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Chapter 10

Files

10.1 Binaries

Two different packages must not install programs with different functionality but with the

same filenames. (The case of two programs having the same functionality but different im 

plementations is handled via  alternatives  or the  Conflicts  mechanism. See `Maintainer

Scripts' on page

15

and `Conflicting binary packages  

Conflicts

' on page

48

respectively.) If

this case happens, one of the programs must be renamed. The maintainers should report this

to the

debian devel

mailing list and try to find a consensus about which program will have

to be renamed. If a consensus cannot be reached, both programs must be renamed.

By default, when a package is being built, any binaries created should include debugging

information, as well as being compiled with optimization. You should also turn on as many

reasonable compilation warnings as possible; this makes life easier for porters, who can then

look at build logs for possible problems. For the C programming language, this means the

following compilation parameters should be used:

CC = gcc

CFLAGS =  O2  g  Wall # sane warning options vary between programs

LDFLAGS = # none

install  s # (or use strip on the files in debian/tmp)

Note that by default all installed binaries should be stripped, either by using the

 s

flag to

install

, or by calling

strip

on the binaries after they have been copied into

debian/tmp

but before the tree is made into a package.

Although binaries in the build tree should be compiled with debugging information by de 

fault, it can often be difficult to debug programs if they are also subjected to compiler opti 

mization. For this reason, it is recommended to support the standardized environment vari 

able

DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS

. This variable can contain several flags to change how a package

is compiled and built.

noopt The presence of this string means that the package should be compiled with a minimum

of optimization. For C programs, it is best to add

 O0

to

CFLAGS

(although this is usually