dpkg-shlibdeps(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

dpkg-shlibdeps(1)              dpkg suite              dpkg-shlibdeps(1)

NAME         top

       dpkg-shlibdeps - generate shared library substvar dependencies

SYNOPSIS         top

       dpkg-shlibdeps [option...] [-e] executable [option...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       dpkg-shlibdeps calculates shared library dependencies for
       executables named in its arguments. The dependencies are added to
       the substitution variables file debian/substvars as variable
       names shlibs:dependency-field where dependency-field is a
       dependency field name. Any other variables starting with shlibs:
       are removed from the file.

       dpkg-shlibdeps has two possible sources of information to
       generate dependency information. Either symbols files or shlibs
       files. For each binary that dpkg-shlibdeps analyzes, it finds out
       the list of libraries that it's linked with.  Then, for each
       library, it looks up either the symbols file, or the shlibs file
       (if the former doesn't exist or if debian/shlibs.local contains
       the relevant dependency). Both files are supposed to be provided
       by the library package and should thus be available as
       /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/info/package.symbols or
       /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/info/package.shlibs. The package name is
       identified in two steps: find the library file on the system
       (looking in the same directories that ld.so would use), then use
       dpkg -S library-file to lookup the package providing the library.

   Symbols files
       Symbols files contain finer-grained dependency information by
       providing the minimum dependency for each symbol that the library
       exports. The script tries to find a symbols file associated to a
       library package in the following places (first match is used):

       debian/*/DEBIAN/symbols
           Shared library information generated by the current build
           process that also invoked dpkg-shlibdeps.  They are generated
           by dpkg-gensymbols(1).  They are only used if the library is
           found in a package's build tree. The symbols file in that
           build tree takes precedence over symbols files from other
           binary packages.

       /usr/local/etc/dpkg/symbols/package.symbols.arch
       /usr/local/etc/dpkg/symbols/package.symbols
           Per-system overriding shared library dependency information.
           arch is the architecture of the current system (obtained by
           dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH).

       Output from “dpkg-query --control-path package symbols”
           Package-provided shared library dependency information.
           Unless overridden by --admindir, those files are located in
           /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg.

       While scanning the symbols used by all binaries, dpkg-shlibdeps
       remembers the (biggest) minimal version needed for each library.
       At the end of the process, it is able to write out the minimal
       dependency for every library used (provided that the information
       of the symbols files are accurate).

       As a safe-guard measure, a symbols file can provide a Build-
       Depends-Package meta-information field and dpkg-shlibdeps will
       extract the minimal version required by the corresponding package
       in the Build-Depends field and use this version if it's higher
       than the minimal version computed by scanning symbols.

   Shlibs files
       Shlibs files associate directly a library to a dependency
       (without looking at the symbols). It's thus often stronger than
       really needed but very safe and easy to handle.

       The dependencies for a library are looked up in several places.
       The first file providing information for the library of interest
       is used:

       debian/shlibs.local
           Package-local overriding shared library dependency
           information.

       /usr/local/etc/dpkg/shlibs.override
           Per-system overriding shared library dependency information.

       debian/*/DEBIAN/shlibs
           Shared library information generated by the current build
           process that also invoked dpkg-shlibdeps.  They are only used
           if the library is found in a package's build tree. The shlibs
           file in that build tree takes precedence over shlibs files
           from other binary packages.

       Output from “dpkg-query --control-path package shlibs”
           Package-provided shared library dependency information.
           Unless overridden by --admindir, those files are located in
           /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg.

       /usr/local/etc/dpkg/shlibs.default
           Per-system default shared library dependency information.

       The extracted dependencies are then directly used (except if they
       are filtered out because they have been identified as duplicate,
       or as weaker than another dependency).

OPTIONS         top

       dpkg-shlibdeps interprets non-option arguments as executable
       names, just as if they'd been supplied as -eexecutable.

       -eexecutable
           Include dependencies appropriate for the shared libraries
           required by executable.  This option can be used multiple
           times.

       -ldirectory
           Prepend directory to the list of directories to search for
           private shared libraries (since dpkg 1.17.0). This option can
           be used multiple times.

           Note: Use this option instead of setting LD_LIBRARY_PATH, as
           that environment variable is used to control the run-time
           linker and abusing it to set the shared library paths at
           build-time can be problematic when cross-compiling for
           example.

       -ddependency-field
           Add dependencies to be added to the control file dependency
           field dependency-field.  (The dependencies for this field are
           placed in the variable shlibs:dependency-field.)

