Provided by: dpkg-dev_1.21.1ubuntu2.3_all 
NAME
dpkg-shlibdeps - generate shared library substvar dependencies
SYNOPSIS
dpkg-shlibdeps [option...] [-e] executable [option...]
DESCRIPTION
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
/var/lib/dpkg/info/package.symbols or /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.
/etc/dpkg/symbols/package.symbols.arch
/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 /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.
/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 /var/lib/dpkg.
/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
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 /var/lib/dpkg.
-?, --help
Show the usage message and exit.
--version
Show the version and exit.
ENVIRONMENT
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
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 /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
deb-shlibs(5), deb-symbols(5), dpkg-gensymbols(1).
1.21.1 2024-02-23 dpkg-shlibdeps(1)