DEP-11 is a YAML implementation of the AppStream catalog specification, which is primarily used by Debian and its derivatives. This document describes the DEP-11 YAML. All AppStream support libraries available today are able to read both the YAML and the XML specification.
If you want to use AppStream in your distribution, and are not based on Debian, please use the XML specification (unless you have strong reasons for preferring YAML). XML is the official format for AppStream catalog metadata.
Fields not mentioned in this document are not recognized by DEP-11 YAML parsers.
Take a look at Section 3.1.2, “File naming and location” for AppStream XML files for reference. While the XML data belongs into the xml
subdirectory in
/usr/share/swcatalog
(or /var/(lib|cache)/swcatalog
), the YAML data is stored in the yaml
subdirectory.
All other rules affecting the XML apply the DEP-11 YAML as well, including the recommendation to compress the files with gzip and the icon search logic.
Each YAML file starts with a header document, which defines the basic properties of the metadata, which is followed by the actual metadata in form of one YAML document per AppStream component.
The header document contains the following fields, all of them are required or at least strongly recommended.
This field identifies the file as DEP-11 file. Its value is always DEP-11
.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
The version of the AppStream specification this file was built for.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
Defines the repository-id this file belongs to. This usually matches the filename without extension. On Debian systems, it is the
<suite>-<component>
combination, e.g.
jessie-main
.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
The base URL for media (screenshots, icons, ...) referenced in the metadata file. If this is set, all urls in the document referencing media will be treated relative to the base url.
Field info: value-type:str, required:no
Defines the architecture this data belongs to. This information is useful to resolve AppStream-ID conflicts on multiarch systems, which appear if the user has metadata for two architectures installed.
Field info: value-type:str, required:no
The priorization of this metadata file over other metadata.
Field info: value-type:int, required:no
Fields with translated values follow the following conventions:
They are of type dict
They must contain a key C
, with the untranslated string as value
All languages are represented with their locale name as key in the dict and the translated content as value (which is of type str, unless explicitly stated otherwise)
In this document, the type localized is used to indicate that the field contains translated values following this schema.
Example for a translated Name
field:
Name:
C: I am the untranslated string.
be@latin: Redaktar naładaŭ
bg: Настройки на програмите
pl: Edytor konfiguracji
This document describes all valid fields in the DEP-11 YAML specification. The requirements for the values are exactly the same as in the XML specification, and each field links to its correspondent XML tag for reference.
The ID
field is a short unique and usually lower-cases identifier for the component.
Depending on the component's type, different naming conventions apply.
See <id/>.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
The Priority
field sets the priority this component's metadata should have over other meadata in the pool.
Data with a higher priority replaces data with a lower priority.
See Section 3.1.4, “Valid tags for all component types”.
Field info: value-type:int, required:no
The type of this component. Allowed values are:
generic
for Section 2.1, “Generic Component”
desktop-application
for Section 2.3, “Desktop Applications”
console-application
for Section 2.4, “Console Applications”
addon
for Section 2.7, “Addons”
codec
for Section 2.10, “Codecs”
inputmethod
for Section 2.11, “Input Methods”
firmware
for Section 2.12, “Firmware”
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
The optional Merge
field describes the merge strategy that should be applied when merging data of this component into
its base. It may assume the values append
, replace
or remove-component
.
See Section 3.1.4, “Valid tags for all component types” for a description on how merging works.
Field info: value-type:str, required:no
The name of the package which needs to be installed in order to make this component available on the system.
See <pkgname/>.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
See <source_pkgname/>.
Field info: value-type:str
See <name/>.
Field info: value-type:localized, required:yes
See <summary/>.
Field info: value-type:localized, required:yes
See <project_license/>.
Field info: value-type:str
See <description/>.
The markup for the description is the same as in the XML specification, so it can be read by anything parsing basic HTML markup.
Field info: value-type:localized
See <url/>.
The Url
field contains the different url types as keys in its dict. Valid url types are
defined in the main AppStream XML specification.
All URL types must be lowercased.
Example:
Url:
homepage: https://example.org
faq: https://example.org/faq
bugtracker: https://bugs.example.org/report-issue
Field info: value-type:dict
See <project_group/>.