           The -ddependency-field option takes effect for all
           executables after the option, until the next -ddependency-
           field.  The default dependency-field is Depends.

           If the same dependency entry (or set of alternatives) appears
           in more than one of the recognized dependency field names
           Pre-Depends, Depends, Recommends, Enhances or Suggests then
           dpkg-shlibdeps will automatically remove the dependency from
           all fields except the one representing the most important
           dependencies.

       -pvarname-prefix
           Start substitution variables with varname-prefix: instead of
           shlibs:.  Likewise, any existing substitution variables
           starting with varname-prefix: (rather than shlibs:) are
           removed from the substitution variables file.

       -O[filename]
           Print substitution variable settings to standard output (or
           filename if specified, since dpkg 1.17.2), rather than being
           added to the substitution variables file (debian/substvars by
           default).

       -ttype
           Prefer shared library dependency information tagged for the
           given package type. If no tagged information is available,
           falls back to untagged information. The default package type
           is deb. Shared library dependency information is tagged for a
           given type by prefixing it with the name of the type, a
           colon, and whitespace.

       -Llocal-shlibs-file
           Read overriding shared library dependency information from
           local-shlibs-file instead of debian/shlibs.local.

       -Tsubstvars-file
           Write substitution variables in substvars-file; the default
           is debian/substvars.

       -v  Enable verbose mode (since dpkg 1.14.8).  Numerous messages
           are displayed to explain what dpkg-shlibdeps does.

       -xpackage
           Exclude the package from the generated dependencies (since
           dpkg 1.14.8).  This is useful to avoid self-dependencies for
           packages which provide ELF binaries (executables or library
           plugins) using a library contained in the same package. This
           option can be used multiple times to exclude several
           packages.

       -Spackage-build-dir
           Look into package-build-dir first when trying to find a
           library (since dpkg 1.14.15).  This is useful when the source
           package builds multiple flavors of the same library and you
           want to ensure that you get the dependency from a given
           binary package. You can use this option multiple times:
           directories will be tried in the same order before
           directories of other binary packages.

       -Ipackage-build-dir
           Ignore package-build-dir when looking for shlibs, symbols,
           and shared library files (since dpkg 1.18.5).  You can use
           this option multiple times.

       --ignore-missing-info
           Do not fail if dependency information can't be found for a
           shared library (since dpkg 1.14.8).  Usage of this option is
           discouraged, all libraries should provide dependency
           information (either with shlibs files, or with symbols files)
           even if they are not yet used by other packages.

       --warnings=value
           value is a bit field defining the set of warnings that can be
           emitted by dpkg-shlibdeps (since dpkg 1.14.17).  Bit 0
           (value=1) enables the warning “symbol sym used by binary
           found in none of the libraries”, bit 1 (value=2) enables the
           warning “package could avoid a useless dependency” and bit 2
           (value=4) enables the warning “binary should not be linked
           against library”.  The default value is 3: the first two
           warnings are active by default, the last one is not. Set
           value to 7 if you want all warnings to be active.

       --admindir=dir
           Change the location of the dpkg database (since dpkg 1.14.0).
           The default location is /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg.

       -?, --help
           Show the usage message and exit.

       --version
           Show the version and exit.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       DPKG_COLORS
           Sets the color mode (since dpkg 1.18.5).  The currently
           accepted values are: auto (default), always and never.

       DPKG_NLS
           If set, it will be used to decide whether to activate Native
           Language Support, also known as internationalization (or
           i18n) support (since dpkg 1.19.0).  The accepted values are:
           0 and 1 (default).

DIAGNOSTICS         top

   Warnings
       Since dpkg-shlibdeps analyzes the set of symbols used by each
       binary of the generated package, it is able to emit warnings in
       several cases. They inform you of things that can be improved in
       the package. In most cases, those improvements concern the
       upstream sources directly. By order of decreasing importance,
       here are the various warnings that you can encounter:

       symbol sym used by binary found in none of the libraries.
           The indicated symbol has not been found in the libraries
           linked with the binary. The binary is most likely a library
           and it needs to be linked with an additional library during
           the build process (option -llibrary of the linker).

       binary contains an unresolvable reference to symbol sym: it's
       probably a plugin
           The indicated symbol has not been found in the libraries
           linked with the binary. The binary is most likely a plugin
           and the symbol is probably provided by the program that loads
           this plugin. In theory a plugin doesn't have any SONAME but
           this binary does have one and as such it could not be clearly
           identified as such. However the fact that the binary is
           stored in a non-public directory is a strong indication
           that's it's not a normal shared library. If the binary is
           really a plugin, then disregard this warning. But there's
           always the possibility that it's a real library and that
           programs linking to it are using an RPATH so that the dynamic
           loader finds it. In that case, the library is broken and
           needs to be fixed.

