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 '*') 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>
118 =head1 COMMON DEBHELPER OPTIONS
120 The following command line options are supported by some debhelper programs.
121 See the man page of each program for a complete explanation of what each
128 Do not modify postinst/postrm/etc scripts.
130 =item B<-X>I<item>, B<--exclude=>I<item>
132 Exclude an item from processing. This option may be used multiple times,
133 to exclude more than one thing.
137 Makes files or other items that are specified on the command line take effect
138 in ALL packages acted on, not just the first.
144 =head2 Multiple binary package support
146 If your source package generates more than one binary package, debhelper
147 programs will default to acting on all binary packages when run. If your
148 source package happens to generate one architecture dependent package, and
149 another architecture independent package, this is not the correct behavior,
150 because you need to generate the architecture dependent packages in the
151 binary-arch debian/rules target, and the architecture independent packages
152 in the binary-indep debian/rules target.
154 To facilitate this, as well as give you more control over which packages
155 are acted on by debhelper programs, all debhelper programs accept the
156 B<-a>, B<-i>, B<-p>, and B<-s> parameters. These parameters are cumulative.
157 If none are given, debhelper programs default to acting on all packages listed
160 See F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/rules.multi> for an example of how to
161 use this in a package that generates multiple binary packages.
163 =head2 Automatic generation of debian install scripts
165 Some debhelper commands will automatically generate parts of debian install
166 scripts. If you want these automatically generated things included in your
167 debian install scripts, then you need to add "#DEBHELPER#" to your scripts,
168 in the place the code should be added. "#DEBHELPER#" will be replaced by
169 any auto-generated code when you run dh_installdeb.
171 All scripts that automatically generate code in this way let it be disabled
172 by the -n parameter (see above).
174 Note that the inserted code will be shell code, so you cannot directly use
175 it in a perl script. If you would like to embed it into a perl script, here
176 is one way to do that (note that I made sure that $1, $2, etc are set with
179 my $temp="set -e\nset -- @ARGV\n" . << 'EOF';
182 system ($temp) / 256 == 0
183 or die "Problem with debhelper scripts: $!";
185 =head2 Automatic generation of miscellaneous dependencies.
187 Some debhelper commands may make the generated package need to depend on
188 some other packages. For example, if you use L<dh_installdebconf(1)>, you'r
189 package will generally need to depend on debconf. Or if you use
190 L<dh_installxfonts(1)>, your package will generally need to depend on a
191 particular version of xutils. Keeping track of these miscellaneous
192 dependencies can be annoying, so debhelper offers a way to automate it.
193 All commands of this type, besides documenting what dependencies may be
194 needed on their man pages, will automatically generate a substvar called
195 ${misc:Depends}. If you put that token into your debian/control file, it
196 will be expanded to the dependencies debhelper figures you need.
198 This is entirely independent of the standard ${shlibs:Depends} generated by
199 L<dh_makeshlibs(1)>, and the ${perl:Depends} generated by L<dh_perl(1)>.
200 You can choose not to use any of these, if debhelper's guesses don't match
203 =head2 Package build directories
205 By default, all debhelper programs assume that the temporary directory used
206 for assembling the tree of files in a package is debian/<package>.
208 Sometimes, you might want to use some other temporary directory. This is
209 supported by the -P flag. For example, "dh_installdocs -Pdebian/tmp", will
210 use debian/tmp as the temporary directory. Note that if you use -P, the
211 debhelper programs can only be acting on a single package at a time. So if
212 you have a package that builds many binary packages, you will need to also
213 use the -p flag to specify which binary package the debhelper program will
216 =head2 Debhelper compatibility levels
218 From time to time, major non-backwards-compatible changes need to be made
219 to debhelper, to keep it clean and well-designed as needs change and its
220 author gains more experience. To prevent such major changes from breaking
221 existing packages, the concept of debhelper compatability levels was
222 introduced. You tell debhelper which compatability level it should use, and
223 it modifies its behavior in various ways.
225 You tell debhelper what compatability level to use by writing a number to
226 debian/compat. For example, to turn on V3 mode:
228 % echo 3 > debian/compat
230 These are the available compatablity levels:
236 This is the original debhelper compatability level, and so it is the default
237 one. In this mode, debhelper will use debian/tmp as the package tree
238 directory for the first binary package listed in the control file, while using
239 debian/<package> for all other packages listed in the control file.
240 This mode is deprecated.
244 In this mode, debhelper will consistently use debian/<package>
245 as the package tree directory for every package that is built.
249 This is the reccommended mode of operation. It does everything V2 does,
256 Debhelper config files support globbing via * and ?, when appropriate. To
257 turn this off and use those characters raw, just prefix with a backslash.
261 dh_makeshlibs makes the postinst and postrm scripts call ldconfig.
265 Every file in etc/ is automatically flagged as a conffile by dh_installdeb.
271 This mode is still under development, and its behavior may change at any
272 time. Currently, it does everything V3 does, plus:
278 dh_makeshlibs -V will not include the debian part of the version number in
279 the generated dependancy line in the shlibs file.
283 dh_installinit uses the new invoke-rc.d program in its generated maintainer
284 scripts. (This may later be rolled back into V3).
290 =head2 Doc directory symlinks
292 Sometimes it is useful to make a package not contain a /usr/share/doc/package
293 directory at all, instead placing just a dangling symlink in the binary
294 package, that points to some other doc directory. Policy says this is ok if
295 your package depends on the package whose doc directory it uses. To
296 accomplish this, just don't tell debhelper to install any documentation
297 files into the package, and use dh_link to set up the symlink (or do it by
298 hand), and debhelper should do the right thing: notice it is a dangling
299 symlink and not try to install a copyright file or changelog.
303 In general, if any debhelper program needs a directory to exist under
304 debian/, it will create it. I haven't bothered to document this in all the
305 man pages, but for example, dh_installdeb knows to make debian/<package>/DEBIAN/
306 before trying to put files there, dh_installmenu knows you need a
307 debian/<package>/usr/lib/menu/ before installing the menu files, etc.
309 If you are generating a debian package that has arch-indep and
310 arch-dependent portions, and you are using dh_movefiles to move the
311 arch-indep files out of debian/tmp, you need to make sure that dh_movefiles
312 does this even if only the arch-dependent package is being built (for
313 ports to other architectures). I handle this in the example rules file
314 "rules.multi" by calling dh_movefiles in the install target.
316 Once your package uses debhelper to build, be sure to add
317 debhelper to your Build-Depends line in debian/control.
325 Set to 1 to enable verbose mode. Debhelper will output every command it runs
326 that modifies files on the build system.
330 Temporarily specifies what compatibility level debhelper should run at,
331 overriding any value in debian/compat.
335 Set to 1 to enable no-act mode.
339 Anything in this variable will be prepended to the command line
340 arguments of all debhelper commands. This is useful in some situations,
341 for example, if you need to pass -p to all debhelper commands that will be
342 run. If you use DH_OPTIONS, be sure to build depend on "debhelper >= 1.1.17" --
343 older debhelpers will ignore it and do things you don't want them to. One very
344 good way to set DH_OPTIONS is by using "Target-specific Variable Values" in
345 your debian/rules file. See the make documentation for details on doing this.
353 =item F</usr/share/doc/debhelper/examples/>
355 A set of example debian/rules files that use debhelper.
357 =item http://kitenet.net/programs/debhelper/
365 Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>