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 list of debhelper commands you can use. See their man
32 pages for additional documentation.
40 =head2 Deprecated Commands
42 A few debhelper commands are deprecated and should not be used.
52 If a program's name starts with "dh_", and the program is not on the above
53 lists, then it is not part of the debhelper package, but it should still
54 work like the other programs described on this page.
56 =head1 DEBHELPER CONFIG FILES
58 Many debhelper commands make use of files in F<debian/> to control what they
59 do. Besides the common F<debian/changelog> and F<debian/control>, which are
60 in all packages, not just those using debhelper, some additional files can
61 be used to configure the behavior of specific debhelper commands. These
62 files are typically named debian/package.foo (where "package" of course,
63 is replaced with the package that is being acted on).
65 For example, dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs to list
66 the documentation files it will install. See the man pages of individual
67 commands for details about the names and formats of the files they use.
68 Generally, these files will list files to act on, one file per line. Some
69 programs in debhelper use pairs of files and destinations or slightly more
72 Note that if a package is the first (or only) binary package listed in
73 debian/control, debhelper will use debian/foo if no debian/package.foo
76 In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these files
77 for different architectures or OSes. If files named debian/package.foo.ARCH
78 or debian/package.foo.OS exist, where "ARCH" and "OS" are the same as the
79 output of "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH" /
80 "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS",
81 then they will be used in preference to other, more general files.
83 In many cases, these config files are used to specify various types of
84 files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and so on.
85 When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard shell wildcard
86 characters ('?' and '*' and '[..]' character classes) in the files.
88 You can also put comments in these files; lines beginning with "#" are
91 =head1 SHARED DEBHELPER OPTIONS
93 The following command line options are supported by all debhelper programs.
97 =item B<-v>, B<--verbose>
99 Verbose mode: show all commands that modify the package build directory.
103 Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the command
104 will output what it would have done.
106 =item B<-a>, B<--arch>
108 Act on architecture dependent packages that should be built for the
111 =item B<-i>, B<--indep>
113 Act on all architecture independent packages.
115 =item B<->I<ppackage>, B<--package=>I<package>
117 Act on the package named "package". This option may be specified multiple
118 times to make debhelper operate on a given set of packages.
120 =item B<-s>, B<--same-arch>
122 This used to be a smarter version of the -a flag, but the -a flag is now
125 =item B<-N>I<package>, B<--no-package=>I<package>
127 Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option lists
128 the package as one that should be acted on.
130 =item B<--remaining-packages>
132 Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by this debhelper
133 command earlier (i.e. if the command is present in the package debhelper log).
134 For example, if you need to call the command with special options only for a
135 couple of binary packages, pass this option to the last call of the command to
136 process the rest of packages with default settings.
138 =item B<--ignore=>I<file>
140 Ignore the specified file. This can be used if debian/ contains a debhelper
141 config file that a debhelper command should not act on. Note that
142 debian/compat, debian/control, and debian/changelog can't be ignored, but
143 then, there should never be a reason to ignore those files.
145 For example, if upstream ships a debian/init that you don't want
146 dh_installinit to install, use --ignore=debian/init
148 =item B<-P>I<tmpdir>, B<--tmpdir=>I<tmpdir>
150 Use "tmpdir" for package build directory. The default is debian/<package>
152 =item B<--mainpackage=>I<package>
154 This little-used option changes the package which debhelper considers the
155 "main package", that is, the first one listed in debian/control, and the
156 one for which debian/foo files can be used instead of the usual
157 debian/package.foo files.
161 =head1 COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
163 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper programs.
164 See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each
171 Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
173 =item B<-X>I<item>, B<--exclude=>I<item>
175 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple times,
176 to exclude more than one thing.
178 =item B<-A>, B<--all>
180 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line take effect
181 in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
185 =head1 BUILD SYSTEM OPTIONS
187 The following command line options are supported by all of the dh_auto_*
188 debhelper programs. These programs support a variety of build systems,
189 and normally heuristically determine which to use, and how to use them.
190 You can use these command line options to override the default behavior.
194 =item B<-S>I<buildsystem>, B<--buildsystem=>I<buildsystem>
196 Force use of the specified I<buildsystem>, instead of trying to auto-select
197 one which might be applicable for the package.
199 =item B<-D>I<directory>, B<--sourcedirectory=>I<directory>
201 Assume that the original package source tree is at the specified
202 I<directory> rather than the top level directory of the Debian
205 =item B<-B>[I<directory>], B<--builddirectory>=[I<directory>]
207 Enable out of source building and use the specified I<directory> as the build
208 directory. If I<directory> parameter is omitted, a default build directory
211 If this option is not specified, building will be done in source by default
212 unless the build system requires or prefers out of source tree building.
213 In such a case, the default build directory will be used even if
214 L<--builddirectory> is not specified.
216 If the build system prefers out of source tree building but still
217 allows in source building, the latter can be re-enabled by passing a build
218 directory path that is the same as the source directory path.
222 Enable parallel builds if underlying build system supports them.
223 The number of parallel jobs is controlled by the
224 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS environment variable (L<Debian Policy, section 4.9.1>) at
225 build time. It might also be subject to a build system specific limit.
227 If this option is not specified, debhelper currently defaults to not
228 allowing parallel package builds.
230 =item B<--max-parallel>I<=maximum>
232 This option implies L<--parallel> and allows further limiting the number of
233 jobs that can be used in a parallel build. If the package build is known to
234 only work with certain levels of concurrency, you can set this to the maximum
235 level that is known to work, or that you wish to support.
237 =item B<--list>, B<-l>
239 List all build systems supported by debhelper on this system. The list
240 includes both default and third party build systems (marked as such). Also
241 shows which build system would be automatically selected, or which one
242 is manually specified with the I<--buildsystem> option.