       package could avoid a useless dependency if binary was not linked
       against library (it uses none of the library's symbols)
           None of the binaries that are linked with library use any of
           the symbols provided by the library. By fixing all the
           binaries, you would avoid the dependency associated to this
           library (unless the same dependency is also generated by
           another library that is really used).

       package could avoid a useless dependency if binaries were not
       linked against library (they use none of the library's symbols)
           Exactly the same as the above warning, but for multiple
           binaries.

       binary should not be linked against library (it uses none of the
       library's symbols)
           The binary is linked to a library that it doesn't need. It's
           not a problem but some small performance improvements in
           binary load time can be obtained by not linking this library
           to this binary. This warning checks the same information as
           the previous one but does it for each binary instead of doing
           the check globally on all binaries analyzed.

   Errors
       dpkg-shlibdeps will fail if it can't find a public library used
       by a binary or if this library has no associated dependency
       information (either shlibs file or symbols file). A public
       library has a SONAME and is versioned (libsomething.so.X). A
       private library (like a plugin) should not have a SONAME and
       doesn't need to be versioned.

       couldn't find library library-soname needed by binary (its RPATH
       is 'rpath')
           The binary uses a library called library-soname but dpkg-
           shlibdeps has been unable to find the library.  dpkg-
           shlibdeps creates a list of directories to check as
           following: directories listed in the RPATH of the binary,
           directories added by the -l option, directories listed in the
           LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, cross multiarch
           directories (ex. /lib/arm64-linux-gnu,
           /usr/lib/arm64-linux-gnu), standard public directories (/lib,
           /usr/lib), directories listed in /etc/ld.so.conf, and
           obsolete multilib directories (/lib32, /usr/lib32, /lib64,
           /usr/lib64).  Then it checks those directories in the
           package's build tree of the binary being analyzed, in the
           packages' build trees indicated with the -S command-line
           option, in other packages' build trees that contains a
           DEBIAN/shlibs or DEBIAN/symbols file and finally in the root
           directory.  If the library is not found in any of those
           directories, then you get this error.

           If the library not found is in a private directory of the
           same package, then you want to add the directory with -l. If
           it's in another binary package being built, you want to make
           sure that the shlibs/symbols file of this package is already
           created and that -l contains the appropriate directory if it
           also is in a private directory.

       no dependency information found for library-file (used by
       binary).
           The library needed by binary has been found by dpkg-shlibdeps
           in library-file but dpkg-shlibdeps has been unable to find
           any dependency information for that library. To find out the
           dependency, it has tried to map the library to a Debian
           package with the help of dpkg -S library-file.  Then it
           checked the corresponding shlibs and symbols files in
           /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/info/, and in the various package's
           build trees (debian/*/DEBIAN/).

           This failure can be caused by a bad or missing shlibs or
           symbols file in the package of the library. It might also
           happen if the library is built within the same source package
           and if the shlibs files has not yet been created (in which
           case you must fix debian/rules to create the shlibs before
           calling dpkg-shlibdeps). Bad RPATH can also lead to the
           library being found under a non-canonical name (example:
           /usr/lib/openoffice.org/../lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 instead of
           /usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8) that's not associated to any
           package, dpkg-shlibdeps tries to work around this by trying
           to fallback on a canonical name (using realpath(3)) but it
           might not always work. It's always best to clean up the RPATH
           of the binary to avoid problems.

           Calling dpkg-shlibdeps in verbose mode (-v) will provide much
           more information about where it tried to find the dependency
           information. This might be useful if you don't understand why
           it's giving you this error.

SEE ALSO         top

       deb-substvars(5), deb-shlibs(5), deb-symbols(5),
       dpkg-gensymbols(1).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the dpkg (Debian Package Manager) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http:https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?src=dpkg⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository ⟨git
       clone https://git.dpkg.org/git/dpkg/dpkg.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2023-12-18.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       [email protected]

1.22.0-52-g1af0                2023-08-30              dpkg-shlibdeps(1)

Pages that refer to this page: dh_makeshlibs(1)dh_shlibdeps(1)dpkg-gensymbols(1)deb-shlibs(5)deb-src-rules(5)deb-src-symbols(5)deb-substvars(5)deb-symbols(5)