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 or OSes. If files named debian/package.foo.ARCH
66 or debian/package.foo.OS exist, where "ARCH" and "OS" are the same as the
67 output of "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH" /
68 "dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_ARCH_OS",
69 then they will be used in preference to other, more general files.
71 In many cases, these config files are used to specify various types of
72 files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and so on.
73 When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard shell wildcard
74 characters ('?' and '*' and '[..]' character classes) in the files.
76 You can also put comments in these files; lines beginning with "#" are
79 =head1 SHARED DEBHELPER OPTIONS
81 The following command line options are supported by all debhelper programs.
85 =item B<-v>, B<--verbose>
87 Verbose mode: show all commands that modify the package build directory.
91 Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the command
92 will output what it would have done.
94 =item B<-a>, B<--arch>
96 Act on all architecture dependent packages.
98 =item B<-i>, B<--indep>
100 Act on all architecture independent packages.
102 =item B<->I<ppackage>, B<--package=>I<package>
104 Act on the package named "package". This option may be specified multiple
105 times to make debhelper operate on a given set of packages.
107 =item B<-s>, B<--same-arch>
109 This is a smarter version of the -a flag, that is used in some rare
110 circumstances. It understands that if the control file lists "Architecture: i386"
111 for the package, the package should not be acted on on other architectures. So
112 this flag makes the command act on all "Architecture: any" packages, as well
113 as on any packages that have the current architecture explicitly specified.
114 Contrast to the -a flag, which makes the command work on all packages that
115 are not architecture independent.
117 =item B<-N>I<package>, B<--no-package=>I<package>
119 Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option lists
120 the package as one that should be acted on.
122 =item B<--remaining-packages>
124 Do not act on the packages which have already been acted on by this debhelper
125 command earlier (i.e. if the command is present in the package debhelper log).
126 For example, if you need to call the command with special options only for a
127 couple of binary packages, pass this option to the last call of the command to
128 process the rest of packages with default settings.
130 =item B<--ignore=>I<file>
132 Ignore the specified file. This can be used if debian/ contains a debhelper
133 config file that a debhelper command should not act on. Note that
134 debian/compat, debian/control, and debian/changelog can't be ignored, but
135 then, there should never be a reason to ignore those files.
137 For example, if upstream ships a debian/init that you don't want
138 dh_installinit to install, use --ignore=debian/init
140 =item B<-P>I<tmpdir>, B<--tmpdir=>I<tmpdir>
142 Use "tmpdir" for package build directory. The default is debian/<package>
144 =item B<--mainpackage=>I<package>
146 This little-used option changes the package which debhelper considers the
147 "main package", that is, the first one listed in debian/control, and the
148 one for which debian/foo files can be used instead of the usual
149 debian/package.foo files.
153 =head1 COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
155 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper programs.
156 See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each
163 Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
165 =item B<-X>I<item>, B<--exclude=>I<item>
167 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple times,
168 to exclude more than one thing.
170 =item B<-A>, B<--all>
172 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line take effect
173 in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
177 =head1 BUILD SYSTEM OPTIONS
179 The following command line options are supported by all of the dh_auto_*
180 debhelper programs. These programs support a variety of build systems,
181 and normally heuristically determine which to use, and how to use them.
182 You can use these command line options to override the default behavior.
186 =item B<-S>I<buildsystem>, B<--buildsystem=>I<buildsystem>
188 Force use of the specified I<buildsystem>, instead of trying to auto-select
189 one which might be applicable for the package.
191 =item B<-D>I<directory>, B<--sourcedirectory=>I<directory>
193 Assume that the original package source tree is at the specified
194 I<directory> rather than the top level directory of the Debian
197 =item B<-B>[I<directory>], B<--builddirectory>=[I<directory>]
199 Enable out of source building and use the specified I<directory> as the build
200 directory. If I<directory> parameter is omitted, a default build directory
203 If this option is not specified, building will be done in source by default
204 unless the build system requires or prefers out of source tree building.
205 In such a case, the default build directory will be used even if
206 L<--builddirectory> is not specified.
208 If the build system prefers out of source tree building but still
209 allows in source building, the latter can be re-enabled by passing a build
210 directory path that is the same as the source directory path.
212 =item B<--list>, B<-l>
214 List all build systems supported by debhelper on this system. The list
215 includes both default and third party build systems (marked as such). Also
216 shows which build system would be automatically selected, or which one
217 is manually specified with the I<--buildsystem> option.
223 =head2 Multiple binary package support
225 If your source package generates more than one binary package, debhelper
226 programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run. If your
227 source package happens to generate one architecture dependent package, and
228 another architecture independent package, this is not the correct behavior,
229 because you need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
230 binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent packages
231 in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
233 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which packages
234 are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept the
235 B<-a>, B<-i>, B<-p>, and B<-s> parameters. These parameters are cumulative.
236 If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages listed
239 =head2 Automatic generation of debian install scripts
241 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian
242 maintainer scripts. If you want these automatically generated things
243 included in your existing debian maintainer scripts, then you need to add
244 "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts, in the place the code should be added.
245 "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by any auto-generated code when you run
248 If a script does not exist at all and debhelper needs to add something to
249 it, then debhelper will create the complete script.
251 All debhelper commands that automatically generate code in this way let it
252 be disabled by the -n parameter (see above).
254 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly use
255 it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl script, here
256 is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2, etc are set with
259 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
262 system ($temp) / 256 == 0
263 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
265 =head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
267 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on
268 some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, your
269 package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
270 L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a
271 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
272 dependencies can be annoying since they are dependant on how debhelper does
273 things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
275 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
276 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called
277 ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it
278 will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need.
