3 debhelper - the debhelper tool suite
7 B<dh_>I<*> [B<-v>] [B<-a>] [B<-i>] [B<-s>] [B<--no-act>] [B<-ppackage>] [B<-Npackage] [-Ptmpdir>]
11 Debhelper is used to help you build a debian package. The philosophy behind
12 debhelper is to provide a collection of small, simple, and easily
13 understood tools that are used in debian/rules to automate various common
14 aspects of building a package. This means less work for you, the packager.
15 It also, to some degree means that these tools can be changed if debian
16 policy changes, and packages that use them will require only a rebuild to
17 comply with the new policy.
19 A typical debian/rules file that uses debhelper will call several debhelper
20 commands in sequence, or use L<dh(1)> to automate this process. Examples of
21 rules files that use debhelper are in F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
23 To create a new debian package using debhelper, you can just copy one of
24 the sample rules files and edit it by hand. Or you can try the dh-make
25 package, which contains a L<dh_make|dh_make(1)> command that partially
26 automates the process. For a more gentle introduction, the maint-guide debian
27 package contains a tutorial about making your first package using debhelper.
29 =head1 DEBHELPER COMMANDS
31 Here is the complete list of available debhelper commands. See their man
32 pages for additional documentation.
40 If a program's name starts with "dh_", and the program is not on the above
41 list, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it should still
42 work like the other programs described on this page.
44 =head1 DEBHELPER CONFIG FILES
46 Many debhelper commands make use of files in F<debian/> to control what they
47 do. Besides the common F<debian/changelog> and F<debian/control>, which are
48 in all packages, not just those using debhelper, some additional files can
49 be used to configure the behavior of specific debhelper commands. These
50 files are typically named debian/package.foo (where "package" of course,
51 is replaced with the package that is being acted on).
53 For example, dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs to list
54 the documentation files it will install. See the man pages of individual
55 commands for details about the names and formats of the files they use.
56 Generally, these files will list files to act on, one file per line. Some
57 programs in debhelper use pairs of files and destinations or slightly more
60 Note that if a package is the first (or only) binary package listed in
61 debian/control, debhelper will use debian/foo if no debian/package.foo
64 In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these files
65 for different architectures. If files named debian/package.foo.arch
66 exist, where "arch" is the same as the output of
67 "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH",
68 then they will be used in preference to other, more general files.
70 In many cases, these config files are used to specify various types of
71 files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and so on.
72 When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard shell wildcard
73 characters ('?' and '*' and '[..]' character classes) in the files.
75 You can also put comments in these files; lines beginning with "#" are
78 =head1 SHARED DEBHELPER OPTIONS
80 The following command line options are supported by all debhelper programs.
84 =item B<-v>, B<--verbose>
86 Verbose mode: show all commands that modify the package build directory.
90 Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the command
91 will output what it would have done.
93 =item B<-a>, B<--arch>
95 Act on all architecture dependent packages.
97 =item B<-i>, B<--indep>
99 Act on all architecture independent packages.
101 =item B<->I<ppackage>, B<--package=>I<package>
103 Act on the package named "package". This option may be specified multiple
104 times to make debhelper operate on a given set of packages.
106 =item B<-s>, B<--same-arch>
108 This is a smarter version of the -a flag, that is used in some rare
109 circumstances. It understands that if the control file lists "Architecture: i386"
110 for the package, the package should not be acted on on other architectures. So
111 this flag makes the command act on all "Architecture: any" packages, as well
112 as on any packages that have the current architecture explicitly specified.
113 Contrast to the -a flag, which makes the command work on all packages that
114 are not architecture independent.
116 =item B<-N>I<package>, B<--no-package=>I<package>
118 Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option lists
119 the package as one that should be acted on.
121 =item B<--ignore=>I<file>
123 Ignore the specified file. This can be used if debian/ contains a debhelper
124 config file that a debhelper command should not act on. Note that
125 debian/compat, debian/control, and debian/changelog can't be ignored, but
126 then, there should never be a reason to ignore those files.
128 For example, if upstream ships a debian/init that you don't want
129 dh_installinit to install, use --ignore=debian/init
131 =item B<-P>I<tmpdir>, B<--tmpdir=>I<tmpdir>
133 Use "tmpdir" for package build directory. The default is debian/<package>
135 =item B<--mainpackage=>I<package>
137 This little-used option changes the package which debhelper considers the
138 "main package", that is, the first one listed in debian/control, and the
139 one for which debian/foo files can be used instead of the usual
140 debian/package.foo files.
144 =head1 COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
146 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper programs.
147 See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each
154 Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
156 =item B<-X>I<item>, B<--exclude=>I<item>
158 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple times,
159 to exclude more than one thing.
161 =item B<-A>, B<--all>
163 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line take effect
164 in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
170 =head2 Multiple binary package support
172 If your source package generates more than one binary package, debhelper
173 programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run. If your
174 source package happens to generate one architecture dependent package, and
175 another architecture independent package, this is not the correct behavior,
176 because you need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
177 binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent packages
178 in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
180 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which packages
181 are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept the
182 B<-a>, B<-i>, B<-p>, and B<-s> parameters. These parameters are cumulative.
183 If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages listed
186 =head2 Automatic generation of debian install scripts
188 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian
189 maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically generated things
190 included in your existing debian maintainer scripts, then you need to add
191 "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts, in the place the code should be added.
