot (U+002E ‘\fB.\fP’). + +Lines starting with U+0023 ‘\fB#\fP’, without any preceding whitespace +are comments lines that are only permitted in source package control files +(\fIdebian/control\fP) and in \fBdeb\-origin\fP(5) files. +These comment lines are ignored, even between two continuation lines. +They do not end logical lines. + +All control files must be encoded in UTF-8. +. +.\" .SH EXAMPLE +.\" .RS +.\" .nf +.\" .fi +.\" .RE +. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR RFC822 , +.BR RFC5322 . |