Field info: value-type:str
See <icon/>.
The Icon
field has the different icon types as keys for its dict.
Contains the stock icon name.
Field info: value-type:str
Contains a list of dictionaries with the keys width
and height
of type
int specifying the dimensions of the icon, as well as the key name
of type str specifying the name of the icon in the cache.
Field info: value-type:list ➟ dict
Contains a list of dictionaries with the keys width
and height
of type
int specifying the dimensions of the icon, as well as the key name
of type str specifying the absolute filename pointing to the right icon.
Field info: value-type:list ➟ dict
Contains a list of dictionaries with the keys width
and height
of type
int specifying the dimensions of the icon, as well as the key url
of type str which contains a HTTP(S) or FTP URL to the icon.
Field info: value-type:list ➟ dict
Field info: value-type:dict
See <categories/>.
This field follows its XML counterpart in almost all regards. The different XDG menu category names are encoded in the list, and are of type str.
Example:
Categories:
- Network
- Telephony
Field info: value-type:list
See <keywords/>.
This field contains the keywords for this component. The keys define the locales for the respective language, the values are
of type list and contain the list of keywords for the respective language. An unlocalized C
key must be present.
Example:
Keywords:
C:
- IDE
- development
- programming
de:
- IDE
- entwicklung
- programmierung
Field info: value-type:translated(list)
See <screenshots/>.
The Screenshots
field contains a list of screenshots. A screenshot is of type
dict and contains the following keys:
If default
is true
, the screenshot is selected as default screenshot. There has to be at least one
screenshot which is marked as default.
Field info: value-type:bool
Describes the source image for this screenshot. If this field is present, videos
must not be present as well.
The field valus is a dictionary with the following keys:
height
The image height (value-type:int)
width
The image width (value-type:int)
url
The full image url, or the url component added to MediaBaseUrl
,
if defined (value-type:str).
lang
The language this screenshot image is translated in. The value is a locale string. (value-type:str, required:no)
Field info: value-type:dict, required:conditional
A list of an arbitrary number of screenshots. All screenshots are of type dict and must contain the same keys as described for
source-image
.
This key must not be present if videos
is present.
Field info: value-type:list, required:no
Contains a list of video dicts for this screenshot. If this field is present, source-image
must not be present as well.
The field valus is a dictionary with the following keys:
container
The video container format (value-type:str, values as described in the XML specification)
codec
The video codec format (value-type:str, values as described in the XML specification)
height
The video height (value-type:int)
width
The video width (value-type:int)
url
The full video url, or the url component added to MediaBaseUrl
,
if defined (value-type:str).
lang
The language this screenshot video is translated in. The value is a locale string. (value-type:str, required:no)
Field info: value-type:list(dict), required:conditional
A caption for this screenshot.
Field info: value-type:localized
Example for a Screenshots
field containing one screenshot:
Screenshots:
- default: true
caption:
C: Foobar showing kitchen-sink functionality
si: Foobar shoeewing kischän-sünk funzionality
source-image:
height: 800
url: https://www.example.org/en_US/main.png
width: 600
thumbnails:
- height: 423
width: 752
url: https://www.example.org/en_US/main-large.png
- height: 63
width: 112
url: https://www.example.org/en_US/main-small.png
- source-video:
container: matroska
codec: av1
height: 900
url: https://www.example.org/en_US/screencast.mkv
width: 1600
Field info: value-type:list
See <compulsory_for_desktop/>.
Field info: value-type:str
See <provides/>.
The Provides
field is of type dict and can have the following keys set with
the described allowed values:
A list of provided library names.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
A list of provided binaries in PATH
.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
A list of provided fonts. Each font entry is of type dict and has a
name
key.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
A list of modalias globs representing the hardware types this component handles.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
A list of media types (MIME types) this component can handle.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
A list of provided firmware. Each firmware entry is of type dict and has a
type
key, which has either runtime
or flashed
as
value.