248 =head2 Multiple binary package support
250 If your source package generates more than one binary package, debhelper
251 programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run. If your
252 source package happens to generate one architecture dependent package, and
253 another architecture independent package, this is not the correct behavior,
254 because you need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
255 binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent packages
256 in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
258 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which packages
259 are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept the
260 B<-a>, B<-i>, B<-p>, and B<-s> parameters. These parameters are cumulative.
261 If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages listed
264 =head2 Automatic generation of debian install scripts
266 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian
267 maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically generated things
268 included in your existing debian maintainer scripts, then you need to add
269 "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts, in the place the code should be added.
270 "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by any auto-generated code when you run
273 If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add something to
274 it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
276 All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this way let it
277 be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
279 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly use
280 it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl script, here
281 is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2, etc are set with
284 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
287 system ($temp) / 256 == 0
288 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
290 =head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
292 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on
293 some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, your
294 package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
295 L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a
296 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
297 dependencies can be annoying since they are dependant on how debhelper does
298 things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
300 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
301 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called
302 ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it
303 will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need.
305 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by
306 L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>.
307 You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match
310 =head2 Package build directories
312 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used
313 for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/<package>.
315 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This is
316 supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pdebian/tmp", will
317 use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if you use -P, the
318 debhelper programs can only be acting on a single package at a time. So if
319 you have a package that builds many binary packages, you will need to also
320 use the -p flag to specify which binary package the debhelper program will
323 =head2 Debhelper compatibility levels
325 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made
326 to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its
327 author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking
328 existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatibility levels was
329 introduced. You tell debhelper which compatibility level it should use, and
330 it modifies its behavior in various ways.
332 Tell debhelper what compatibility level to use by writing a number to
333 debian/compat. For example, to turn on V7 mode:
335 % echo 7 > debian/compat
337 Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes that you
338 are using the most recent compatibility level, and in most cases does not
339 indicate if the behavior is different in an earlier compatibility level, so
340 if you are not using the most recent compatibility level, you're advised to
341 read below for notes about what is different in earlier compatibility
344 These are the available compatibility levels:
350 This is the original debhelper compatibility level, and so it is the default
351 one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree
352 directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using
353 debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
355 This mode is deprecated.
359 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
360 as the package tree directory for every package that is built.
362 This mode is deprecated.
366 This mode works like V2, with the following additions:
372 Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when appropriate. To
373 turn this off and use those characters raw, just prefix with a backslash.
377 dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call ldconfig.
381 Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb.
385 This mode is deprecated.
395 dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in
396 the generated dependency line in the shlibs file.
400 You are encouraged to put the new ${misc:Depends} into debian/control to
401 supplement the ${shlibs:Depends} field.
405 dh_fixperms will make all files in bin/ directories and in etc/init.d
410 dh_link will correct existing links to conform with policy.
414 This mode is deprecated.
424 Comments are ignored in debhelper config files.
428 dh_strip --dbg-package now specifies the name of a package to put debugging
429 symbols in, not the packages to take the symbols from.
433 dh_installdocs skips installing empty files.
437 dh_install errors out if wildcards expand to nothing.
449 Commands that generate maintainer script fragments will order the
450 fragments in reverse order for the prerm and postrm scripts.
454 dh_installwm will install a slave manpage link for x-window-manager.1.gz,
455 if it sees the man page in usr/share/man/man1 in the package build
460 dh_builddeb did not previously delete everything matching
461 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE, if it was set to a list of things to exclude, such as
462 "CVS:.svn:.git". Now it does.
466 dh_installman allows overwriting existing man pages in the package build
467 directory. In previous compatibility levels it silently refuses to do this.
473 This is the recommended mode of operation.
481 dh_install, will fall back to looking for files in debian/tmp if it doesn't
482 find them in the current directory (or wherever you tell it look using
483 --sourcedir). This allows dh_install to interoperate with dh_auto_install,
484 which installs to debian/tmp, without needing any special parameters.
488 dh_clean will read debian/clean and delete files listed there.
492 dh_clean will delete toplevel *-stamp files.
496 dh_installchangelogs will guess at what file is the upstream changelog if
505 Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with debhelper,
506 add "XC-Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in debian/control, and
507 build-depend on debhelper (>= 4.2). Debhelper will try to create udebs that
508 comply with debian-installer policy, by making the generated package files
509 end in ".udeb", not installing any documentation into a udeb, skipping over
510 preinst, postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
514 In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
515 debian/, it will create it. I haven't bothered to document this in all the
516 man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
517 before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
518 debian/<package>/usr/share/menu/ before installing the menu files, etc.
520 Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add
521 debhelper to your Build-Depends line in debian/control. You should
522 build-depend on a version of debhelper equal to (or greater than) the
523 debhelper compatibility level your package uses. So if your package used
524 compatibility level 7:
526 Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7)
534 Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every command it runs
535 that modifies files on the build system.
539 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at,
540 overriding any value in debian/compat.
544 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
548 Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line arguments
549 of all debhelper commands. Command-specific options will be ignored by
550 commands that do not support them.
552 This is useful in some situations, for example, if you need to pass -p to
553 all debhelper commands that will be run. One good way to set DH_OPTIONS is
554 by using "Target-specific Variable Values" in your debian/rules file. See
555 the make documentation for details on doing this.
557 =item DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
559 If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X options of all
560 commands that support the -X option. Moreover, dh_builddeb will rm -rf
561 anything that matches the value in your package build tree.
563 This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree, in
564 which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS directories
565 from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a package has a source
566 tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS directories, you might want to export
567 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever
568 your package is built.
570 Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
571 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
579 =item F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
581 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
583 =item L<http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/debhelper/>
591 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>