dpkg-architecture - set and determine the architecture for package building
dpkg-architecture [
option...] [
command]
dpkg-architecture provides a facility to determine and set the build and
host architecture for package building.
The build architecture is always determined by either the
DEB_BUILD_ARCH
variable if set (and
--force not being specified) or by an external
call to
dpkg(1), and cannot be set at the command line.
You can specify the host architecture by providing one or both of the options
--host-arch and
--host-type, otherwise the
DEB_HOST_ARCH
variable is used if set (and
--force not being specified). The default
is determined by an external call to
gcc(1), or the same as the build
architecture if
CC or gcc are both not available. One out of
--host-arch and
--host-type is sufficient, the value of the
other will be set to a usable default. Indeed, it is often better to only
specify one, because
dpkg-architecture will warn you if your choice
does not match the default.
-
-l, --list
- Print the environment variables, one each line, in the
format VARIABLE=value. This is the default action.
-
-e, --equal architecture
- Check for equality of architecture (since dpkg 1.13.13). It
compares the current or specified Debian host architecture against
architecture, to check if they are equal. This action will not
expand the architecture wildcards. Command finishes with an exit status of
0 if matched, 1 if not matched.
-
-i, --is architecture-wildcard
- Check for identity of architecture (since dpkg 1.13.13). It
compares the current or specified Debian host architecture against
architecture-wildcard after having expanded it as an architecture
wildcard, to check if they match. Command finishes with an exit status of
0 if matched, 1 if not matched.
-
-q, --query variable-name
- Print the value of a single variable.
-
-s, --print-set
- Print an export command. This can be used to set the
environment variables using the POSIX shell or make eval, depending
on the output format.
-
-u, --print-unset
- Print a similar command to --print-set but to unset
all variables.
-
-c, --command command-string
- Execute a command-string in an environment which has
all variables set to the determined value.
-
-L, --list-known
- Print a list of valid architecture names. Possibly
restricted by one or more of the matching options --match-wildcard,
--match-bits or --match-endian (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-
-?, --help
- Show the usage message and exit.
- --version
- Show the version and exit.
-
-a, --host-arch architecture
- Set the host Debian architecture.
-
-t, --host-type gnu-system-type
- Set the host GNU system type.
-
-A, --target-arch architecture
- Set the target Debian architecture (since dpkg
1.17.14).
-
-T, --target-type gnu-system-type
- Set the target GNU system type (since dpkg 1.17.14).
-
-W, --match-wildcard
architecture-wildcard
- Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to
ones matching the specified architecture wildcard (since dpkg
1.17.14).
-
-B, --match-bits
architecture-bits
- Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to
ones with the specified CPU bits (since dpkg 1.17.14). Either 32 or
64.
-
-E, --match-endian
architecture-endianness
- Restrict the architectures listed by --list-known to
ones with the specified endianness (since dpkg 1.17.14). Either
little or big.
-
--print-format format
- Sets the output format for --print-set and
--print-unset (since dpkg 1.20.6), to either shell (default)
or make.
-
-f, --force
- Values set by existing environment variables with the same
name as used by the scripts are honored (i.e. used by
dpkg-architecture), except if this force flag is present. This
allows the user to override a value even when the call to
dpkg-architecture is buried in some other script (for example
dpkg-buildpackage(1)).
- build machine
- The machine the package is built on.
- host machine
- The machine the package is built for.
- target machine
- The machine the compiler is building for, or the emulator
will run code for. This is only needed when building a cross-toolchain (or
emulator), one that will be built on the build architecture, to be run on
the host architecture, and to build (or run emulated) code for the target
architecture.
- Debian architecture
- The Debian architecture string, which specifies the binary
tree in the FTP archive. Examples: i386, sparc, hurd-i386.
- Debian architecture tuple
- A Debian architecture tuple is the fully qualified
architecture with all its components spelled out. This differs with Debian
architectures in that at least the cpu component does not embed the
abi. The current tuple has the form
abi-libc-os- cpu. Examples:
base-gnu-linux-amd64, eabihf-musl-linux-arm.
- Debian architecture wildcard
- A Debian architecture wildcard is a special architecture
string that will match any real architecture being part of it. The general
form is a Debian architecture tuple with four or less elements, and with
at least one of them being any. Missing elements of the tuple are
prefixed implicitly as any, and thus the following pairs are
equivalent:
-
any-any-any-any =
any
-
any-any-os-any =
os-any
-
any-libc-any-any =
libc-any-any
Examples: linux-any, any-i386, hurd-any, eabi-any-any-arm, musl-any-any.
- GNU system type
- An architecture specification string consisting of two
parts separated by a hyphen: cpu and system. Examples: i586-linux-gnu,
sparc-linux-gnu, i686-gnu, x86_64-netbsd.
- multiarch triplet
- The clarified GNU system type, used for filesystem paths.
This triplet does not change even when the baseline ISA gets bumped, so
that the resulting paths are stable over time. The only current difference
with the GNU system type is that the CPU part for i386 based systems is
always i386. Examples: i386-linux-gnu, x86_64-linux-gnu. Example paths:
/lib/powerpc64le-linux-gnu/, /usr/lib/i386-kfreebsd-gnu/.
The following variables are read from the environment (unless
--force has
been specified) and set by
dpkg-architecture (see the
TERMS
section for a description of the naming scheme):
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH
- The Debian architecture of the build machine.
