1 This file documents things you should know to write a new debhelper program.
2 Any program with a name that begins with dh_ should conform to these
3 guidelines (with the historical exception of dh_make).
8 There are lots of debhelper commands. To make the learning curve shallower,
9 I want them all to behave in a standard manner:
11 All debhelper programs have names beginning with "dh_". This is so we don't
12 pollute the name space too much.
14 Debhelper programs should never output anything to standard output except
15 error messages, important warnings, and the actual commands they run that
16 modify files under debian/ (this last only if they are passed -v, and if you
17 output the commands, you should indent them with 1 tab). This is so we don't
18 have a lot of noise output when all the debhelper commands in a debian/rules
19 are run, so the important stuff is clearly visible.
21 Debhelper programs should accept all options listed in the "SHARED
22 DEBHELPER OPTIONS" section of debhelper(7), including any long forms of
23 these options, like --verbose . If necessary, the options may be ignored.
25 If debhelper commands need config files, they should use
26 debian/package.filename as the name of the config file (replace filename
27 with whatever your command wants), and debian/filename should also be
28 checked for config information for the first binary package in
29 debian/control. Also, debhelper commands should accept the same sort of
30 information that appears in the config files, on their command lines, if
31 possible, and apply that information to the first package they act on.
32 The config file format should be as simple as possible, generally just a
33 list of files to act on.
35 Debhelper programs should never modify the debian/postinst, debian/prerm,
36 etc scripts. Instead, they can add lines to debian/postinst.debhelper, etc.
37 The autoscript() function (see below) is one easy way to do this.
38 dh_installdeb is an exception, it will run after the other commands and
39 merge these modifications into the actual postinst scripts.
41 In general, files named debian/*.debhelper are internal to debhelper, and
42 their existence or use should not be relied on by external programs such as
43 the build process of a package. These files will be deleted by dh_clean.
45 Debhelper programs should default to doing exactly what policy says to do.
47 There are always exceptions. Just ask me.
49 Introducing Dh_Lib.pm:
52 Dh_Lib.pm is the library used by all debhelper programs to parse their
53 arguments and set some useful variables. It's not mandatory that your
54 program use Dh_Lib.pm, but it will make it a lot easier to keep it in sync
55 with the rest of debhelper if it does, so this is highly encouraged.
57 (There used to be a version of Dh_lib.pm that was a library of functions for
58 shell scripts. If you want to write a debhelper command that is a shell
59 script, I can dig up that old library for you. Only the perl one is
60 supported now, though.)
62 Use Dh_Lib.pm like this:
64 use Debian::Debhelper::Dh_Lib
67 The BEGIN block is there to make perl look for the module in all the right
70 The init() function causes Dh_lib to parse the command line and do some other
76 All debhelper programs should respond to certain arguments, such as -v, -i,
77 -a, and -p. To help you make this work right, Dh_Lib.pm handles argument
78 processing. Just call init().
80 After argument processing, some global variables are used to hold the
81 results; programs can use them later. These variables are elements of the
84 switch variable description
85 -v VERBOSE should the program verbosely output what it is
87 --no-act NO_ACT should the program not actually do anything?
88 -i,-a,-p,-N DOPACKAGES a space delimited list of the binary packages
89 to act on (in Dh_Lib.pm, this is an array)
90 -i DOINDEP set if we're acting on binary independent
92 -a DOARCH set if we're acting on binary dependent
94 -n NOSCRIPTS if set, do not make any modifications to the
95 package's postinst, postrm, etc scripts.
96 -X EXCLUDE exclude a something from processing (you
97 decide what this means for your program)
99 EXCLUDE_FIND same as DH_EXCLUDE, except all items are put
100 into a string in a way that they will make
101 find find them. (Use ! in front to negate
104 include conffiles. It's -x for obscure
106 -d D_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
107 -r R_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
108 -k K_FLAG you decide what this means to your program
109 -P TMPDIR package build directory (implies only one
110 package is being acted on)
111 -u U_PARAMS will be set to a string, that is typically
112 parameters your program passes on to some
113 other program. (This is an array)
114 -m M_PARAMS will be set to a string, you decide what it
115 means to your program
116 -l L_PARAMS will be set to a string, you decide what it
117 means to your program
118 -V V_FLAG will be set to a string, you decide what it
119 means to your program
120 -V V_FLAG_SET will be 1 if -V was specified, even if no
121 parameters were passed along with the -V
122 -A PARAMS_ALL generally means that additional command line
123 parameters passed to the program (other than
124 those processed here), will apply to all
125 binary packages the program acts on, not just
127 --init-script INIT_SCRIPT will be set to a string, which specifies an
128 init script name (probably only
129 dh_installinit will ever use this)
130 --sourcedir SOURCEDIR will be set to a string (probably only
131 dh_movefiles will ever use this)
132 --destdir DESTDIR will be set to a string (probably only
133 dh_builddeb will ever use this)
134 --filename FILENAME will be set to a string
135 --flavor FLAVOR will be set to a string (probably only
136 dh_installemacsen will ever use this)
137 --number PRIORITY will be set to a number (deprecated)
138 --priority PRIORITY will be set to a number
139 --name NAME a name to use for installed files, instead of
141 --error-handler ERROR_HANDLER a function to call on error
143 Any additional command line parameters that do not start with "-" will be
144 ignored, and you can access them later just as you normally would.
