dh(1): Add an example of using an override target to avoid dh running several command...

[debhelper.git] / dh

diff --git a/dh b/dh
index 0ecfe442d5a9f5cbb4f0950c5ed30494fa677b78..862dc25b7c2757037246bd0ad98c11d5dc3e80bd 100755 (executable)
--- a/dh
+++ b/dh
@@ -35,11 +35,10 @@ in the sequence. The B<--until>, B<--before>, B<--after>, and B<--remaining>
 options can override this behavior.
 
 If debian/rules contains a target with a name like "override_I<dh_command>",
-then when it gets to that command in the sequence, dh will run that
-target from the rules file, rather than running the actual command. The
-override target can then run the command with additional options, or run
-entirely different commands instead. (Note that to use this feature,
-you should Build-Depend on debhelper 7.0.50 or above.)
+then when it would notmally run I<dh_command>, dh will instead call that
+target. The override target can then run the command with additional options,
+or run entirely different commands instead. See examples below. (Note that to
+use this feature, you should Build-Depend on debhelper 7.0.50 or above.)
 
 =head1 OPTIONS
 
@@ -78,18 +77,20 @@ Run commands in the sequence that come after I<cmd>.
 
 Run all commands in the sequence that have yet to be run.
 
+=item B<--no-act>
+
+Prints commands that would run for a given sequence, but does not run them.
+
 =back
 
 All other options passed to dh are passed on to each command it runs. This
 can be used to set an option like "-v" or "-X" or "-N", as well as for more
 specialised options.
 
-=head1 COMMAND SPECIFICATION
-
-I<cmd> can be a full name of a debhelper command, or a substring. It'll first
-search for a command in the sequence exactly matching the name, to avoid any
-ambiguity. If there are multiple substring matches, the last one in the
-sequence will be used.
+In the above options, I<cmd> can be a full name of a debhelper command, or
+a substring. It'll first search for a command in the sequence exactly
+matching the name, to avoid any ambiguity. If there are multiple substring
+matches, the last one in the sequence will be used.
 
 =cut
 
@@ -176,6 +177,14 @@ default. This is how to use dh_pycentral instead.
        %:
                dh --with python-central $@
 
+Here is how to force use of perl's Module::Build build system,
+which can be necessary if debhelper wrongly detects that the package
+uses MakeMaker.
+
+       #!/usr/bin/make -f
+       %:
+               dh --buildsystem=perl_build $@
+
 To patch your package using quilt, you can tell dh to use quilt's dh
 sequence addons like this:
        
@@ -185,13 +194,22 @@ sequence addons like this:
 
 Here is an example of overriding where the dh_auto_* commands find
 the package's source, for a package where the source is located in a
-subdirectory. It also forces use of perl's Module::Build build system,
-which can be necessary if debhelper wrongly detects that the package
-uses MakeMaker.
+subdirectory.
+
+       #!/usr/bin/make -f
+       %:
+               dh --sourcedirectory=src $@
+
+Finally, here is a way to prevent dh from running several commands
+that you don't want it to run, by defining empty override targets for each
+command.
 
        #!/usr/bin/make -f
        %:
-               dh --sourcedirectory=src --buildsystem=perl_build $@
+               dh $@
+       
+       # Commands not to run:
+       override_dh_auto_test override_dh_compress override_dh_fixperms:
 
 =cut
 
@@ -225,9 +243,9 @@ init(options => {
 });
 inhibit_log();
 
-# If make was using a jobserver, but it is not available, clean out
-# MAKEFLAGS so that further make invocations can start a new job
-# server. 
+# If make is using a jobserver, but it is not available
+# to this process, clean out MAKEFLAGS. This avoids
+# ugly warnings when calling make.
 if (is_make_jobserver_unavailable()) {
        clean_jobserver_makeflags();
 }