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_ABI
- The Debian ABI name of the build machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_LIBC
- The Debian libc name of the build machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_OS
- The Debian system name of the build machine (since dpkg
1.13.2).
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_CPU
- The Debian CPU name of the build machine (since dpkg
1.13.2).
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_BITS
- The pointer size of the build machine (in bits; since dpkg
1.15.4).
- DEB_BUILD_ARCH_ENDIAN
- The endianness of the build machine (little / big; since
dpkg 1.15.4).
- DEB_BUILD_GNU_CPU
- The GNU CPU part of DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE.
- DEB_BUILD_GNU_SYSTEM
- The GNU system part of DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE.
- DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE
- The GNU system type of the build machine.
- DEB_BUILD_MULTIARCH
- The clarified GNU system type of the build machine, used
for filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.16.0).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH
- The Debian architecture of the host machine.
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_ABI
- The Debian ABI name of the host machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_LIBC
- The Debian libc name of the host machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS
- The Debian system name of the host machine (since dpkg
1.13.2).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_CPU
- The Debian CPU name of the host machine (since dpkg
1.13.2).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_BITS
- The pointer size of the host machine (in bits; since dpkg
1.15.4).
- DEB_HOST_ARCH_ENDIAN
- The endianness of the host machine (little / big; since
dpkg 1.15.4).
- DEB_HOST_GNU_CPU
- The GNU CPU part of DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE.
- DEB_HOST_GNU_SYSTEM
- The GNU system part of DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE.
- DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE
- The GNU system type of the host machine.
- DEB_HOST_MULTIARCH
- The clarified GNU system type of the host machine, used for
filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.16.0).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH
- The Debian architecture of the target machine (since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_ABI
- The Debian ABI name of the target machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_LIBC
- The Debian libc name of the target machine (since dpkg
1.18.11).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_OS
- The Debian system name of the target machine (since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_CPU
- The Debian CPU name of the target machine (since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_BITS
- The pointer size of the target machine (in bits; since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_ARCH_ENDIAN
- The endianness of the target machine (little / big; since
dpkg 1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_GNU_CPU
- The GNU CPU part of DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE (since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_GNU_SYSTEM
- The GNU system part of DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE (since
dpkg 1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_GNU_TYPE
- The GNU system type of the target machine (since dpkg
1.17.14).
- DEB_TARGET_MULTIARCH
- The clarified GNU system type of the target machine, used
for filesystem paths (since dpkg 1.17.14).
All these files have to be present for
dpkg-architecture to work. Their
location can be overridden at runtime with the environment variable
DPKG_DATADIR. These tables contain a format
Version pseudo-field
on their first line to mark their format, so that parsers can check if they
understand it, such as "# Version=1.0".
- /usr/share/dpkg/cputable
- Table of known CPU names and mapping to their GNU name.
Format version 1.0 (since dpkg 1.13.2).
- /usr/share/dpkg/ostable
- Table of known operating system names and mapping to their
GNU name. Format version 2.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
- /usr/share/dpkg/tupletable
- Mapping between Debian architecture tuples and Debian
architecture names. Format version 1.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
- /usr/share/dpkg/abitable
- Table of Debian architecture ABI attribute overrides.
Format version 2.0 (since dpkg 1.18.11).
- /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk
- Makefile snippet that properly sets and exports all the
variables that dpkg-architecture outputs (since dpkg 1.16.1).
dpkg-buildpackage accepts the
-a option and passes it to
dpkg-architecture. Other examples:
CC=i386-gnu-gcc dpkg-architecture -c debian/rules build
eval $(dpkg-architecture -u)
Check if the current or specified host architecture is equal to an architecture:
dpkg-architecture -elinux-alpha
dpkg-architecture -amips -elinux-mips
Check if the current or specified host architecture is a Linux system:
dpkg-architecture -ilinux-any
dpkg-architecture -ai386 -ilinux-any
The environment variables set by
dpkg-architecture are passed to
debian/rules as make variables (see make documentation). However, you
should not rely on them, as this breaks manual invocation of the script.
Instead, you should always initialize them using
dpkg-architecture with
the
-q option. Here are some examples, which also show how you can
improve the cross compilation support in your package:
Retrieving the GNU system type and forwarding it to ./configure:
DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE)
DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
[...]
ifeq ($(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE), $(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE))
confflags += --build=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
else
confflags += --build=$(DEB_BUILD_GNU_TYPE) \
--host=$(DEB_HOST_GNU_TYPE)
endif
[...]
./configure $(confflags)
Doing something only for a specific architecture:
DEB_HOST_ARCH ?= $(shell dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH)
ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_ARCH),alpha)
[...]
endif
or if you only need to check the CPU or OS type, use the
DEB_HOST_ARCH_CPU or
DEB_HOST_ARCH_OS variables.
Note that you can also rely on an external Makefile snippet to properly set all
the variables that
dpkg-architecture can provide:
include /usr/share/dpkg/architecture.mk
ifeq ($(DEB_HOST_ARCH),alpha)
[...]
endif
In any case, you should never use
dpkg --print-architecture to get
architecture information during a package build.
- DPKG_DATADIR
- If set, it will be used as the dpkg data directory,
where the architecture tables are located (since dpkg 1.14.17). Defaults
to «/usr/share/dpkg».
- 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).
All long command and option names available only since dpkg 1.17.17.
dpkg-buildpackage(1).