Firmware of type flashed
has a guid
key, containing the GUID of the device
the firmware is flashed on, while firmware of type runtime
has a file
key,
containing the firmware filename which the kernel is looking for.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
A list of Python 3 modules this component provides.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
A list of provided DBus services. Each service entry in the list is of type dict and has a
type
key, which has either system
or user
as
value. user
means the DBus service name is for a user/session service, while system
means
it describes a system service.
The service
key contains the name of the DBus service file. All dict values are of type str.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
A list of component-IDs that this component is able to provide all functionality of.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
Field info: value-type:dict
See <developer/>.
Field info: value-type:dict
See <launchable/>.
A dictionary containing the launchable-type as key, and a list of IDs used for launching the application as value.
Example:
Launchable:
desktop-id:
- org.gnome.Sysprof2.desktop
Field info: value-type:dict(list)
See <releases/>.
The Releases
contains a list of releases sorted latest-to-oldest, where each list items contains the following fields/keys:
The version number of this release.
Field info: value-type:str, required:yes
The release type. Allowed values are:
stable
development
By default, if no release type is defined, stable
is assumed.
Field info: value-type:str, required:no
How important it is to install the new release as an update. Allowed values are:
low
medium
high
critical
If no urgency is defined, a medium
urgency is implicitly assumed.
Field info: value-type:str, required:no
The UNIX timestamp of when this software was released.
One of the unix-timestamp
or date
fields must be present.
Field info: value-type:int, required:maybe
The ISO 8601 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601) complete date of when this software was released.
One of the unix-timestamp
or date
fields must be present.
Field info: value-type:str, required:maybe
A description of this release. May contain allowed HTML markup.
Field info: value-type:localized
A list of dictionaries describing the issues resolved by this release. The dictionaries contain a
id
key for the value of an issue as described in the XML specification, as well as a
type
and url
key for the tag properties of the same name described in the
XML AppStream specification.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
A list of dictionaries describing the artifacts published for this release. Refer to the XML specification for details, which is mapped to YAML following the usual scheme.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
It is recommended to order this list starting with the latest timestamp to the oldest one.
Example:
Releases:
- version: '1.8'
unix-timestamp: 1424116753
description:
C: |
<p>This stable release fixes the following bug:</p>
<ul>
<li>CPU no longer overheats when you hold down spacebar</li>
</ul>
- version: '1.2'
unix-timestamp: 1397253600
- version: '1.0'
unix-timestamp: 1345932000
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
See <languages/>.
The languages list is a list of dictionaries. They must contain a percentage
key, indicating the completion of translation for this language, and a locale
key, with the locale string as value.
Example:
Languages:
- locale: gu
percentage: 96
- locale: ca@valencia
percentage: 94
- locale: de
percentage: 91
- locale: eo
percentage: 93
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
See <bundle/>.
The Bundles
contains a list of dictionaries with the keys type
, having the ID for a specific bundling
system (e.g. flatpak
or limba
) as value, and id
for the associated bundle-id.
See the XML tag description for information on all valid bundling systems.
Example:
Bundles:
- type: limba
id: foobar-1.0.2
Field info: value-type:list
See <extends/>.
Contains a list of AppStream IDs of the other component extended by the described component.
This field may only be used with component-type addon
.
Field info: value-type:list(str)
See <suggests/>.
A list of dictionaries containing suggested software components. The dictionaries must have a type
key
with the string value upstream
or heuristic
depending on where the suggestion originates from.
The also must have a ids
key containing a list of component-ids of the suggested software.
Example:
Suggests:
- type: upstream
ids:
- org.example.Awesome
- type: heuristic
ids:
- org.example.Test1
- org.example.Test2
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
See <content_rating/>.
A dictionary containing the rating system as key, and a dictionary of rating-values as value. The value-dictionary itself has the content rating IDs as keys and the intensity values as values. The intensity values as well as IDs and rating system names match the values from the XML exactly.
Example:
ContentRating:
oars-1.0:
drugs-alcohol: moderate
language-humor: mild
Field info: value-type:dict(dict)
See <requires/>, <recommends/> & <supports/>.
A list of dictionaries containing the referenced items. The dictionaries in the list must have one key denoting the item type, which has the respective item value as value. Refer to the XML description for a list of possible types.