146 If you need a new command line option, just ask me, and I will add it.
151 The following keys are also set in the %dh hash when you call init():
153 MAINPACKAGE the name of the first binary package listed in
155 FIRSTPACKAGE the first package we were instructed to act on. This package
156 typically gets special treatment; additional arguments
157 specified on the command line may effect it.
162 Dh_Lib.pm also contains a number of functions you may find useful.
165 Pass this function an array that is a
166 shell command. It will run the command (unless $dh{NO_ACT} is set), and
167 if $dh{VERBOSE} is set, it will also output the command to stdout. You
168 should use this function for almost all commands your program performs
169 that manipulate files in the package build directories.
170 complex_doit($command)
171 Pass this function a string that is a shell command, it will run it
172 similarly to how doit() does. You can pass more complicated commands
173 to this (ie, commands involving piping redirection), however, you
174 have to worry about things like escaping shell metacharacters.
175 verbose_print($message)
176 Pass this command a string, and it will echo it if $dh{VERBOSE} is set.
178 Pass this command a string, it will output it to standard error and
181 Pass this command a string, and it will output it to standard error
182 as a warning message.
184 Pass this command the name of a binary package, it will return the
185 name of the tmp directory that will be used as this package's
186 package build directory. Typically, this will be "debian/package".
188 Pass this command a number, and if the current compatibility level
189 is less than or equal to that number, it will return true.
190 Looks at DH_COMPAT to get the compatibility level.
191 pkgfile($package, $basename)
192 Pass this command the name of a binary package, and the base name of a
193 file, and it will return the actual filename to use. This is used
194 for allowing debhelper programs to have configuration files in the
195 debian/ directory, so there can be one config file per binary
196 package. The convention is that the files are named
197 debian/package.filename, and debian/filename is also allowable for
198 the $dh{MAINPACKAGE}. If the file does not exist, nothing is returned.
200 Pass this command the name of a binary package, and it will return
201 the name to prefix to files in debian/ for this package. For the
202 $dh{MAINPACKAGE}, it returns nothing (there is no prefix), for the other
203 packages, it returns "package.".
205 Pass this command the name of a package, it returns 1 if the package
206 is a native debian package.
207 As a side effect, $dh{VERSION} is set to the version number of the
209 autoscript($package, $scriptname, $snippetname, $sedcommands)
211 - binary package to be affected
213 - filename of snippet
214 - sed commands to run on the snippet. Ie, s/#PACKAGE#/$PACKAGE/
216 This command automatically adds shell script snippets to a debian
217 maintainer script (like the postinst or prerm).
219 Return directory part of pathname.
221 Return base of pathname,
222 addsubstvar($package, $substvar, $deppackage, $verinfo, $remove)
223 This function adds a dependency on some package to the specified
224 substvar in a package's substvar's file. It needs all these
226 - binary package that gets the item
227 - name of the substvar to add the item to
228 - the package that will be depended on
229 - version info for the package (optional) (ie: ">= 1.1")
230 - if this last parameter is passed, the thing that would be added
231 is removed instead. This can be useful to ensure that a debhelper
232 command is idempotent. Note that without this parameter, if you
233 call the function twice with the same values it will only add one
234 item to the substvars file.
235 delsubstvar($package, $substvar)
236 This function removes the entire line for the substvar from the
237 package's shlibs file.
238 excludefile($filename)
239 This function returns true if -X has been used to ask for the file
242 Returns true if the package is marked as a udeb in the control
244 udeb_filename($package)
245 Returns the filename of the udeb package.
247 -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>