Before
dpkg-source, dpkg-gencontrol and dpkg-genchanges
write their control information (to the source control file
.dsc
for
dpkg-source
and to standard output for
dpkg-gencontrol and dpkg-genchanges)
they perform some variable substitutions on the output file.
A variable substitution has the form
${variable-name}.
Variable names consist of alphanumerics, hyphens and colons and start
with an alphanumeric. Variable substitutions are performed repeatedly
until none are left; the full text of the field after the substitution
is rescanned to look for more substitutions.
After all the substitutions have been done each occurrence of the
string
${}
(which is not a legal substitution) is replaced with a
$
sign.
Variables can be set using the
-V
common option. They can be also specified in the file
debian/substvars
(or whatever other file is specified using the
-T
option). This file consists of lines of the form
name=value.
Trailing whitespace on each line, blank lines, and
lines starting with a
#
symbol (comments) are ignored.
Additionally, the following standard variables are available:
Arch
The current build architecture (from
dpkg --print-architecture).
source:Version
The source package version.
source:Upstream-Version
The upstream source package version, including the Debian version epoch if
any.
binary:Version
The binary package version (which may differ from source:Version in a binNMU
for example).
Source-Version
The source package version (from the changelog file). This variable is now
deprecated as its meaning is different from its function, please use
the source:Version or binary:Version as appropriate.
Installed-Size
The total size of the package's installed files. This value is copied
into the corresponding control file field; setting it will modify the
value of that field. If this variable isn't set
dpkg-gencontrol
will use
du -k debian/tmp
to find the default value.
Extra-Size
Additional disk space used when the package is installed. If this
variable is set its value is added to that of the
Installed-Size
variable (whether set explicitly or using the default value) before it
is copied into the
Installed-Size
control file field.
F:fieldname
The value of the output field
fieldname
(which must be given in the canonical capitalisation). Setting these
variables has no effect other than on places where they are expanded
explicitly.
Format
The
.changes
file format version generated by this version of the source packaging
scripts. If you set this variable the contents of the
Format
field in the
.changes
file will change too.
Newline, Space, Tab
These variables each hold the corresponding character.
shlibs:dependencyfield
Variable settings with names of this form are generated by
dpkg-shlibdeps.
dpkg:Upstream-Version
The upstream version of dpkg.
dpkg:Version
The full version of dpkg.
If a variable is referred to but not defined it generates a warning
and an empty value is assumed.
FILES
debian/substvars
List of substitution variables and values.
BUGS
The point at which field overriding occurs compared to certain
standard output field settings is rather confused.
