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.TH deb\-override 5 "2011-08-14" "Debian Project" "dpkg utilities"
.SH NAME
deb\-override \- Debian archive override file
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
override
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
While most information about a package can be found in the control file,
some is managed centrally by the distribution czars rather than by the
maintainer in order to offer some global consistency.
This information is found in the override file.
.PP
The override file has a simple whitespace-delimited format. Comments are
allowed (denoted with a
.BR # ).
.PP
.in +5
.I package
.I priority
.I section
.RI [ maintainerinfo ]
.in -5
.PP
.I package
is the name of the package. Entries in the override file for packages
not found in the tree of binary packages are ignored.
.PP
.I priority
and
.I section
correspond to the respective control fields available in the .deb. The
allowed values are listed in the Debian policy.
.PP
.IR maintainerinfo ,
if present, can be either the name of a maintainer for an unconditional
override, or else
.I oldmaintainer
.B =>
.I newmaintainer
to perform a substitution.
.PP
The override files used to make the official Packages lists may be found
in the
.I indices
directory on any Debian mirror.
.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR dpkg\-scanpackages (1),
.BR dpkg\-scansources (1),
.BR apt\-ftparchive (1),
.BR /usr/share/doc/debian\-policy/policy.html/index.html .