deb-shlibs(5)

NAME
deb-shlibs - Debian shared library information file

SYNOPSIS
debian/shlibs, debian/binary-name.shlibs, DEBIAN/shlibs

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 a # 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).

SONAME FORMATS
The SONAME formats supported are:

    name.so.version

and

    name-version.so

where name is usually prefixed by lib.

The former tends to be used by shared libraries with stable interfaces. The latter by shared libraries with unstable interfaces, where the whole version becomes part of the SONAME and needs to be specified in full when linking against those libraries.

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 symbols 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.

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