dpkg/man/deb-symbols.5

.\" Author: Raphael Hertzog
.TH deb\-symbols 5 "2007-07-16" "Debian Project" "dpkg utilities"
.SH NAME
deb\-symbols \- Debian's extended shared library information file
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
symbols
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
The format for an extended shared library dependency information entry
in these files is:
.PP
<library soname> <main dependency template>
.br
[ | <alternative dependency template> ]
.br
[ ... ]
.br
[ * <field-name>: <field value> ]
.br
[ ... ]
 <symbol> <minimal version>[ <id of dependency template> ]
.P
The \fIlibrary soname\fR is exactly the value of the SONAME field
as exported by \fBobjdump\fR(1). A \fIdependency template\fR is a
dependency where \fI#MINVER#\fR is dynamically replaced either by
a version check like "(>= \fIminimal version\fR)" or by nothing (if
an unversioned dependency is deemed sufficient). 
.P
Each exported \fIsymbol\fR (listed as \fIname\fR@\fIversion\fR, with
\fIversion\fR being "Base" if the library is not versioned) is associated
to a \fIminimal version\fR of its dependency template (the main dependency
template is used if \fIid of dependency template\fR is not present). The
first alternative dependency template is numbered 1, the second one 2,
etc.
.P
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 field is \fIBuild-Depends-Package\fR, 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.
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS Simple symbols file
.PP 
libftp.so.3 libftp3 #MINVER#
 DefaultNetbuf@Base 3.1-1-6
 FtpAccess@Base 3.1-1-6
 [...]
.SS Advanced symbols file
.PP 
libGL.so.1 libgl1
.br
| libgl1-mesa-glx #MINVER#
.br
* Build-Depends-Package: libgl1-mesa-dev
 publicGlSymbol@Base 6.3-1
 [...]
 implementationSpecificSymbol@Base 6.5.2-7 1
 [...]
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR http://wiki.debian.org/Projects/ImprovedDpkgShlibdeps
.br
.BR dpkg\-shlibdeps (1),
.BR dpkg\-gensymbols (1).