What's source/binary overrides in Debian packaging?

Question

When I dput -f myhost foobar_x.x.x.changes, it successful uploaded the package, but produced the following warnings:

foobar has no source override entry
foobar has no binary override entry either

How can I specify the source/binary overrides, and/or just suppress the warnings?

I'm using mini-dinstall as the backend aptitude repository manager.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I have forgotten how to handle dput correctly and know nothing about mini-dinstall.

The overrides file may contain overides for the section and priority fields of Debian packages. A package has these two embedded, but a repository might decide to give different values. For instance, when I upload to Debian, it is not my decision alone whether a package is required or not.

Generally, the warning is harmless and can be ignored. The override file is an option for dpkg-scanpackages (which I suppose is used behind the scenes by mini-dinstall as well). The file contains lines of the form

package-name priority section

Answer 2

Just a little tidbit since I'm in the same boat: the file format is documented in deb-override. I haven't found where mini-dinstall (or apt-ftparchive; dpkg-scansources and dpkg-scanpackages weren't involved here) autoloads these from.