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. Debhelper commands are all named with a "dh_" prefix.
21 Examples of rules files that use debhelper are in
22 F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
24 To create a new debian package using debhelper, you can just copy one of
25 the sample rules files and edit it by hand. Or you can try the dh-make
26 package, which contains a L<dh_make|dh_make(1)> command that partially
27 automates the process. For a more gentle introduction, the maint-guide debian
28 package contains a tutorial about making your first package using debhelper.
30 =head1 DEBHELPER COMMANDS
32 Here is the complete list of available debhelper commands. See their man
33 pages for additional documentation.
41 =head1 DEBHELPER CONFIG FILES
43 Many debhelper commands make use of files in F<debian/> to control what they
44 do. Besides the common F<debian/changelog> and F<debian/control>, which are
45 in all packages, not just those using debhelper, some additional files can
46 be used to configure the behavior of specific debhelper commands. These
47 files are typically named debian/package.foo (where "package" of course,
48 is replaced with the package that is being acted on).
51 dh_installdocs uses files named debian/package.docs to list the documentation
52 files it will install. See the man pages of individual commands for details
53 about the names and formats of the files they use.
55 Note that if a package is the first (or only) binary package listed in
56 debian/control, debhelper will use debian/foo if no debian/package.foo
59 In some rare cases, you may want to have different versions of these files
60 for different architectures. If files named debian/package.foo.arch
61 exist, where "arch" is the same as the output of "dpkg --print-architecture",
62 then they will be used in preference to other, more general files.
64 In many cases, these config files are used to specify various types of
65 files. Documentation or example files to install, files to move, and so on.
66 When appropriate, in cases like these, you can use standard shell wildcard
67 characters ('?' and '*' and '[..]' character classes) in the files.
69 =head1 SHARED DEBHELPER OPTIONS
71 The following command line options are supported by all debhelper programs.
75 =item B<-v>, B<--verbose>
77 Verbose mode: show all commands that modify the package build directory.
81 Do not really do anything. If used with -v, the result is that the command
82 will output what it would have done.
84 =item B<-a>, B<--arch>
86 Act on all architecture dependent packages.
88 =item B<-i>, B<--indep>
90 Act on all architecture independent packages.
92 =item B<->I<ppackage>, B<--package=>I<package>
94 Act on the package named "package". This option may be specified multiple
95 times to make debhelper operate on a given set of packages.
97 =item B<-s>, B<--same-arch>
99 This is a smarter version of the -a flag, that is used in some rare
100 circumstances. It understands that if the control file lists "Architecture: i386"
101 for the package, the package should not be acted on on other architectures. So
102 this flag makes the command act on all "Architecture: any" packages, as well
103 as on any packages that have the current architecture explicitly specified.
104 Contrast to the -a flag, which makes the command work on all packages that
105 are not architecture independant.
107 =item B<-N>I<package>, B<--no-package=>I<package>
109 Do not act on the specified package even if an -a, -i, or -p option lists
110 the package as one that should be acted on.
112 =item B<-P>I<tmpdir>, B<--tmpdir=>I<tmpdir>
114 Use "tmpdir" for package build directory. The default is debian/<package>
116 =item B<--mainpackage=>I<package>
118 This little-used option changes the package which debhelper considers the
119 "main package", that is, the first one listed in debian/control, and the
120 one for which debian/foo files can be used instead of the usual
121 debian/package.foo files.
125 =head1 COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
127 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper programs.
128 See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each
135 Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
137 =item B<-X>I<item>, B<--exclude=>I<item>
139 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple times,
140 to exclude more than one thing.
144 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line take effect
145 in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
151 =head2 Multiple binary package support
153 If your source package generates more than one binary package, debhelper
154 programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run. If your
155 source package happens to generate one architecture dependent package, and
156 another architecture independent package, this is not the correct behavior,
157 because you need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
158 binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent packages
159 in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
161 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which packages
162 are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept the
163 B<-a>, B<-i>, B<-p>, and B<-s> parameters. These parameters are cumulative.
164 If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages listed
167 See F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/rules.multi> for an example of how to
168 use this in a package that generates multiple binary packages.
170 =head2 Automatic generation of debian install scripts
172 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian install
173 scripts. If you want these automatically generated things included in your
174 debian install scripts, then you need to add "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts,
175 in the place the code should be added. "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by
176 any auto-generated code when you run dh_installdeb.
178 All scripts that automatically generate code in this way let it be disabled
179 by the -n parameter (see above).