192 "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by any auto-generated code when you run
195 If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add something to
196 it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
198 All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this way let it
199 be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
201 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly use
202 it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl script, here
203 is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2, etc are set with
206 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
209 system ($temp) / 256 == 0
210 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
212 =head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
214 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on
215 some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, your
216 package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
217 L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a
218 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
219 dependencies can be annoying since they are dependant on how debhelper does
220 things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
222 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
223 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called
224 ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it
225 will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need.
227 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by
228 L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>.
229 You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match
232 =head2 Package build directories
234 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used
235 for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/<package>.
237 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This is
238 supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pdebian/tmp", will
239 use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if you use -P, the
240 debhelper programs can only be acting on a single package at a time. So if
241 you have a package that builds many binary packages, you will need to also
242 use the -p flag to specify which binary package the debhelper program will
245 =head2 Debhelper compatibility levels
247 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made
248 to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its
249 author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking
250 existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatibility levels was
251 introduced. You tell debhelper which compatibility level it should use, and
252 it modifies its behavior in various ways.
254 Tell debhelper what compatibility level to use by writing a number to
255 debian/compat. For example, to turn on V7 mode:
257 % echo 7 > debian/compat
259 Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes that you
260 are using the most recent compatibility level, and in most cases does not
261 indicate if the behavior is different in an earlier compatibility level, so
262 if you are not using the most recent compatibility level, you're advised to
263 read below for notes about what is different in earlier compatibility
266 These are the available compatibility levels:
272 This is the original debhelper compatibility level, and so it is the default
273 one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree
274 directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using
275 debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
277 This mode is deprecated.
281 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
282 as the package tree directory for every package that is built.
284 This mode is deprecated.
288 This mode works like V2, with the following additions:
294 Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when appropriate. To
295 turn this off and use those characters raw, just prefix with a backslash.
299 dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call ldconfig.
303 Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb.
307 This mode is deprecated.
317 dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in
318 the generated dependency line in the shlibs file.
322 You are encouraged to put the new ${misc:Depends} into debian/control to
323 supplement the ${shlibs:Depends} field.
327 dh_fixperms will make all files in bin/ directories and in etc/init.d
332 dh_link will correct existing links to conform with policy.
344 Comments are ignored in debhelper config files.
348 dh_strip --dbg-package now specifies the name of a package to put debugging
349 symbols in, not the packages to take the symbols from.
353 dh_installdocs skips installing empty files.
357 dh_install errors out if wildcards expand to nothing.
369 Commands that generate maintainer script fragements will order the
370 fragements in reverse order for the prerm and postrm scripts.
374 dh_installwm will install a slave manpage link for x-window-manager.1.gz,
375 if it sees the man page in usr/share/man/man1 in the package build
380 dh_builddeb did not previously delete everything matching
381 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE, if it was set to a list of things to exclude, such as
382 "CVS:.svn:.git". Now it does.
386 dh_installman allows overwriting existing man pages in the package build
387 directory. In previous compatability levels it silently refuses to do this.
393 This is the recommended mode of operation.
401 dh_install, if --sourcedir is not specified, will first look for files in
402 debian/tmp, and then will look in the current directory. This allows
403 dh_install to interoperate with dh_auto_install without needing any special
408 dh_clean will read debian/clean and delete files listed there.
414 =head2 Doc directory symlinks
416 Sometimes it is useful to make a package not contain a /usr/share/doc/package
417 directory at all, instead placing just a dangling symlink in the binary
418 package, that points to some other doc directory. Policy says this is ok if
419 your package depends on the package whose doc directory it uses. To
420 accomplish this, just don't tell debhelper to install any documentation
421 files into the package, and use dh_link to set up the symlink (or do it by
422 hand), and debhelper should do the right thing: notice it is a dangling
423 symlink and not try to install a copyright file or changelog.
427 Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with debhelper,
428 add "XC-Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in debian/control, and
429 build-depend on debhelper (>= 4.2). Debhelper will try to create udebs that
430 comply with debian-installer policy, by making the generated package files
431 end in ".udeb", not installing any documentation into a udeb, skipping over
432 preinst, postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
436 In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
437 debian/, it will create it. I haven't bothered to document this in all the
438 man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
439 before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
440 debian/<package>/usr/share/menu/ before installing the menu files, etc.
442 Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add
443 debhelper to your Build-Depends line in debian/control. You should
444 build-depend on a version of debhelper equal to (or greater than) the
445 debhelper compatibility level your package uses. So if your package used
446 compatibility level 7:
448 Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7)
456 Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every command it runs
457 that modifies files on the build system.
461 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at,
462 overriding any value in debian/compat.
466 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
470 Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line arguments
471 of all debhelper commands. This is useful in some situations, for example,
472 if you need to pass -p to all debhelper commands that will be run. One good
473 way to set DH_OPTIONS is by using "Target-specific Variable Values" in your
474 debian/rules file. See the make documentation for details on doing this.
476 =item DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
478 If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X options of all
479 commands that support the -X option. Moreover, dh_builddeb will rm -rf
480 anything that matches the value in your package build tree.
482 This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree, in
483 which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS directories
484 from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a package has a source
485 tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS directories, you might want to export
486 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever
487 your package is built.
489 Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
490 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
498 =item F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
500 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
502 =item L<http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/debhelper/>
510 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>