deb-shlibs(5)                             dpkg utilities                            deb-shlibs(5)



NAME
       deb-shlibs - Debian shared library information file

DESCRIPTION
       shlibs  files map shared library names and versions (sonames) to dependencies suitable for
       a package control file.  There is one entry per line. Blank lines are not allowed.   Lines
       beginning with an # character are considered commentary, and are ignored.  All other lines
       must have the format

              [type:] library version dependencies

       The library and version  fields  are  whitespace-delimited,  but  the  dependencies  field
       extends to the end of the line.  The type field is optional and normally not needed.

       The  dependencies field has the same syntax as the Depends field in a binary control file,
       see deb-control(5).  See also the Debian Policy Manual for further details.

EXAMPLES
       The shlibs file for a typical library package, named libcrunch1, that provides one library
       whose soname is libcrunch.so.1, might read

              libcrunch 1 libcrunch1 (>= 1.2-1)

       The  dependencies  must mention the most recent version of the package that added new sym‐
       bols to the library: in the above example, new  symbols  were  added  to  version  1.2  of
       libcrunch.   This  is  not  the  only  reason the dependencies might need to be tightened;
       again, see the Debian Policy Manual for details.

SEE ALSO
       deb-control(5), dpkg-shlibdeps(1), deb-symbols(5).



Debian Project                              2012-02-08                              deb-shlibs(5)