181 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly use
182 it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl script, here
183 is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2, etc are set with
186 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
189 system ($temp) / 256 == 0
190 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
192 =head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
194 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on
195 some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, your
196 package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
197 L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a
198 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
199 dependencies can be annoying since they are dependant on how debhelper does
200 things, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
202 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
203 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called
204 ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it
205 will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need.
207 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by
208 L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>.
209 You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match
212 =head2 Package build directories
214 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used
215 for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/<package>.
217 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This is
218 supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pdebian/tmp", will
219 use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if you use -P, the
220 debhelper programs can only be acting on a single package at a time. So if
221 you have a package that builds many binary packages, you will need to also
222 use the -p flag to specify which binary package the debhelper program will
225 =head2 Debhelper compatibility levels
227 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made
228 to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its
229 author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking
230 existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatability levels was
231 introduced. You tell debhelper which compatability level it should use, and
232 it modifies its behavior in various ways.
234 You tell debhelper what compatability level to use by writing a number to
235 debian/compat. For example, to turn on V4 mode:
237 % echo 4 > debian/compat
239 These are the available compatablity levels:
245 This is the original debhelper compatability level, and so it is the default
246 one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree
247 directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using
248 debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
249 This mode is deprecated.
253 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
254 as the package tree directory for every package that is built.
258 This mode works like V2, with the following additions:
264 Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when appropriate. To
265 turn this off and use those characters raw, just prefix with a backslash.
269 dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call ldconfig.
273 Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb.
279 This is the reccommended mode of operation. It does everything V3 does,
286 dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in
287 the generated dependancy line in the shlibs file.
291 dh_installinit uses the new invoke-rc.d program in its generated maintainer
292 scripts. (This may later be rolled back into V3).
296 You are encouraged to put the new ${misc:Depends} into debian/control to
297 suppliment the ${shlibs:Depends} field. In particular, the new
298 dh_installinit feature needs a versioned dependency on sysvinit.
302 dh_fixperms will make all files in bin/ directories and in etc/init.d
307 dh_link will correct existing links to conform with policy.
313 =head2 Doc directory symlinks
315 Sometimes it is useful to make a package not contain a /usr/share/doc/package
316 directory at all, instead placing just a dangling symlink in the binary
317 package, that points to some other doc directory. Policy says this is ok if
318 your package depends on the package whose doc directory it uses. To
319 accomplish this, just don't tell debhelper to install any documentation
320 files into the package, and use dh_link to set up the symlink (or do it by
321 hand), and debhelper should do the right thing: notice it is a dangling
322 symlink and not try to install a copyright file or changelog.
326 In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
327 debian/, it will create it. I haven't bothered to document this in all the
328 man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
329 before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
330 debian/<package>/usr/lib/menu/ before installing the menu files, etc.
332 If you are generating a debian package that has arch-indep and
333 arch-dependent portions, and you are using dh_movefiles to move the
334 arch-indep files out of debian/tmp, you need to make sure that dh_movefiles
335 does this even if only the arch-dependent package is being built (for
336 ports to other architectures). I handle this in the example rules file
337 "rules.multi" by calling dh_movefiles in the install target.
339 Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add
340 debhelper to your Build-Depends line in debian/control.
348 Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every command it runs
349 that modifies files on the build system.
353 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at,
354 overriding any value in debian/compat.
358 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
362 Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line
363 arguments of all debhelper commands. This is useful in some situations,
364 for example, if you need to pass -p to all debhelper commands that will be
365 run. If you use DH_OPTIONS, be sure to build depend on "debhelper >= 1.1.17" --
366 older debhelpers will ignore it and do things you don't want them to. One very
367 good way to set DH_OPTIONS is by using "Target-specific Variable Values" in
368 your debian/rules file. See the make documentation for details on doing this.
370 =item DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE
372 If set, this adds the value the variable is set to to the -X options of all
373 commands that support the -X option. Moreover, dh_builddeb will rm -rf
374 anything that matches the value in your package build tree.
376 This can be useful if you are doing a build from a CVS source tree, in
377 which case setting DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS will prevent any CVS directories
378 from sneaking into the package you build. Or, if a package has a source
379 tarball that (unwisely) includes CVS directories, you might want to export
380 DH_ALWAYS_EXCLUDE=CVS in debian/rules, to make it take effect wherever
381 your package is built.
389 =item F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
391 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
393 =item http://kitenet.net/programs/debhelper/
401 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>