280 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by
281 L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>.
282 You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match
285 =head2 Package build directories
287 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used
288 for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/<package>.
290 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This is
291 supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pdebian/tmp", will
292 use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if you use -P, the
293 debhelper programs can only be acting on a single package at a time. So if
294 you have a package that builds many binary packages, you will need to also
295 use the -p flag to specify which binary package the debhelper program will
298 =head2 Debhelper compatibility levels
300 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made
301 to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its
302 author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking
303 existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatibility levels was
304 introduced. You tell debhelper which compatibility level it should use, and
305 it modifies its behavior in various ways.
307 Tell debhelper what compatibility level to use by writing a number to
308 debian/compat. For example, to turn on V7 mode:
310 % echo 7 > debian/compat
312 Unless otherwise indicated, all debhelper documentation assumes that you
313 are using the most recent compatibility level, and in most cases does not
314 indicate if the behavior is different in an earlier compatibility level, so
315 if you are not using the most recent compatibility level, you're advised to
316 read below for notes about what is different in earlier compatibility
319 These are the available compatibility levels:
325 This is the original debhelper compatibility level, and so it is the default
326 one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree
327 directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using
328 debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
330 This mode is deprecated.
334 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
335 as the package tree directory for every package that is built.
337 This mode is deprecated.
341 This mode works like V2, with the following additions:
347 Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when appropriate. To
348 turn this off and use those characters raw, just prefix with a backslash.
352 dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call ldconfig.
356 Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb.
360 This mode is deprecated.
370 dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in
371 the generated dependency line in the shlibs file.
375 You are encouraged to put the new ${misc:Depends} into debian/control to
376 supplement the ${shlibs:Depends} field.
380 dh_fixperms will make all files in bin/ directories and in etc/init.d
385 dh_link will correct existing links to conform with policy.
389 This mode is deprecated.
399 Comments are ignored in debhelper config files.
403 dh_strip --dbg-package now specifies the name of a package to put debugging
404 symbols in, not the packages to take the symbols from.
408 dh_installdocs skips installing empty files.
412 dh_install errors out if wildcards expand to nothing.
424 Commands that generate maintainer script fragments will order the
425 fragments in reverse order for the prerm and postrm scripts.
429 dh_installwm will install a slave manpage link for x-window-manager.1.gz,
430 if it sees the man page in usr/share/man/man1 in the package build
435 dh_builddeb did not previously delete everything matching
436 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE, if it was set to a list of things to exclude, such as
437 "CVS:.svn:.git". Now it does.
441 dh_installman allows overwriting existing man pages in the package build
442 directory. In previous compatibility levels it silently refuses to do this.
448 This is the recommended mode of operation.
456 dh_install, will fall back to looking for files in debian/tmp if it doesn't
457 find them in the current directory (or wherever you tell it look using
458 --sourcedir). This allows dh_install to interoperate with dh_auto_install,
459 which installs to debian/tmp, without needing any special parameters.
463 dh_clean will read debian/clean and delete files listed there.
467 dh_clean will delete toplevel *-stamp files.
471 dh_installchangelogs will guess at what file is the upstream changelog if
478 =head2 Doc directory symlinks
480 Sometimes it is useful to make a package not contain a /usr/share/doc/package
481 directory at all, instead placing just a dangling symlink in the binary
482 package, that points to some other doc directory. Policy says this is ok if
483 your package depends on the package whose doc directory it uses. To
484 accomplish this, just don't tell debhelper to install any documentation
485 files into the package, and use dh_link to set up the symlink (or do it by
486 hand), and debhelper should do the right thing: notice it is a dangling
487 symlink and not try to install a copyright file or changelog.
491 Debhelper includes support for udebs. To create a udeb with debhelper,
492 add "XC-Package-Type: udeb" to the package's stanza in debian/control, and
493 build-depend on debhelper (>= 4.2). Debhelper will try to create udebs that
494 comply with debian-installer policy, by making the generated package files
495 end in ".udeb", not installing any documentation into a udeb, skipping over
496 preinst, postrm, prerm, and config scripts, etc.
500 In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
501 debian/, it will create it. I haven't bothered to document this in all the
502 man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
503 before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
504 debian/<package>/usr/share/menu/ before installing the menu files, etc.
506 Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add
507 debhelper to your Build-Depends line in debian/control. You should
508 build-depend on a version of debhelper equal to (or greater than) the
509 debhelper compatibility level your package uses. So if your package used
510 compatibility level 7:
512 Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7)
520 Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every command it runs
521 that modifies files on the build system.
525 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at,
526 overriding any value in debian/compat.
530 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
534 Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line arguments
535 of all debhelper commands. Command-specific options will be ignored by
536 commands that do not support them.
538 This is useful in some situations, for example, if you need to pass -p to
539 all debhelper commands that will be run. One good way to set DH_OPTIONS is
540 by using "Target-specific Variable Values" in your debian/rules file. See
541 the make documentation for details on doing this.
543 =item DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
545 If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X options of all
546 commands that support the -X option. Moreover, dh_builddeb will rm -rf
547 anything that matches the value in your package build tree.
549 This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree, in
550 which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS directories
551 from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a package has a source
552 tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS directories, you might want to export
553 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever
554 your package is built.
556 Multiple things to exclude can be separated with colons, as in
557 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS:.svn
565 =item F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
567 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
569 =item L<http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/debhelper/>
577 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>