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libdebctrl: A library for manipulating Debian Control files

*** WARNING ***

Note that this API is new and constantly changing. Both the API and ABI are
set to change, possibly even significantly, as the project progresses. It is
by no means a stable interface, so do not rely on its current state; due to
the complex nature of some of the features in the roadmap, this release should
be considered a PREVIEW RELEASE to give a general idea of what can be done
with such a library.

---

libdebctrl is a C library for working with (parsing, manipulating, writing)
Debian Control files. It processes control files in two phases:

 1. Parsing syntax of RFC-822 alike files, with Debian-specific extensions
 2. Semantic parsing and basic validation of data

Currently, it supports parsing <debian/control> files. Since Step 1 is very
generalized, it is planned for use in parsing similarly formatted files, such
as *.changes and <debian/copyright> files.

To compile the C library (as a shared .so library and a statically linked
.a collection of objects) and all accompanying documentation, simply:

  $ make
  $ sudo make install

in the root directory of this package.

Once installed on your system (by default in /usr/local), you can build
and play with the example 'display' program, which simply reads in control
data (from a debian/control file) and displays it on-screen. With this,
you can get a feel for how the library works and what it might be useful
for. Building examples is as easy as:

  $ make -C examples/

from the root directory. Note that there is no install target, since the
examples aren't meant to be installed on your system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This library was made possible by contributions from countless others in the
Open Source community. Without their continued effort, talent and generosity,
this project could not exist in its current form. We all stand on shoulders of
giants.

Here are some nice things to live by:

 1. Give credit where it's due.
 2. Share your modifications, so everyone benefits from them.
 3. Do something nice for the authors.
 4. Help someone who needs it.
 5. Don't waste. Anything. Be especially careful not to waste energy that
    comes from non-renewable sources.
 6. Be tolerant. Everything that's good in nature comes from cooperation.

Paraphrased a bit from Alberto Bertogli's Buena Onda License Agreement. For
the full text, see: http://blitiri.com.ar/p/bola/. Some ideas for general
library build structure came from his libjio project.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

The libdebctrl library, this package and its contents (unless explicitly
noted otherwise) are:

  Copyright 2009-2010, Jonathan Yu <[email protected]>. All rights reserved.

                             MIT/X11 License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.