Each dictionary may have a version
field with contains a version comparison string. The first two characters denote the version
comparison operation, and are followed by the version number to be compared with. The comparison operation may be one of:
==
- Equal to
!=
- Not equal to
<<
- Less than
>>
- Greater than
<=
- Less than or equal to
>=
- Greater than or equal to
Example:
Recommends:
- memory: '2500'
- modalias: usb:v1130p0202d*
Requires:
- kernel: Linux
version: '>= 4.15'
- id: org.example.TestDependency
version: == 1.2
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
See <agreement/>.
A list containing the agreements as dictionaries, with a sections
key containing a list of sections.
All dict values are the same as the respective XML tag values / properties.
Example:
Agreements:
- type: eula
version_id: 1.2.3a
sections:
- type: intro
name:
C: Intro\n"
description:
C: >-
<p>If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.</p>
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
See <tags/>.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
Example:
Tags:
- namespace: lvfs
tag: vendor-2021q1
- namespace: plasma
tag: featured
See <references/>.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
Example:
References:
- type: doi
value: 10.1000/182
- type: citation_cff
value: https://example.org/CITATION.cff
- type: registry
value: SCR_000000
registry: SciCrunch
See <custom/>.
Field info: value-type:list(dict)
This is an example AppStream DEP-11 metadata file:
---
File: DEP-11
Version: '0.8'
Origin: chromodoris-main
MediaBaseUrl: https://metadata.tanglu.org/appstream/media/
---
Type: desktop-application
ID: gconf-editor.desktop
Icon:
cached: gconf-editor_gconf-editor.png
Name:
C: Configuration Editor
be@latin: Redaktar naładaŭ
bg: Настройки на програмите
pl: Edytor konfiguracji
Package: gconf-editor
Summary:
C: Directly edit your entire configuration database
ar: حرّر مباشرة كامل قاعدة بيانات الإعدادات.
de: Direkten Zugriff auf Ihre gesamte Konfigurationsdatenbank erlangen
Categories:
- GNOME
- GTK
- System
---
Type: desktop-application
ID: kmplayer.desktop
Icon:
cached: kmplayer_kmplayer.png
Name:
C: KMPlayer
hi: केएम-प्लेयर
hne: केएम-प्लेयर
ku: KMLêdar
pa: KM-ਪਲੇਅਰ
sr: КМ‑плејер
sr@ijekavian: КМ‑плејер
sv: Kmplayer
Package: kmplayer
Summary:
C: KDE interface for MPlayer
Categories:
- Qt
- KDE
- AudioVideo
- Player
Provides:
mediatypes:
- application/ogg
- application/smil
- application/vnd.ms-asf
- application/vnd.rn-realmedia
- application/x-kmplayer
- video/webm
- video/x-avi
---
ID: texstudio.desktop
Type: desktop-application
Package: texstudio
Name:
C: TeXstudio
Summary:
C: LaTeX development environment
fr: Environnement de développement LaTeX
Description:
C: <p>TeXstudio is an integrated writing environment for creating LaTeX documents. It integrates editing,
building and viewing into a single frontend.</p><p>Our goal is to make writing LaTeX as easy and comfortable
as possible. This is achieved through a rich feature set including:</p>
Icon:
cached: texstudio_texstudio.png
Keywords:
C:
- editor
- latex
- pdflatex
- xelatex
- lualatex
- context
- bibtex
ProjectLicense: GPL-2.0
Url:
homepage: https://texstudio.sourceforge.net/
Categories:
- Office
- Publishing
Provides:
mediatypes:
- text/x-tex
Screenshots:
- default: true
source-image:
height: 756
url: texstudio_2.8.4+debian-3_amd64/screenshots/source/screenshot-1.png
width: 1344
thumbnails:
- height: 423
url: texstudio_2.8.4+debian-3_amd64/screenshots/752x423/screenshot-1.png
width: 752
- height: 351
url: texstudio_2.8.4+debian-3_amd64/screenshots/624x351/screenshot-1.png
width: 624
- height: 63
url: texstudio_2.8.4+debian-3_amd64/screenshots/112x63/screenshot-1.png
width: 112