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

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       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 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).

       Ignore-Blacklist-Groups
	      It indicates what blacklist 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  1.17.6).   This  should only be necessary for toolchain packages providing those
	      blacklisted symbols. The available groups are system dependent, for ELF and GNU-based systems these are aeabi and gomp.

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).

1.19.0.5							    2018-04-16							    deb-symbols(5)