.\" Author: Raphaël Hertzog
.TH deb\-symbols 5 "2011-08-14" "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
.I library-soname main-dependency-template
.br
[ | \fIalternative-dependency-template\fP ]
.br
[ ... ]
.br
[ * \fIfield-name\fP: \fIfield-value\fP ]
.br
[ ... ]
 \fIsymbol\fP \fIminimal-version\fP[ \fIid-of-dependency-template\fP ]
.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
\fBdpkg\-shlibdeps\fP 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).