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dpkg-build-api(7) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | API LEVELS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON 

dpkg-build-api(7)               dpkg suite              dpkg-build-api(7)

NAME         top

       dpkg-build-api - source package dpkg build API level

SYNOPSIS         top

        Build-Depends:
         dpkg-build-api (= 1),

DESCRIPTION         top

       The source package dpkg build API level, defines a versioned
       interface for source packages, where each API level provides
       specific behaviors and guarantees.

       These interfaces can then be adopted by packages in a gradual way,
       and phased out more easily than with global behavior changes.

       The declaration of this API level is done through
       build-dependencies, in one of Build-Depends, Build-Depends-Indep
       or Build-Depends-Arch, or via the environment variable
       DPKG_BUILD_API, which will override these if both are present, and
       might emit a warning in case they are different.

API LEVELS         top

       v2  This level is still under development, and cannot be declared
           via build-dependencies.

       v1  This is the recommended level.  Since dpkg 1.22.0.

           Changes from v0 are:

           •   dpkg-shlibdeps no longer uses the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
               environment variable.  The -l option should be used
               instead.

           •   dpkg-buildpackage defaults to Rules-Requires-Root value
               no.  To restore the v0 behavior (from before dpkg 1.22.13)
               Rules-Requires-Root should be set to binary-targets.

           •   dpkg-buildpackage expects all required debian/rules
               targets to be supported and no longer has backwards
               compatibility fallback code.  The required targets are
               clean, build, build-indep, build-arch, binary-indep and
               binary-arch.

           •   vendor.mk defaults to using dpkg_vendor_derives_from_v1
               for the dpkg_vendor_derives_from macro.  To restore the v0
               behavior set dpkg_vendor_derives_from to
               dpkg_vendor_derives_from_v0.

           •   default.mk defaults to including buildtools.mk.

       v0  This is the current global level, equivalent to not specifying
           one.  The interfaces and behaviors provided are subject to the
           normal global interface updates, which tend to require longer
           deprecation cycles and/or coordinated transitions.

SEE ALSO         top

       deb-src-control(5).

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://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 2025-08-11.  (At
       that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
       the repository was 2025-08-06.)  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
       man-pages@man7.org

1.22.12-10-g32fee               2025-01-01              dpkg-build-api(7)

Pages that refer to this page: dpkg-buildapi(1)

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